“I am honoured—­honoured indeed!” cried the old man, with a bow and a flourish.  “I remember you very well, sir, for it is not so common to meet men of quality in this country.  I remember your father also, for he served with me at Rocroy, though he was in the Foot, and I in the Red Dragoons of Grissot.  Your arms are a martlet in fess upon a field azure, and now that I think of it, the second daughter of your great-grand-father married the son of one of the La Noues of Andelys, which is one of our cadet branches.  Kinsman, you are welcome!” He threw his arms suddenly round De Catinat and slapped him three times on the back.

The young guardsman was only too delighted to find himself admitted to such an intimacy.

“I will not intrude long upon your hospitality,” said he.  “We are journeying down to Lake Champlain, and we hope in a day or two to be ready to go on.”

“A suite of rooms shall be laid at your disposal as long as you do me the honour to remain here. Peste! It is not every day that I can open my gates to a man with good blood in his veins!  Ah, sir, that is what I feel most in my exile, for who is there with whom I can talk as equal to equal?  There is the governor, the intendant, perhaps, one or two priests, three or four officers, but how many of the noblesse?  Scarcely one.  They buy their titles over here as they buy their pelts, and it is better to have a canoe-load of beaver skins than a pedigree from Roland.  But I forget my duties.  You are weary and hungry, you and your friends.  Come up with me to the tapestried salon, and we shall see if my stewards can find anything for your refreshment.  You play piquet, if I remember right?  Ah, my skill is leaving me, and I should be glad to try a hand with you.”

The manor-house was high and strong, built of gray stone in a framework of wood.  The large iron-clamped door through which they entered was pierced for musketry fire, and led into a succession of cellars and store-houses in which the beets, carrots, potatoes, cabbages, cured meat, dried eels, and other winter supplies were placed.  A winding stone staircase led them through a huge kitchen, flagged and lofty, from which branched the rooms of the servants or retainers as the old nobleman preferred to call them.  Above this again was the principal suite, centering in the dining-hall with its huge fireplace and rude home-made furniture.  Rich rugs formed of bear or deer-skin were littered thickly over the brown-stained floor, and antlered heads bristled out from among the rows of muskets which were arranged along the wall.  A broad rough-hewn maple table ran down the centre of this apartment, and on this there was soon set a venison pie, a side of calvered salmon, and a huge cranberry tart, to which the hungry travellers did full justice.  The seigneur explained that he had already supped, but having allowed himself to be persuaded into joining them, he ended by eating more than Ephraim Savage, drinking more than Du Lhut, and finally by singing a very amorous little French chanson with a tra-le-ra chorus, the words of which, fortunately for the peace of the company, were entirely unintelligible to the Bostonian.