him in public the other
day."

"Did he, Chevalier?" replied Philibert, his eyes flashing with another
fire than that which had filled them looking at Amelie. "He shall
account to me for his words, were he Regent instead of Intendant!"

La Corne St. Luc looked half approvingly at Philibert.

"Don't quarrel with him yet, Pierre! You cannot make a quarrel of what
he has said."

Lady de Tilly listened uneasily, and said,--

"Don't quarrel with him at all, Pierre Philibert! Judge him and avoid
him, as a Christian man should do. God will deal with Bigot as he
deserves: the crafty man will be caught in his own devices some day."

"Oh, Bigot is a gentleman, aunt, too polite to insult any one," remarked
Le Gardeur, impatient to defend one whom he regarded as a friend. "He is
the prince of good fellows, and not crafty, I think, but all surface and
sunshine."

"You never explored the depths of him, Le Gardeur," remarked La Corne.
"I grant he is a gay, jesting, drinking, and gambling fellow in company;
but, trust me, he is deep and dark as the Devil's cave that I have seen
in the Ottawa country. It goes story under story, deeper and deeper,
until the imagination loses itself in contemplating the bottomless pit
of it--that is Bigot, Le Gardeur."

"My censitaires report to me," remarked the Lady de Tilly, "that his
commissaries are seizing the very seed-corn of the country. Heaven knows
what will become of my poor people next year if the war continue!"

"What will become of the Province in the hands of Francois Bigot?"
replied La Corne St. Luc. "They say, Philibert, that a certain great
lady at Court, who is his partner or patroness, or both, has obtained a
grant of your father's sequestered estate in Normandy, for her relative,
the Count de Marville. Had you heard of that, Philibert? It is the
latest news from France."

"Oh, yes, Chevalier! Ill news like that never misses the mark it is
aimed at. The news soon reached my father!"

"And how does your father take it?"

"My father is a true philosopher; he takes it as Socrates might have
taken it; he laughs at the Count de Marville, who will, he says, want to
sell the estate before the year is out, to pay his debts of honor--the
only debts he ever does pay."

"If Bigot had anything to do with such an outrage," exclaimed Le Gardeur
warmly, "I would renounce him on the spot. I have heard Bigot speak
of this gift to De Marville, whom he hates. He says it was all La
Pompad