e fell. The man leaped clear, but looked around in a dazed manner. Then
a bullet struck him too, and he staggered. Robert with a cry rushed
forward, and received into his arms the falling figure of St. Luc.

He eased the Chevalier to the ground and rested his head upon his knee.

"He isn't dead!" he exclaimed. "He's only shot through the shoulder!"

"Now, this is in truth the hand of Providence," said Willet gravely,
"when you are here in the height of a great battle to break the fall of
your own uncle!"

"My uncle!" exclaimed Robert.

The Chevalier Raymond Louis de St. Luc smiled wanly.

"Yes, my nephew," he said, "your own uncle, though wounded grievously,
on this the saddest of all days for France, son of my dear, dead sister,
Gabrielle."

Then he fainted dead away from loss of blood, and the Canadian, Dubois,
appearing suddenly, helped them to revive him. Robert hung over him with
irrepressible anxiety.

"The brother of my mother!" he exclaimed. "I always felt there was a
powerful tie, a blood tie, uniting us! That was why he spared me so
often! That was why he told me how to escape at Ticonderoga! He will not
die, Dave? He will not die?"

"No, he will not die," replied Willet. "The Marquis de Clermont can
receive a greater wound than that, and yet live and flourish."

"The Marquis de Clermont!"

"Aye, the Chevalier de St. Luc is head of one of the greatest families
of France and you're his next of kin."

"And so I'm half a Frenchman!"

"Aye, half a Frenchman, half an Englishman, and all an American."

"And so I am!" said Robert.

"Truly it is a great morning," said Tayoga gravely. "Tododaho has given
to me the triumph, and Tandakora has gone to his hereafter, wherever it
may be; the soul of Garay is sped too, France has lost Canada, and
Dagaeoga has found the brother of his mother."

"It's true," said Willet in a whimsical tone. "When things begin to
happen they happen fast. The battle is almost over."

But the victorious army, as it advanced, was subjected to a severe fire
on the flank from ambushed Canadians. Many of the French threw
themselves into the thickets on the Cote Ste.-Genevieve, and poured a
hail of bullets into the ranks of the advancing Highlanders. Vaudreuil
came up from Beauport and was all in terror, but Bougainville and
others, arriving, showed a firmer spirit. The gates of Quebec were shut,
and it seemed to show defiance, while the English and Americans, still
in the presenc