ard the guns of the Citadel proclaiming the event," replied
Sieur Sarpy.

"That happened just ten days ago. It was the most terrible blow yet
struck against our cause."

"Your cause, Batoche?" said Sieur Sarpy, looking up.

"Aye, my cause, your cause, the cause of us all. See here, M. Sarpy,
this is no time for mincing words. We must stand up and take a part in
this war. We did not provoke it, but it has come and we must join it.
You may prefer to remain neutral. I do not say you are wrong. Your
health is poor, you have a young daughter, you have large estates. But
for me and hundreds like me, there is only one course. I am an old
French soldier, M. Sarpy. Remember that. I fought on those plains yonder
under the noble Marquis. I fought at St. Foye under the great Chevalier.
I have seen this beautiful country snatched from France. For sixteen
long years I have seen the wolves at work tearing from us the last
shreds of our patrimony. They killed my daughter. They have made an
outcast of me. I have prayed that the day of vengeance might come. I
knew it would come. I heard it coming like distant thunder in the voice
of the waterfall. I heard it coming in the wild throbbings of my violin.
And, thank God, it has come at last! These Americans advance to meet us.
They stretch out the right hand of fraternity. They unfurl the flag of
liberty. They too suffer from the tyranny of England, and they ask us to
join them in striking off the fetters of slavery. Shall we not act with
them?"

Sieur Sarpy's head fell upon his breast and he answered not. Zulma sat
forward in her chair, with dilated eyes fastened on the face of the
speaker, and her own features aglow with the enthusiasm that shot from
him like living electric tongues.

Batoche who had risen from his seat during this impassioned outburst,
now resumed it, and proceeded in more subdued language:

"If Carleton had not returned to Quebec the war would perhaps be ended
now. He was beaten everywhere in the upper country, at Isle-aux-Noix, at
Chambly, at Longueuil, at St. Johns. He fled from Montreal without
striking a blow. All his men surrendered there and at Sorel. All his
ships were captured. All his stores were seized. And do you know how he
escaped?"

"In an open boat, I am told."

"Yes, in an open boat. He passed at Sorel, where the Americans were
watching for him, and the oars were muffled in their locks so that he
could not be heard. The boat was even paddled wit