ng some Indian despatches with Rigaud de Vaudreuil;
Claude Beauharnais and the venerable Abbe Piquet overlooking with deep
interest the rude pictorial despatches in the hands of La Corne. Two
gentlemen of the law, in furred gowns and bands, stood waiting at one
end of the room, with books under their arms and budgets of papers
in their hands ready to argue before the Council some knotty point
of controversy arising out of the concession of certain fiefs and
jurisdictions granted under the feudal laws of the Colony.

The Intendant, although personally at variance with several of the
gentlemen sitting at the council table, did not let that fact be visible
on his countenance, nor allow it to interfere with the despatch of
public business.

The Intendant was gay and easy to-day, as was his wont, wholly
unsuspecting the foul treason that was plotting by the woman he
admired against the woman he loved. His opinions were sometimes loftily
expressed, but always courteously as well as firmly.

Bigot never drooped a feather in face of his enemies, public or private,
but laughed and jested with all at table in the exuberance of a spirit
which cared for no one, and only reined itself in when it was politic to
flatter his patrons and patronesses at Versailles.

The business of the Council had begun. The mass of papers which lay
at the left hand of the Governor were opened and read seriatim by his
secretary, and debated, referred, decided upon, or judgment postponed,
as the case seemed best to the Council.

The Count was a man of method and despatch, clear-headed and singularly
free from prejudice, ambiguity, or hesitation. He was honest and frank
in council, as he was gallant on the quarter-deck. The Intendant was
not a whit behind him in point of ability and knowledge of the political
affairs of the colony, and surpassed him in influence at the court
of Louis XV., but less frank, for he had much to conceal, and kept
authority in his own hands as far as he was able.

Disliking each other profoundly from the total divergence of their
characters, opinions, and habits, the Governor and Intendant still met
courteously at the council-table, and not without a certain respect for
the rare talents which each recognized in the other.

Many of the papers lying before them were on subjects relating to
the internal administration of the Colony,--petitions of the people
suffering from the exactions of the commissaries of the army,
remons