CHAPTER XXVII.

A COMPLETED SACRIFICE.

“MY daughter, when the earthly hope that lights existence has faded, and we find it impossible to lay down our lives to perish in the grave beside it—when we can neither endure our trouble nor be reconciled to it—we can only disengage ourselves and leave it behind us, dead and buried. The true and genuine portion of our sorrow lives; the base regrets we must learn to cast from us; there is no companionship between the living and the dead,” Dollier de Casson assured Diane.

All had come to an abrupt and ruthless end; the anxiety and suspense had terminated in dread certainty. Hope and fear had perished with du Chesne, yet the tense throb of anguish survived. The girl was crushed under the cross which had been laid upon her, and which she did not know how to bear. Pleasure and hope had broken off short; existence was a solitude. Often it struck her as strange that no one had ever suspected that she, as well as the gallant young Canadian, had died.

Lydia’s forlorn condition attracted much sympathy; the sentimental appreciation of a dramatic situation, so dear to the French heart, operated in her favor. She enjoyed posing as a victim of affliction, and performed the role so modestly and gracefully that she won all hearts. Du Chesne to her would remain a tender, pensive memory, which throughout her life would be capable of affording occupation for an idle hour, comfort for a distressed one, and which would not forbid consolation.

Two years later, the Sieur d’Ordieux, by the death of his uncle, became Duke de Ronceval, and triumphed over his enemies. Though he had entered upon a great inheritance, and become a peer of France, the pompous little man was faithful in his attachments. He did not forget those who had befriended him in the day of adversity; his heart remained true to the woman whom he had loved with all the devotion of which he was capable.

The future of her niece had furnished the consuming anxiety of Madame de Monesthrols existence. If her protector Le Ber should die, what would become of the beautiful portionless girl? If Diane only had a vocation, that would simplify matters; she might become a nun, and a safe retreat would be secured from the perils of the world. But Diane had no vocation, and the Duke de Ronceval’s affection offered a solution of the difficulty.

When an advantageous settlement was in question, it was not the custom in those days to consult the bride’s taste. The sacrifice of the individual for the good of the race was then—as it still to a large extent remains—a generally accepted principle among the French. A well-bred damsel, trained in the traditions of the ancient régime, would make it a point of honor to accept the fate which her family chose for her, just as a high-spirited girl of our generation would take a pride in rendering herself independent.

Youth and hope had perished, but the claims of duty remained imperative; so when Madame de Monesthrol urged, “By marrying the Duke you will not only secure a great establishment for yourself; you will also purchase peace for me. When I know that you are provided for, I can spend my last days in repose. I have suffered, my child, you will never know how much”—Diane could not turn a deaf ear to the prayer of the kinswoman who loved her well.

The annual ship was returning to France, an event always of the deepest importance to the whole colony. Every man, woman, and child who could manage to get to the water-side at Quebec, gathered to view the departure.

The most prominent passengers were the Duke and Duchess de Ronceval. Curled, powdered and decorated, the nobleman stormed at his obsequious lackeys, or gesticulated wildly as he jested with his friends. The pale, beautiful bride was composed and dignified. Madame de Monesthrol remarked with satisfaction that her niece bore herself with an air of the very highest distinction.

A little desolate group had gathered about Diane. This parting meant the sundering forever of ties which had been very close and dear. Jacques Le Ber was there. He had aged, and the stern lines of his face were visibly deepened. Madame de Monesthrol, older, frailer, always bearing her infirmities with suave dignity, leaned upon his arm. Nanon, her comely honest face disfigured by the tears which she made no effort to restrain, pressed close to her mistress.

“The sunshine of my life goes with thee.” Le Ber spoke in a low, moved voice.

“It is your desire that I should serve your interests at the Court, my uncle.”

“My little one, could I but accompany thee!” Then the Marquise added brightly, “Though the journey is beyond my strength, I can always pray for thy welfare. I can think of thee as occupying thy rightful place in the world, and I can praise the good God that the desire of my heart has been realized. Thy marriage has removed the last trace of anxiety from my mind; I can await my end in peace. Thy duty lies before thee, my daughter. Let no remembrance of a feeble old woman, whose stormy life is ending in a haven of rest, weaken thy peace. Think of me always as rejoicing in thy prosperity.”

As the good ship Renommée disappeared below the horizon, Nanon lifted up her voice and wept with boisterous vehemence.

“When I looked my last look upon my demoiselle her face was like that of an angel. Never shall I see the like again. My little one, that I cradled in my arms, and who loved me with her whole heart. I am but of the people—if my heart is broken I have no need to look like a stone; now that she has left me I shall please myself by weeping like a waterspout. She said to me, speaking, oh! so gently, at the very last, ‘It is thy duty to stay with Madame, to comfort and care for her, as it is mine to leave her. Neither of us must forget her obligations, we will both strive to fulfil them nobly and faithfully, good and loving Nanon.’ Oh! my brave and beautiful demoiselle, I coveted greatness for her, I wanted to see her set high above all the world, and behold! Her Grace Madame la Duchess de Ronceval is taken away from my sight. It sounds well, that title, even if my heart is broken. How can I live without her? what can the blessed saints be thinking of up in heaven there? Behold that blonde English sheep, selfish and cold-blooded as a snake, the happy wife of M. de Gallifet, no less! No one will ever cry her eyes out for her.”

At the Court of Louis the Magnificent, Diane de Ronceval lived out the years that remained to her. The vivifying breath of an utterly unselfish affection had touched her. All egotism had been annihilated by the fierce sweep of a spiritual flame, before which every unworthy desire and ambition had perished. In the midst of a corrupt society, she preserved a noble and lofty ideal. With an earnest and simple contriving of gentle charities, she strove to make some rough places smooth. Brave with the inspiration of faith and hope, she found happiness in identifying herself with the needs and claims of others.

If she were conscious of a wound which throbbed and bled, of unquenchable longings, of memories which never were to be forgotten, she contrived to carry her cross in such fashion that no other heart should be saddened, no other’s joy shadowed. And the world was purer and brighter for one woman’s faith and courage.

THE END.

Mrs. Traill’s Works

PEARLS AND PEBBLES: or Notes of an Old Naturalist. With Biographical Sketch by Mary Agnes FitzGibbon. Cloth, with portrait, $1.25.

“Every page of this richly descriptive volume seems loaded with the scents of the garden and the sounds of the summer woods.”—Toronto Globe.

“The book reminds one of Gilbert White, of Selborne, and of John Burroughs, but has a charm of its own beyond either.”—Toronto Mail and Empire.

“Her delight has been the observation of nature, the fruits of which, gathered into this volume, form a sort of Canadian counterpart to White’s “Selborne.”—Illustrated London News.

COT AND CRADLE STORIES. Edited by Mary Agnes FitzGibbon. Cloth, illustrated, $1.00.

“A veritable children’s book, but of that best kind which grown-up people also enjoy.”—Canada Presbyterian.

“This is a delightful book for little children; bright, wholesome, full of subtle touches of nature, and the best of teaching. . . We tried the book on a bright boy of four, and found it take immensely and at once.”—The Wesleyan.

A Lady writes from London, Eng. “ ‘Cot and Cradle Stories’ is a delightful collection of the realistic, detailed histories of animals, birds and children, so dear to little people. . . It is difficult to overrate the charm of a book like this to young children, and the only difficulty I found in reading it aloud was that each story was asked for so often that I nearly despaired of getting to the next.”

CANADIAN WILD FLOWERS. By Agnes (FitzGibbon) Chamberlin. With botanical descriptions by Mrs. Traill. Embellished with ten full-page plates of native wild flowers, drawn and colored by hand by Mrs. Chamberlin. Extra English cloth, with floral design and title in gold, and with floral title-page in natural colors. Limited edition. Price, $6.00.

LOST IN THE BACKWOODS: A Tale of the Canadian Forest. This story, written in 1846, and which so many of the men and women of Canada read with delight in the days of childhood, under its then title of the “Canadian Crusoes,” is still a favorite with the young. Cloth, illustrated, 90 cents.

IN THE FOREST: or, Pictures of Life and Scenery in the Woods of Canada. As with all Mrs. Traill’s works, this story abounds in references to the wild animals and the birds of the Canadian forests. Cloth, illustrated, 70 cents.

WILLIAM BRIGGS

Wesley Buildings

TORONTO, Can

In the Days of the

Canada Company

...By...

ROBINA AND KATHLEEN M. LIZARS

With Introduction by

Rev. Principal Grant, D. D., LL. D.

Price, postpaid • $2.00

CONTENTS:

Spirit of the Times—The Father of the Company—Canada as the Company Found It—The Face of the Land—From Champlain to Gooding—The Kings of the Canada Company—The Colborne Clique—Gairbraid—Lunderston—Meadowlands—The Canada Company vs. The People—The People vs. The Canada Company—A Social Pot-Pourri—The Heart of Huron—The Bonnie Easthopes—The Cairn.

Personal and Press Comments.

“From beginning to end the charm of the book holds us.”—Stratford Herald.

“It is full of the most readable gossip and the spiciest of sketches.”—Stratford Beacon.

“This is a book purely Canadian, and a credit to our literature.”—Educational Journal.

“No more entertaining book has ever been written about early life in British North America.”—Montreal Witness.

“Few productions of a woman’s pen show sounder judgment, higher culture and better literary taste than this book.”—Mail and Empire.

“The authors have thoroughly imbued themselves with the ’spirit of the times’ of which they wrote. Their sympathy is infectious.”—Ottawa Citizen.

“The authors have a keen sense of the ludicrous side of things, and a happy knack of seizing the salient traits of a personality and bringing it strongly before the reader.”—Kingston News.

“Unquestionably one of the best local histories. It possesses a permanent value as a realistic and thoroughly intelligent record of the condition of pioneer colonial life.”—Prof. Mavor, in Massey’s Magazine.

“It is a lively, interesting and perfectly fresh opening of a field of history of which people in the Old Country know little, and which even to Canadians must be full of the attraction of novelty and originality both in subject and treatment.”—Prof. Herbert Story, of Glasgow University.

WILLIAM BRIGGS

——Publisher——

Wesley Buildings

TORONTO, CAN.

Humours of ’37

GRAVE, GAY AND

GRIM . . .

REBELLION TIMES IN THE CANADAS

——By Robina and Kathleen M. Lizars

PRICE. $1.25

Postpaid

CONTENTS:

Baneful Domination—More Baneful Domination—The Canadas at Westminster—A Call to Umbrellas—Le Grand Brule—Gallows Hill—Autocrats All—Huron’s Age Heroic—Deborahs of ’37.

PRESS COMMENTS.

“A volume of great literary and historical value, and one of deep national interest.”—St. Thomas Times.

“This book is capital reading, and throws some unexpected lights on a comedy that had its tragic features.”—Montreal Gazette.

“The book gives us a better idea of the condition of Canadian society when the Queen came to the throne than perhaps any history of the time does.”—Rev. Principal Grant, in Toronto Globe.

“The reader finds many amusing pages illustrative of the primitive ideas of the people, nor are tales of cruelty and outrage wanting to make up the grimmer side of the picture.”—Detroit Free Press.

“The authors are of French extraction, and come honestly by the epigrammatic style, which their former work familiarized us with, and which renders the opening chapter of this volume brilliant.”—Montreal Witness.

“The authors know their subject—their style of writing is conspicuously sprightly, full of wit, which is at times truly caustic. It is an admirable supplement to existing histories and journals and memoirs on the subject”—Buffalo Illustrated Express.

“An intensely interesting book, a true and vivid picture of that confused period. If the overabundance of material has been a drawback, on the other hand it has given a style, a nervous energy and strength, and a dash that are refreshing.”—Mail and Empire.

“The principal value of the book to most readers will be in the power which these pages possess of bringing the student face to face with the incidents of the epoch to which they refer, and its interest is enhanced by the manner in which toe story is told, different in various respects from that of the ordinary scribe—the style of well-bred and accomplished women, entirely free from affectation and effort.”—Prof. Wm. Clark, in Montreal Star.

WILLIAM BRIGGS, Publisher

Wesley Buildings

TORONTO

The Forge in the Forest. A Romance of Acadia.
By Chas. G. D. Roberts. Paper, 60c.; cloth,
illustrated	$1 25
Around the Camp-Fire. By Chas. G. D. Roberts. Illustrated	1 25
Old Man Savarin, and Other Stories. By Edward
W. Thomson. Paper, 50c.; cloth	1 00
Walter Gibbs, the Young Boss, and Other
Stories. By Edward W. Thomson. Illustrated	1 25
Between Earth and Sky, and Other Strange
Stories of Deliverance. By Edward W. Thomson.
Thomson. Illustrated	1 25
A Lover in Homespun, and Other Stories.
By F. Clifford Smith. Paper, 25c.; cloth	0 50
Miss Dexie: A Romance of the Provinces. By
Mrs. W. J. Dickson. Paper, 25c.; cloth	0 50
Lion, the Mastiff. By Annie G. Savigny	0 50
Etchings from a Parsonage Veranda. By Mrs.
E. Jeffers Graham. Illustrated by J. W. Bengough.	0 75
Cot and Cradle Stories. By Mrs. Traill. Illustrated	1 00
Barbara Heck: A Story of Canadian Methodism.
By W. H. Withrow, D. D.	0 75
Among the Forest Trees; or, How the Bushman
Family Got Their Homes. By Rev. Joseph H. Hilts	1 00