Saviour's. Not even his modesty was recognized; and, in
his grand tour, no one was impressed by all that he was, except once. An
ancestor, a grandmother of his, had come from the Basque country; and so
down to St. Jean Pied de Port he went; for he came of a race who set
great store by mothers and grandmothers. At St. Jean Pied de Port he was
more at home. He was, in a sense, a foreigner among foreigners there, and
the people were not quizzical, since he was an outsider in any case and
not a native returned, as he had been in Normandy. He learned to play
pelota, the Basque game taken from the Spaniards, and he even allowed
himself a little of that oratory which, as they say, has its habitat
chiefly in Gascony. And because he had found an audience at last, he
became a liberal host, and spent freely of his dollars, as he had never
done either in Normandy, Paris, or elsewhere. So freely did he spend,
that when he again embarked at Bordeaux for Quebec, he had only enough
cash left to see him through the remainder of his journey in the great
world. Yet he left France with his self-respect restored, and he even
waved her a fond adieu, as the creaking Antoine broke heavily into the
waters of the Bay of Biscay, while he cried:
"My little ship,
It bears me far
From lights of home
To alien star.
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