tulation. If you wish, I can obtain
more definite news of him through M. de Maxwell, one of our officers
who was in garrison there at the time."

Nothing could have been more unlooked-for, and for a moment I was
overwhelmed at the thought of this innocent betrayal of my presence
to Hugh. I could hardly find courage to reply, and it was fortunate
that my answer served as a cover to my confusion.

"M. de Montcalm, I have never heard from or written to my brother
since he accepted his English commission," I said, in a trembling
voice.

"Pardon, madame; I had forgotten when I spoke."

"Just as we forget, monsieur, that our Marguerite is not one of us
by birth as she is in heart," cried Angelique, enthusiastically,
slipping her arm about me.

This shewed me more than any other happening how precarious my
position was, for though neither Angelique, nor her mother, nor M.
de Montcalm, would now mention my identity, any of them might
already have spoken of my brother. M. de Sarennes knew my secret,
and Hugh might discover it at any moment.

When the Marquis left, Mme. de Sarennes no longer made an effort
to contain her indignation.

"They are all alike!" she burst forth. "They make not the slightest
effort to understand us, nor to do aught but amuse themselves. You
are quite right, Marguerite, to refuse to have any part in their
gaieties! I shall never urge you again. To talk of balls and routs
and gaming as necessities, when the people are starving within our
very walls!

"What wonder is it our husbands and brothers and sons say these
faineants care naught what becomes of the country or the people,
so long as they gain some little distinction which may entitle them
to an early return and an empty decoration! They have neither pity,
nor faith, nor the slightest interest in the cause for which they
are fighting.

"If M. de Vaudreuil, whom they pretend to despise, were permitted
to take the field himself, with a few thousand good Canadians behind
him, we would hear a different story. Think you if my son had been
permitted to reach Louisbourg it would have fallen? No, a thousand
times no! And it is the same elsewhere. Who repulsed the English
charge at Carillon? The Canadians. Who brings every important
piece of news of the enemy? Some despised Canadian. Who know how
to fight and how to handle themselves in the woods? Canadians, and
only Canadians! And these are the men they affect to despise! And
it is Canadian wive