The Coolidge examiner., 1931-05-08
CHAPTER iV-Continued

3
OF these things Jeems was
thinking as winter grew into
spring and spring into summer.
Only love held him from leaping
to the temptations which were
drawing closer about him, love for
his mother whose happiness
marked the beginning and the end
of all action on the part of her
men folk. And in this hour, when
three out of four of the fighting
men along the Richelieu were pre-
pairing TO Join Dieskau, when half
of his acQuaintances at the Ton
teur seigneurie had already gone
to fight BraddOck, when the for
ests trembled at the stealthy tread
of painted SavageS, and when the
Frenchman who did not rise to
his cOuntry's call was no longer
a Frenchman. Jeems observed that
the strain upon his father was
more difficult TO bear than his
own. For Henri, in spite of his
worship of Catherine, was of New
France to the bottom of his soul,
and now that other men were
making a bulwark of their bodies
against her enemies. his own de-
sire to make the same sacrifice
was almost beyond the power of
his strong Will TO control. In their
years of comradeship. Jeems and
his father had never come so near
to each other as in these weeks Of
tension.
Almost as painful TO them as
the sting Of wound was the day
when Dieskau came up the Rich
sand five hundred men and made
forever a hallowed ground of the
Tonteur seigneurie by camping
there overnight.
When she knew they were COM
ing, Catherine had said:
IF your hearts tell you 1t is
right. 90 with them !"
But they remained. For Henri 1t
was a struggle greater. than Die
skau fought, greater than that in
which BraddOck died. For Jeems
it was less torment and more
the mysterious madness of youth
to tramp to the clash of arms. For
Catherine it was the gehenna of
her life, a siege of darkness and
uncertainty in her soul which gave
way suddenly before news which
swept like a whirIwind over the
land.
God had been with New France !!
BraddOck and his English in
vaders were destroyed
No triumph of French arms in
the New world had been so COM
plete. and Dieskau, the great Ger
man baron who was fighting for
France. moved southwark to crush
Sir William Johnson and his Co
lOnials and Indians. planning not
to stop until he had driven them
to the doors of Albany.
With him were six hundred and
eighty-fOur Of the loyal men who
were beginning to call themselves
Canadians.
Tonteur rode over to bring the
news to Henri Bulain. To Cath
crime he recalled his prediction
that the English would never get
into this paradise of theirs. Now
the whole thing was settled for
many years TO come, for Dieskau
would sweep their last enemy
from the Champlain country as
completely as new broom swept
her home. He had sent almost
every man he had to the scene of
fighting, and only his wooden leg
had kept him from joining Dies
kau
Even Toinette had wanted to
go!
This recalled an important mat
ter to his mind. Toinette had en-
trusted him with a letter for
Jeems. Boiling over with his own
selfish Civilizations, he had forgot
ten it. He hoped it was an invita-
ton for Jeems to come to the
seigneurie. He had often told his
girl she should be more friendly
with the lad.
JeemS took the letter and went
off by himself. 1t was the first
recognition from TOinette since
the day of the levee He had not
seen her and had tried not to
think of her. Alone, he read the
words she had written him.
With pitiless cOldness and brew
ity, they called him a renegade
and a coward.
On September morning some
days later, Jeems stood watching
his uncle as he disappeared into
the frOst-tinted woods of Forbid
den valley. 1t seemed to him that
Hepsibah's suspicious and guard
ianship of the valley had become
greater with the growing news of
French triumphs in the south