unds
Isle Orleans yonder."

"You did nobly while I was away there in Montreal waiting for the New
Yorkers to take it--if they could. They were a sorry rabble, for they
rushed on La Prairie, that meagre place,--massacred and turned tail."

"That's strange, sir, for they are brave men, stupid though they be. I
have fought them."

"Well, well, as that may be! We will give them chance for bravery. Our
forts are strong from the Sault au Matelot round to Champigny's palace,
the trenches and embankments are well ended, and if they give me but two
days more I will hold the place against twice their thirty-four sail and
twenty-five hundred men."

"For how long, your excellency?"

Count Frontenac nodded. "Spoken like a soldier. There's the vital point.
By the mass, just so long as food lasts! But here we are with near two
thousand men, and all the people from the villages, besides Callieres's
seven or eight hundred, should they arrive in time--and, pray God they
may, for there will be work to do. If they come at us in front here and
behind from the Saint Charles, shielding their men as they cross the
river, we shall have none too many; but we must hold it."

The governor drew himself up proudly. He had sniffed the air of battle
for over fifty years with all manner of enemies, and his heart was in
the thing. Never had there been in Quebec a more moving sight than when
he arrived from Montreal the evening before, and climbed Mountain
Street on his way to the chateau. Women and children pressed round him,
blessing him; priests, as he passed, lifted hands in benediction; men
cheered and cried for joy; in every house there was thanksgiving that
the imperious old veteran had come in time.

Prevost the town mayor, Champigny the Intendant, Sainte-Helene,
Maricourt, and Longueil, had worked with the skill of soldiers who knew
their duty, and it was incredible what had been done since the alarm had
come to Prevost that Phips had entered the St. Lawrence and was anchored
at Tadousac.

"And how came you to be here, Iberville?" queried the governor
pleasantly. "We scarce expected you."

"The promptings of the saints and the happy kindness of King Louis, who
will send my ship here after me. I boarded the first merchantman with
its nose to the sea, and landed here soon after you left for Montreal."

"So? Good! See you, see you, Iberville: what of the lady Puritan's
marriage with the fire-eating Englishman?"

The governor smiled as