The Forge in the Forest: Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briart; and How He Crossed the Black Abbé; and of His Adventures in a Strange FellowshipRoberts, Charles G. D., Sir
History
The Forge in the Forest: Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, Seigneur de Briart; and How He Crossed the Black Abbé; and of His Adventures in a Strange Fellowship
Roberts, Charles G. D., Sir
Acadians -- Fiction; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France) -- Fiction; Historical fiction
And now I, like Tamin, found it prudent to spare my wind. But Marc,
whose lungs seemed untiring, spoke from time to time as he went, and
told me certain incidents, now of Grul's acuteness, now of his gift of
prophecy, now of his fantastic madness. We came at length, after
passing two small rivulets on the right, to the stream on the left
which Grul had indicated. It had a firm bed, wherein our footsteps
left no trace, and we ascended it for perhaps a mile, by many windings.
Then, with crafty care, we crept up from the stream, in such a fashion
as to leave no mark of our divergence if, as I thought not likely, our
pursuers should come that way. After that we fetched a great circuit,
crossed the parent brook, and shortly before noon judged that we might
account ourselves secure. Where a tiny spring bubbled beneath a
granite boulder and trickled away north toward the Fundy shore, we
stopped to munch black bread and the remnant of the fish. We rested
for an hour,--Tamin and I sleeping, while Marc, who protested that he
felt no motion toward slumber, kept watch. When he roused us, we set
off pleasantly refreshed, our faces toward Shulie.
Till late that night we journeyed, having a clear moon to guide us.
Coming at length to the edge of a small lake set with islands, "Here,"
said I, "is the place where we may sleep secure!"
We stripped, took our bundles on our heads, and swam out into the
shining stillness. We swam past two islets, and landed upon one which
caught my fancy. There we lay down in a bed of sweet-smelling fern,
and were well content. As we supped on Tamin's good black bread, two
loons laughed to each other out on the silver surface. We saw their
black, watchful heads, moving slowly. Then we slept. It was high day
when we awoke. The bread was now scarce, so we husbanded it, and made
such good speed all day that while it wanted yet some hours of sunset
we came out upon a bluff's edge and saw below us the wash and roll of
Fundy. We were some way west of Shulie, but not far, Tamin said, from
the house of his good friend with the good boat.
To this house we came within the hour. It was a small, home-like
cabin, among apple trees, in a slant clearing that overhung a narrow
creek. There, by a little jetty, I rejoiced to see the boat. The man
of the house, one Beaudry, was in the woods looking for his cow, but
the goodwife made us welcome. When Beaudry came in he and Tamin fell
on each other's necks. And I found, too, that the name of Jean de
Briart, with something of his poor exploits, was not all unknown in the
cabin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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