l upon them.

"Would to heaven I were a man," exclaimed Louise de Brouague, "that I
might wield a sword, a spade, anything of use, to serve my country! I
shame to do nothing but talk, pray, and suffer for it, while every one
else is working or fighting."

Poor girl! she did not foresee a day when the women of New France would
undergo trials compared with which the sword stroke that kills the
strong man is as the touch of mercy,--when the batteries of Wolfe would
for sixty-five days shower shot and shell upon Quebec, and the South
shore for a hundred miles together be blazing with the fires of
devastation. Such things were mercifully withheld from their foresight,
and the light-hearted girls went the round of the works as gaily as they
would have tripped in a ballroom.

The Chevalier des Meloises, passing through the Porte du Palais, was
hailed by two or three young officers of the Regiment of Bearn,
who invited him into the Guard House to take a glass of wine before
descending the steep hill. The Chevalier stopped willingly, and entered
the well-furnished quarters of the officers of the guard, where a cool
flask of Burgundy presently restored him to good humor with himself, and
consequently with the world.

"What is up to-day at the Palace?" asked Captain Monredin, a vivacious
Navarrois. "All the Gros Bonnets of the Grand Company have gone down
this afternoon! I suppose you are going too, Des Meloises?"

"Yes! They have sent for me, you see, on affairs of State--what
Penisault calls 'business.' Not a drop of wine on the board! Nothing but
books and papers, bills and shipments, money paid, money received! Doit
et avoir and all the cursed lingo of the Friponne! I damn the Friponne,
but bless her money! It pays, Monredin! It pays better than fur-trading
at a lonely outpost in the northwest." The Chevalier jingled a handful
of coin in his pocket. The sound was a sedative to his disgust at the
idea of trade, and quite reconciled him to the Friponne.

"You are a lucky dog nevertheless, to be able to make it jingle!" said
Monredin, "not one of us Bearnois can play an accompaniment to your air
of money in both pockets. Here is our famous Regiment of Bearn, second
to none in the King's service, a whole year in arrears without pay! Gad!
I wish I could go into 'business,' as you call it, and woo that jolly
dame, La Friponne!

"For six months we have lived on trust. Those leeches of Jews, who call
themselves Christians, dow