iet, compressed will
and patient resolve; these qualities make one man the natural ruler over
others by a title they never dispute.

The party of the Honnetes Gens, the "honest folks" as they were
derisively called by their opponents, regarded the Bourgeois Philibert
as their natural leader. His force of character made men willingly stand
in his shadow. His clear intellect, never at fault, had extended his
power and influence by means of his vast mercantile operations over
half the continent. His position as the foremost merchant of New France
brought him in the front of the people's battle with the Grand Company,
and in opposition to the financial policy of the Intendant and the
mercantile assumption of the Friponne.

But the personal hostility between the Intendant and the Bourgeois had
its root and origin in France, before either of them crossed the ocean
to the hither shore of the Atlantic. The Bourgeois had been made very
sensible of a fact vitally affecting him, that the decrees of the
Intendant, ostensibly for the regulation of trade in New France, had
been sharply pointed against himself. "They draw blood!" Bigot had
boasted to his familiars as he rubbed his hands together with
intense satisfaction one day, when he learned that Philibert's large
trading-post in Mackinaw had been closed in consequence of the Indians
having been commanded by royal authority, exercised by the Intendant,
to trade only at the comptoirs of the Grand Company. "They draw blood!"
repeated he, "and will draw the life yet out of the Golden Dog." It was
plain the ancient grudge of the courtly parasite had not lost a tooth
during all those years.

The Bourgeois was not a man to talk of his private griefs, or seek
sympathy, or even ask counsel or help. He knew the world was engrossed
with its own cares. The world cares not to look under the surface of
things for sake of others, but only for its own sake, its own interests,
its own pleasures.

To-day, however, cares, griefs, and resentments were cast aside, and
the Bourgeois was all joy at the return of his only son, and proud of
Pierre's achievements, and still more of the honors spontaneously paid
him. He stood at the door, welcoming arrival after arrival, the happiest
man of all the joyous company who honored Belmont that day.

A carriage with outriders brought the Count de la Galissoniere and
his friend Herr Kalm and Dr. Gauthier, the last a rich old bachelor,
handsome and generous,