"You honour me, sir," was the reply; "and, believe me, there is none in
Quebec but thanks God that their governor is here before Phips rounds
Isle Orleans yonder."

"You did nobly while I was away there in Montreal waiting for the New
Yorkers to take it--if they could. They were a sorry rabble, for they
rushed on La Prairie, that meagre place,--massacred and turned tail."

"That's strange, sir, for they are brave men, stupid though they be.
I have fought them."

"Well, well, as that may be! We will give them chance for bravery. Our
forts are strong from the Sault au Matelot round to Champigny's palace,
the trenches and embankments are well ended, and if they give me but two
days more I will hold the place against twice their thirty-four sail and
twenty-five hundred men."

"For how long, your excellency?"

Count Frontenac nodded. "Spoken like a soldier. There's the vital
point. By the mass, just so long as food lasts! But here we are with
near two thousand men, and all the people from the villages, besides
Callieres's seven or eight hundred, should they arrive in time--and, pray
God they may, for there will be work to do. If they come at us in front
here and behind from the Saint Charles, shielding their men as they cross
the river, we shall have none too many; but we must hold it."

The governor drew himself up proudly. He had sniffed the air of battle
for over fifty years with all manner of enemies, and his heart was in the
thing. Never had there been in Quebec a more moving sight than when he