, and yet it was pleasant. No, "pleasant" was not
the word, it was alluring, it played upon the senses, it threw a glow
over the rooms and the people, and the youth saw everything through a
tawny mist that heightened and deepened the colors. He was glad that he
had come. Nor was "glad" the word either. Seeing what he now saw and
knowing what he now knew, he would have blamed himself bitterly had he
stayed away.

"Welcome, Mr. Lennox, my brave and generous opponent of the morning,"
said a voice, and, looking through the tawny mist, he saw the man whom
he had fought and spared, Count Jean de Mezy, in a wonderful coat,
waistcoat and knee breeches of white satin, heavily embroidered, white
silk stockings, and low white shoes with great silver buckles, and a
small gold-hilted sword hanging at his thigh. The cheeks, a trifle too
fat, were mottled again, but his manner like his costume was silken. One
would have thought that he and not Robert was the victor in that trial
of skill by the St. Louis gate.

"Welcome, Mr. Lennox," he said again in a tone that showed no malice.
"The Intendant's ball will be all the more brilliant for the presence of
yourself and your friends. What a splendid figure the young Onondaga
chief makes!"

Tayoga bowed to the compliment, which was rather broad but true, and de
Mezy ran on:

"We are accustomed here to the presence of Indian chiefs. We French have
known how to win the trust and friendship of the warriors and we ask
them to our parlors and our tables as you English do not do, although I
will confess that the Iroquois hitherto have come into Canada as enemies
and not as friends."

"Quebec was once the Stadacona of the Ganeagaono, known to you as the
Mohawks," said Tayoga in his deep musical voice, "and there is no record
that they ever gave or sold it to Onontio."

De Mezy was embarrassed for a moment, but he recovered himself quickly
and laughed.

"You have us there!" he cried, "but it was long, long ago, when Cartier
came to Quebec. Times change and ownerships change with them. We can't
roll back the past."

Tayoga said no more, content to remind the French at intervals that a
brother nation of the Hodenosaunee still asserted its title to Quebec.

"You are not the only member of the great red race present," said de
Mezy to Tayoga. "We have a chief from the far west, a splendid type of
the forest man. What size! What strength! What a mien! By my faith, he
would make a stir in Paris