ail of the misery of my surroundings might well appear, even in
her kindly judgment, but an implied appeal to her generosity.

For this it was that I gradually cut down my letters year by year,
until I entirely ceased from all intercourse, and lived my lonely
life as best I might.

For fellow-exiles, I had near an hundred discontented gentlemen,
ruling over a homesick soldiery, two or three unfortunate gentlewomen,
a few greedy and dishonest officials, and a handful of wretched
townspeople, whose prosperity was never fostered in time of peace
nor their safety considered in time of war.

At last, through the friendship of the Comte de Raimond, Governor
of the Island, I obtained a tardy promotion to the rank of lieutenant
in the Regiment of Artois, under M. de St. Julhien, and the
appointment as King's Interpreter, on which I was heartily
congratulated by my comrades, who had long pitied my undeserved
ill fortune.

Until then I had made but little effort to better my condition,
but my advancement, as well as the increase in my pay, aroused me.
I took fresh heart in and my appearance, and began to mix somewhat
in such society as our forlorn situation afforded.

In Madame de Drucour, wife of our Commandant, I found a grande dame
de par le monde, who commanded the admiration and respect of all
our officers and the devotion of the soldiery and townspeople.

In Madame Prevost, the most charming little Canadian, wife of the
Commissary--a creature with the carriage of a lackey and the soul
of a dry-salter--I discovered a heart full of tender sympathy,
dying of ennui. Her husband's unpopularity was such that but few
of the officers would enter his doors, and indeed he was so fierce
a Cerberus in regard to his unfortunate wife, that he made any
attempt at alleviation of her unhappy condition wellnigh impossible.
However, through my acquaintance with a M. de Sarennes, a Canadian
partisan officer, who stood high in his favour, he saw fit to allow
my visits, and I willingly put up with his want of breeding to
offer such attention as I might to his prisoner, for so in truth
she was.

Sarennes was attractive enough, in so far as his outward appearance
went, but, like most of his countrymen--that is, the Canadians--was
wanting in all those externals which are essential to a gentleman.
He was courageous, but a braggart; he was well born, but had no
breeding; he was open and friendly, but, I feared, truculent; and
his sense of h