h reason, accounted to be rich. He
was a widower, but lived in a kind of surly, patriarchal state, in
the midst of three sons and a daughter; the former being dissipated
and sensual, the latter of a showy person, but in character,
superficial, vain, vindictive, proud.

An intimacy had long existed between the houses of Montigny and
Duchatel, which, in spite of their different genius, had for
generations continued as it were to shake hands across the island.
The latter family, though equal to the former in wealth and pedigree,
secretly acknowledged it as the superior, and with a view to an
alliance between the two, Seraphine Duchatel, even when a child,
was a frequent visitor at Mainville; her relations hoping that
thereby, she and Claude Montigny might become inspired with a mutual
liking, the prelude to their desired union.

This union, it was understood, was to be cemented on the part of
Duchatel, by the gift, as her marriage portion, of a tract of land
adjoining the seigniory of Mainville, and at present the property
of Andre Duchatel; but which, at the nuptials, would be added to
the Montigny manor, as a sort of arriere fief, and so gratify the
craving of the elder Montigny for territorial aggrandizement. The
splendid person of Claude had long ago caught the slight affections
of Seraphine, who in her visits to Mainville, would hang upon him,
much to his distaste, and persist to make him her reluctant cavalier,
though neither her blandishments nor his father's wishes could
induce him to return these visits, or appear to reciprocate her
preference. Nor would a closer and wider acquaintance with the
Duchatels have lessened his reluctance. The eldest son, Samson,
was a colossal bully, dividing his time between field sports,
intemperance, and intrigues with the daughters of the censitors on
his father's seigniory; or in yet lower illicit amours with the
peasant girls of the manorial village; varied by occasional journeys,
made more for debauchery than business, to the city of Montreal.
The second scion of the house, Pierre, was a good-enough looking,
and not ill-disposed youth; whom his father, as if willing to offer
up his choicest lamb for the sins of the family fold, had intended
for the church. But the former had far other intentions towards
the fair than absolving them from their peccadilloes, and entertained
other ideas of foreign travel than that of going on distant Indian
missions; whilst the youngest brother,