HERALDS OF EMPIRE


FOREWORD

I see him yet--swarthy, straight as a lance, keen as steel, in his eyes
the restless fire that leaps to red when sword cuts sword. I see him
yet--beating about the high seas, a lone adventurer, tracking forest
wastes where no man else dare go, pitting his wit against the intrigue
of king and court and empire. Prince of pathfinders, prince of
pioneers, prince of gamesters, he played the game for love of the game,
caring never a rush for the gold which pawns other men's souls. How
much of good was in his ill, how much of ill in his good, let his life
declare! He played fast and loose with truth, I know, till all the
world played fast and loose with him. He juggled with empires as with
puppets, but he died not a groat the richer, which is better record
than greater men can boast.

Of enemies, Sieur Radisson had a-plenty, for which, methinks, he had
that lying tongue of his to thank. Old France and New France, Old
England and New England, would have paid a price for his head; but
Pierre Radisson's head held afar too much cunning for any hang-dog of
an assassin to try "fall-back, fall-edge" on him. In spite of all the
malice with which his enemies fouled him living and dead, Sieur
Radisson was never the common buccaneer which your cheap pamphleteers
have painted him; though, i' faith, buccaneers stood high enough in my
day, when Prince Rupert himself turned robber and pirate of the high
seas. Pierre Radisson held his title of nobility from the king; so did
all those young noblemen who went with him to the north, as may be seen
from M. Colbert's papers in the records _de la marine_. Nor was the