of the outpost. His wife sat on a
pile of furs beside his knee. Her Huguenot cap lay on the shelf above
the fire. She wore a black gown slashed in the sleeves with white, and a
kerchief of lace pushed from her throat. Her black hair, which Zelie
had braided, hung down in two ropes to the floor.

"How soon, monsieur," she asked, "can you return to Fort St. John?"

"With all speed possible, Marie. Soon, if we can work the miracle of
moving a peace-loving man like Denys to action."

"Nicholas Denys ought to take part with you."

"Yet he will scarce do it."

"The king-favored governor of Acadia will some time turn and push him as
he now pushes you."

"D'Aulnay hath me at sore straits," confessed La Tour, staring at the
flame, "since he has cut off from me the help of the Bostonnais."

"They were easily cut off," said Marie. "Monsieur, those Huguenots of
the colonies were never loving friends of ours. Their policy hath been
to weaken this province by helping the quarrel betwixt D'Aulnay and you.
Now that D'Aulnay has strength at court, and has persuaded the king to
declare you an outlaw, the Bostonnais think it wise to withdraw their
hired soldiers from you. We have not offended the Bostonnais as allies;
we have only gone down in the world."

La Tour stirred uneasily.

"I dread that D'Aulnay may profit by this hasty journey I make to
northern Acadia, and again attack the fort in my absence."

"He hath once found a woman there who could hold it," said Marie,
checking a laugh.

La Tour moved his palm over her cheek. Within his mind the province of
Acadia lay spread from Penobscot River to the Island of Sable, and from
the southern tip of the peninsula now called Nova Scotia nearly to the
mouth of the St. Lawrence. This domain had been parceled in grants: the
north to Nicholas Denys; the centre and west to D'Aulnay de Charnisay;
and the south, with posts on the western coast, to Charles de la Tour.
Being Protestant in faith, La Tour had no influence at the court of
Louis XIII. His grant had been confirmed to him from his father. He had
held it against treason to France; and his loyal service, at least, was
regarded until D'Aulnay de Charnisay became his enemy. Even in that year
of grace 1645, before Acadia was diked by home-making Norman peasants or
watered by their parting tears, contending forces had begun to trample
it. Two feudal barons fought each other on the soil of the New World.

"All things failing me"-