With Force and Arms

me I had ever had for love, because my past life had been spent in strife of one kind or another. I was at great pains, sometimes, t

what any other soldier, or man, would have done. I came to love her. It had grown on me, lik

weather, a reference to the affairs of the Colony, to the war soon to begin, of the Indians,

she had been so happy as a girl, and I told her of some parts of it that I had visited. Of her reasons for coming to this bleak shore she said nothing, seeming to hesitate as we touched on

r tongue found little difficulty with the English words, she blushed and seemed confused. Then, with downcast eyes, she said an Englishman had lodged with her father, in

s, should teach this French maid to say, "I love, you love, we love,

e errand that brought me to Salem, and I would 65have willingly cast my commission to the winds, for the privile

up, at great labor of muscle, and walked to Lucille's house. With a hand that strangely trembled, yet with which I could, at any other time, have found the smallest nick in the wall with my sword point, I lifted the heavy iron knocker on the door an

e rocks, Captain?"

den terror at the thought of on

eat near the fireplace. Though it was not cold without, a little blaze was goin

," I ventured. "Had e'en a fragment of the rock s

yours. I should not have passed that way. I saw the men at their g

wondering, perhaps, at the silence, and then, seeing my eyes fixed on her she dropped her lids while the color came into her cheeks like the blush of morn on the pet

le," I

d not

name went from my lips huskily,

spoke for t

Amherst," sh

such as even the lifting of the great rock had

than I have ever loved befo

f my passion, Lucille seemed in a fright, at first. And her face, that had been flushed, grew pale, and her fingers plucking at her gown, trembled. Then, when my rush of words had somewhat subsided, I approached nearer and near

one phrase, "I love you;" until, fearful th

like a sweet flower, that the wind had tossed abou

answer for

d not

now, indeed, as a man whose fate hung trembling in the ba

es

sts of grim shadows over the room. I sat beside Lucille, and my he

adian expedition, we would wed, and make our home in this new land. For a time we forgot the terrible

I had never known before what it was to love truly. Many fair women had smiled a

or few rode so furiously in that time, unless some danger portended, there was a knock loud and long at the door. Lucille and I had ri

rst within?" the

ered, walking t

me in haste, with a letter for you from His 69Excellency, Sir

the red wax. In th

ers on the North. It is said that de Vilebon, at St. Johns, is urging the red men on, furnishing them food and munitions of war. Could he be drive

and seal, the seal of

lliam

, who had followed me to the door. She had shrunk back into the corner, and in her e

. With the other he stroked his moustache, and his eyes never left the face of Lucille. By th

lle!" I

ed my exclamation, nor

him, my hand on my sword, "who, and wh

a thousand miles away, for

ith a sneer on his face and in his tones. She s

never a look at me, making a low, sweeping bow, that included both of us, he leap

. She put her hands before her eyes, as if t

ind him not. I thought he was some one I had left behind me forever

t of them? What mea

" she replied, as if in surpri

ARE YOU, THAT Y

er words, to the missive I held. Briefly as I could, I told her of its import.

you," I whispered. I kissed her, and then, after a little, I went away,

Governor Phips, in Boston, some months before. He was the man with the jeweled hilted sword, with whom I had so nearly