s of your mother's death also gave me the
intelligence that three children had been the fruit of her union with
De Haldimar. How," pursued Wacousta, with bitter energy, "shall I
express the deep loathing I felt for those children? It seemed to me as
if their existence had stamped a seal of infamy on my own brow; and I
hated them, even in their childhood, as the offspring of an abhorred,
and, as it appeared to me, an unnatural union. I heard, moreover (and
this gave me pleasure), that their father doated on them; and from that
moment I resolved to turn his cup of joy into bitterness, even as he
had turned mine. I no longer sought his life; for the jealousy that had
half impelled that thirst existed no longer: but, deeming his cold
nature at least accessible through his parental affection, I was
resolved that in his children he should suffer a portion of the agonies
he had inflicted on me. I waited, however, until they should be grown
up to an age when the heart of the parent would be more likely to mourn
their loss; and then I was determined my vengeance should be complete.

"Circumstances singularly favoured my design. Many years afterwards,
the regiment formed one of the expedition against Quebec under General
Wolfe. They were commanded by your father, who, in the course of
promotion, had obtained the lieutenant-colonelcy; and I observed by the
army list, that a subaltern of the same name, whom I presumed to be his
eldest son, was in the corps. Here was a field for my vengeance beyond
any I could have hoped for. I contrived to pass over into Cornwall, the
ban of outlawry being still unrepealed; and having procured from my
brother a sum sufficient for my necessities, and bade him an eternal
farewell, embarked in a fishing-boat for the coast of France, whence I
subsequently took a passage to this country. At Montreal I found the
French general, who gladly received my allegiance as a subject of
France, and gave me a commission in one of the provincial corps that
usually served in concert with our Indian allies. With the general I
soon became a favourite; and, as a mark of his confidence at the attack
on Quebec, he entrusted me with the command of a detached irregular
force, consisting partly of Canadians and partly of Indians, intended
to harass the flanks of the British army. This gave me an opportunity
of being at whatever point of the field I might think most favourable
to my design; and I was too familiar with the dete