eBooks Base 2000

If Manitou prospered them,
they would come to the Quebec of the French, which beforetime had been
the Stadacona of old Indian tribes. That name, Quebec, was full of
significance to him. Standing upon its mighty rock, it was another
Gibraltar. It told him of the French power in North America, and he
associated it vaguely with young officers in brilliant uniforms,
powdered ladies, and all the splendor of an Old World court reproduced
in the New World. St. Luc had come from there, and with his handsome
face and figure and his gay and graceful manner he had typified the
Quebec of the chevaliers, which the grave and solid burghers of Albany
regarded with dread and aversion and yet with a strange sort of
attraction.
He did not deny to himself that he too felt the attraction. An unknown
kinship with Quebec, either in blood or imagination, was calling. He
wondered if he would see St. Luc there, but on reflection he decided
that it was impossible. The mission of the chevalier to the Hodenosaunee
would require a long absence.


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