the bird that tells tales on us, Bigot,--is that it?"
added he.

"I mean to kill two birds with one stone, Cadet! Hark you; I will tell
you a scheme that will put a stop to these perquisitions by La Corne and
Philibert--the only two men I fear in the Colony--and at the same time
deliver me from the everlasting bark and bite of the Golden Dog!"

Bigot led Cadet to the window, and poured in his ear the burning
passions which were fermenting in his own breast. He propounded a scheme
of deliverance for himself and of crafty vengeance upon the Philiberts
which would turn the thoughts of every one away from the Chateau of
Beaumanoir and the missing Caroline into a new stream of public and
private troubles, amid the confusion of which he would escape, and his
present dangers be overlooked and forgotten in a great catastrophe that
might upset the Colony, but at any rate it would free Bigot from his
embarrassments and perhaps inaugurate a new reign of public plunder and
the suppression of the whole party of the Honnetes Gens.

CHAPTER XLV. "I WILL FEED FAT THE ANCIENT GRUDGE I BEAR HIM."

The Treaty of Aix La Chapelle, so long tossed about on the waves of war,
was finally signed in the beginning of October. A swift-sailing goelette
of Dieppe brought the tidings to New France, and in the early nights
of November, from Quebec to Montreal. Bonfires on every headland blazed
over the broad river; churches were decorated with evergreens, and Te
Deums sung in gratitude for the return of peace and security to the
Colony.

New France came out of the struggle scathed and scorched as by fire,
but unshorn of territory or territorial rights; and the glad colonists
forgot and forgave the terrible sacrifices they had made in the
universal joy that their country, their religion, language, and laws
were still safe under the Crown of France, with the white banner still
floating over the Castle of St. Louis.

On the day after the arrival of the Dieppe goelette bringing the news of
peace, Bigot sat before his desk reading his despatches and letters from
France, when the Chevalier de Pean entered the room with a bundle of
papers in his hand, brought to the Palace by the chief clerk of the
Bourgeois Philibert, for the Intendant's signature.

The Bourgeois, in the course of his great commercial dealings, got
possession of innumerable orders upon the royal treasury, which in due
course had to be presented to the Intendant for his official