five hundred and fifty leagues on
snow-shoes, came again to Quebec. Here, in spite of his own dire
predictions, he found a gaiety and contentment which fairly startled
him. Within the walls of the grim old river-fortress the ancient foes
were making peace in the reconstruction of industry. The wise
forbearance of the conquerors, and the facile temper of the
conquered, provided, far beyond hope, a solution for what was, _prima
facie_, a difficult situation. "It is very surprising," writes an
officer of the Highlanders, "with what ease the gaiety of their
tempers enables them to bear misfortunes which to us would be
insupportable. Families, whom the calamities of war have reduced from
the height of luxury to the want of common necessaries, laugh, dance,
and sing, comforting themselves with this reflection--_Fortune de
guerre_. Their young ladies take the utmost pains to teach our
officers French; with what views I know not, if it is not that they
may hear themselves praised, flattered, and courted without loss of
time," Those who remained behind, sacrificing allegiance to their old
flag for the sake of allegiance to the soil, were indeed far happier
than the irreconcilables who had elected to return to the motherland,
bereft of all but their movable property. And among these homing
Frenchmen were some whose reception caused them a very reasonable
anxiety. Vaudreuil, Bigot, Pean, Cadet, Varin, Penisseault, and
several others who had held offices in Canada, were cast into the
Bastille, charged with the corruptions which had sapped the life-blood
of New France. For months they contemplated their misdeeds in the
sombre silence of the dungeon, and the next year were brought forth
for trial. Vaudreuil, for lack of evidence, was acquitted properly
acquitted, so far as can be known, his chief fault having been a fatal
ill-judgment; but a just fate overtook Bigot, Cadet, and their knavish
parasites. The Intendant was banished from France for life, and all
his property confiscated; Cadet was banished for nine years and fined
six million _livres_; the others received sentences in keeping with
the measure of their guilt.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, in Quebec, a decade of English rule slipped uneventfully
by, marked chiefly by new perceptions of citizenship on the part of
the French. The _ancien regime_ had been conducted on the principle of
centralised authority, allowing no place to personal liberty. Neither
on it