Then he adds aloud: "You see, my filly, according to what all the best judges declared, would have been in four years' time the best trotter on all the south shore, and worth a hundred francs if a penny." "Oh, to the devil with you!" replied Uncle Raoul. "Go and tell Lisette to give you a good drink of brandy, to console you for the loss of your filly. These scoundrels," adds Uncle Raoul, "drink more of our brandy than their rents will ever pay for." The _habitant_, going into the kitchen, remarks to Lisette with a chuckle: "I've had a bad job with Uncle Raoul; he even threatened to haul me up before the courts." As Uncle Raoul was very devout after his fashion, he failed not to tell his beads and read his primer daily. In singular contrast with this devotion, however, his leisure moments were occupied in cursing, with an edifying fervor, his enemies the English, who had broken a leg for him at the capture of Louisburg. It was this accident which had compelled him to relinquish the life of a soldier. When the young men arrived before the manor-house, they were astonished at the sight that met their eyes. Not only were all the rooms lit up, but also some of the out-buildings. There was an unaccustomed stir, a strange hurrying to and fro. As the whole yard was illuminated by the blaze of lights, they could distinguish six men armed with guns and axes and seated on a log. "I perceive," remarked Archie, "that the lord of the manor has called out his guard to give us a fitting reception, just as I predicted." José, who did not understand this sort of chaffing, shifted his pipe from one corner of his mouth to the other, muttered something between his teeth, and began to smoke fiercely. "I can not tell why my father's guards, as you do them the honor to call them, are under arms," answered Jules, laughing, "unless it is that they are expecting an attack from our friends the Iroquois. But, come on, we'll soon solve the problem." As they entered the yard the six men rose simultaneously and came forward to welcome their young master and his friend. "What, you here!" exclaimed Jules, grasping their hands cordially; "you, Father Chouinard! you, Julien! and Alexis Dubé, and Father Tontaine, and François Maurice, the incorrigible! Why, I thought the parish would have taken advantage of my absence to rise as one man and chuck you into the St. Lawrence, as a proper punishment for the infernal tricks you play on peaceable people." "Our young seigneur," said Maurice, "always has his joke ready; but, if they were to drown all those who put other folk into a rage, I know some one who would have got his deserts long ago." "You think so!" said Jules, laughing. "Perhaps that all comes from the bad milk on which I was nursed. Remember that it was at the breast of your own dear mother I was nourished. But, to change the subject, what in the mischief are you all doing here at this hour? Are you gaping at the stars and moon?"