Produced by Gardner Buchanan
THE SPAN O' LIFE
THE SPAN O' LIFEA Tale of Louisbourg & Quebec
By WILLIAM McLENNANand J. N. McILWRAITHIllustrations 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 year1899, 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 ChevalierJohnstone will recognise in how far Maxwell was suggested thereby;if he be equally familiar with the detail of Canadian history ofthe period he will have little difficulty in discovering theoriginals 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 ofsome actual man or woman has suggested a type to be portrayed, itis only as a type, and with no intention of representing theindividual in the character of the story. Nor is the attempt toset forth the respective attitude of the Canadian and the old-countryFrenchman to be read as a personal expression of the authors', butas their conception of an unfortunate condition between colonistand official that obtained as fully in Canada as it did betweenthe same classes in the English colonies.
Long habit has made the English names of many places and positionsso familiar to many in Canada that to adhere to the French form inall instances would be as unnatural as to Anglicise all namesthroughout--which will explain the lack of uniformity in thisparticular.
The authors have pleasure in acknowledging their indebtedness toM. l'Abbe Casgrain, of Quebec, for valuable personal assistance indetermining local detail, and to Mtre. Joseph Edmond Roy, N.P., ofLevis, for information on the period and the use of his version ofthe 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
XII. What Happened in the Baie des Chaleurs XIII. Le Pere Jean, Missionary to the Indians XIV. I am Directed into a New Path XV. The Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de St. Veran XVI. At Beaulieu XVII. I Find Myself in a False Position XVIII. I am Rescued from a Great Danger XIX. On the Isle Aux Coudres XX. At Quebec XXI. I Awake from my Dream XXII. I am Tortured by Myself and Others XXIII. The Heights of Quebec XXIV. Reconciliation XXV. A Forlorn Hope
PART III
MAXWELL'S STORY
XXVI. I Close One Account and Open Another XXVII. I Find a Key to my Dilemma XXVIII. I Make a False Move XXIX. I Put my Fortune to the Touch
Epilogue