, and brushed the wandering
grains from his velvet coat with his handkerchief of point.

"You are very strong, monsieur," said he, glancing keenly at the broad
shoulders and arching chest of the young stranger. "You are from
Canada, I presume?"

"I have been there, sir. But I am from New York."

Conde shook his head. "An island?"

"No, sir; a town."

"In what province?"

"The province of New York."

"The chief town, then?"

"Nay; Albany is the chief town."

"And how came you to speak French?"

"My mother was of French blood."

"And how long have you been in Paris?"

"A day."

"Heh! And you already begin to throw your mother's country-folk out of
windows!"

"He was annoying a young maid, sir, and I asked him to stop, whereon he
whipped out his sword, and would have slain me had I not closed with
him, upon which he called upon his fellows to aid him. To keep them
off, I swore that I would drop him over if they moved a step. Yet when
I let him go, they set upon me again, and I know not what the end might
have been had this gentleman not stood my friend."

"Hem! You did very well. You are young, but you have resource."

"I was reared in the woods, sir."

"If there are many of your kidney, you may give my friend De Frontenac
some work ere he found this empire of which he talks. But how is this,
Captain Dalbert? What have you to say?"

"The king's orders, your Highness."

"Heh! Did he order you to molest the girl? I have never yet heard that
his Majesty erred by being too _harsh_ with a woman." He gave a little
dry chuckle in his throat, and took another pinch of snuff.

"The orders are, your Highness, to use every means which may drive these
people into the true Church."

"On my word, you look a very fine apostle and a pretty champion for a
holy cause," said Conde, glancing sardonically out of his twinkling
black eyes at the brutal face of the dragoon. "Take your men out of
this, sir, and never venture to set your foot again across this
threshold."

"But the king's command, your Highness."

"I will tell the king when I see him that I left soldiers and that I
find brigands. Not a word, sir! Away! You take your shame with you,
and you leave your honour behind." He had turned in an instant from the
sneering, strutting old beau to the fierce soldier with set face and eye
of fire. Dalbert shrank back from his baleful gaze, and muttering an
order to his men, they filed off down the