A Google search for my ancestors revealed that one of them, "died by the sword" in France in the seventeenth century. Was it a military death or did an affair of the heart lie behind the killing? Perhaps it was a matter of villainy? Maybe he died in a Protestant (Huguenot) insurrection against the French government? Who could leave it at that? I wanted to know more, but I never did find out why he died. Some notes about his son, Martin Provost, distracted me. He was born in 1611 and died at the age of 80. He lived an interesting and exciting life as an early settler in French Canada. In this fictional account I try to recreate in spirit, the life that Martin might have lived. This story attempts to convey the pressures and the events of his times and how Martin might have met those challenges and survived.