the one who disarmed me this
morning, but who was too generous to take my life."

Bigot's smiling gaze rested upon Robert, who was conscious, however,
that there was much penetration behind the smile. The Intendant would
seek to read his mind, and perhaps to learn the nature of the letters he
brought, before they were delivered to their rightful owner, the Marquis
Duquesne. Quebec was the home of intrigue, and the Intendant's palace
was the heart of it, but if Robert's pulse beat fast it was with
anticipation and not with fear.

"It was fortune more than skill," he said. "The Count de Mezy credits me
with too much knowledge of the sword."

"No," said Bigot, laughing, "Jean wouldn't do that. He'd credit you with
all you have, and no more. Jean, like the rest of us, doesn't relish a
defeat, do you, Jean?"

De Mezy reddened, but he forced a laugh.

"I suppose that nobody does!" he replied, "but when I suffer one I try
to make the best of it."

"That's an honest confession, Jean," said Bigot, "and you'll feel better
for making it."

He seemed now to Robert bluff, genial, all good nature, and the youth
stood on one side, while Willet and Tayoga were presented in their turn.
Bigot looked very keenly at the Onondaga, and the answering gaze was
fierce and challenging. Robert saw that Tayoga was not moved by the
splendor, the music and the perfumed air, and that he did not forget for
an instant that this gay Quebec of the French was the Stadacona of the
Mohawks, a great brother nation of the Hodenosaunee.

Bigot's countenance fell a little as he met the intensely hostile gaze,
but in a moment he recovered himself and began to pay compliments to
Willet and the Iroquois. Robert felt the charm of his manner and saw why
he was so strong with a great body of the French in New France. Then his
eyes wandered to the others who stood near like courtiers around a king,
and he noticed that foremost among them was a man of mean appearance and
presuming manner, none other, he soon learned, than the notorious Joseph
Cadet, confederate of Bigot, in time to become Commissary General of New
France, the son of a Quebec butcher, who had begun life as a pilot boy,
and who was now one of the most powerful men in those regions of the New
World that paid allegiance to the House of Bourbon. Near him stood Pean,
the Town Mayor of Quebec, a soldier of energy, but deep in corrupt
bargains with Cadet, and just beyond Pean was his partner, Penissea