He looked inquiringly at Basil, as if he might be a gentleman with
a horse to be taken care of and a place to be worked about, and made him
regret that he was not a man of substance enough to provide for Private
Drakes and Mrs. Drakes and the brood of Ducklings, who had been shown to
him stowed away in one of those cavernous rooms in the earthworks where
the married soldiers have their quarters. His regret enriched the reward
of Private Drakes' service,--which perhaps answered one of Private
Drakes' purposes, if not his chief aim. He promised to come to the States
upon the pressing advice of Isabel, who, speaking from her own large
experience, declared that everybody got on there,--and he bade our
friends an affectionate farewell as they drove away to the Plains of
Abraham.
The fashionable suburban cottages and places of Quebec are on the St.
Louis Road leading northward to the old battle-ground and beyond it; but,
these face chiefly towards the rivers St. Lawrence and St. Charles, and
lofty hedges and shrubbery hide them in an English seclusion from the
highway; so that the visitor may uninterruptedly meditate whatever
emotion he will for the scene of Wolfe's death as he rides along. His
loftiest emotion will want the noble height of that heroic soul, who must
always stand forth in history a figure of beautiful and singular
distinction, admirable alike for the sensibility and daring, the poetic
pensiveness, and the martial ardor that mingled in him and taxed his
feeble frame with tasks greater than it could bear.
Pages:
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239