ied
on coals raked out for their service. Marie had the men bring such doors
as remained from the barracks and lay them from table to table, making
one long board for her household; and this the women dressed in the best
linen of the house. They set on plate which had been in La Tour's
family for generations. Every accumulation of prosperity was brought out
for this final use. The tunnel in the wall was stopped with blankets,
and wax candles were lighted everywhere. Odors of festivity filled the
children with eagerness. It was like the new year when there was always
merry-making in the hall, yet it was also like a religious ceremony. The
men rose from their pallets and set aside screens, and the news was
spread when sentinels were changed.

Marie called Zelie up to her ruined apartment, and standing amidst stone
and plaster, was dressed in her most magnificent gown and jewels. She
appeared on the stairs in the royal blackness of velvet whitened by
laces and sparkling with points of tinted fire. Edelwald led her to the
head of the long board, and she directed her people to range themselves
down its length in the order of their families.

"My men," said Madame La Tour to each party in turn as they were
relieved on the walls to sit down at the table below her, "we are
holding a passover supper this Paques night because it may be our last
night in Fort St. John. You all understand how Sieur de la Tour hath
fared. We are reduced to the last straits. Yet not to the last straits,
my men, if we can keep you. With such followers your lord can make some
stand elsewhere. D'Aulnay has proposed a surrender. I refused his terms,
and have set down others, which will sacrifice the fort but save the
garrison. Edelwald, our only officer, is against surrender, because he,
like yourselves, would give the greater for the less, which I cannot
allow."

"My lady," spoke Glaud Burge, a sturdy grizzled man, rising to speak for
the first squad, "we have been talking of this matter together, and we
think Edelwald is right. The fort is hard beset, and it is true there
are fewer of us than at first, but we may hold out somehow and keep the
walls around us. We have no stomach to strike flag to D'Aulnay de
Charnisay."

"My lady," spoke Jean le Prince, the youngest man in the fortress, who
was appointed to speak for the second squad when their turn came to sit
down at the table, "we also think Edelwald is right in counseling you
not to give up For