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Among the few who paid her the tribute of recollection there was the generally received impression that Derek Pruyn, having discovered her relations with the Marquis de Bienville relations which, so they said, had been well known in Paris, in the days when she was still some one had dismissed her from her position in his household.
In January, 1699, fifteen years after the great Pathfinder had made his misguided landing in Texas, a small fleet from Brest was hovering about the mouth of Mobile River seeking a place for settlement. It was commanded by Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville. With him were his two brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, and Father Anastase Douay, who had accompanied La Salle.
A little later Bienville built a fort fifty-four miles above the mouth of the Great River, and he early began to insist that the future of the colony lay on its banks, not on the shores and sandy islands of the Gulf. But the time had not yet come when his ideas would prevail.
But while these preparations were being made, the two ships had been drifting closer and closer together. Soon it was seen that a collision was inevitable. Fortunately the boats were broadside on, so that the cutting effect of a blow from the bow was avoided. They were presently so near each other that the men began jumping from the deck of the "Winfield Scot" upon that of the "Bienville."
Isn't it true that George Eveleth was a rich man when you married him, and that your extravagance ruined him?" "It helped to ruin him. I plead guilty to that. I had no knowledge of the value of money; but I don't offer that as an excuse." "Isn't it true that the Marquis de Bienville was your lover, and that you were thinking of deserting your husband to go with him?"
It is nearly noon of a balmy morning late in February. Aurore Nancanou and her daughter have only this moment ceased sewing, in the small front room of No. 19 rue Bienville. Number 19 is the right-hand half of a single-story, low-roofed tenement, washed with yellow ochre, which it shares generously with whoever leans against it. It sits as fast on the ground as a toad.
And you, who are not used to the climate, must not be out after dark." "And you?" I said. "I am used to it," she replied; "I have been here three months. Lest anything should happen, it might be well for you to give me your address." "I am with Madame Gravois, in the Rue Bienville." "Madame Gravois, in the Rue Bienville," she repeated. "I shall remember. A demain, Monsieur."
They were reduced to the veriest extremity of misery, and despair had settled in every bosom, in spite of the encouragements of Bienville, who displayed the most manly fortitude amid all the trials to which he was subjected....
Pruyn," he said, after further brief hesitation, "I come to make a confession which can scarcely be a confession to any one in this room but you." Derek grew white to the lips, but remained motionless, while Bienville went on. "On the way up from South America last spring I said certain things about a certain lady which were not true.
"We have some reliable fellows in Paris, and I will send such letters as will put you in possession of all the information they have. You and they, I trust, can do the work satisfactorily, but in no event shall my name, or that of Bienville, be connected with the enterprise. If the matter should come to the King, we would lose what little hold we now have upon him.
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