ld be
with you, but this wound may hold me here. As for going to Albany, I may
assist you in that matter. A company of Boston merchants are sending a
despatch, that is, a stage, to Albany to-morrow. I am one of that
company and I can provide a place for you."

"My very great thanks are yours, sir."

"Say no more about it. 'Tis just what I ought to do. 'Tis a long
journey, but 'tis a fine time of the year, and you'll have a pleasant
trip. Would that I had your youth and your unwounded leg and I'd be with
you under the walls of Quebec, whether we take the city or not."

His eyes sparkled and his thin cheeks flushed with his intense fire.
Robert knew that there was no more valiant soldier than the shrewd
Boston merchant, and he appreciated his intense earnestness.

"Perhaps, sir," he said, "your recovery will be in full time for the
campaign."

"I fear not, I'm sure not, Mr. Lennox, and yet I wish with all my soul
to be there. I foresee victory, because I think victory is due. 'Tis not
in nature for the French in Canada, who are few and who receive but
little help from their own country, to hold back forever the whole might
of Britain and her colonies. They have achieved the impossible already
in stemming the flood so long, and because it's about time for the
weight, in spite of everything, to break over the dam, I think that
victory is at hand. And then, Britain will be supreme on the North
American continent from the Spanish domains northward to the Pole."

"And that means a tremendous future, sir, for England and her colonies!"

The face of Elihu Strong clouded.

"I do not know," he cried. "I hope so, and yet, at times, I fear not.
You think only of united hearts in England and America and a long future
under one flag. I repeat that I wish it could be so and yet the old
always regard the new with patronage, and the new always look upon the
old with resentment. There are already differences between the English
and Americans, questions of army rank, disputes about credit in the
field, different points of view, created by the width of an ocean."

"But if we are victorious and overrun Canada, they will be settled."

"There lies the greatest danger, my lad. 'Tis the common peril that
holds us together for the time. When this shadow in the north which has
overhung us so long, is removed, the differences will grow the greater,
and each side will assert itself. 'Tis in our common blood. The English
are a free people