nights, though indeed some of the nights were dreary and very cold,
for it was yet but the beginning of May.

It might thus seem that we were leaving danger well behind,
after having travelled so many heavy leagues, but it was yet
several hundred miles to Louisburg, our destination; and we had
escaped only immediate danger. We passed Isle aux Coudres and the
Isles of Kamaraska, and now we ventured by day to ramble the woods
in search of game, which was most plentiful. In this good outdoor
life my health came slowly back, and I should soon be able to bear
equal tasks with any of my faithful comrades. Never man led better
friends, though I have seen adventurous service near and far since
that time. Even the genial ruffian Clark was amenable, and took
sharp reprimand without revolt.

On the eleventh night after our escape, our first real trial
came. We were keeping the middle of the great river, as safest from
detection, and when the tide was with us we could thus move more
rapidly. We had had a constant favouring wind, but now suddenly,
though we were running with the tide, the wind turned easterly, and
blew up the river against the ebb. Soon it became a gale, to which
was added snow and sleet, and a rough, choppy sea followed.

I saw it would be no easy task to fetch our craft to the land.
The waves broke in upon us, and presently, while half of us were
paddling with laboured and desperate stroke, the other half were
bailing. Lifted on a crest, our canoe, heavily laden, dropped at
both ends; and again, sinking into the hollows between the short,
brutal waves, her gunwales yielded outward, and her waist gaped
in a dismal way. We looked to see her with a broken back at any