the curses of the habitans returning from the Friponne, where they
cheat worse than a Basque pedler, and without a grain of his
politeness!"

The Friponne, as it was styled in popular parlance, was the immense
magazine established by the Grand Company of Traders in New France.
It claimed a monopoly in the purchase and sale of all imports and
exports in the Colony. Its privileges were based upon royal
ordinances and decrees of the Intendant, and its rights enforced in
the most arbitrary manner--and to the prejudice of every other
mercantile interest in the Colony. As a natural consequence it
was cordially hated, and richly deserved the maledictions which
generally accompanied the mention of the Friponne--the swindle--a
rough and ready epithet which sufficiently indicated the feeling of
the people whom it at once cheated and oppressed.

"They say, Jean," continued Babet, her mind running in a very
practical and womanly way upon the price of commodities and good
bargains, "they say, Jean, that the Bourgeois Philibert will not
give in like the other merchants. He sets the Intendant at
defiance, and continues to buy and sell in his own comptoir as he
has always done, in spite of the Friponne."

"Yes, Babet! that is what they say. But I would rather he stood in
his own shoes than I in them if he is to fight this Intendant--who
is a Tartar, they say."

"Pshaw, Jean! you have less courage than a woman. All the women are
on the side of the good Bourgeois: he is an honest merchant--sells
cheap, and cheats nobody!" Babet looked down very complacently upon