solidified Central America, and the islands of the Caribbean Sea, into an indestructible French power. Rude fighters themselves, and accustomed to rude stakes, they could have understood the cession to England—that would have been according to the fortunes of war. England had whipped in the contest for supremacy,
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Courtyard of the "Old Baths"
and Frenchmen of Louisiana, as well as Frenchmen of Canada, must stand to the terms of defeat. But to be tossed without the asking, from Louis XV. to Carlos III., to be made over, in secret bargain, to the Spaniards,—to the not so much hated as despised Spaniard, who had never ventured a blow or fired a shot for them,
