that time, it is true, food and
clothing were cheaper than they are now, so that this sum would buy a
great deal more than it would at the present time; and the governor had
other slight resources, for he was able to add to his official income
the profits of a small farm and of a trading post on the St Maurice
river. Still, it was a small income on which to support a family of
ten lusty children, and at the same time keep up the dignity of the
position as governor of an important town. Pierre, therefore, like
most of the other boys of New France, had to shift for himself at an
age when the boys of to-day are still at school.

In those days there was practically only one career for a gentleman's
son--that of a soldier. Accordingly we find Pierre entering the army
as a cadet at the age of twelve. Nothing is known of his military
service up to the year 1704. In that year, however, he took part in
{4} an expedition against Deerfield, on the north-western frontier of
the colony of Massachusetts. The expedition was commanded by a
well-known guerilla leader, Hertel de Rouville, and consisted of about
fifty Canadians and two hundred Abnakis and Caughnawagas. These
adventurers and redskins were accustomed to all kinds of hardship. In
the depth of winter they set out from Montreal to make a journey of
nearly three hundred miles. They travelled on snow-shoes through the
forest, carrying supplies and provisions on their backs. At the end of
a long day's tramp, some comparatively sheltered spot would be found
for the camp; the snow would be cleared away with their snowshoes, and
a big camp-fire built in the midst of the clearing. Round this the
weary men, white and red, would gather to eat their simple meal and
smoke a pipe; then each man would wrap himself in his cloak or blanket
and fall asleep, with his feet towards the fire. From time to time
some one, warned by the increasing cold, would spring up to throw on
the fire another log or two. With the first appearance of dawn, the
party would be once more astir; a hasty breakfast would be swallowed,
and they would be off again on their long tramp to the south.

{5}

So day after day they journeyed until at last, just when they had come
to the very end of their provisions, they arrived within sight of the
doomed little English frontier village of Deerfield. In the dead of
the night Rouville called a halt in a pine forest two miles from the
village, and made preparat