One reason undoubtedly was the mixture of foreign blood which their name denoted.

Anything of alien race was looked upon with a mixture of fear and aversion in this village of people whose blood had flowed in one course for generations.

The Hautvilles were said to have French and Indian blood yet, in strong measure, in their veins; it was certain that they had both, although it was fairly back in history since the first Hautville, who, report said, was of a noble French family, had espoused an Iroquois Indian girl.

The sturdy males of the family had handed down the name and the characteristics of the races through years of intermarriage with the English settlers.

All the Hautvilles--the father, the four sons, and the daughter--were tall and dark, and straight as arrows, and they all had wondrous grace of manner, which abashed and half offended, while it charmed, the stiff village people.