Read "The Power And The Glory" by Gilbert Parker online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A few hours later Seignelay was visited by the Abbé Potin, who came to influence him against La Salle. They were both astute men, but Seignelay was far the bigger in character and in intellect, and he was without prejudice against La Salle--and now without prejudice against Frontenac. His face showed little emotion. It was calm, powerful, implacable, determined. He was handsomer than his father Colbert, and nearly as able. He had the greater spirit of France conceived by Richelieu, developed by Mazarin, and continued by Colbert with Louis XIV.
As the Abbé approached the palace, full of sophistry and subtlety, his whole being alert, he heard a young woman singing: "Ah, if I had a round penny, Ah, if I had a round penny, I could buy a white lamb, La verdi, la verdon, Et loupe, sautez, donc, la verdon."