"
He looked at me piercingly for a minute, then a sour sort of smile
played at his lips. "A woman!" he said. "Well, it were not the first
time the love of a wench opened the gates to a nation's victory."
"Love of a wife, sir, should carry a man farther."
He turned on me a commanding look. "Speak plainly," said he. "If
we are to use you, let us know you in all."
He waved farther back the officers with him.
"I have no other wish, your Excellency," I answered him. Then I told
him briefly of the Seigneur Duvarney, Alixe, and of Doltaire.
"Duvarney! Duvarney!" he said, and a light came into his look.
Then he called an officer. "Was it not one Seigneur Duvarney who
this morning prayed protection for his chateau on the Isle of
Orleans?" he asked.
"Even so, your Excellency," was the reply; "and he said that if
Captain Moray was with us, he would surely speak for the humanity
and kindness he and his household had shown to British prisoners."
"You speak, then, for this gentleman?" he asked, with a dry sort
of smile.
"With all my heart," I answered. "But why asks he protection at
this late day?"
"New orders are issued to lay waste the country; hitherto all
property was safe," was the General's reply.
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