n,"--was Picault's subsequent remark, "The young fool has
courage. What a deep game he is playing. I tell you he has more talent
than the whole of our side together except yourself--curse him."

"It demonstrates the unpractically of his methods!" said the burly
Montreal politician to Zotique, with self-satisfied disgust.

"No," returned Zotique, firmly, "If we had followed his methods it would
have been far better. But nothing can make up for lack of intelligence:
_Sacre bleu_. I ought to have had a better head than to leave these
people to such as Cuiller and Benoit!"

Chamilly addressed firm words to the disappointed electorate: "I seek
not my own cause, friends. It is yours in which I do this thing and do
you, too, give all for country's honor. Lose not heart. Work on, like
iron figures, receiving blows without feeling them. Be we young in our
strength and hope, as Truth our mistress is perennial. Accept from me
who according to the rule of faint hearts ought to be most crushed by
our failure, the motto, "_Encouraged_ by disaster!"

CHAPTER XLI.

FIAT JUSTITIA

"I wonder at you!--I wonder at you!" exclaimed Chrysler, pacing the
drawing-room of the Manor-house, to his friend, "What will be the result
of it?"

"Cher Monsieur," Haviland replied. "I have done my duty and what have I
to do with events? What is Dormilliere county and a year or two of the
consequences of this election? I do not live in them or of them."

The face of the far-seeing god himself, whose statue stood once more
near, could scarcely show less regret than the easy, indomitable
countenance of Chamilly; yet that his nerves had been strained to a
severe pitch, lines of exhaustion upon it clearly told, and his
restless, reckless movements from one spot and position to another made
his friend anxious. A raw wind storm had risen quickly from the east and
whistled without. He advanced to the window and threw both its curtains
wide apart, revealing under an obscured snatch of struggling moonlight,
the heavens covered with rapid-moving clouds, and the poplars opposite
bending their vague shapes beneath the wind,--the beginning of one of
those storms which come up from the Gulf, and overrun the whole region
for days.

"I should like to be on the River now," he remarked exultingly. Madame
entered at the moment and heard him.

"Be quiet, Chamilly," chided the Seigneuresse.

"Alors, Alors," he said impatiently, as if casting about for somet