war he entertained lavishly, though the people
went hungry, and their own corn, bought for the King, was sold back to
them at famine prices.

As the Governor amid the Intendant grew together in friendship,
Vaudreuil sinking past disapproval in present selfish necessity, they
quietly combined against Doltaire as against Montcalm. Yet at this very
time Doltaire was living in the Intendance, and, as he had told Alixe,
not without some personal danger. He had before been offered rooms at
the Chateau St. Louis; but these he would not take, for he could not
bear to be within touch of the Governor's vanity and timidity. He would
of preference have stayed in the Intendance had he known that pitfalls
and traps were at every footstep. Danger gave a piquancy to his
existence. I think he did not greatly value Madame Cournal's admiration
of himself; but when it drove Bigot to retaliation, his imagination got
an impulse, and he entered upon a conflict which ran parallel with the
war, and with that delicate antagonism which Alixe waged against him,
long undiscovered by himself.

At my wits' end for news, at last I begged my jailer to convey a message
for me to the Governor, asking that the barber be let come to me. The
next day an answer arrived in the person of Voban himself, accompanied
by the jailer. For a time there was little speech between us, but as he
tended me we talked. We could do so with safety, for Voban knew English;
and though he spoke it brokenly, he had freedom in it, and the jailer
knew no word of it. At first the fellow blustered, but I waved him off.
He was a man of better education than Gabord, but of inferior judgment
and shrewdness. He made no trial thereafter to interrupt our talk, but
sat and drummed upon a stool with his keys, or loitered at the window,
or now and again thrust his hand into my pockets, as if to see if
weapons were concealed in them.

"Voban," said I, "what has happened since I saw you at the Intendance?
Tell me first of mademoiselle. You have nothing from her for me?"

"Nothing," he answered. "There is no time. A soldier come an hour ago
with an order from the Governor, and I must go all at once. So I come as
you see. But as for the ma'm'selle, she is well. Voila, there is no one
like her in New France. I do not know all, as you can guess, but they
say she can do what she will at the Chateau. It is a wonder to see her
drive. A month ago, a droll thing come to pass. She is driving on the
i