is approximately correct and, indeed, about as near the
mark as one can come after a study of the seigneurial
system in all its phases. The payment constituted a
burden, and the habitants doubtless would have welcomed
its abolition; but it was not a heavy tax upon their
energies; it was less than the Church demanded from them;
and they made no serious complaints regarding its
imposition.

The cens et rentes were paid each year on St Martin's
Day, early in November. By that time the harvest had been
flailed and safely stowed away; the poultry had fattened
among the fields of stubble. One and all, the habitants
came to the manor-house to give the seigneur his annual
tribute. Carrioles and celeches filled his yard. Women
and children were brought along, and the occasion became
a neighbourhood holiday. The manor-house was a lively
place throughout the day, the seigneur busily checking
off his lists as the habitants, one after another, drove
in with their grain, their poultry, and their wallets of
copper coins. The men smoked assiduously; so did the
women sometimes. Not infrequently, as the November air
was damp and chill, the seigneur passed his flagon of
brandy among the thirsty brotherhood, and few there were
who allowed this token of hospitality to pass them by.
With their tongues thus loosened, men and women glibly
retailed the neighbourhood gossip and the latest tidings
which had filtered through from Quebec or Montreal. There
was an incessant clatter all day long, to which the
captive fowls, with their feet bundled together but with