duce, than any other mortal. Such was the case with Roderick on this
evening. He keenly appreciated the extent of the dangers which he had
experienced, and the importance of the victory which he had won within
the last hour. What to him would have been the glory of arms, the fame
of patriotic service, if he had lost Pauline? And--if the whole truth
must be told--would the country itself have been worth saving without
her?

Roderick Hardinge was seven and twenty years of age. He was a Scotchman
by birth, but the best part of his life had been spent in Canada. His
father was an officer in Fraser's famous Highland regiment, whose
history is so intimately associated with the conquest of New France.
After the battle of the Plains of Abraham, in which it took a leading
part, his regiment was quartered in the city of Quebec for some time,
and when it finally disbanded, most of its members, officers as well as
men, settled in the country, having obtained from the Imperial
Government large tracts of land in the Gulf region. This colony has made
its mark in the history of Canada, and to the present day the Scotch
families of Murray Bay rank among the most distinguished in the public
annals of the Province. While retaining many of the best characteristics
of their origin, they have thoroughly identified themselves with their
new home, and by intermarriage with the French natives, have almost
completely lost the use of the English language.

Roderick's father imitated the example of many of his brother officers,
and in the autumn of 1760, a few weeks after the capitulation of
Vaudreuil at Montreal, and the definitive establishment of British power
in Canada, he resigned his position in the army, and settled on a fine
domain in Montmagny, a short distance from Quebec, on the south shore of
the St. Lawrence. Thither he summoned his family from Scotland.
Roderick, his only son, was twelve years of age when he landed in
Canada, and thus grew up as a child of the soil. He never left the
country afterwards, and, on the death of his parents, he succeeded to
the paternal estates which he greatly improved, and cultivated with
considerable success. Much of his leisure time was spent in the city of
Quebec where his position, wealth and accomplishments procured him
admission into the most select circles of the small but exclusive
capital. From the circumstances of the times, the French language was
almost more familiar to him than the English