iliar, and because he might misconstrue both your motives
and mine. No. It is a matter to be settled between man and man. Besides,
it is late and your absence must not be prolonged. I, too, have a
military report to make to the authorities without delay."

Pauline suffered herself to be convinced, and the two, after a few
mutual words of love, which wonderfully recuperated them, bent their way
up Mountain Hill. At the gate they separated.

"I will be with you within two hours," said Hardinge, as he took the
direction of the Chateau.

Pauline stepped into the old church on her way, and in its consecrated
gloom poured out a prayer at the feet of Her whom she worshipped as the
Comforter of the Afflicted. _Consolatrix Afflictorum_.

XVI.

THE ROUND TABLE.

There was high festival at the Chateau St. Louis. Sieur Hector Theophile
Cramahe, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec, and Commander of
the Forces in the capital, during the absence of Guy Carleton, Captain
General and Governor Chief, was a man of convivial spirit. He had for
years presided over a choice circle of friends, men of wealth and
standing in the ancient city. They were known as the Barons of the Round
Table. An invariable rule with them was to dine together once a week,
when they would rehearse the memories of old times, and conduct revels
worthy of the famous Intendant Bigot himself. They numbered twenty-four,
and it so happened that in five years not one of them had missed the
hebdomadal banquet--a remarkable circumstance well worthy the attention
of those who study the mathematical curiosities of the chapter of
accidents.

The ninth of November was dinner night. The Lieutenant-Governor had a
moment's hesitation about the propriety of holding it, but all
objections were at once drowned in a flood of valid reasons in favor of
the repast. In the first place, His Excellency had been particularly
burdened with the cares of office during the past two days. That young
fellow Hardinge had kept him as busy as he could be. In the next place,
though the citizens of Quebec really knew nothing of the true state of
affairs, they were making all kinds of conjecture, and if the dinner did
not take place, the gossips would hear of it immediately, and interpret
it as the worst possible sign of impending trouble. In the third place,
if the banquet were postponed for a day or two, that villain Arnold
might turn up and prevent it altogether. Cramahe pac