"But we gain!" the young man cried. "Our race is always French! We win fast the British strongholds in our dear Province."
"This the least, of the plans," Haviland remarked. "All are founded on a curious fact."
"What fact is that?"
"Our phenomenal multiplication in numbers," returned the seigneur, smiling.
"What?" cried Chrysler.
He stopped a moment open-eyed, and then laughed heartily and long. He could not satisfy his laughter at such a basis for conquest of a continent, and it burst forth again at intervals for some time.
"Nevertheless it is true,—and Biblical," continued the undaunted schoolmaster. "Sicut saggittae in manu potentis, ita filii excussorum."
"Breboeuf," said Haviland, who took some part with De La Lande but joined in Chrysler's amusement, "help us. What was the number of French-Canadians at the conquest by the English?"
"Sixty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five, by the census of the
General Murray in 1765, including approximately 500 others."
"And now?"