rdeur de Repentigny would deliberately and
with forethought have killed the Bourgeois."

"On my life he never would! He respected the Bourgeois, nay, loved him,
for the sake of Pierre Philibert as well as for his own sake. Terrible
as is his crime, he never committed it out of malice aforethought. He
has been himself the victim of some hellish plot,--for a plot there has
been. This has been no chance melee, Count," exclaimed La Corne St. Luc
impetuously.

"It looks like a chance melee, but I suspect more than appears on
the surface," replied the Governor. "The removal of the Bourgeois
decapitates the party of the Honnetes Gens, does it not?"

"Gospel is not more true! The Bourgeois was the only merchant in New
France capable of meeting their monopoly and fighting them with their
own weapons. Bigot and the Grand Company will have everything their own
way now."

"Besides, there was the old feud of the Golden Dog," continued the
Governor. "Bigot took its allusion to the Cardinal as a personal insult
to himself, did he not, La Corne?"

"Yes; and Bigot knew he deserved it equally with his Eminence, whose
arch-tool he had been," replied La Corne. "By God! I believe Bigot has
been at the bottom of this plot. It would be worthy of his craft."

"These are points to be considered, La Corne. But such is the secrecy
of these men's councils, that I doubt we may suspect more than we shall
ever be able to prove." The Governor looked much agitated.

"What amazes me, Count, is not that the thing should be done, but that
Le Gardeur should have done it!" exclaimed La Corne, with a puzzled
expression.

"That is the strangest circumstance of all, La Corne," observed the
Governor. "The same thought has struck me. But he was mad with wine,
they say; and men who upset their reason do not seldom reverse their
conduct towards their friends; they are often cruelest to those whom
they love best."

"I will not believe but that he was made drunk purposely to commit
this crime!" exclaimed La Corne, striking his hand upon his thigh. "Le
Gardeur in his senses would have lost his right hand sooner than have
raised it against the Bourgeois."

"I feel sure of it; his friendship for Pierre Philibert, to whom he owed
his life, was something rarely seen now-a-days," remarked the Count.

La Corne felt a relief in bearing testimony in favor of Le Gardeur.
"They loved one another like brothers," said he, "and more than
brothers. Bigot had corrupte