Heralds of Empire

sea in Captain Gillam's ship. M. Picot, the French doctor, brought a governess from Paris for Hortense,

fare, and many a time have we had wild escapes from imaginary savages by scaling a rope ladder of my own making up to the high nursery window. By-and-bye, when school was in and the dominie dozed, I would lower that timid little whiffet of a Puritan maid out th

carrying something tenderly

ss Hortense?" he

woman keeps her cag

egan titterin

," he explained, slipping a

t's for Horte

ou take it t

a daze. "As long as she gets it,

s the marshy commons, leavi

o M. Picot's house. That go

ttle to Mistr

ffered th

ks, she would not take it. Then Ho

she asked, mischievou

t cased in those high slippers French

tched it up with caresses against her neck, and the French gover

iselle," said I loftily.

Hortense wou

oking, her handkerchief to her lips. "Tell Jack thanks,

ver and has no spite. Emboldened, I asked why Hortense could not play with us

fully, "an she mayn't play war on

perking her lips saucily; and

but it put a notion in a lad's

t. Rebecca, the demure monkey, bent over her lesson

across the bench, "you are big

becca, grown mighty good of a sudden,

g the forbidden, I reached across to distract the attentive goodness of t

syllable was uttered, but it was the awfullest silence that ever a lad heard. I was lifted rather than led upstairs and left a

lls of the rabble crowd I could make out only "King-killers! King-killers!" These were no Puritans shouting, but the blackguard sailors and hirelings of the English squadron set loose to hunt down the refugees. The shouting became a roar. Then in burst Eli Kirke's front door.

on me? But questions were put to flight by a thunderous rapping on the door. It gave as it had bee

eyes asking mine if I knew. True as eyes can

ghting sparrow of a royalist!" cried a swag

, lad?" dema

rke close his ey

lf up on my heels, "I don't

te up the attic stairs. Then my blood went cold with fear, for the me

gth from the window-sill. Against the lattice timber-work of the plastered wall below the attic window clung

from perilous footing, "let me hold your

g, gained the shed roof at a leap, snatched back the cas

away. The deep, far baying of the dogs, now loud, now low, as the trail ran away or the wind blew clear, told where the chase led inland.

happened

hounds clew. The baying came nearer. He had discove

hope, but in a twinkling I was riding like wind for the barking be

g off; "to horse and away! Ride up th

w that set pace for a gallop, turned, and-for a

" says a low voice. "

self set up b

rom the hounds,

ither royalist nor Puritan-a thin, swarth man, tall and straight as an Indian, ba

and my rescuer headed our horse away from the rabble, dof

orse to its haunches, "did that

this little

eep an eye open, Radisson,"

Radisson softly; and at his na

irke; the hero of Spanish fights and Turkish wars; the bold explorer of the north sea, who brought back such

being hunted," he remarked, wi

ny courtier's, with a deep collar of otter. Unmindful of manners, I would

ained. "And what," he demanded, "what dot

od hath been pleas

place he set the

is a higher place than

and, vowing I should be a court gallant,

lips pale with rage. He had blazed

r and imp of Satan!" he shouted, shaking his clinched fist in my face. "Was it not eno

k a b

" he demanded, se

to flog me as I deserve. As for the horse, he is safe and I h

ank. M. Radisson d

," and he told all, with many a strange-sounding, foreign expression that must hav

st that M. Radisson share a haun

r land and lake to a far north sea, and of the conspiracy among merchant princes of Quebec to ruin him. By-and-bye Rebecca Stocking's father came in, and the three sat talking

the hour flown with M. Radisson's tales of daring that Tibbie

er, "health to the little gentleman who saved a life to-day! Health to m

orse," said El

e back like the e

, but he waylaid me in the da

" said h

wondering if fl

ace shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the Lord