around, "it is certain that there are loups-garous."




THE MILL AT PETIT CAP


August night air, sweet with a half salt breath from the St. Lawrence,
met the miller of San Joachim as he looked out; but he bolted the
single thick door of the mill, and cast across it into a staple a
hook as long as his body and as thick as his arm. At any alarm in the
village he must undo these fastenings, and receive the refugees from
Montgomery; yet he could not sleep without locking the door. So all
that summer he had slept on a bench in the mill basement, to be ready
for the call.

All the parishes on the island of Orleans, and on each side of the
river, quite to Montmorenci Falls, where Wolfe's army was encamped,
had been sacked by that evil man, Captain Alexander Montgomery, whom
the English general himself could hardly restrain. San Joachim du
Petit Cap need not hope to escape. It was really Wolfe's policy to
harry the country which in that despairing summer of 1759 he saw no
chance of conquering.

The mill was grinding with a shuddering noise which covered all
country night sounds. But so accustomed was the miller to this lullaby
that he fell asleep on his chaff cushion directly, without his usual
review of the trouble betwixt La Vigne and himself. He was sensitive
to his neighbors' claims, and the state of the country troubled him,