They neglected guards and pickets,
and when the long nights of winter set in, the men hugged their
wives by the firesides instead of their muskets by their watch-
fires. Then came destruction upon them! In a blinding storm, amid
snow-drifts and darkness, Coulon de Villiers, with his troops on
snow-shoes, marched into the New England camp, and made widows of
the most of the poor wives, who fell into our hands the second time.
Poor creatures! I saw that day how hard it was to be a soldier's
wife." La Corne's shaggy eyelash twinkled with moisture. "But it
was the fortune of war!--the fortune of war, and a cruel fortune it
is at the best!"
The Lady de Tilly pressed her hand to her bosom to suppress the
rising emotion. "Alas, Chevalier! poor widows! I feel all they
suffered. War is indeed a cruel fortune, as I too have had reason
to learn."
"And what became of the poor women, godfather?" Amelie's eyes were
suffused with tears: it was in her heart, if ever in any mortal's,
to love her enemies.
"Oh, we cared for them the best we could.
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