The Seats Of The Mighty, Volume 1.

and the day's duty over, the hour of play was come. I must needs have felt ashamed of it then, and now, were I not sure it was some unbidden operation of the sen

ead; that I saw old men and women who could not be moved by news of victory, shaking with cold, even beside this vast furnace, and peevishly babbling of

the Governor of Montreal. We bowed, but he made no motion to come to me, and the Intendant engaged me almost at once in gossip of the town; suddenly, however, diverging upon some questions of public tactics and civic government. He much surprised me, for though I knew him brave and able, I had never thought of him save as the adroit politician and servant of the King, the tyrant and the libertine. I might have known by that very scene a few hours before that he had a wide, deep knowledge of human nature, and despised it; unlike Doltaire, who had a keener mind, was more refined even in wickedness, and, knowing the world, laughed at it more than he despised it, which was the sign of the greater mind. And indeed, in spite of all the causes I had to hate Doltaire,

ll; simply a sort of gray colour of the mind, a stillness in the nerves, a general seriousness of the senses. I drank, and the wine did not affect me, as voices got loud and louder, and glasses rang, and spurs rattled on shuffling heels, and a scabbard clanged on a chair. I seemed to feel and know it all in some far-off way, but I was not touched by the spirit of it, was not a part of it. I watched the reddened cheeks and loose scorching mouths around me with a sort of distant curiosity, and the ribald jests flung right and left struck me not at all

of my position grew upon me. I had been withdrawn from all real feeling and living for hours, but I believe that same suspension was my salvation. For with every man present deeply gone in liquor

y meant I should not leave the room alive; but anon I felt a river of fiery anger flow through me, rousing me, making me loathe the faces of them all. Yet not all, for in one pale face, with dark, brilliant eyes, I saw the looks of my flower of the world: the colour of her hair in his, the clearness of the brow, the poise of the head-how handsome he was!-the light, springing step, like a deer on the sod of June. I call to mind when I first saw him. He was sitting in a window of the Manor, just after he had come from Montreal, playing a violin which had once belonged to De Casson

t for gentlefolk to use instead of open charge. There was insult in a smile, contempt in the turn of a shoulder, challenge in the flicking of a handkerchief. With great pleasure I could have wrung their noses one by one, and afterwards have met them tossing sword-points in the same order. I wonder now that I did not tell them so, for I was ever hasty; but my br

Presently I heard a young gentlema

-that was his doing at your mano

r table, Lancy," bro

ur ladies," was t

conditions?" was the

might have followed, but that Doltaire

; in speech, too, so confiding! And if we babble all our doings to him, think you he takes it seriously? No, no-so gay and thoughtless, there is a thoroughfare from ear to ear, and all's lost on the other side. P

entleman as he talked, his eyes wandering over me idly, and beyond me. I saw that he

arewell gesture to me at the manor.) "Who shall gainsay our peacock? Shall the guinea cock? The golden crumb was thrown to the guinea cock, but that's

ur for his close friendship with the Governor. If Juste Duvarney were killed in the duel which they foresaw, so far as Doltaire was concerned I was out of the counting in the young lady's sight. In a

inst my race, and to cherish a good heart towards me; for he was young, and most sensitive to the opinions of his comrad

nd you at our sei

interrogation mark, the abuser of hospitality, th

e secret of all good life: a no

oncerted influence on the young gentleman. I cu

ponded Duvarney, "n

st," I rejoined quietly, "else

d his handkerchief and flicked me across the face with it, saying, "Then thi

but again, all in a moment, I caught a turn of his head, a motion of the hand, which brought back Alixe to me. Anger died away, and I saw only a youth flushed with wine, stung by suggestions, with that foolish pride the youngster feels-and he was the youngest of them all-in being as goo

llustrate your meani

are clear and

you take insult like a donkey on a well-wheel. What fly will the Engl

s clear that he would not be tempered to friendliness; for, as is often so, when men have said things fiercely, their e

d acquaintance, and I can not forget that the last hours of a light imprisonment before I entered

d as if I were throwing myself on his mercy; but yet I felt it was the onl

a sheep from a porcupine; his courage is so slack, he dares not move a step to his liberty. It was a bet, a hazard. He was to drink glass for glass with any and all of us,

ry man present was full-sprung with wine; and a distance away, a gentleman on either side of him, s

had been any other man in the room than he. It was on my tongue to say that if some gentleman would take up his quarrel I should be glad to drive mine home, though for reasons I cared not myself to fight Duvarney. But I did not

e more to lose than I: more friends, more years of life, more hopes. I have avoided your bait, as you call

mber near. It was cold, and some of the company shivered as we stepped upon the white, frosty stones. The late October air bit the cheek, though now and then a warm, pungent current passed across

ng clouds. That we should have light, however, pine torches had been brought, and these were stuck in the wall. My back was to the outer wall of the courtyard, and I saw the Inten

looked for every button; for the spot in his lean, healthy body where I could disable him, spit him, and yet not kill him-for this was the thing furthest from my wishes, God knows. Now the deadly character of the event seemed to impress

tful; but he had little imagination, he did not divine, he was merely a brilliant performer, he did not conceive. I saw that if I put him on the defensive I should have him at advantage, for he had not that art of the true swordsman, the prescient quality which foretells the opp

and then, too, a ribald jest came from some young roisterer near, and the fact that I stood alone among sneering enemies wound me up to a point where pride was more active than aught el

foot or a hard breathing. "Four-five-six!" There was a tenseness in the air, and Juste Duvarney, as if he felt a menace in the words, seemed to lose all sense of wariness, and came at

nes, now glazed with our tramping back and forth, and, trying to recover myself, left my side open to his sword. It came home, though I partly diverted it. I was forced to my knees, but th

est. It was the Governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil. He spoke, but what he said I knew not, for the stark upturned