ettled. One of
these was a weaver by trade, but without money to manufacture looms
or set up in his calling. Gaspard joined him as partner, embarking
the little capital he had saved; and being a shrewd, clear-headed
man he carried on the business part of the concern, while his
partner Lequoc worked at the manufacture.

As the French colony in Canterbury increased, they had no
difficulty in obtaining skilled hands from among them. The business
grew in magnitude, and the profits were large, in spite of the fact
that numbers of similar enterprises had been established by the
Huguenot immigrants in London, and other places. They were, indeed,
amply sufficient to enable Gaspard Vaillant to live in the
condition of a substantial citizen, to aid his fellow countrymen,
and to lay by a good deal of money.

His wife's sister had not remained very long with him. She had,
upon their first arrival, given lessons in her own language to the
daughters of burgesses, and of the gentry near the town; but, three
years after the arrival of the family there, she had married a
well-to-do young yeoman who farmed a hundred acres of his own land,
two miles from the town. His relations and neighbours had shaken
their heads over what they considered his folly, in marrying the
pretty young Frenchwoman; but ere long they were obliged to own
that his choice had been a good one.

Just after his first child was born he was, when returning home one
evening from market, knocked down and run over by a drunken carter,
and was so injured that for many months his life was in danger.
Then he began to mend, but though he gained in strength he did not
recover the use of his legs, being completely paralysed from the
hips downward; and, as it soon appeared, was destined to remain a
helpless invalid all his life. From the day of the accident Lucie
had taken the management of affairs in her hands, and having been
brought up in the country, and being possessed of a large share of
the shrewdness and common sense for which Frenchwomen are often
conspicuous, she succeeded admirably. The neatness and order of the
house, since their marriage, had been a matter of surprise to her
husband's friends; and it was not long before the farm showed the
effects of her management. Gaspard Vaillant assisted her with his
counsel and, as the French methods of agriculture were considerably
in advance of those in England, instead of things going to rack and
ruin, as John Fletcher's