soldiers.  Thence the ship tacked on up the river past Mal Bay, the Ravine of the Eboulements and the Bay of St. Paul with its broad valley and wooded mountains all in a blaze with their beautiful autumn dress, their scarlets, their purples, and their golds, from the maple, the ash, the young oak, and the saplings of the birch.  Amos Green, leaning on the bulwarks, stared with longing eyes at these vast expanses of virgin woodland, hardly traversed save by an occasional wandering savage or hardy coureur-de-bois.  Then the bold outline of Cape Tourmente loomed up in front of them; they passed the rich placid meadows of Laval’s seigneury of Beaupre, and, skirting the settlements of the Island of Orleans, they saw the broad pool stretch out in front of them, the falls of Montmorenci, the high palisades of Cape Levi, the cluster of vessels, and upon the right that wonderful rock with its diadem of towers and its township huddled round its base, the centre and stronghold of French power in America.  Cannon thundered from the bastions above, and were echoed back by the warship, while ensigns dipped, hats waved, and a swarm of boats and canoes shot out to welcome the new governor, and to convey the soldiers and passengers to shore.

The old merchant had pined away since he had left French soil, like a plant which has been plucked from its roots.  The shock of the shipwreck and the night spent in their bleak refuge upon the iceberg had been too much for his years and strength.  Since they had been picked up he had lain amid the scurvy-stricken soldiers with hardly a sign of life save for his thin breathing and the twitching of his scraggy throat.  Now, however, at the sound of the cannon and the shouting he opened his eyes, and raised himself slowly and painfully upon his pillow.  “What is it, father?  What can we do for you?” cried Adele.  “We are in America, and here is Amory and here am I, your children.”

But the old man shook his head.  “The Lord has brought me to the promised land, but He has not willed that I should enter into it,” said he.  “May His will be done, and blessed be His name forever!  But at least I should wish, like Moses, to gaze upon it, if I cannot set foot upon it.  Think you, Amory, that you could lend me your arm and lead me on to the deck?”

“If I have another to help me,” said De Catinat, and ascending to the deck, he brought Amos Green back with him.  “Now, father, if you will lay a hand upon the shoulder of each, you need scarce put your feet to the boards.”

A minute later the old merchant was on the deck, and the two young men had seated him upon a coil of rope with his back against the mast, where he should be away from the crush.  The soldiers were already crowding down into the boats, and all were so busy over their own affairs that they paid no heed to the little group of refugees who gathered round the stricken man.  He turned his head painfully from side to side, but his eyes brightened as they fell upon the broad blue stretch of water, the flash of the distant falls, the high castle, and the long line of purple mountains away to the north-west.