Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] THE PLOWSHARE AND THE SWORD A TALE OF OLD QUEBEC BY ERNEST GEORGE HENHAM "Empire and Love! the vision of a day."--_Young_ TORONTO: THE COPP, CLARK CO., LIMITED LONDON: CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED MCMIII. All Rights Reserved À Toi CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.--THE FATHER OF WATERS II.--AN ENEMY IN THE CAMP III.--CHRISMATION IV.--MAKERS OF EMPIRE V.--DOUBLE DEALING VI.--THE INTRODUCTION TO A FIGHT VII.--THE FIGHT VIII.--COUCHICING IX.--THE GAUNTLET DOWN X.--PILLARS OF THE HOUSE XI.--THE SWORD IMBRUED XII.--SPLENDOUR XIII.--ENCHANTMENT XIV.--FIRESIDE AND GROVE XV.--GLORIOUS LIFE XVI.--CLAIRVOYANCE XVII.--STAMEN XVIII.--COMMITTAL XIX.--ENKINDLED XX.--SACRAMENTAL XXI.--IRON AND STEEL XXII.--OR AND AZURE XXIII.--THE EVERLASTING HILLS XXIV.--ART-MAGIC XXV.--NOVA ANGLIA XXVI.--STIGMA XXVII.--REVELATION XXVIII.--BODY AND MIND XXIX.--WOMAN'S LOVE IS LIFE XXX.--LAND-LOCKED XXXI.--IN THE FALL OF THE SNOW XXXII.--ARMS AND THE MAN XXXIII.--THE GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED XXXIV.--THE THIRST XXXV.--SWORDCRAFT XXXVI.--SETTLEMENT XXXVII.--THE PLOWSHARE XXXVIII.--VALEDICTORY THE PLOWSHARE AND THE SWORD CHAPTER I. THE FATHER OF WATERS. It was an evening of spring in the year of strife 1637. The sun was slowly withdrawing his beams from the fortress of Quebec, which had been established some thirty years back, and was then occupied by a handful of settlers and soldiers, to the number of 120, under the military governorship of Arnaud de Roussilac. The French politicians of the seventeenth century were determined colony builders. However humble the settler, he was known and watched, advanced or detained, by the vigilant government of Paris. The very farms were an extension, however slight, of the militarism of France, and a standing menace to Britain. Where, further south, Englishmen founded a rude settlement, the French in the north had responded by a military post. The policy of peace taught by that intrepid adventurer, Jacques Cartier, exactly a hundred years before, had become almost forgotten. "This country is now owned by your Majesty," Cartier had written. "Your Majesty has only to make gifts to the headmen of the Iroquois tribes and assure them of your friendship, to make the land yours for ever."