Jamond I was sure. Her own past had been full of
sorrow, and her life was now so secluded and religious that I could not
doubt her. Indeed, we have been blessed with good, true friends, Robert,
though they are not of those who are powerful, save in their loyalty."

Alixe then told me that the officer Legrand had arrived from France but
two days before the eventful night of which I have just written,
armed with an order from the Grande Marquise for Doltaire's arrest
and transportation. He had landed at Gaspe, and had come on to Quebec
overland. Arriving at the Intendance, he had awaited Doltaire's coming.
Doltaire had stopped to visit General Montcalm at Montmorenci Falls,
on his way back from an expedition to the English country, and had thus
himself brought my protection and hurried to his own undoing. I was
thankful for his downfall, though I believed it was but for a moment.

I was curious to know how it chanced I was set free of my dungeon, and I
had the story from Alixe's lips; but not till after I had urged her,
for she was sure her tale had wearied me, and she was eager to do little
offices of comfort about me; telling me gaily, while she shaded the
light, freshened my pillow, and gave me a cordial to drink, that she
would secretly convey me wines and preserves and jellies and such
kickshaws, that I should better get my strength.

"For you must know," she said, "that though this gray hair and
transparency of flesh become you, making your eyes look like two jets of
flame and your face to have shadows most theatrical, a ruddy cheek and
a stout hand are more suited to a soldier. When you are young again in
body, these gray hairs shall render you distinguished."

Then she sat down beside me, and clasped my hand, now looking out into
the clear light of afternoon to the farther shores of Levis, showing
green here and there from a sudden March rain, the boundless forests
beyond, and near us the ample St. Lawrence still covered with its vast
bridge of ice; anon into my face, while I gazed into those deeps of her
blue eyes that I had drowned my heart in. I loved to watch her, for with
me she was ever her own absolute self, free from all artifice, lost
in her perfect naturalness: a healthy, perfect soundness, a primitive
simplicity beneath the artifice of usual life. She had a beautiful hand,
long, warm, and firm, and the fingers, when they clasped, seemed to
possess and inclose your own--the tenderness of the maidenly,