Show th e dy by james oliver curwood 04 abraham OE by doubleday dornn doran co inc service CHAPTER XII continued 15 As the captured cannon were ru shed from fort william henry to ticonderoga deenis surrena surrendered ered himself f ns as Mont montcalm ealm aas ns doing in another way to the lost last chri chapter pter in ili ills his fate there was as no goal at which lie he could aim nothing n for which he call could play winni winning ri g for canaan shot should the miracle mir acle of ultimate victory come could hold no more of solace and happiness for him than defeat at the hands of the english vier there e were times when ills french and english body was chided against itself when his mother and adams and oil all they stood for looked upon him film questioningly from out of the past ns as it if he had t turned traitor to some precious part of them yet in such a way that they could not condemn him in hours like the spirit of Tol toinette nette came to his side and placed her hand in ills his and lie he L knew new it was for her he was fight jr ir for the home would lime been theirs for I 1 alie e country she would have made a paradise for him film she grew nearer as the sureness of an approaching end crept upon him and lie he felt the beginning of a comfort lie had not known before it was the consolation of something about to happen something that was tremendous and final something that would have to do with her and with him he knew what it was and waited patiently for it as another year passed then came ticonderoga that july 8 1758 when alien over a space of a hundred acres one could not walk without staining the soles of his shoes with french or english blood that red day in history and heroism when three thousand harassed soldiers of new france faced six sis thousand british regulars and nine thousand american militiamen mil tiamen the day on which jeems and his comrades drove back the waves of scarlet and gold and a thousand killed highlanders High landers of the black watch led by duncan campbell Cano of Inver awe until as Mont calro wrote to his wife even tile the bullet scarred trees seemed to be dripping blood through hours of tumult and death jeems loaded and fired and stabbed with his bayonet and the thing for which he be was waiting did not come men alen fell around him tens and scores and hundreds of them as tile lie day wore on he saw whole ranks shiver and crumble before blasts of fire but when it was ended and the english dropped back in a last smashing defeat he be was unscathed except for bruises and powder burns rut but Blont montcalm calm retreated and this puzzled jeems the army began to learn the truth as weary and footsore it turned toward quebec rapacity folly intrigue and falsehood had fed at tile the heart of new france until it was honeycombed by the rottenness of dissolution Mont montcalm ealm was its one star of hope and as autumn came then winter it seemed to jeems that Mont calms god had deserted him the st lawrence was filled with british ships the harvest was meager and a barrel of flour cost two hundred francs even montcalm Montea Jilla ate horseflesh horse flesh still lie he did not lose faith in god A thousand scoundrels headed by vaudreuil had fatter fattened led on the nations do downfall and he prayed for them what a country lie exclaimed here all the knaves grow rich and the honest men are ruined A fighting man a man of sword and death he kept his faith to the end if we are driven from the st SL lawrence he wrote to ills his wife we will descend the mississippi and mirke make a final stand for france among the swamps of louisiana thus planned and prayed the ma man 11 whose bleached skull la is now shown to visitors in ili the ursulene Ursu Ursul JIne lne convent at quebec through the spring and summer of 1759 jeems watched the spiders as they wove their we web ever closer about que bec the lost last french stron stronghold hold in america it was in may of 1750 that toinette had been killed and it as in may alay of 1759 that lie he hobt saw from the cl shore share the mighty rock which so long had been the mistress of the new world four months later on oil the most eventful september 13 of written history that tomorrow to morrow morning which will never be forgotten he stood on the plains of abraham Mont Monte calms alms god was about to complete an immaculate elegy which hung in the air like a mighty chorus waiting for a whispered command to begin to jeems bblain facing tile the sun and the thin red line of the british across tile fio meadows where abraham mar tin had bid grazed ills his entile cattle fate was bringing an end to uncertainty and chaos it had find missed him at fort william henry tit at ticonderoga at but here lie he could feel eel its presence on an escape a release from bondage something greater than iron or flesh as the crimson lines drew nearer ile he felt the spirit of what hat had said to ills his loomed doomed heroes a few minutes before god Is surely y watching over the plains of abraham today CHAPTER IT rt WAS ten tile alie hour of J the crisis at dawn it had been foggy at six showers had fallen no now w it was hot it might have icen been july instead of september in darkness twenty four british vono had climbed the steep height from the river rh er hanging to bushes digging their fingers into crevices of rock crawling with their faces face s ii dinst the earth making thor their anay vi ay foot by foot 1 I run am afraid you cannot do it wol wolfe fe hild said looking at the blackness above hut but they did nameless 1 I Cs ss in history they destroyed strayed the old map of the wor world I 1 1 I and put another in III its place in that flint hour twenty four men ruined france give gave rise to a greater england ere created lied a new nation at the top bergor the french froncki officer slept soundly ills his guards to hint him fate might have given the glory of keeping the old map intact hut but lie was killed before he be could wipe the laze daze of slumber lumber from ills eyes wolfes path was made and like a stream of red ants the british continued to ascend the trail which had been blazed for them Vaud vaudreuil reull the governor the areli villain vho aho lost half a continent for france lay in his cozy nest of iniquity a short distance away dreaming of sensual days with the I 1 alth less madame de da paean and planning a future with tile the kings own mistress L la pompadour across the st charles expecting the british in n different direction sleepless worn robbed of every chance to win by the weakness find and imbecility of tills this favorite of a kings mistress was montcalm jekins was with the battalion of gelenne which had come up from its camp on the st charles at six in the morning its white uniforms thronging the ridge of buttes battes a neveu from which mitch it beheld the british molehill growing gramlig into a mountain about him jeems saw the plains of abraham and a strange song was in his heart as lie he thought that Tol toinette nette had been of this soil and that her great great g grand father had given name to the earth soon to run red with blood the plains were wide and level in most parts nith bushes and trees and cornfields dottin dotting 7 them here and there they were tile the front yard to quebec a field of destiny lying bet between Neen the precipitous descents to the st lawrence on one side and the snakelike ellke lazy st SL Chir charles ries on the alie other with fill a world of splendid terrain spreading in a panorama under the eyes As lie he lay watching with the men of guienns Gui enne jeems could scarcely have guessed that this scene of pastoral beauty was nos the stage upon which one of tho alie epic tragedies of all time was about to be enacted A feeling of rest possessed him as if a period had come to mark the end of the confusion and unhappiness which had held him a victim for three years yc ars and he felt mysteriously near the presence of influences lie he could not see ile he was avas a product of times when falth faith in the spiritual guld once ance of the affairs of men was strong and it was not difficult for him to conceive that Tol toinette tobnette nette was as close at his side whispering NhI spering in words word which only his soul could heir beir that he had bad come homp home six grew into seven seven into eight and eight into nine in front of him england was fo forming rilling behind him tricked anil anif outgeneraled Blont calm was rushing III in mad haste across the st charles bridge and under the northern rampart of quebec to enter the city through the palace gate at the edge of the plains of abraham the boyish wolfe poet rind and philosopher was preparing for glory or doom in III the quaint narrow streets of the town were 9 gathering hordes bordes of indians in scalp locks arid and war paint troops of sta stained rived and cheated canadians ready to make a last stand for their homes battalions of old ol 01 france in white uniforms an and with gleaming bayonets battle scarred veterans of sarre and and Rouss lilon and bearn beam fed on meager rations for weeks hut but enger eager to fight for montcalm ahead A lion d where jeems was looking were quiet and order and the stole sureness of En glands morale pe be hand were courage and chivalry and the file iron sinews of heroes in the alie throes of excitement arid and undisciplined rush jeems saw none of this abil nothing beyond the distant red lines tile the plains lay iny in sunshine with bird wings flushing flashing crows cros feeding in the cornfields the earth was a great oriental rug warm with autumn the woods yellow rind and gold in III it frame about it the guns of samos of sillery of the boats in III the river made sleepy detonations deto nations and on the rise of buttes n neveu jeems might have slept lulled by that flint never ending monotony of sound the warmth of the sun tile the blue of the sky lie stillness of the ile he closed his eyes and the sliver silver and gold mists of sunsets rose about him the lie ends of days in which he saw the plains peopled again first by abraham martin and ills his cows a n hundred and thirty four years sears before then hy by tol tat nette netie his father arid and mother hep adams and himself here was a place he lind find knon a place ills his feet had trod his soul had lived lie heard hear the lie carth whispering his these things the earth he held between ills ringers fingers as if it were geee hn hands n d q in the town priests and nuns were proving praying and a hell bell sent seni forth its melody a cheer to man no nil other appeal to god new france was ou on her knees and was on the some of nf hla 1114 inen coming through the gate ante of st louis and some through that of st john breathless and eager to where the lie banners of gelenne fluttered flattered on oil tile hie ridge hartans tartans waved waned and bagpipes screamed de defiance flance as montcalm whited waited for which never came and the bushes and knolls and cornfields cornO elds were taken by fifteen hundred canadians and indians indiana whose guns gong answered nn nith a roar buck leack and forth the battle rag raged ged and france began tu to crumble thru then came caine ten ion something must lia have e broken in Mont calms heart ills judgment wavered arid and lie he gave the fatal command which raised england to tile the supremacy of the world the french tin had formed with bayonets fixed in five short thick lines four white and one blue the en stood with double sims guris in ili a long six printed thin rod red lino line level ground lay between had england advanced history lil story all might ht liae written itself differently put cut england waited france advanced jeems went with nor her lie ile was a already ire a dy lilt hit A shot ind caught liim him in the shoulder and blood ran down liis his arm ind and dripped from ills fingers ile he felt no pain but a slumberous feeling was creeping oer him as he staggered on with nith the lines lie ile saw montcalm ride along the front of ills his men cli cheering cering them on to victory lie he noted the gold embroidered A i rk his excursions were short and he wandered alone green coat he be wore the polished cuirass at ills his breast the white linen of ills his wristband and lie he hoard board his voice as he asked dont you want ant a little rest before you begin the answer were never tired before a battle rose about him jeems lips framed the words which were ere repented repeated like increasing blasts in a storm but the sun was growing less bright to his eyes an advance of forty or fifty paces then a pause another advance another pause in the way regulars regular fought nt at that time on flat and open battlefields and jeems measured the distance bet between Neen himself and the red line of the british at each halt he fired with ills his comrades then loaded and advanced the red line hild had broken precedent it made no move to play its part in the prescribed routine of war and continued to stand like a wall openings came in it where crimson blotches blotcher blot ches sank to the ground but those who remained were unmoved and steadfast as they waited with their double guns A tremor ran through the french a thickening of mens breaths a quickening of their heartbeats a crumbling tin under strain while the melody of the bell stole softly over the plains of abraham they halted again less than a hundred paces away and still eng lands thinning line fine tit did not fire A man close I 1 to a jeems laughed as if nerves had cracked inside his head another gasped as if he had been struck jeems tried to hold himself erect the weird sensation came over him that the armies were not going gain to fight after all then lie heard ills his name it was his mother calling him lie ile answered with voth a cry and would have swayed toward her if hands had not dragged him back mad he heard hear a voice say lie he dropped his gun as he tried to wipe the blindness from his eyes things cleared there were the rod red line the open space sunlight arime something lins passing sing tho those thoe e who lived did not forgot forget what they saw england took the story home hoine aith fill her france gave it a little place in III her bi history story for a few seconds men were not looking nt at death hut but tit nt v dog dg an old decrepit dog who limped as he walked a do dog with one foot missing jeens made an eff effort ortto to call odd odd then crime command forward I 1 he de marched with the others into tile the jaws of death blind grop ing straining to make file do dos hear words which never passed his lips there was no longer a liny day no sun no red all aall before him lint but ills ears still caught the tramp of foot feet and the melody of the bell these died in a roar the roar of double guns In inland lind fired lit at forty paces and france went down donn in a shapeless miss mass of lead dead with the front line dij jeems CHAPTER XIV IT IT WAS a long time before jeems I 1 again heard the melody of the lie hell bell when lie fie brolie broke through the blackness which had overtaken hlin on the plains of abraham he found himself in the general hospital under tile the tare care of the nuns nuna of that thai institution it see seemed tried as it if only a few minutes had passed since the crash of file prig lish guns nut but it was as the medille of october Montea lial and wolla were lend dead quebec lay in a mass of ruins find and Iwig england land was supreme in tile new world although the battle of sainte key foy had not been fought from then until late in november no NoN ember when ile he was nag strong enough to take advantage of the freedom of 0 movement the british gave cave to french soldiers who had been wounded ile ho thought frequently of 0 the three lc legged ed dog that had passed between the french and english lines lined lie he said nothing of hie file incident not even |