mething barbarous; but most had gifts
of person and speech, and all seemed capable.

My spirits continued high. I sprang alertly to meet wit and gossip, my
mind ran nimbly here and there, I filled the role of honoured guest. But
when came the table and wine, a change befell me. From the first drop I
drank, my spirits suffered a decline. On one side the Intendant rallied
me, on the other Doltaire. I ate on, drank on; but while smiling by
the force of will, I grew graver little by little. Yet it was a gravity
which had no apparent motive, for I was not thinking of my troubles, not
even of the night's stake and the possible end of it all; simply a
sort of gray colour of the mind, a stillness in the nerves, a general
seriousness of the senses. I drank, and the wine did not affect me,
as voices got loud and louder, and glasses rang, and spurs rattled on
shuffling heels, and a scabbard clanged on a chair. I seemed to feel and
know it all in some far-off way, but I was not touched by the spirit
of it, was not a part of it. I watched the reddened cheeks and loose
scorching mouths around me with a sort of distant curiosity, and the
ribald jests flung right and left struck me not at all acutely. It was
as if I were reading a Book of Bacchus. I drank on evenly, not doggedly,
and answered jest for jest without a hot breath of drunkenness. I looked
several times at Juste Duvarney, who sat not far away, on the other side
of the table, behind a grand piece of silver filled with October roses.
He was drinking hard, and Doltaire, sitting beside him, kept him at it.
At last the silver piece was shifted, and he and I could see each other
fairly. Now and then Doltaire spoke across to me, but somehow no word
passed between Duvarney and myself.

Suddenly, as if by magic--I know it was preconcerted--the talk turned on
the events of the evening and on the defeat of the British. Then, too,
as strangely I began to be myself again, amid a sense of my position
grew upon me. I had been withdrawn from all real feeling and living for
hours, but I believe that same suspension was my salvation. For with
every man present deeply gone in liquor round me--every man save
Doltaire--I was sane and steady, and settling into a state of great
alertness, determined on escape, if that could be, and bent on turning
every chance to serve my purposes.

Now and again I caught my own name mentioned with a sneer, then with
remarks of surprise, then with insolent laug