carrying him back to France. This savage potentate was himself brought to
Lisieux to see his French fellow-sovereign; and the jovial king, eagerly
convinced, decided to send Cartier forth again, to explore for other
wonders, and perhaps bring back other kingly brethren. Meanwhile, however,
as it was getting to be an affair of royalty, he decided to send also a
gentleman of higher grade than a pilot, and so selected Jean Francois de
la Roche, Sieur de Roberval, whom he commissioned as lieutenant and
governor of Canada and Hochelaga. Roberval was a gentleman of credit and
renown in Picardy, and was sometimes jocosely called by Francis "the
little king of Vimeu." He was commissioned at Fontainebleau, and proceeded
to superintend the building of ships at St. Malo.

Marguerite Roberval, his fair-haired and black-eyed niece, was to go with
him on the voyage, with other ladies of high birth, and also with the
widowed Madame de Noailles, her _gouvernante_. Roberval himself
remained at St. Malo to superintend the building of the ships, and
Marguerite and her _gouvernante_ would sit for hours in a beautiful
nook by the shipyards, where they could overlook the vessels in rapid
construction, or else watch the wondrous swirl of the tide as it swept in
and out, leaving the harbor bare at low tide, but with eight fathoms of
water when the tide was full. The designer of the ships often came, cap in
hand, to ask or answer questions--one of those frank and manly French
fishermen and pilots, whom the French novelists describe as "_un solide
gaillard_," or such as Victor Hugo paints in his "Les Travailleurs de
la Mer." The son of a notary, Etienne Gosselin was better educated than
most of the young noblemen whom Marguerite knew, and only his passion for
the sea and for nautical construction had kept him a shipbuilder. No
wonder that the young Marguerite, who had led the sheltered life of the
French maiden, was attracted by his manly look, his open face, his merry
blue eyes, and curly hair. There was about her a tinge of romance, which