humour and the boldness of his grenadier, summoned the Old Guard, and had
the sergeant promoted to the rank of captain on the spot.

It was these apparently incongruous things, together with legends that
I had heard and read of Napoleon, which gave me the idea of Valmond.
First, a sketch of about five thousand words was written, and it looked
as though I were going to publish it as a short story; but one day,
sitting in a drawing-room in front of a grand piano, on the back of which
were a series of miniatures of the noted women who had played their part
in Napoleon's life, the incident of the Countess of Carnstadt (I do not
use the real name) at St. Helena associated itself with the picture in my
memory of the philanthropist of the street corner. Thereupon the whole
story of a son of Napoleon, ignorant of his own birth, but knowing that
a son had been born to Napoleon at St. Helena, flitted through my
imagination; and the story spread out before me all in an hour,
like an army with banners.

The next night--for this happened in New York--I went down to Hot
Springs, Virginia, and began a piece of work which enthralled me as I had
never before been enthralled, and as I have never been enthralled in the
same way since; for it was perilous to health and mental peace.

Fantasy as it is, the book has pictures of French-Canadian life which
are as true as though the story itself was all true. Characters are in
it like Medallion, the little chemist, the avocat, Lajeunesse the
blacksmith, and Madeleinette, his daughter, which were in some of the
first sketches I ever wrote of French Canada, and subsequently appearing
in the novelette entitled The Lane That Had No Turning. Indeed, 'When
Valmond Came to Pontiac', historical fantasy as it is, has elements both
of romance and realism.