"Frankly, because it is not altogether untrue."
"We in trade? Our nobles skin-merchants? Is it thus that you will allow the King's permission to our order to engage in the fur trade to be stigmatised?"
"I have, Michel, seen the ways of many peoples. I have learned to look on the castes of our Canada with the same eyes as I look on those of India, the eyes of amusement, for I find in mankind everywhere the same tendencies and the same pretensions."
"But this beast of a Lecour is a liar and impostor."
"Both."
"Then I will show you your duty. Open this envelope. You have only to fill Lecour's name into the warrant it contains, and he goes under lock and key in the Bastille."
"I cannot."
"Why?"
"He is a brave man."
"Tut, you madden me, Pierre. The worst felons are bold."