but he declined it.

"You can pay us back in Quebec," said White.

"I don't need it," replied Robert, "but I'll keep the rendezvous there
with you both."

As the _Hawk_ was to stay two or three days in port in order to take on
supplies, they went ashore together, and the three were full of
curiosity when they entered, for the first time, the town of which they
had heard so much. Boston had already made such impress upon the
imagination that all the English colonists were generally known to the
French in Canada as Bostonnais. In England it had a great name, and
there were often apprehensions about it. It was the heart and soul of
the expedition when the New Englanders surprised the world by taking the
great French fortress of Louisbourg, and it had an individuality and a
personality which it has never lost.

"I don't know how I'm going to like it," said Captain Whyte, as they
left the sloop. "I hear that they're very superior here, and consider us
English a rather backward lot. Don't you think you'd better reconsider,
Lennox, and go on with us to Louisbourg?"

Robert laughed.

"I'm not afraid of the Bostonians," he said. "I met some very competent
ones on the shores of Lake George. There was one Elihu Strong, a colonel
of Massachusetts infantry, whom I like to remember. In truth, Captain,
what I see here arouses my admiration. You noticed the amount of
shipping in the port. The Bostonians are very keen traders, and they say