"What!--that scarecrow, madame?"




II


"But look at him," she urged.

"I recognize first," said De Chaumont as he sauntered, "an old robe of
my own."

"His mother was reduced to coarse serge, I have been told."

"You speak of an august lady, my dear Eagle. But this is Chief Williams'
boy. He has been at the hunting lodges every summer since I came into
the wilderness. There you see his father, the half-breed Mohawk."

"I saw the dauphin in London, count. I was a little child, but his
scarred ankles and wrists and forehead are not easily forgotten."

"The dauphin died in the Temple, Eagle."

"My father and Philippe never believed that."

"Your father and Philippe were very mad royalists."

"And you have gone over to Bonaparte. They said that boy had all the
traits of the Bourbons, even to the shaping of his ear."