La Corriveau would serve her for money, but for
money also she might betray her. Angelique resolved to secure her
silence by making her the perpetrator of whatever scheme of
wickedness she might devise against the unsuspecting lady of
Beaumanoir. As for Fanchon, she need know nothing more than
Angelique told her as to the object of her mission to her terrible
aunt.
In pursuance of this design, Angelique had already sent for a couple
of Indian canoemen to embark Fanchon at the quay of the Friponne and
convey her to St. Valier.
Half-civilized and wholly-demoralized red men were always to be
found on the beach of Stadacona, as they still called the Batture of
the St. Charles, lounging about in blankets, smoking, playing dice,
or drinking pints or quarts,--as fortune favored them, or a
passenger wanted conveyance in their bark canoes, which they managed
with a dexterity unsurpassed by any boatman that ever put oar or
paddle in water, salt or fresh.
These rough fellows were safe and trusty in their profession.
Fanchon knew them slightly, and felt no fear whatever in seating
herself upon the bear skin which carpeted the bottom of their canoe.
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