Seats of the Mighty

Seats Of The Mighty Gilbert Parker Seats Of The Mighty Table of Contents Seats Of The Mighty.................................................................................................................................................1 Gilbert Parker.................................................................................................................................................1 INTRODUCTION TO THE IMPERIAL EDITION.....................................................................................2 PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION.................................................................................................3 PRELUDE......................................................................................................................................................4 I. AN ESCORT TO THE CITADEL.............................................................................................................4 II. THE MASTER OF THE KING'S MAGAZINE.....................................................................................11 III. THE WAGER AND THE SWORD......................................................................................................19 IV. THE RAT IN THE TRAP.....................................................................................................................24 V. THE DEVICE OF THE DORMOUSE...................................................................................................30 VI. MORAY TELLS THE STORY OF HIS LIFE......................................................................................31 VII. "QUOTH LITTLE GARAINE"...........................................................................................................39 VIII. AS VAIN AS ABSALOM..................................................................................................................43 IX. A LITTLE CONCERNING THE CHEVALIER DE LA DARANTE..................................................44 X. AN OFFICER OF MARINES................................................................................................................51 XI. THE COMING OF DOLTAIRE...........................................................................................................59 XII. "THE POINT ENVENOMED TOO!".................................................................................................64 XIII. "A LITTLE BOAST"..........................................................................................................................71 XIV. ARGAND COURNAL.......................................................................................................................77 XV. IN THE CHAMBER OF TORTURE...................................................................................................84 XVI. BE SAINT OR IMP............................................................................................................................89 XVII. THROUGH THE BARS OF THE CAGE.........................................................................................95 XVIII. THE STEEP PATH OF CONQUEST.............................................................................................99 XIX. A DANSEUSE AND THE BASTILE..............................................................................................102 XX. UPON THE RAMPARTS..................................................................................................................109 XXI. LA JONGLEUSE..............................................................................................................................119 XXII. THE LORD OF KAMARSKA........................................................................................................122 XXIII. WITH WOLFE AT MONTMORENCI.........................................................................................130 XXIV. THE SACRED COUNTERSIGN..................................................................................................139 XXV. IN THE CATHEDRAL...................................................................................................................147 XXVI. THE SECRET OF THE TAPESTRY............................................................................................152 XXVII. A SIDE−WIND OF REVENGE...................................................................................................163 XXVIII. "TO CHEAT THE DEVIL YET."...............................................................................................167 XXIX. "MASTER DEVIL" DOLTAIRE..................................................................................................173 XXX. "WHERE ALL THE LOVERS CAN HIDE".................................................................................176 APPENDIX................................................................................................................................................177 i Seats Of The Mighty Gilbert Parker This page copyright © 2002 Blackmask Online. http://www.blackmask.com • INTRODUCTION TO THE IMPERIAL EDITION • PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION • PRELUDE • I. AN ESCORT TO THE CITADEL • II. THE MASTER OF THE KING'S MAGAZINE • III. THE WAGER AND THE SWORD • IV. THE RAT IN THE TRAP • V. THE DEVICE OF THE DORMOUSE • VI. MORAY TELLS THE STORY OF HIS LIFE • VII. "QUOTH LITTLE GARAINE" • VIII. AS VAIN AS ABSALOM • IX. A LITTLE CONCERNING THE CHEVALIER DE LA DARANTE • X. AN OFFICER OF MARINES • XI. THE COMING OF DOLTAIRE • XII. "THE POINT ENVENOMED TOO!" • XIII. "A LITTLE BOAST" • XIV. ARGAND COURNAL • XV. IN THE CHAMBER OF TORTURE • XVI. BE SAINT OR IMP • XVII. THROUGH THE BARS OF THE CAGE • XVIII. THE STEEP PATH OF CONQUEST • XIX. A DANSEUSE AND THE BASTILE • XX. UPON THE RAMPARTS • XXI. LA JONGLEUSE • XXII. THE LORD OF KAMARSKA • XXIII. WITH WOLFE AT MONTMORENCI • XXIV. THE SACRED COUNTERSIGN • XXV. IN THE CATHEDRAL • XXVI. THE SECRET OF THE TAPESTRY • XXVII. A SIDE−WIND OF REVENGE • XXVIII. "TO CHEAT THE DEVIL YET." • XXIX. "MASTER DEVIL" DOLTAIRE • XXX. "WHERE ALL THE LOVERS CAN HIDE" • APPENDIX This eBook was produced by Andrew Sly Send corrections to David Widger [email protected] THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY BEING THE MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN ROBERT MORAY, SOMETIME AN OFFICER IN THE VIRGINIA REGIMENT, AND AFTERWARDS OF AMHERST'S REGIMENT Seats Of The Mighty 1 Seats Of The Mighty To the Memory of Madge Henley. INTRODUCTION TO THE IMPERIAL EDITION It was in the winter of 1892, when on a visit to French Canada, that I made up my mind I would write the volume which the public knows as 'The Seats of the Mighty,' but I did not begin the composition until early in 1894. It was finished by the beginning of February, 1895, and began to appear in 'The Atlantic Monthly' in March of that year. It was not my first attempt at historical fiction, because I had written 'The Trail of the Sword' in the year 1893, but it was the first effort on an ambitious scale, and the writing of it was attended with as much searching of heart as enthusiasm. I had long been saturated by the early history of French Canada, as perhaps 'The Trail of the Sword' bore witness, and particularly of the period of the Conquest, and I longed for a subject which would, in effect, compel me to write; for I have strong views upon this business of compulsion in the mind of the writer. Unless a thing has seized a man, has obsessed him, and he feels that it excludes all other temptations to his talent or his genius, his book will not convince. Before all else he must himself be overpowered by the insistence of his subject, then intoxicated with his idea, and, being still possessed, become master of his material while remaining the slave of his subject. I believe that every book which has taken hold of the public has represented a kind of self−hypnotism on the part of the writer. I am further convinced that the book which absorbs the author, which possesses him as he writes it, has the effect of isolating him into an atmosphere which is not sleep, and which is not absolute wakefulness, but a place between the two, where the working world is indistinct and the mind is swept along a flood submerging the self−conscious but not drowning into unconsciousness. Such, at any rate, is my own experience. I am convinced that the books of mine which have had so many friends as this book, 'The Seats of the Mighty', has had in the English−speaking world were written in just such conditions of temperamental isolation or absorption. First the subject, which must of itself have driving power, then the main character, which becomes a law working out its own destiny; and the subject in my own work has always been translatable into a phrase. Nearly every one of my books has always been reducible to its title. For years I had wished to write an historical novel of the conquest of Canada or the settlement of the United Empire loyalists and the subsequent War of 1812, but the central idea and the central character had not come to me; and without both and the driving power of a big idea and of a big character, a book did not seem to me possible. The human thing with the grip of real life was necessary. At last, as pointed out in the prefatory note of the first edition, published in the spring of 1896 by Messrs. D. Appleton Co., of New York, and Messrs. Methuen Co., of London, I ran across a tiny little volume in the library of Mr. George M. Fairchild, Jr., of Quebec, called the Memoirs of Major Robert Stobo. It was published by John S. Davidson, of Market Street, Pittsburgh, with an introduction by an

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