vilette was entirely reassured, if indeed he needed reassurance.
Ferrol coughed still more, and was obliged to sit down on the side of
the bed and rest himself against the foot-board.

"There's a new jug of medicine or cordial come this morning from
Shangois, the notary," said Lavilette. "I just happened to think of it.
What he does counts. He knows a lot."

Ferrol's eyes showed interest at once.

"I'll try it. I'll try it. The stuff Gatineau the miller sent doesn't do
any good now."

"Shangois is here--he's downstairs--if you want to see him."

Ferrol nodded. He was tired of talking.

"I'm going," said Lavilette, holding out his hand. "I'll join my company
to-day, and the scrimmage 'll begin as soon as we reach Papineau. We've
got four hundred men."

Ferrol tried to say something, but he was struggling with the cough in
his throat. He held out his hand, and Nicolas took it. At last he was
able to say:

"Good luck to you, Nic, and to the devil with the Rebellion! You're in
for a bad drubbing."

Nicolas had a sudden feeling of anger. This superior air of Ferrol's was
assumed by most Englishmen in the country, and it galled him.

"We'll not ask quarter of Englishmen; no-sacre!" he said in a rage.

"Well, Nic, I'm not so sure of that. Better do that than break your
pretty neck on a taut rope," was the lazy reply.

With an oath, Lavilette went out, banging the door after him. Ferrol
shrugged his shoulder with a stoic ennui, and put away the pistols in
the trunk. He was thinking how reckless he had been to take them
out; and yet he was amused, too, at the risk he had run. A strange
indifference possessed him this morning--indifference to everything. He
was suffering reaction from the previous day's excitement. He had got
the five thousand dollars, and now all interest in it seemed to have
departed.

Suddenly he said to himself, as he ran a brush around his coat-collar:

"'Pon my soul, I forgot; this is my wedding day!--the great day in a
man's life, the immense event, after which comes steady happiness or the
devil to pay."

He stepped to the window and looked out. It was only six o'clock as
yet. He could see the harvesters going to their labours in the fields of
wheat and oats, the carters already bringing in little loads of hay. He
could hear their marche-'t'-en! to the horses. Over by a little house on
the river bank stood an old woman sharpening a sickle. He could see the
flash of the steel as the ston