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French and English by Evelyn Everett Green

E >> Evelyn Everett Green >> French and English




"Susanna!" spoke a voice behind her.

She started to her feet, quivering in every limb; and facing round,
found herself confronted by him whose face and form had been the
centre of each of her mental pictures, whose name had been on her
lips and in her heart each time she had bent her knees in prayer
for two long years, and who she knew had come at last to ask the
fulfilment of that promise she had given him when last they had
parted.

Her hands were in his; his face was bent over hers. He disengaged
one hand, and put it round her shoulders, drawing her towards him
gently.

She did not resist; she gave a happy little sigh, and stood with
her fair head close to his shoulder.

"Susanna, I have done what I hoped. I am a captain in the English
King's army. I have won some small reputation as a soldier. I have
a position sufficiently assured. You have come to live at Quebec. I
am quartered there for the winter. Many of our officers and
soldiers have wives who follow them wherever they go. I would not
ask you to come to me to share hardship and privation; but I ask
you to be my wife, here in this city, where your father's house
will give you shelter if I should be forced by the chances of war
to leave you for a while.

"Susanna, will you be brave enough for this? Can you make up your
mind to be a soldier's wife, even before the war has closed? I had
not thought to ask you so soon; but year after year passes by, and
though nearer and ever nearer to the goal of peace, the clouds
still hang in the sky, and there is still stern work for the
soldier to do. But we seem now to see the end of the long, long
war, and that a happy end; and so I ask if you can marry me, even
with the chances of one of those separations which wring the heart
and entail so much anxiety and sorrow upon the wife left at home."

She was clinging to him even before he had done, shedding tears,
and yet half laughing as she looked with dewy eyes into his face.

"O Fritz, Fritz, don't you understand yet what a woman's love is
like? As though I would not rather a hundred thousand times be your
wife, come what may in the future, than live the safest and most
sheltered life without you! As though I should not glory and
delight to share the perils and hardships you are called upon to
endure! As though being together would not make up a hundredfold
for everything else!"

When Benjamin Ashley, together with Humphrey and John Stark, came
in search of the others, they all saw at a glance what had taken
place. Susanna's blushing face and Fritz's expression of proud,
glad happiness told the tale all too plainly. But all had been
prepared for it; and Ashley laughed as he took his daughter's face
between his hands and kissed it, though he heaved a quick sigh,
too.

"Ah me! so all the birds leave the nest at last. And nothing but a
red-coat would serve your turn, my maid! That I have known for long
enough. Well, well, I cannot blame you. We owe a debt of gratitude
to our brave soldiers which we must all be willing to pay.

"Take her, Fritz my boy; take her, and her father's blessing with
her. She will not come to you empty handed; she has a snug little
fortune from her mother ready for her dowry. But you have wooed her
and won her like a man; and her love will be, if I mistake not, the
crown of your manhood and of your life."

"Indeed it will, sir," answered Fritz fervently, and possessed
himself of Susanna's hand once more.

Barely a week later, and the party stood upon the quay to say
farewell to their friends and comrades who were sailing away for
England. October was waning. The departure of the ships could no
longer be delayed. Many had already gone; but today the mortal
remains of the gallant Wolfe had been conveyed on board the Royal
William, and all the town had come forth to pay its last tribute of
respect to one who was mourned by friends and foes alike. Flags
hung half-mast high, the guns had boomed a salute, and the bells of
the city had tolled in solemn cadence as the coffin was borne to
the quay and reverently carried to the place prepared for it upon
the ship.

Now all was bustle and animated farewell as the sailors began to
make preparations for unfurling the sails and hoisting up the
anchor. Julian and Fritz stood together a little apart from the
crowd; their hands were locked in a close clasp. The tie which
bound them together was a very strong and tender one.

"You will come back, Julian? you will not forsake these Western
lands, which must always seem to me more like home than any country
beyond the seas--even England, which we call our home. You will
come back?"

"Yes, I shall come back; the lands of the great West ever seem to
be calling me. I do but go to make good my promise to him that is
gone; then I shall return, and cast in my lot with the English
subjects of Canada."

"They say you are to receive promotion, Julian. You will rise to be
a man of place in this colony. I am certain of it. You have
talents, address, courage; and you are always beloved of French and
English alike. I have heard men talk of you, and point you out as a
rising man. They will want such over here when Canada has passed
into English keeping."

"They will find me ready to do my best if ever they should desire
to use me. I want nothing better than to serve my country, and to
heal the wound between the two nations who have struggled so long
for supremacy in the West."

"You will come back--I am sure of it--a man of place and
importance. But you will be the same Julian still, my brother and
friend. And, Julian (am I wrong in thinking it?), you will not come
back alone?"

A slight flush rose in Julian's face; but he answered quietly:

"I hope not; I believe not."

"Mademoiselle Corinne--" began Fritz, but paused there; for the
girl was close beside them, having come up with her aunt, Madame
Drucour, to say goodbye to the group of friends gathered to see
them off.

Fritz saw the quick glance which flashed between her and Julian as
their eyes met, and he felt that he had got his answer. When Julian
came back to Canada, he would not come alone.

The last farewells were said; the deck was crowded by those who
were to sail away; the musical call of the seamen rose and fell as
the sails unfurled to the breeze, and the gallant vessel began to
slip through the water.

"A safe voyage and a joyous return. God be with you all!" cried
those upon the quay.

The Abbe lifted his hands, and seemed to pronounce a benediction
upon the departing ship, and those who saw the action bared their
heads and bent the knee.

Then the sails swelled out, the pace increased; a salute boomed
forth from the fortress behind, and was answered from the vessel
now gliding so fast away; and the Royal William moved with stately
grace through the wide waters of the St. Lawrence, and slowly
disappeared in the hazy distance.

THE END.

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