warmth of your loyalty."

"Only death itself, sire, would be cold enough for that."

"Then I trust that it may remain to us for many long years. We would
thank you for the care and pains which you have spent upon our province,
and if we have recalled you, it is chiefly that we would fain hear from
your own lips how all things go there. And first, as the affairs of God
take precedence of those of France, how does the conversion of the
heathen prosper?"

"We cannot complain, sire. The good fathers, both Jesuits and
Recollets, have done their best, though indeed they are both rather
ready to abandon the affairs of the next world in order to meddle with
those of this."

"What say you to that, father?" asked Louis, glancing, with a twinkle of
the eyes, at his Jesuit confessor.

"I say, sire, that when the affairs of this world have a bearing upon
those of the next, it is indeed the duty of a good priest, as of every
other good Catholic, to guide them right."

"That is very true, sire," said De Frontenac, with an angry flush upon
his swarthy cheek; "but as long as your Majesty did me the honour to
intrust those affairs no my own guidance, I would brook no interference
in the performance of my duties, whether the meddler were clad in coat
or cassock."

"Enough, sir, enough!" said Louis sharply. "I had asked you about the