on the fire.
Then, with a gesture as of remembrance, he went to a box, drew forth his
own violin, and placed it in the priest's hands. It seemed strange that,
in the midst of such great events, the loss or keeping of an empire,
these men should thus devote the few hours granted them for sleep; but
they did according to their natures. The priest took the instrument and
tuned it softly. Iberville blew out the candle. There was only the light
of the fire, with the gleam of the slow-coming dawn. Once again, even as
years before in the little house at Montreal, De Casson played--now with
a martial air. At last he struck the chords of a song which had been a
favourite with the Carignan-Salieres regiment.

Instantly Iberville and Perrot responded, and there rang out from three
strong throats the words:

"There was a king of Normandy,
And he rode forth to war,
Gai faluron falurette!
He had five hundred men-no more!
Gai faluron donde!

"There was a king of Normandy,
Came back from war again;
He brought a maid, O, fair was she!
And twice five hundred men--
Gai faluron falurette!
Gai faluron donde!"

They were still singing when soldiers came by the window in the first
warm light of sunrise. These caught it up, singing it as they marched
on. It was taken up again by other companies, and by the time Iberville
presented himself to Count Frontenac, not long after, there was hardly a
citizen, soldier, or woodsman, but was singing it.

The weather and water were blustering all that day, and Phips did not
move, save for a small attempt--repulsed--by a handful of men to examine
the landing. The next morning, however, the attack began. Twelve hundred
men were landed at Beauport, in the mud and low water, under one Major
Walley. With him was Gering, keen for action--he had persuaded Phips to
allow him to fight on land.

To meet the English, Iberville, Sainte-Helene, and Perrot issued forth
with three hundred sharpshooters and a band of Huron Indians. In the
skirmish that followed, Iberville and Perrot pressed with a handful of
men forward very close to the ranks of the English. In the charge which
the New Englander ordered, Iberville and Perrot saw Gering, and they
tried hard to reach him. But the movement between made it impossible
without running too great risk. For hours the fierce skirmishing went
on, but in the even