e register to this table near the light?"

"With pleasure; but should the handwriting be difficult, speak to me. I
am the archivist of the abbey." And thus saying he turned back to his
workmen.

Lecour examined the volume with beating heart. He nervously fingered the
leaves at first without receiving any distinct impression of the
contents, his brain was so full of other thoughts. At last he noticed
that the entries were regular and consecutive, and though written in
different hands, were clear to follow. He reached the month of June,
read its entries slowly, one after another--a birth, a marriage, a
death, then another death, then a birth again, and so on, with the names
of the parties and their parents, some high, some low, until he came to
nearly the end, when suddenly one seemed to stare at him out of the
page.

"The 27th,--Took place the baptism of Francois Xavier, tenth son of
_Pierre Lecour, master-butcher, of this Parish_, and of his wife, Marie
LeCoq. He had for godfather, Jean LeCoq, tinker, and for godmother,
Therese, wife of Louis Bossu, Charcoal vendor."

From the moment he read the word "master-butcher," his head swam, his
heart sank, he felt a blow as if it were the stunning thud of a heavy
weight upon it, and an unconscious groan escaped him.

"Monsieur is sick," exclaimed the priest to his men. "Bring wine."

"No, father," returned Germain, slowly rising, and steadying himself,
"it is nothing," and he walked forward and left the sacristy.

The room had two doors leading inward to the high altar, one on each
side. Just as Lecour passed out by the left one, Jude glided in by that
on the right, and crossing boldly to the open book, pounced upon the
entry of baptism.

CHAPTER XXXIV

AT QUEBEC

Germain was now committed to the most desperate courses to maintain his
assumed character. He left France, and by way of London, took ship for
his colony. The Canada of 1788 was a quaint community shut away out of
the great world. It consisted of a few widely separated hamlets, keeping
in touch with each other by means of a long road on each shore of the
St. Lawrence, and having as chief cities the two tiny walled towns of
Quebec and Montreal. It possessed a population of perhaps a hundred and
fifty thousand souls, all French except a couple of British regiments,
and a handful of officials and tradesmen. Some bodies of refugee
Loyalists of the American Revolution had recently also come in. The
dri