“My faith, you seem to have left little behind you,” said Conde, smiling, as he glanced at the litter which was strewed all over the floor.  “And so you broke your parole, Captain Dalbert?”

“I could not hold treaty with a Huguenot and an enemy of the king,” said the dragoon sulkily.

“You could hold treaty, it appears, but not keep it.  And why did you let him go, sir, when you had him at such a vantage?”

“I believed his promise.”

“You must be of a trusting nature.”

“I have been used to deal with Indians.”

“Heh!  And you think an Indian’s word is better than that of an officer in the king’s dragoons?”

“I did not think so an hour ago.”

“Hem!” Conde took a large pinch of snuff, and brushed the wandering grains from his velvet coat with his handkerchief of point.

“You are very strong, monsieur,” said he, glancing keenly at the broad shoulders and arching chest of the young stranger.  “You are from Canada, I presume?”

“I have been there, sir.  But I am from New York.”

Conde shook his head.  “An island?”

“No, sir; a town.”

“In what province?”

“The province of New York.”

“The chief town, then?”

“Nay; Albany is the chief town.”

“And how came you to speak French?”

“My mother was of French blood.”

“And how long have you been in Paris?”

“A day.”

“Heh!  And you already begin to throw your mother’s country-folk out of windows!”

“He was annoying a young maid, sir, and I asked him to stop, whereon he whipped out his sword, and would have slain me had I not closed with him, upon which he called upon his fellows to aid him.  To keep them off, I swore that I would drop him over if they moved a step.  Yet when I let him go, they set upon me again, and I know not what the end might have been had this gentleman not stood my friend.”

“Hem!  You did very well.  You are young, but you have resource.”

“I was reared in the woods, sir.”

“If there are many of your kidney, you may give my friend De Frontenac some work ere he found this empire of which he talks.  But how is this, Captain Dalbert?  What have you to say?”

“The king’s orders, your Highness.”

“Heh!  Did he order you to molest the girl?  I have never yet heard that his Majesty erred by being too harsh with a woman.”  He gave a little dry chuckle in his throat, and took another pinch of snuff.

“The orders are, your Highness, to use every means which may drive these people into the true Church.”

“On my word, you look a very fine apostle and a pretty champion for a holy cause,” said Conde, glancing sardonically out of his twinkling black eyes at the brutal face of the dragoon.  “Take your men out of this, sir, and never venture to set your foot again across this threshold.”