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As the Vicomte D'Avenel has crisply put it: "It would have seemed as strange to see a person of high rank the Treasurer of France, the Controller of Finance, or the Rector of a University, as it would be to see him a cloth-merchant or maker of crockery.... The poorest younger son of an ancient family, who would not disdain to engage himself as a page to a nobleman, or as a common soldier, would have thought himself debased by accepting the post of secretary to an ambassador."
For the bellicose qualities of the French aristocracy see also La Noblesse Française sous Richelieu by the Vicomte G. d'Avenel. Frontenac received his commission on April 6, 1672, and reached Quebec at the beginning of September.
The abandoned "Château d'Avenel," the "poor Dame Marguerite" spinning in the deserted halls and dreaming of her masters, the mysterious being who watched over the destinies of the noble family, and the amusing revival of those last vestiges of feudal times, the bailiff, the bell in the turret, the gallant paladin, the knight's banner all these things saddened our grandmothers by arousing the melancholy spectre of the good old times.
The tune of "Robin Adair," introduced by Boïeldieu and described as "le chant ordinaire de la tribu d'Avenel," would hardly be recognized by a genuine Scotchman; but what it loses in homely vigor it has gained in sweetness.
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