When I first saw this English girl I waked from
youth, I was born again into the world. I had no doubts, I have none
now."
"And the man?"
"One knows one's enemy even as the other. There is no way but this,
Dollier. He is the enemy of my king, and he is greatly in my debt.
Remember the Spaniards' country!"
He laid a hand upon his sword. The face of the priest was calm and
grave, but in his eyes was a deep fire. At heart he was a soldier,
a loyalist, a gentleman of France. Perhaps there came to him then the
dreams of his youth, before a thing happened which made him at last a
servant of the Church after he had been a soldier of the king.
Presently the song of the voyageurs grew less, the refrain softened and
passed down the long line, and, as it were, from out of far mists came
the muffled challenge:
"Qui vive! Qui vive! in the dawn."
Then a silence fell once more. But presently from out of the mists there
came, as it were, the echo of their challenge:
"Qui vive! Qui vive! in the dawn."
The paddles stilled in the water and a thrill ran through the line of
voyageurs--even Iberville and his friends were touched by it.
Then there suddenly emerged from the haze on their left, ahead of them, a
long canoe with tall figures in bow and stern, using paddles.
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