ne contrasted oddly with the gray, loose
gown of the Recollet. He was a meditative, taciturn man,--seeming rather
to watch the others than to join in the lively conversation that went on
around him. Anything but cordiality and brotherly love reigned between
the Jesuits and the Order of St. Francis, but the Superiors were too
wary to manifest towards each other the mutual jealousies of their
subordinates.

The long line of fortifications presented a stirring appearance that
morning. The watch-fires that had illuminated the scene during the night
were dying out, the red embers paling under the rays of the rising sun.
From a wide circle surrounding the city the people had come in--many
were accompanied by their wives and daughters--to assist in making the
bulwark of the Colony impregnable against the rumored attack of the
English.

The people of New France, taught by a hundred years of almost constant
warfare with the English and with the savage nations on their frontiers,
saw as clearly as the Governor that the key of French dominion hung
inside the walls of Quebec, and that for an enemy to grasp it was to
lose all they valued as subjects of the Crown of France.

CHAPTER II. THE WALLS OF QUEBEC.

Count de la Galissoniere, accompanied by his distinguished attendants,
proceeded again on their round of inspection. They were everywhere
saluted with heads uncovered, and welcomed by hearty greetings. The
people of New France had lost none of the natural politeness and ease of
their ancestors, and, as every gentleman of the Governor's suite was at
once recognized, a conversation, friendly even to familiarity, ensued
between them and the citizens and habitans, who worked as if they were
building their very souls into the walls of the old city.

"Good morning, Sieur de St. Denis!" gaily exclaimed the Governor to a
tall, courtly gentleman, who was super-intending the labor of a body of
his censitaires from Beauport. "'Many hands make light work,' says the
proverb. That splendid battery you are just finishing deserves to be
called Beauport. What say you, my Lord Bishop?" turning to the smiling
ecclesiastic. "Is it not worthy of baptism?"

"Yes, and blessing both; I give it my episcopal benediction," replied
the Bishop, "and truly I think most of the earth of it is taken from the
consecrated ground of the Hotel Dieu--it will stand fire!"

"Many thanks, my Lord!"--the Sieur de St. Denis bowed very low--"where
the Church