Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers. All Rights Reserved.
| PUBLISHED WEEKLY. | NEW YORK, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1895. | FIVE CENTS A COPY. |
| VOL. XVI.—NO. 824. | TWO DOLLARS A YEAR. |
THE STORY OF NOEL DUVAL.
BY FRANCIS STERNE PALMER.
The summer of 1814 was a troubled one for the people living in northernNew York. English troops were concentrating at points just across theCanadian border, and there were rumors that they would soon invade theterritory of the States. The farmers were being hastily drilled intomilitia companies—train-bands, as they were called; the women wereanxious and frightened; the boys shared the general excitement, and werebusy drilling.
Early one warm July evening four persons were sitting in the littlelattice-covered portico of a cottage in the outskirts of one of thelarger villages near the Canadian border. The most noticeable of thelittle group was Madam Marston, an old lady, tall and straight, one ofthe type that furnished the New England pioneers with wives as hardy andbrave as themselves. On the bench on the other side of the portico sather daughter; the Widow Duval, a slender, gentle woman, but with thesame look of determination in her fine gray ey