THE BARON OF BEAUGARD
THE Manor House at Beaugard, monsieur? Ah, certainlee, I mind it very well. It was the first in Quebec, and there are many tales. It had a chapel and a gallows. Its baron, he had the power of life and death, and the right of the seigneur—you understand!—which he used only once; and then what trouble it made for him and the woman, and the barony, and the parish, and all the country!"
"What is the whole story, Larue?" said Medallion, who had spent months in the seigneur’s company, stalking game, and tales, and legends of the St. Lawrence.
Larue spoke English very well—his mother was English.
"Mais, I do not know for sure; but the Abbé Frontone, he and I were snowed up together in that same house which now belongs to the Church, and in the big fireplace, where we sat on a bench, toasting our knees and our bacon, he told me the tale as he knew it. He was a great scholar—there is none greater. He had found papers in the wall of the house, and from the Gover’ment chest he got more. Then there were the tales handed down, and the records of the Church—for she knows the true story of every man that has come to New France from first to last. So, because I have a taste for tales, and gave him some, he told me of the
