"With your favor, monsieur, we will not," replied the engineer decisively.
He rose from his seat.
"Speaking for myself, I have had sufficient wine, and I shall retire. If the masons bring in the loads of stone we expect in the morning, we shall be able to lay the first course by noon."
Joncaire twisted his face into a grimace as de Lery ascended a steep flight of ladder-stairs to an upper story.
"What a man to live with!" he apostrophized. "Mon Dieu, nobody knows the agonies I suffer! Me, I am a man of compassion, of friendliness, of respect for another's opinion. But that man—tonnerrr-rrr-rr-re de Dieu! For him there are no opinions but his own."
"What is the difficulty, monsieur?" I inquired sympathetically.
"Why, at last I have persuaded this stupid, timorous government of ours to build me a proper fort. 'Tis the only way we shall hold the sacré English in check.
"You have intelligence, Jean. You know the country to the West. 'Tis manifest that with a fort here we can control in some measure the intercourse betwixt the western tribes and the English. Also, we shall have a constant threat here to keep the Iroquois at peace."
"That is readily understood, monsieur."
"Of course. Well, I worked up Vaudreuil to approve it, obtained the grants from Paris, secured the necessary mechanics—and then they sent this popinjay to supervise the work. I had pitched on this site here. He would have none of it. No, he must overturn all my plans and put the new works several miles down the river where it runs into the lake.