Produced by Gardner Buchanan THE SPAN O' LIFE THE SPAN O' LIFE A Tale of Louisbourg & Quebec By WILLIAM McLENNAN and J. N. McILWRAITH Illustrations by F. de Myrbach _The span o' Life's nae lang eneugh, Nor deep eneugh the sea, Nor braid eneugh this weary warld To part my Love frae me_ NEW YORK AND LONDON: HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS TORONTO: THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year 1899, by Harper & Brothers, at the Department of Agriculture. Copyright, 1899, by HARPER & BROTHERS. _All rights reserved._ PREFACE The reader familiar with the amusing memoirs of the Chevalier Johnstone will recognise in how far Maxwell was suggested thereby; if he be equally familiar with the detail of Canadian history of the period he will have little difficulty in discovering the originals of Sarennes and some of the secondary characters, and, in the Epilogue, the legend of the death of the celebrated missionary, le R. P. Jean Baptiste de la Brosse. But while the experience of some actual man or woman has suggested a type to be portrayed, it is only as a type, and with no intention of representing the individual in the character of the story. Nor is the attempt to set forth the respective attitude of the Canadian and the old-country Frenchman to be read as a personal expression of the authors', but as their conception of an unfortunate condition between colonist and official that obtained as fully in Canada as it did between the same classes in the English colonies. Long habit has made the English names of many places and positions so familiar to many in Canada that to adhere to the French form in all instances would be as unnatural as to Anglicise all names throughout--which will explain the lack of uniformity in this particular. The authors have pleasure in acknowledging their indebtedness to M. l'Abbe Casgrain, of Quebec, for valuable personal assistance in determining local detail, and to Mtre. Joseph Edmond Roy, N.P., of Levis, for information on the period and the use of his version of the death of the pere de la Brosse from his interesting monograph, "Tadoussac." W. McL. and J. N. McI. CONTENTS PART I MAXWELL'S STORY I. "After High Floods Come Low Ebbs" II. I Discover a New Interest in Life III. "The Dead and the Absent are Always Wrong" IV. In Which I Make Acquaintance with One Near to Me V. I Assist at an Interview with a Great Man VI. How I Take to the Road Again, and of the Company I Fall in With VII. How I Come to Take a Great Resolve VIII. How I Make Both Friends and Enemies in New France IX. "Joy and Sorrow are Next-door Neighbours" X. "He who Sows Hatred Shall Gather Rue" XI. "A Friend at One's Back is a Safe Bridge" PART II MARGARET'S STORY