signature.
The signing of these treasury orders in favor of the Bourgeois never
failed to throw Bigot into a fit of ill humor.

On the present occasion he sat down muttering ten thousand curses upon
the Bourgeois, as he glanced over the papers with knitted eyebrows and
teeth set hard together. He signed the mass of orders and drafts made
payable to Nicolas Philibert, and when done, threw into the fire the
pen which had performed so unwelcome an office. Bigot sent for the chief
clerk who had brought the bills and orders, and who waited for them in
the antechamber. "Tell your master, the Bourgeois," said he, "that
for this time, and only to prevent loss to the foolish officers, the
Intendant has signed these army bills; but that if he purchase more, in
defiance of the sole right of the Grand Company, I shall not sign them.
This shall be the last time, tell him!"

The chief clerk, a sturdy, gray-haired Malouin, was nothing daunted by
the angry look of the Intendant. "I shall inform the Bourgeois of your
Excellency's wishes," said he, "and--"

"Inform him of my commands!" exclaimed Bigot, sharply. "What! have
you more to say? But you would not be the chief clerk of the Bourgeois
without possessing a good stock of his insolence!"

"Pardon me, your Excellency!" replied the chief clerk, "I was only going
to observe that His Excellency the Governor and the Commander of the
Forces both have decided that the officers may transfer their warrants
to whomsoever they will."

"You are a bold fellow, with your Breton speech; but by all the saints
in Saintonge, I will see whether the Royal Intendant or the Bourgeois
Philibert shall control this matter! And as for you--"

"Tut! cave canem! let this cur go back to his master," interrupted
Cadet, amused at the coolness of the chief clerk. "Hark you, fellow!"
said he, "present my compliments--the Sieur Cadet's compliments--to your
master, and tell him I hope he will bring his next batch of army bills
himself, and remind him that it is soft falling at low tide out of the
windows of the Friponne."

"I shall certainly advise my master not to come himself, Sieur Cadet,"
replied the chief clerk; "and I am very certain of returning in three
days with more army bills for the signature of his Excellency the
Intendant."

"Get out, you fool!" shouted Cadet, laughing at what he regarded the
insolence of the clerk. "You are worthy of your master!" And Cadet
pushed him forcibly out of the doo