Gaspé

“ Crees are like dogs, always ready to bite if you turn your head away; but the Blackfeet have large hearts, and love hospitality."
"After all, those men in the reeds may only be on the watch for fear of a surprise from the Crees," continued Gaspé.
"Will there be a fight?" asked Wilfred breathlessly.
"No, I think not," answered Gaspé. "The Crees have lived amongst us whites so long they have given up the war-path. But," he added confidentially, "I have locked our old Indian in the kitchen, for if they caught sight of him they might say we were friends of the Crees, and set on us." ”

“ It was of those dark hours Gaspé loved to make his grandfather talk, and he was thinking that nothing would divert Wilfred from his troubled thoughts like one of grandfather's stories. The night drew on. The snow was falling thicker and denser than before. Mr. De Brunier turned his chair to the stove, afraid to go to bed with the Blackfoot camp within half-a-mile of his wooden walls.
"They might," he said, "have a fancy to give us a midnight scare, to see what more they could get." ”

“ Have I no duty to the helpless old man who has welcomed me so kindly? How will Bowkett behave to him?" Wilfred felt much stronger to battle through with the hunter on his uncle's behalf, than when he thought only of himself. "The brave and loyal die at their posts. Gaspé would, rather than run away—rather than do anything that looked like running away." ”

“ From this woodland shrine there is a wonderful view of the Gaspé Mountains on the north shore of Bay Chaleur. Caraquet has other visions less material. On nights preceding heavy wind and storm the horizon is blazoned with the shape of a flaming boat. This is the Fire Ship. Every one has seen it at some time, to many it has appeared more than once. And all whose eyes behold are fearful of the morrow. ”

“ CHAPTER X. VOYAGE FROM TADOUSSAC TO ISLE PERCÉE.—DESCRIPTION OF MOLUES BAY, THE ISLAND OF BONAVENTURE, BAY OF CHALEUR: ALSO SEVERAL RIVERS, LAKES, AND COUNTRIES WHERE THERE ARE VARIOUS KINDS OF MINES. At once, after arriving at Tadoussac, we embarked for Gaspé, about a hundred leagues distant. On the thirteenth day of the month, we met a troop of savages encamped on the south shore, nearly half way between Tadoussac and Gaspé. The name of the Sagamore who led them is Armouchides, who is regarded as one of the most intelligent and daring of the savages. ”

“ Wilfred was ready to embrace the nearest.
Gaspé caught his arm. "You are too much of a human icicle for that," he cried. "I'll bring up the blankets next. Roll yourself up in them and get warm gradually, or you will be worse than ever. You must take care of yourself, for I dare not stop. It is always a bit dangerous when the Indians come up in such numbers to a little station like this. There is nobody but grandfather and me and our two men about the place, and what are four against a hundred? But all know what to do. Chirag watches inside the house, I outside, and Louison keeps the shop door. ”

“ The interior of the Peninsula is a maze of mountains, forests, mines, fishing waters, plains and high barrens. The area of nearly three million acres is portioned into three counties, Matane, Bonaventure and Gaspé. The north shore has fewer villages than the south, and no railway. Above the Bay Chaleur defiles a splendid range of serrated peaks which climb down to the margin of the sea, terminating there in massive cliffs and ramparts. ”

“ We have found our man; and they’ll be here to-night with him. I came on ahead to see how you fared.”
In that frost-bitten world Jeff Hyde uncovered his head for a moment. “Gaspe Toujours is a papist,” he said, “but he read me some of that book the day you left, and one thing we went to sleep on: it was that about ‘Lightenin’ the darkness, and defendin’ us from all the perils and dangers of this night.’” Here Gaspe Toujours made the sign of the cross. Jeff Hyde continued half apologetically for his comrade: “That comes natural to Gaspe Toujours—I guess it always does to papists. ”

“ The traveller who for the first time fares the length of the Peninsula to Gaspé Basin, a long day's journey from main roads of travel, does so with misgiving as to what sort of tavern will, in so remote a place, offer him hospitality. ”

“ Two savages were invited on board. By accident or design, as they stepped on deck, their skiff was upset and set adrift. The astonished natives found themselves in the white men's power, but food and gay clothing allayed fear. They willingly consented to accompany Cartier to France. Somewhere north of Gaspé the smoke of the French fishing fleet was seen ascending from the sea, as the fishermen rocked in their dories cooking the midday meal. ”

“ All is therefore, in a measure, doubtful. It will hardly help the Northmen to class this Newport relic with their works. See Palfrey's New England, vol. i, pp. 57-9.
[69] Many have supposed that the skeleton in armor, dug up near Fall River, was a relic of the Northmen, and one of those men killed by the natives in the battle with Karlsefne. But it would be far more reasonable to look for traces of the Northmen among the Indians of Gaspe, who, at an early day, were distinguished for an unusual degree of civilization. ”

“ Gasper, secretly affianced to Cleomelia, is conveyed out of Bengal by an avaricious father to prevent him from marrying, and she, believing him unfaithful, gives her hand to the generous Heartlove. Informed of the truth by a letter from her lover announcing his speedy return, she boards a ship bound for England, leaving her husband and lover to fight a duel in which Heartlove falls. Meanwhile the heroine is shipwrecked, finds a new suitor in the ship's captain, and hearing of her husband's death and of Gasper's marriage to a Spanish lady, marries the captain. ”

“ Judge, then, what dreadful oaths that ill-tempered nation must have invented in the course of three centuries!"
"I surrender," said Jules. "But go on, my dear José."
"'Devil's wench!' exclaimed my late father, 'is that your gratitude for my de profundis and all my other prayers? You'd drag me into the orgie, would you? I was thinking you must have been in for at least three or four thousand years of purgatory for your pranks; and you had only killed two husbands—which was a mere52 nothing. ”

“ Sagesse stopped as Gaspard, leaving the bulkhead, took a seat at the table right opposite to him.
“You will do a lot,” said Gaspard, “if I take you by the throat and drag you out on deck and fling you into the harbour like the carrion you are. I have given you my word to go with you, on your cursed expedition, and go I will. Let no more be said. You talk of hunting for bones, you will find them. Skeleton Island ought to be the name of that place and if you don’t leave your own skeleton there you will be lucky.” ”

“ Gaspar wished to jump off and let the great creature go; but it was so high, and went on so steadily, that he could not get a chance. At last they passed through a gate in a high wall, which he thought must be the Chinese Wall, and a pagoda in the distance soon convinced him that he was right.
“I shall at least see peaked shoes and mandarins, and that is some satisfaction,” he thought, and rode on, looking about him with great curiosity, until he came to a palace all gilding and porcelain. Here the horse came to a stand, as if he had been wound up to go so far and no farther. ”

“ He took the run and gave the jump, but the little man shot up high into the air, and he might as well have tried to jump over the moon.
“It is a most singular thing!” said Gaspar to himself; “a little gray man, not much larger than I am, and yet he seems to be every where at once, like sheet lightning. There is no getting by him, and all the time he looks at me with those bright eyes and that quiet smile, as if he were really very much amused. ”

“ Go, Gaspard, and see that all is done well. In the mean time let us talk over family matters among ourselves. See, here am I, come, as I [Pg 14] said, from the Americas, and without a soul belonging to me but my servant Gaspard. Let us, then, all live together—you, my sister, and Oliver and me and Gaspard. To-night I will sleep here in your house. To-morrow Oliver and I shall go to Paris and choose another lodging, for this is a poor place for the sister and the nephew of a rich American to live. ”

“ All I wish to do in the present instance is to warn you, Gaspar, against your own impetuosity in dealing with this Villequier. Be warned against that man! be careful! Promise him nothing; commit yourself absolutely to nothing, unless upon good and sufficient proof that he too deals sincerely with you. He is not one to be trusted, Gaspar, even in the slightest of things; and promise me not to commit yourself with him in any respect whatsoever. ”

“ Mighty fine it is nowadays, with its front built all of stone, and its rooms lofty and light; but to me and Gaspar—will you laugh if I say to Gabrielle too?—to us the Yellow Pig is timber and brick, with a low dark little room up a steep flight of stairs for its chief guest-chamber.
"Ah, sir, your valour has received my humble letter?"
"Never mind your humble letter, I want your Rhenish wine," quoth Gaspar.
"You shall have it, most noble, you shall have it ere the words are a minute old. At great risk and mighty cost it has been brought through the Spaniards' army. ”

“ Those friends at the table who are faithful so long as it is spread with good cheer, but who vanish when the platter and the beaker are empty—say that they are Gascons, and that explains all. Should you encounter a fellow who boasts of his gallantries and the favours he has received from fair ladies, intimate that he is a Gascon, and all will know the worth of his statements. The word Gascon suffices to comprehend various characters never estimable. But it must not be supposed that all Gascons are such sorry creatures as those spoken of above. ”

“ What a tumbling, a flying, a groaning, a screaming! Never before were such confusion and fear in an assembly of bobbing mandarins. But Gaspar felt his breast swell with courage. Throwing off his long robes, he sprang upon the lion, and struggled fiercely with him; but the powerful creature would soon have laid him low if he had not suddenly remembered the dagger, sharpened in his conflict with the little gray man. Drawing it from the belt in which he always wore it, beneath his embroidered robe, he plunged it into the lion's throat, and victory was won. ”

“ Then, while he, Gaspard, drugged and asleep, lay snoring in his tent, Sagesse, with Jules perhaps to help him, came here, dug, found what they sought, collected their men, collected their stores, rowed to La Belle Arlésienne, up-anchored, and sailed away north for the American coast.
The blood rushed to Gaspard’s face as he thought of this, Sagesse’s words, spoken in the café of the Rue Victor Hugo, came back to him. “It is men like you who fill stokeholds.” ”

“ Gaspar filled a cup:
"There, drink that, and say if it isn't the divinest liquor ever laid the dust in your gullet."
"Ah!—yes, it's good!" quoth Vermeil.
"Good? Don't insult it with a word like that Try again: there! Good, eh? It's divine, it's spiritual, it's inspiration, it's all the blessings in one, it's battle and sword-play and sudden death, it's Rhenish! And fair's fair; come, I'll have a goblet now! Sit down to it, man! Drink away and I'll sing you a song!"
And waving the goblet round his head Gaspar began to roar out a German catch:
"Up with the goblet and down with the wine ”

“ There are to be found among them men of rare merit, and men with plenty of courage, men as honest as are any others. But, actually, all Gascons do not come from Gascony. Every nation under the sun breeds its braggarts and false braves. 'The true Gascons,' says a writer who knew them well in their own land washed by the Garonne, ’the true Gascons possess a good deal of heart, and are desirous of making all the world aware of the fact.' But I am not satisfied that they do not make display of more heart than they actually possess. ”

“ Throw, Gaspar—and may the devil so direct, that you throw less!" He took up his poniard with a very decided air, while Gaspar in turn quietly rattled the box.
"Five and five—ten!" said he with cool triumph, looking around him; "one has saved him."
"Stay! let us look at them," cried Cifuentes, in a voice almost amounting to a shriek. "Ten, indeed! Par Diez! he has escaped me just now. But a time may yet come—"
"Silence!" roared Gaspar. "Señor," said he, advancing towards Ronald, who now began to breathe more freely, "I have saved your life,—for this time at least. ”

“ GASPARD AND RÉNÉE.
‘Shall it be in the spring time, dear?’ Gaspard said, as he stood in the house that his hands had builded for his bride, and let his glance rest lovingly on her bright face. ‘Say, dear, shall we light our fire on this hearth when the snows melt on Mount Friolent, and the flowers bloom under the hedges yonder?’
If she did not answer him in words, he was nevertheless well contented. And it was settled that so it should be: for not even the neighbours could disapprove of such a marriage. Were not the two born for each other? ”

“ The bird on the branch, the dog in his kennel, the sheep in the field, the boats moored in the Loire, even, became alive and vocal. The latter, leaving the shore, abandoned themselves gaily to the current. The Gascon gave a last twirl to his mustache, a last turn to his hair, brushed, from habit, the brim of his hat with the sleeve of his doublet, and went downstairs. ”