Bigot's countenance fell a little as he met the intensely hostile gaze,
but in a moment he recovered himself and began to pay compliments to
Willet and the Iroquois. Robert felt the charm of his manner and saw why
he was so strong with a great body of the French in New France. Then his
eyes wandered to the others who stood near like courtiers around a king,
and he noticed that foremost among them was a man of mean appearance and
presuming manner, none other, he soon learned, than the notorious Joseph
Cadet, confederate of Bigot, in time to become Commissary General of New
France, the son of a Quebec butcher, who had begun life as a pilot boy,
and who was now one of the most powerful men in those regions of the New
World that paid allegiance to the House of Bourbon. Near him stood Pean,
the Town Mayor of Quebec, a soldier of energy, but deep in corrupt
bargains with Cadet, and just beyond Pean was his partner, Penisseault,
and near them were their wives, of whom scandal spoke many a true word,
and beyond them were the Commissary of Marine, Varin, a Frenchman, small
and insignificant of appearance, the Intendant's secretary, Deschenaux,
the son of a shoemaker at Quebec, Cadet's trusted clerk, Corpron and
Maurin, a humpback.
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