What allies for a refined
grand seigneur of France! It was a costly burden to feed them.
Sometimes they made howling demands for brandy and for bouillon,
by which they meant human blood. Many of them were cannibals.
Once Montcalm had to give some of them, at his own cost, a feast
of three oxen roasted whole. To his disgust, they gorged
themselves and danced round the room shouting their savage
war-cries.
The Governor of Canada, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil,
belonged to one of the most ancient families of France, related
to that of Levis. He had been born in Canada where his father was
Governor for the long period of twenty-two years, from 1703 to
1725, and in his outlook and prejudices he was wholly of New
France, with a passionate devotion to its people, and a deep
resentment at any airs of superiority assumed by those who came
from old France. A certain admiration is due to Vaudreuil for his
championship of the Canadians and even of the savages of the land
of his birth against officers of his own rank and caste who came
from France.
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