The bright river wound like a
silver serpent through the flat meadows in the bottom of the valley,
while the opposite slopes of alternate field and forest stretched
away to the distant range of the Laurentian hills, whose pale blue
summits mingled with the blue sky at midday or, wrapped in mist at
morn and eve, were hardly distinguishable from the clouds behind
them.
The gardens and lawns of Belmont were stirring with gay company to-
day in honor of the fete of Pierre Philibert upon his return home
from the campaign in Acadia. Troops of ladies in costumes and
toilettes of the latest Parisian fashion gladdened the eye with
pictures of grace and beauty which Paris itself could not have
surpassed. Gentlemen in full dress, in an age when dress was an
essential part of a gentleman's distinction, accompanied the ladies
with the gallantry, vivacity, and politeness belonging to France,
and to France alone.
Communication with the mother country was precarious and uncertain
by reason of the war and the blockade of the Gulf by the English
cruisers.
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