Surrounding Monsieur de Lauson was his staff and councillors, and the veterans Du Puys had left behind while in France.
There were names which in their time were synonyms for courage and piety.

The great Jesuits were absent in the south, in Onondaga, where they had erected a mission: Father Superior le Mercier, and Fathers Dablon and Le Moyne.
Immediately on landing, Father Chaumonot made a sign, and his sea-weary voyagers fell upon their knees and kissed the earth.

New France! "Now," said Victor, shaking himself, "let us burn up the remaining herrings and salt codfish.

I see yonder a gentleman with a haunch of venison on his shoulder." "One would think that you had had no duck or deer since we passed Acadia," laughed Du Puys.

"But, patience, lad; Monsieur de Lauson invites all the gentlemen to the Fort at six to partake of his table.
You have but four hours to wait for a feast such as will make your Paris eyes bulge." "Praise be!" As he breathed in the resinous, balsamic perfume which wafted across the mighty river from the forests and the river-rush; as his eye traveled up the glorious promontory, now mellowed in sunshine, to the summit bristling with cannon; as his gaze swept the broad reaches of the river, and returned to rest upon the joyous faces around him, joyous even in the face of daily peril, the Chevalier threw back his shoulders, as if bracing himself for the battle to come.