re movements. Pere Michel, after some thought, had at length made
up his mind, and had given Claude the benefit of his opinion and his
advice.

"I have made up my mind," said he. "I will never go back to France.
What can I do in France? As a French noble, I should be powerless; as
a priest, useless. France is corrupt to the heart's core. The
government is corrupt. The whole head is sick, the whole heart faint.
Ministry succeeds to ministry, not by means of ability, not from
patriotism or a public spirit, but simply through corrupt favoritism.
There are no statesmen in France. They are all courtiers. In that
court every man is ready to sell himself for money. There is no sense
of honor. At the head of all is the worst of all, the king himself,
who sets an example of sin and iniquity, which is followed by all the
nation. The peasantry are slaves, trodden in the dust, without hope
and without spirit. The nobles are obsequious time-servers and
place-hunters. The old sentiment of chivalry is dead. I will never go
to such a country. Here, in this land, where I have lived the best
part of my life, I intend to remain, to labor among these simple
Acadians, and these children of the forest, and to die among them.

"As for you, my son, France is no place for you. The proper place for
you, if you wish to lead a virtuous and honorable life, is among the
people who look upon you as one of themselves, with whom you have
been brought up. Your religion, my son, is different from mine; but
we worship the same God, believe in the same Bible, put our trust in
the same Saviour, and hope for the same heaven. What can France give
you that can be equal to what you have in New England? She can give
you simply honors, but with these the deadly poison of her own
corruption, and a future full of awful peril. But in New England you
have a virgin country. There all men are free. There you have no
nobility. There are no down-trodden peasants, but free farmers. Every
man has his own rights, and knows how to maintain them. You have been
brought up to be the free citizen of a free country. Enough. Why wish
to be a noble in a nation of slaves? Take your name of Montresor, if
you wish. It is yours now, and free from stain. Remember, also, if
you wish, the glory of your ancestors, and let that memory inspire
you to noble actions. But remain in New England, and cast in your lot
with the citizens of your own free, adopted land."

Such were the words of th