Both were graceful, easy, assured, and they fulfilled Robert's
conception of French officers, as men of the world who knew courts and
manners. It was a time when courts were more important than they are
today, and they were recognized universally as the chief fountains from
which flowed honor and advancement.
Robert did not like them as well as St. Luc, but he found a certain
charm in their company. They could talk of things that interested him,
and they exerted themselves, telling indirectly of the glories of Quebec
and alluding now and then to the greater splendors of Paris and
Versailles. It was a time when the French monarchy loomed as the
greatest power in the world. The hollowness and decay of the House of
Bourbon were not yet disclosed, even to the shrewdest observers, and a
spell was cast upon all the civilized nations by the gorgeous and
glittering world of fashion and the world of arms. The influence reached
even into the depths of the vast North American wilderness and was felt
by Robert as he sat beside the camp fire in the savage woods with the
Frenchmen.
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