for a long time in silent prayer; then
rising, returned directly to his hut. He found little Blanche standing
in the middle of the room and in the full light of the hearth, with a
scared look in her brilliant, black eyes. He stooped to kiss her, and
noticing the supper still untasted on the table, said:

"You have eaten nothing, my dear."

"I cannot eat, grandpapa."

"Then go to sleep. It is late."

"I cannot sleep."

The old man understood. The white wings of the mother's spirit had
hovered over the child.

"Then pray," he said.

And dropping on her knees, little Blanche repeated all the prayers which
her godmother, Pauline Belmont, had taught her.

XII.

THREE RIVERS.

Roderick Hardinge's mission to Three Rivers was completely successful.
He found that town and the surrounding country in a state of alarm and
excitement consequent on the march of events in the upper part of the
province. The whole Richelieu peninsula was overrun with Continental
troops and the Montreal district was virtually in their power. The only
chance was that the British army might make a stand at Sorel, which
commanded the Richelieu and the St. Lawrence, at the confluence of these
two rivers, and accordingly around that point concentrated the interest
of the war in the first week of November. It was only natural,
therefore, that the people of Three Rivers should be in a turmoil of
excitement, for if the British were unable to hold their own at Sorel,
the whole of the St. Lawrence would be swept by the Americans, and Three
Rivers would be the very next place which they would occupy.

The arrival of Hardinge was not calculated to allay the excitement, and
the tidings which he brought were spread through the town that very
night notwithstanding all attempts at official secrecy. The Commandant
of the town was considerably alarmed.

"The news from above was bad enough," he said to his principal
secretary, after reading Hardinge's despatches, "but the intelligence
from below is not more reassuring. Three Rivers thus finds itself
between two fires. Montgomery from the west, and now Arnold from the
east. I am very much afraid that we shall have to succumb. And the worst
of all is that being masters of the intervening country, with emissaries
in all the villages along their route, they improve their opportunity
by tampering with our simple-minded farmers. Here in Three Rivers the
disaffection among our own people is already quite