to _that_, you begin to doubt the saving
efficacy of the ballot box.

Now, the Government of Quebec is neither a naval nor a military power.
It doesn't want to fight, and if it did it hasn't got either the ships,
or the men, or the money. The Sergeant-at-Arms in the Legislative
Assembly is the only military person in its pay. It has not even a
single policeman to assert the majesty of the law.

The Government of Quebec is the Hon. Honore Mercier.

Mr. Mercier is like the first Napoleon. He chooses _tools_ to assist,
not strong individualities to oppose, him.

Party journalism in the Province of Quebec is peculiarly bitter and
mendacious. The Press generally had made the most of the shooting of
Warren. A month had elapsed, and no attempt had been made to arrest
Morrison, who, it was alleged, swaggered through the country armed to
the teeth, and threatening death to the man who should attempt to take
him. It was generally agreed that this was a scandal. But the opposition
journals made political capital out of the affair.

"What! was this the Mercier Government? Was this the sort of law and
order we were promised under his _regime_? Here was a criminal at large
defying the law. Was Mr. Mercier afraid to arrest him, lest he might
forfeit the Liberal votes of the county? It looked like it. Could Mr.
Mercier not impress, for love or money, a single man in the Province to
undertake the task of arresting Morrison? Or was Mr. Mercier so taken up
with posing in that Gregory costume that he had no time to devote to the
affairs of his country?"

Mr. Mercier's reply to the party Press was to send down five special
constables to Megantic.

CHAPTER XXIV. TELLS HOW THE CONSTABLES ENJOYED THEMSELVES.

CAESAR--"Let me have men about me that are fat--
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights."

The five constables that Mr. Mercier sent down to Megantic put up in the
village hotel.

Within an hour Donald had received the following note:--

"Dear Donald,--Action at last. Five men from Quebec after you. Keep away
from Marsden for a day or so. I don't think there is much to fear.
They would not know you, I believe, if they met you, and they are so
frightened by the stories they have heard about you, that I don't
believe they would dare to arrest you, even if they found you. However,
as well be on the safe side. Go into the woods a little bit"

The people soon knew that an attempt was to be made to arrest Donald.