Page:Pioneersorsource01cooprich.djvu/158

 the Frenchman—"ver judgement but it is in de Catholique country dat dey build de—vat you call—ah a-ah-ha la grande cathedrale—de big church. St. Paul Londre, is ver fine; ver bootiful; ver grand vat you call beeg; but, Monsieur Ben, pardonnez moi, it is no vort so much as Notre Dame"

"Ha! Mounsheer, what is that you say?" cried Benjamin—"St. Paul's Church not worth so much as a damn! Mayhap you may be thinking, too that the Royal Billy isn't as good a ship as the Billy de Paris; but she would have lick'd two of her any day, and in all weathers."

As Benjamin had assumed a very threatening kind of attitude, flourishing an arm, with a bunch at the end of it, that was half as big as Monsieur Le Quoi's head, Richard thought it time to interpose his authority.

"Hush, Benjamin, hush," he said; "you both misunderstand Monsieur Le Quoi, and forget yourself.—But here comes Mr. Grant, and the service will commence. Let us go in."

The Frenchman, who received Benjamin's reply with a well-bred good humour, that would not admit of an feeling but pity for the other's ignorance, bowed in acquiescence, and followed his companion.

Hiram and the Major-Domo brought up the rear, the latter grumbling, as he entered the building—

"If-so-be that the King of France had so much as a house to live in, that would lay alongside of Paul's, one might put up with their jaw. It's more than flesh and blood can bear, to hear a Frenchman run down an English church in this manner. Why, Squire Doolittle, I've been at the whipping of two of them in one day clean—clean built, snug frigates, with standing-royals, and them