about it as matters
stand is truly more than I exactly know at present. Well, we must see
what can be done."

"His daughter is motherless too, is she not, my uncle?" said the young
soldier.

"Yes, Isidore; she is, as he even now told us, utterly alone in the
world, and penniless too, I fancy. When poor Lacroix came out with the
regiment, and brought her with him, it was in the hope that he might
ultimately obtain a grant of land here in New France and settle down
upon it, for what little property he had was thrown away upon a
worthless son, who died some little time ago."

Here M. de Valricour was interrupted by a summons to attend upon the
general at head-quarters. He accordingly quitted the shed, leaving to
young de Beaujardin the melancholy duty of seeing their friend
consigned to his last resting-place amidst the battered outworks of the
stronghold which his valour had helped to conquer.

When Baron de Valricour had spoken of his friend's having come to
Canada in the hope of restoring his broken fortunes, he had, in some
measure at least, described his own case. Though descended from an
ancient family, he had never been a very wealthy man, and the lands of
Valricour yielded an income quite inadequate to keep up a state
befitting the chateau of so noble a house. The baron had made matters
still worse by marrying, at an early age, an imperious beauty of like
noble birth, but without a dowry, whose extravagance soon plunged her
husband into difficulties, which gradually increased until there
remained but one chance. By means of court influence he obtained a
subordinate command in the army sent out to New France. A seigneurie
on the St. Lawrence might well be looked forward to as the reward of
military service when the war should be happily terminated; if not, it
was something to be able to reduce the great establishment which
otherwise must still be kept up in France. The Baroness de Valricour
had yet another hope; the same day that witnessed her union with the
young baron had seen his sister united to the Marquis de Beaujardin,
one of the wealthiest nobles in the west of France. The Valricours had
a daughter now in her twentieth year, whilst the Beaujardins might well
be proud of their son Isidore, about a twelvemonth older than Clotilde
de Valricour. The marriage of these two young people would blend into
one the small estate of Valricour and the magnificent heritage of the
Beaujardins. This was the