Marie's grandfather, who, although at this period some years dead, must figure modestly in our narrative. He was a Virginian, who had emigrated to Kentucky with some of the foremost pioneers, when that country belonged to the venerable "Old Dominion." Having made a settlement, and, by proper charters, secured the territorial rights which accrued upon the act, his roving spirit had led him to Kaskaskin. Here he became enamored of, and soon married Josephine Le Vert, a young Frenchwoman, the sister of the elder M. Le Vert, of our story. Lingering for some months, attracted by the primitive simplicity of the people among whom he found himself domesticated, a daughter was born to him; and this daughter was the mother of Marie Lefrette. As soon after this event as his wife could endure the journey, he returned to Kentucky. But, upon searching for his land, he found that the man whom he had left in possession had sold the most valuable portion of it, under a claim which he had set up by virtue of actual residence! To add to his discomfiture, on examining his papers to find the original grant to himself, he discovered that that was lost or destroyed! The books of records, which might have supplied its place, had been either burnt or carried away by the Indians in some murderous foray; and all muniments of title were thus obliterated.
He resorted, however, to the desperate expedient of a suit at law, endeavoring to show that the grantor under whom the occupants claimed, was a tenant, and could not be allowed to deny his landlord's title. But no lease could be produced; indeed, he had forgotten whether a lease was ever made; and, in the absence of any paper to support it, his suit failed, and his land was lost. Soured and disgusted, he returned to Kaskaskin, where, at the age of fifteen, his daughter was married to Monsieur Lefrette. Of this marriage, the only issue was our Marie, whose grandfather lived just long enough to confirm her fiançailles with the son of his brother-in-law, claiming the Episcopal right of confirmation in virtue of his will, which made her sole heir to the lands he had lost!
By these possessions, which might just as well have been "castles in Spain," no body save the poor old man set very great store; and the fact that Marie's father was a large stockholder in various land-
