I have the right to call myself English if I choose." Not that Corinne very often gave way to such open demonstrations of her national independence, It was to her aunt, Madame Drucour, with whom she was now making a home, that she indulged these little rhapsodies, secure of a certain amount of indulgence and even sympathy from that lady, who had reason to think and speak well of English gallantry and chivalry.
Madame Drucour occupied a small house wedged in amongst the numerous strongly-built houses and ecclesiastical buildings of the upper town of Quebec.

The house had been deserted by its original occupants upon the first news of the fall of Louisbourg.

Many of the inhabitants of Quebec had taken fright at that, and had sailed for France; and Madame Drucour had been placed here by her husband, who himself was wanted in other quarters to repel English advances.
The lady had been glad to summon to her side her niece Corinne, who, since the state of the country had become so disturbed, had been placed by her father and uncle in the Convent of the Ursulines, under the charge of the good nuns there.
Corinne had been fond of the nuns; but the life of the cloister was little to her taste.

She was glad enough to escape from its monotony, and to make her home with her father's sister.

Madame Drucour could tell her the most thrilling and delightful stories of the siege of Louisbourg.