suaded future!" asserted the young man, De La
Lande, eagerly and boldly. "The Cure of Colonization has demonstrated
that it is possible. We shall reconquer the continent!"

"Is it your view?" Chrysler asked of Chamilly.

"I instance it," he returned, "because it shows that my people are
capable of thinking high."

"There is a progression of plans!" went on the eager De La Lande. "The
first is to get control of the six English counties!"

"I will trust the Anglo-Saxon for holding his own," the Ontarian
laughed, in the amusement of vigorous confidence.

"But we gain!" the young man cried. "Our race is always French! We win
fast the British strongholds in our dear Province."

"This the least, of the plans," Haviland remarked. "All are founded on
a curious fact."

"What fact is that?"

"Our phenomenal multiplication in numbers," returned the seigneur,
smiling.

"What?" cried Chrysler.

He stopped a moment open-eyed, and then laughed heartily and long. He
could not satisfy his laughter at such a basis for conquest of a
continent, and it burst forth again at intervals for some time.

"Nevertheless it is true,--and Biblical," continued the undaunted
schoolmaster. "_Sicut saggittae in manu potentis, ita filii
excussorum_."

"Breboeuf," said Haviland, who took some part with De La Lande but
joined in Chrysler's amusement, "help us. What was the number of
French-Canadians at the conquest by the English?"

"Sixty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five, by the census of the
General Murray in 1765, including approximately 500 others."

"And now?"

"One million and eight-two thousand nine hundred and forty, by the
census of 1870."

"You see, sir, what a growth. The clergy encourage it with satisfaction.
It is not comfortable for bachelors in some of our parishes."

All at the table were laughing, more or less, except De La Lande and the
hunchback, who were perfectly serious.

"One plan, sir, I confess freely," said the former, "affects yourself.
You are perfectly acquainted with the Ottawa River, separating your
Province from our own, and that it cuts across and above yours, which is
a peninsula. The fourth great plan (out of six), is to plant centres
along the Ottawa which shall exert their expansive force downwards to
overrun your peninsula."

"What a dangerous race!"

"While another contingent meets it further south, where our progress is
well known. So we shall win the centre itself of the Dominion. L