e made for the missing
demoiselle, who, I suspect, will be found in some camp or fort, sharing
the couch of some lively fellow who has won favor in her bright eyes."

Bigot saw danger in these despatches, and in the look of the Governor,
who would be sure to exercise the utmost diligence in carrying out the
commands of the court in this matter.

Bigot for a few moments seemed lost in reflection. He looked round the
table, and, seeing many eyes fixed upon him, spoke boldly, almost with a
tone of defiance.

"Pray explain to the councillors the nature of this despatch, your
Excellency!" said he to the Count. "What it contains is not surprising
to any one who knows the fickle sex, and no gentleman can avoid feeling
for the noble Baron de St. Castin!"

"And for his daughter, too, Chevalier!" replied the Governor. "It is
only through their virtues that such women are lost. But it is the
strangest tale I have heard in New France!"

The gentlemen seated at the table looked at the Governor in some
surprise. La Corne St. Luc, hearing the name of the Baron de St. Castin,
exclaimed, "What, in God's name, your Excellency,--what is there in that
despatch affecting my old friend and companion in arms, the Baron de St.
Castin?"

"I had better explain," replied the Count; "it is no secret in France,
and will not long be a secret here.

"This letter, gentlemen," continued he, addressing the councillors, and
holding it open in his hand, "is a pathetic appeal from the Baron de
St. Castin, whom you all know, urging me by every consideration of
friendship, honor, and public duty, to aid in finding his daughter,
Caroline de St. Castin, who has been abducted from her home in Acadia,
and who, after a long and vain search for her by her father in France,
where it was thought she might have gone, has been traced to this
Colony, where it is said she is living concealed under some strange
alias or low disguise.

"The other despatch," continued the Governor, "is from the Marquise de
Pompadour, affirming the same thing, and commanding the most rigorous
search to be made for Mademoiselle de St. Castin. In language hardly
official, the Marquise threatens to make stockfish, that is her phrase,
of whosoever has had a hand in either the abduction or the concealment
of the missing lady."

The attention of every gentleman at the table was roused by the words
of the Count. But La Corne St. Luc could not repress his feelings. He
sprang up, strikin