ge. He replied, with something like awe in his voice,
"_Monsieur, il etait le roi, l'empereur, du village_."

The ministrations of the manor house were often patriarchical and
beneficent; the seigneur's wife was like the squire's wife in an English
village. In time this relation aroused resentment. Some villager's son
with a taste for business or letters made his way in the world, got into
touch with more advanced thought, and when he came back to the village
was not so willing as formerly to touch his hat to the seigneur and
accept an inferior social status as a matter of course. M. de Gaspe
tells how he often accompanied Madame Tache, in her own right
co-seigneuress of Kamouraska, opposite Malbaie, in her visits to the
people on the seigniory. She took alms to the poor, and wine, cordials,
delicacies to the sick and convalescent. "She reigned as sovereign in
the seigniory," he says, "by the very tender ties of love and of
gratitude." When she left the village church after mass on Sunday the
habitants, most of whom drove to church in their own vehicles, would
wait respectfully for her to start and then follow her in a long
procession, none of them venturing to pass her on the road. At the point
where she turned from the high-way up the avenue leading to the manor
house, each habitant, as he passed, would raise his hat, although only
her back was in view disappearing in the direction of the house.

But early in the 19th century this spirit was changing:

One day I was myself witness, says M. de Gaspe, of a violation of
this universal deference. It was St. Louis's day, the festival of
the parish of Kamouraska. As usual Madame Tache, at the close of
mass, was leading the long escort of her _censitaires_, when a
young man, excited by the frequent libations of which in the
country many are accustomed to partake during the parish fetes,--a
young man, I say, breaking from the procession passed the carriage
of the seigneuress as fast as his horse would go. Madame Tache
stopped her carriage and turning round towards those who followed
her cried in a loud voice:

"What insolent person is this who has passed before me?"

An old man went up to her, hat in hand, and said with tears in his
voice:

"Madame, it is my son who unfortunately is tipsy, but be sure that
I shall bring him to make his apologies and meanwhile I beg you to
accept mine for his