Treason, or thereabouts. Once, with him that's dead in
the graveyard yonder, it was France we were to save and bring back the
Napoleons--I have my sword yet. Now it's save Quebec. It's stand alone
and have our own flag, and shout, and fight, maybe, to be free of
England. Independence--that's it! One by one the English have had to go
from Pontiac. Now it's M'sieu' Medallion."

"There's Shandon the Irishman gone too. M'sieu' sold him up and shipped
him off," said Gingras the shoemaker.

"Tiens! the Seigneur gave him fifty dollars when he left, to help him
along. He smacks and then kisses, does M'sieu' Racine."

"We've to pay tribute to the Seigneur every year, as they did in the
days of Vaudreuil and Louis the Saint," said Duclosse. "I've got my
notice--a bag of meal under the big tree at the Manor door."

"I've to bring a pullet and a bag of charcoal," said Muroc. "'Tis the
rights of the Seigneur as of old."

"Tiens! it is my mind," said Benoit, "that a man that nature twists in
back, or leg, or body anywhere, gets a twist in's brain too. There's
Parpon the dwarf--God knows, Parpon is a nut to crack!"

"But Parpon isn't married to the greatest singer in the world, though
she's only the daughter of old leather-belly there," said Gingras.

"Something doesn't come of nothing, snub-nose," said Lajeunesse. "Mark
you, I was born a man of fame, walking bloody paths to glory; but, by
the grace of Heaven and my baptism, I became a forgeron. Let others ride
to glory, I'll shoe their horses for the gallop."

"You'll be in Parliament yet, Lajeunesse," said Duclosse the mealman,
who had been dozing on a pile of untired cart-wheels.

"I'll be hanged first, comrade."

"One in the family at a time," said Muroc. "There's the Seigneur. He's
going into Parliament."

"He's a magistrate--that's enough," said Duclosse. "He's started the
court under the big tree, as the Seigneurs did two hundred years ago.
He'll want a gibbet and a gallows next."

"I should think he'd stay at home and not take more on his shoulders!"
said the one-eyed shoemaker. Without a word, Lajeunesse threw a dish of
water in Gingras's face. This reference to the Seigneur's deformity was
unpalatable.

Gingras had not recovered from his discomfiture when all were startled
by the distant blare of a bugle. They rushed to the door, and were
met by Parpon the dwarf, who announced that a regiment of soldiers was
marching on the village.

"'Tis what I expected af