like a plummet and shattered our bones on a rocky shore. Coming
fast, our bodies leaped far into the air and fell to deep water.
How long I lay there thinking, as I rested, I have no satisfactory
notion. Louise and Louison came into my thoughts, and a plan of
rescue. A rush of cavalry and reeking swords, a dash for the
boats, with a flying horse under each fair lady, were in that
moving vision. But where should we find them? for I knew not the
name of that country out of which we had come by ways of darkness
and peril. The old query came to me, If I had to choose between
them, which should I take? There was as much of the old doubt in
me as ever. For a verity, I loved them both, and would die for
either. I opened my eyes at last, and, rising, my hands upon the
gunwales, could dimly see the great shoulders of D'ri swaying back
and forth as he rowed. The coming dawn had shot an arrow into the
great, black sphere of night, cracking it from circumference to
core, and floods of light shortly came pouring in, sweeping down
bridges of darkness, gates of gloom, and massy walls of shadow. We
were in the middle of a broad river--the St. Lawrence, we knew,
albeit the shores were unfamiliar to either of us. The sunlight
stuck in the ripples, and the breeze fanned them into flowing fire.
The morning lighted the green hills of my native land with a mighty
splendor. A new life and a great joy came to me as I filled my
lungs with the sweet air. D'ri pulled into a cove, and neither
could speak for a little. He turned, looking out upon the river,
and brushed a tear off his brown cheek.

"No use talking" said he, in a low tone, as the bow hit the shore,
"ain' no country luk this 'un, don' care where ye go."

As the oars lay still, we could hear in the far timber a call of