ne as a parade-ground, where battle could be given, or move be
made upon the city and citadel, which lay on ground no higher. Then,
with the guns playing on the town from the fleet, and from the Levis
shore with forces on the Beauport side, attacking the lower town where
was the Intendant's palace, the great fortress might be taken, and
Canada be ours.

This passage up the cliff side at Sillery I had discovered three years
before.

When winter set well in Gabord brought me a blanket, and though last
year I had not needed it, now it was most grateful. I had been fed
for months on bread and water, as in my first imprisonment, but at
last--whether by orders or not, I never knew--he brought me a little
meat every day, and some wine also. Yet I did not care for them, and
often left them untasted. A hacking cough had never left me since my
attempt at escape, and I was miserably thin, and so weak that I could
hardly drag myself about my dungeon. So, many weeks of the winter went
on, and at last I was not able to rise from my bed of straw, and could
do little more than lift a cup of water to my lips and nibble at some
bread. I felt that my hours were numbered.

At last, one day, I heard commotion at my dungeon door; it opened, and
Gabord entered and closed it after him. He came and stood over me, as
with difficulty I lifted myself upon my elbow.

"Come, try your wings," said he.

"It is the end, Gabord?" asked I.

"Not paradise yet!" said he.

"Then I am free?" I asked.

"Free from this dungeon," he answered cheerily.

I raised myself and tried to stand upon my feet, but fell back. He
helped me to rise, and I rested an arm on his shoulder.

I tried to walk, but faintness came over me, and I sank back. Then
Gabord laid me down, went to the door, and called in two soldiers with
a mattress. I was wrapped in my cloak and blankets, laid thereon, and
so was borne forth, all covered even to my weak eyes. I was placed in a
sleigh, and as the horses sprang away, the clear sleigh-bells rang out,
and a gun from the ramparts was fired to give the noon hour, I sank into
unconsciousness.

XIX. A DANSEUSE AND THE BASTILE

Recovering, I found myself lying on a couch, in a large, well-lighted
room hung about with pictures and adorned with trophies of the hunt.
A wide window faced the foot of the bed where I lay, and through it I
could see--though the light hurt my eyes greatly--the Levis shore, on
the opposite side of th