"And the rest of your garrison? Your pardon, again, but I must hold you responsible, to deliver up all your men within the Fort."
"I do not understand… This, sir, is all the garrison of Fort Amitié."
Amherst stared at the nineteen or twenty hurt and dishevelled men ranged against the tower wall, then back into a face impossible to associate with untruth.
"M. le Capitaine," said he very slowly, "if with these men you have made a laughing-stock of me for two days and a half, why then I owe you a grudge. But something else I owe, and must repay at once. Be so good as to receive back a sword, sir, of which I am all unworthy to deprive you."
But as he proffered it, M. Etienne put up both hands to thrust the gift away, then covered his face with them.
"Not now, monsieur—not now! To-morrow perhaps… but not now, or I may break it indeed!"
Still with his face covered, he tottered off towards the chapel.