His covert allusions and sharp innuendoes were perfectly understood
by his hearers, and signs of dissentient feeling were rife among
the crowd. Still, the people continued to listen, on the whole
respectfully; for, whatever might be the sentiment of Old France
with respect to the Jesuits, they had in New France inherited the
profound respect of the colonists, and deserved it.
A few gentlemen, some in military, some in fashionable civil attire,
strolled up towards the crowd, but stood somewhat aloof and outside
of it. The market people pressed closer and closer round the
platform, listening with mouths open and eager eyes to the sermon,
storing it away in their retentive memories, which would reproduce
every word of it when they sat round the fireside in the coming
winter evenings.
One or two Recollets stood at a modest distance from the crowd,
still as statues, with their hands hid in the sleeves of their gray
gowns, shaking their heads at the arguments, and still more at
the invectives of the preacher; for the Recollets were accused,
wrongfully perhaps, of studying the five propositions of Port Royal
more than beseemed the humble followers of St.
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