Chapter

   XXIV.  The start of the “Golden rod”

    XXV.  A boat of the dead

   XXVI.  The last port

  XXVII.  A dwindling island

 XXVIII.  In the pool of Quebec

   XXIX.  The voice at the port-hole

    XXX.  The inland waters

   XXXI.  The hairless man

  XXXII.  The lord of Sainte Marie

 XXXIII.  The slaying of brown moose

  XXXIV.  The men of blood

   XXXV.  The tapping of death

  XXXVI.  The taking of the stockade

 XXXVII.  The coming of the friar

XXXVIII.  THE DINING-HALL OF SAINTE MARIE

  XXXIX.  The two swimmers

     XL.  The end

NOTE ON THE HUEGENOTS AND THEIR DISPERSION

NOTE ON THE FUTURE OF LOUIS, MADAME DE MAINTENON, AND MADAME DE MONTESPAN

CHAPTER I.

THE MAN FROM AMERICA.

It was the sort of window which was common in Paris about the end of the seventeenth century.  It was high, mullioned, with a broad transom across the centre, and above the middle of the transom a tiny coat of arms—­three caltrops gules upon a field argent—­let into the diamond-paned glass.  Outside there projected a stout iron rod, from which hung a gilded miniature of a bale of wool which swung and squeaked with every puff of wind.  Beyond that again were the houses of the other side, high, narrow, and prim, slashed with diagonal wood-work in front, and topped with a bristle of sharp gables and corner turrets.  Between were the cobble-stones of the Rue St. Martin and the clatter of innumerable feet.

Inside, the window was furnished with a broad bancal of brown stamped Spanish leather, where the family might recline and have an eye from behind the curtains on all that was going forward in the busy world beneath them.  Two of them sat there now, a man and a woman, but their backs were turned to the spectacle, and their faces to the large and richly furnished room.  From time to time they stole a glance at each other, and their eyes told that they needed no other sight to make them happy.

Nor was it to be wondered at, for they were a well-favoured pair.  She was very young, twenty at the most, with a face which was pale, indeed, and yet of a brilliant pallor, which was so clear and fresh, and carried with it such a suggestion of purity and innocence, that one would not wish its maiden grace to be marred by an intrusion of colour.  Her features were delicate and sweet, and her blue-black hair and long dark eyelashes formed a piquant contrast to her dreamy gray eyes and her ivory skin.  In her whole expression there was something quiet and subdued, which was accentuated by her simple dress of black taffeta, and by the little jet brooch and bracelet which were her sole ornaments.  Such was Adele Catinat, the only daughter of the famous Huguenot cloth-merchant.