and no pay!"

The men took his raillery in excellent part, and one, their
spokesman, bowing low to the Superior, said,--"Forgive us all the
same, good Father. The hard eggs of Beauport will be soft as lard
compared with the iron shells we are preparing for the English
breakfast when they shall appear some fine morning before Quebec."

"Ah, well, in that case I must pardon the trick you played upon
Brothers Mark and Alexis; and I give you my blessing, too, on
condition you send some salt to our convent to cure our fish, and
save your reputations, which are very stale just now among my good
Recollets."

A general laugh followed this sally, and the Reverend Superior went
off merrily, as he hastened to catch up with the Governor, who had
moved on to another point in the line of fortifications.

Near the gate of St. John they found a couple of ladies, encouraging
by their presence and kind words a numerous party of habitans,--one
an elderly lady of noble bearing and still beautiful, the rich and
powerful feudal Lady of the Lordship, or Seigniory, of Tilly; the
other her orphan niece, in the bloom of youth, and of surpassing
loveliness, the fair Amelie de Repentigny, who had loyally
accompanied her aunt to the capital with all the men of the
Seigniory of Tilly, to assist in the completion of its defences.

To features which looked as if chiselled out of the purest Parian
marble, just flushed with the glow of morn, and cut in those perfect
lines of proportion which nature only bestows on a few chosen