with the child. It lay unwound from its misery on Marie's knees,
watching the new ministering power with accepting eyes. Feminine and
piteous as the girl was, her dense resistance to command could only vex
a soldier.

"Put her under guard," he said to his officer.

"And Zélie must look to her comfort," added Marie.

"Whoever she may be," declared La Tour, "she hath heard too much to go
free of this place. She must be sent in the ship to Fort St. John, and
guarded there."

"What else could be done, indeed?" asked Marie. "The child would die of
exposure here."

The prisoner was taken to the other hearth; and the young officer, as he
closed the door, half smiled to hear his lady murmur over the wretched
little outcast, as she always murmured to ailing creatures,--

"Let mother help you."




I.

AN ACADIAN FORTRESS.