the village of St. Michael de Tilly.

Upon the sandy beach a crowd of women, children, and old men had
gathered, who were cheering and clapping their hands at the unexpected
return of the lady of the Manor with all their friends and relatives.

The fears of the villagers had been greatly excited for some days past
by exaggerated reports of the presence of Iroquois on the upper waters
of the Chaudiere. They not unnaturally conjectured, moreover, that
the general call for men on the King's corvee, to fortify the city,
portended an invasion by the English, who, it was rumored, were to come
up in ships from below, as in the days of Sir William Phipps with his
army of New Englanders, the story of whose defeat under the walls of
Quebec was still freshly remembered in the traditions of the Colony.

"Never fear them!" said old Louis, the one-eyed pilot. "It was in my
father's days. Many a time have I heard him tell the story--how, in the
autumn of the good year 1690, thirty-four great ships of the Bostonians
came up from below, and landed an army of ventres bleus of New England
on the flats of Beauport. But our stout Governor, Count de Frontenac,
came upon them from the woods with his brave soldiers, habitans, and
Indians, and drove them pell-mell back to their boats, and stripped
the ship of Admiral Phipps of his red flag, which, if you doubt my
word,--which no one does,--still hangs over the high altar of the Church
of Notre Dame des Victoires. Blessed be our Lady, who saved our country
from our enemies,--and will do so again, if we do not by our wickedness
lose her favor! But the arbre sec--the dry tree--still stands upon the
Point de Levis, where the Boston fleet took refuge before beating their
retreat down the river again,--and you know the old prophecy: that while
that tree stands, the English shall never prevail against Quebec!"

Much comforted by this speech of old Louis the pilot, the villagers of
Tilly rushed to the beach to receive their friends.

The canoes came dashing into shore. Men, women, and children ran
knee-deep into the water to meet them, and a hundred eager hands were
ready to seize their prows and drag them high and dry upon the sandy
beach.

"Home again! and welcome to Tilly, Pierre Philibert!" exclaimed Lady de
Tilly, offering her hand. "Friends like you have the right of welcome
here." Pierre expressed his pleasure in fitting terms, and lent his aid
to the noble lady to disembark.

Le Gardeur