“Le Point de non Retour” (The Point of No Return )

By Sharon Desruisseaux

Imagine leaving all you know behind for good to head for a land so far away and different that it is beyond your wildest dreams? That is what the Hebert family did. In fact, they had a very profitable business in running an apothecary in downtown Paris and all was perfect. That is for anyone else, but them. Yet their dreams pushed and drove them to run for the unfathomable new world so far across the ocean. In those days, Canada was a vast wilderness filled with mystery and promise .Untouched and raw. Anything could happen. Louis Hebert went ahead to the new world to see what it was all about and in hopes of bringing his family there to settle.

His wife Marie, however, was not to be undone for though she was safe in Paris in the beginning of it all; she was acquiring skills of her own to survive and prepare for making their dreams a reality. She learned the skills necessary to survive in the rough and open terrain of New France with no possibility of help. Marie was raised as the daughter of a wealthy merchant and her husband was a successful apothecary-would she learn those new skills required for a family to survive alone so far from any aid? Then, what about actually getting there? It was so far away and almost inaccessible.

Follow Louis Hebert as he learned to navigate the politics of the era. France was more than eager to jump aboard to settle in the New World, yet they had plans of their own. They wanted all they could gain in profits from there and the fur trade was just showing its promise. King Henry IV was more than willing to have his people settle in the infinite terrain overseas, yet not too thrilled about funding them. He had his eye on the profit and thus the fur monopolies were started. Once they were underway, the wars began for full control over territory in the New World. Then there was the land battle...Enter Samuel Champlain, a young navigator and cartographer who inquisitively had his eyes on finding a route to the Orient where he could see in his dreams of wealth and riches - cities populated by the French along the way. Yet, the land drew him and roped him in. Trip after trip from France to Arcadie-the land he sought to claim for France, the land found his heart warming even more with each trip he made. Will he find his trade route? Well, history tells us that answer of course. In addition, there was Jean Poutrincourt, a nobleman from a daunting lineage. This was a man who saw hope and glory. He was the younger son and had luckily inherited his fair share of his family's estate, yet it was not enough. He wanted more. He saw in his dreams at night a huge Chateau on rolling hills and his descendants growing fat off the food of the land. He spent every penny he owned and from his wife's dowry in doing all he could with each cell of his aging body to make his dreams come true. With his wit and charm, it almost seemed possible, yet; again, there was the politics of the era. Road block after roadblock and with the will of all-somehow they managed to take that first terrifying step in a land so very far away from all they had even known. Such bravery and determination is noted well by the author in this epic tale of such remarkable and profound people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brooks-Goding Publications
• Release date: Jan 6, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301187300

Sharon Desruisseaux

She and her daughters have moved to the rural foothills of Maine from the bustling Southeastern Massachusetts area where they were raised, in search of a better life and a refreshing new pace. She is the present owner of "Meadow Brook Farm & Studio". The artist and owner, Sharon, specializes in children's portraits and hats made in an ancient technique from her herd of Icelandic Sheep. She has many years experience as a paralegal and insurance, which has only aided her research skills. She currently has a career in Finance as well as being an historical fiction novelist. She wears many hats and even the ones she makes from the wool of her own Icelandic sheep! Check out her author site for more details on her novels and interesting facts at http://www.sharondnovels.com/ or join on as a fan at Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4447463 Check out her latest postings on Twitter as smbrooksi and then of course there is the site for her fiber farm at http://www.mymainesheep.webs.com/ or LIKE her on Facebook (very cool page in that there is also information on history as well and interesting poll questions to keep your mind active) http://www.facebook.com/Sharondnovels

Book preview

PROLOGUE …

April 18th, 1649.

"My life has been anything other than ordinary. I am Marie Claudine Rollet Hebert Hubou. Under each name I have had, I have lived a different life and all of them in summation made me as I am today. For only in my old age, have I found the time to write it all down for my children and their children. For many years, I have not even had proper ink available to write it down during the long and tedious winters of my new homeland. Alas, I drift on as is common in these past years. Sometimes it seems that the past is right here in front of me to actually touch and feel. However, the pain is not relived again, of which I am gratefully thankful for and count the many blessings that have been granted to me during my long life.

My days are growing together and time is blending into one steady stream of events lately, time is not prejudiced to interpret in my memory. Perhaps it is a kindness to me. I will never know for sure. For faces that I know are long gone, reach out and beckon to me, smiling in comfort. Perhaps they are only mere shadows of my life and my soul yearns for them in the end of my days? Perhaps…

My tears have long since faded into the wisdom and lessons learned over the years. My smiles are etched onto my weather worn face. The lines show the roads that I have traveled and the hardships I have endured with grace and a strong backbone granted in my youth.

I am tired and my bones ache from honest hard work. Yet, now I see my life’s work behind me in the sun-dappled faces of my grandchildren. This land loves them as it once tested me.

I suppose this testament of life is to remind my children and theirs that life is full of mystery and promise and that one must reach out and grab life to live it truly. For what would my life been like had I stayed with the familiar and safe? I suppose that I still would have written this, but it would have been a lot shorter in duration, perhaps even a bit pretentious and bourgeois as the life of which I was born.

I do not know that if I had been born somewhere else or in some other time, I would have chosen the same paths that I did. On the other hand, would my life have been half as fulfilling and real and enough to fill out this empty stack of papers before my pondering soul?

The ghosts of decisions past and the results of them are forever reminding me of lessons learned and steps taken. Some of the steps were glorious indeed and some were well cried over after completed. I have spent endless days wondering what life would have been like had I taken another road. I suppose I would not have access to the wisdom that I have gained the hard way to add to these pages.

Brilliant colors and dances in time have led me to this moment at the sunset of my many days. They seek to catch up to the moment where I sit and run together in time along with them. Hence, I have a great need to write all of my life down before it blends too gray to tell the tale.

First, I will tell of what France was like before the time of my birth to set the stage for you of my entrance into this lively tale.

"To cross the Rubicon…" It referred to a mere river that was known as un-crossable in his time, as we had the vast Atlantic Ocean in our time. As Julius Caesar noted from his campaigns eons ago, the men in my own era had taken those steps a bit further than he once did. They had decided to cross the barriers of the known world to enter the lands beyond the horizon. It is translated to mean that one must take a decisive step in life. This quote firmly leads my life.

For generations before my own, anglers from the north of France and along the channel had sent out their ships full of hope in order to do just that. They traveled beyond the horizon. For most it was a matter of initially fishing along the coast of Ireland and then noting that in sailing to the west beyond that Island, the land birds were traveling yet further west.

It was whispered that five hundred years before, the barbaric Vikings had actually discovered a land rich with grapes and fertile soil that was empty and lush and waiting for people to fill it.

I suppose it would have been grand to settle the lands unknown for just that reason, because they were there. Unfortunately, there were always other interpretations and utilizations of a good conceptual idea. The new interpretation of my own time was for profit.

For in England the race for this new interpretation of an ideal concept was born in the mind and actions of John Cabot. He brought the new era that I was born into down to a great and prosperous fruition with his first voyage on June 24, 1497.

Monsieur Cabot was the Captain of a ship called The Matthew and he had managed to convince his regent, King Henry VII of England to support him. This adventurous man had told his king of the riches to be found in the Spice Islands in Cathay. He was further convinced that a short-cut lay to the west through the unknown lands that only anglers knew of. He was so sure of the existence of this route that he named it the Strait of Anian.

His ship, The Matthew, landed off the coast of Cape Breton Island. He was armed with a declaration from his king that gave him permission to subdue, occupy, and possess the land and to give unto the king all of the fruits of the land. Well, similar to those words anyhow. Therefore, with his first steps on the lands across the horizon, the land was claimed for England.

As soon as this discovery was made, Monsieur Cabot died three years subsequent. Thus, nothing further was done for quite some time.

In France, politics were growing even more diverse by the year. We were entering a new era. I feel that it started with the entrance of Catherine de Medici, the daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino of Florence. Catherine was born into excessive wealth and opulence of the leading family of all of Christendom of our time. Her family the Medici’s was well known for their support of artists, theologians, philosophers, and all other great thinkers to come across their notice.

Catherine was born to witness many great ideas and philosophies of our age. She was the first of women in our time to try to change them and she was whom I looked to in times of trouble and contemplation in my life’s travails.

Next to lead, the road soon more trod upon were the voyages of the Portuguese Verrazano and Gomez. In 1524, Monsieurs Verrazano and Gomez traveled with a Norman crew of fifty men on a ship called The Dauphine. They traveled under the Fleur de lis of France. In that voyage, they named the land Arcadia. They sailed up the coast of Arcadia into the Bay of Fundy and arrived back in Europe allegedly with fifty-eight live natives of that land that were captured somewhere off the coast of the upper Massachusetts Bay Colony and further north to what is recently called Nova Scotia.

After this time, Europeans considered the Americas to be as far south and far north as one could imagine. The boundaries were yet determined. The area called Arcadia was nothing new to the fishermen or anglers of the Basque area of Brittany and of Normandy back then. They had long since discovered the land beyond that had yielded for them a great profit in furs, knives, native pottery, axes, and cloth.

During my lifetime in later years, Roi Henri IV of France had taken the path for potential profit of the English King before him, Henry VII. Roi or King Henri IV had the power to grant monopolies. This gave the grantee the sole right to trade in certain commodities, no matter where in Arcadia it was found, or taken from. This only set the stage for the book before me.

In the year of our Lord 1533, Catherine de Medici married the promising young Duke of Orleans, Henri Valois.

The year after the wedding of Catherine and Henri, Jacques Cartier made his entrance into history. In 1534, Cartier received a commission from Henri, Roi de France. This commission was for him to travel to New France with two ships and sixty-one men. On April 20 of that year, he left Saint Malo with his company of men. He continued westward beyond familiar fishing grounds searching for the passage to Asia. He skirted the mainland coast and beyond it on the Gaspe peninsula, he set up a tall wooden cross, thirty feet high, carrying a shield and three fleur de lis and at the top was the legend, Vive le Roi de France. Monsieur Cartier discovered Montreal and Saint Laurence that year of 1534.

In this voyage, he crossed Belle Isle for the second time and then sailed up the Fleuve Saint Laurent as far as the native village where he named the site Stradaconna, later to be known as the settlement of Quebec where I am now. At that time, it was a native settlement that was untouched by any Europeans.

In October of 1535, Monsieur Cartier left their sea going ships at the native village of Stradaconna and traveled to what was then called Hochelaga, to observe the communal huts of the Iroquois. At Hochelaga, he climbed the hill behind the village to observe the Ottawa River and the Lachine Rapids. Cartier named the hill Mont Real (Mont Royal) from which the settlement name of Montreal is derived. Cartier and his men were the first organized group of Europeans to spend the winter in Canada, and they spent the winter in the native settlement and trading post of Stradaconna of which was later to be known as Quebec. By the spring of 1536, Cartier and his men went back down to the Fleuve Saint Laurent and by summer were back in the port of Saint Malo.

In the year of our Lord 1537, Henri, Duke of Orleans became the Dauphin after the death of his older brother and Catherine became the Dauphiness of France.

During the winter of 1541-1542; Cartier spent another winter at Quebec, which was a hard one after which he later returned in the spring to France, leaving de Roberval (his co-adventurer), behind to spend the next winter at the post of Stradaconna.

The next winter of 1542-1543, de Roberval spent the winter at Stradaconna as was suggested by Monsieur Cartier, while Cartier returned to France for the much-needed supplies. Cartier had claimed the explored lands for the King of France. This caused unrest with the English because they had claimed the lands around the mouth of the Fleuve Saint Laurent, as their own from the voyage of Cabot, forty years prior. The English felt that the French were claim jumpers. The English might have been the first to put a pole in the ground for their country; they were not the first to winter there- the French were! Cartier returned to Arcadia and Stradaconna in the spring of 1542.

On March 31, 1547: Henri, Duke of Orleans had become Henri II of France and Catherine became the Queen of France. Henri succeeded his older brother Francois to become King of France. Francois had died after a game of tennis.

My Papa, Claude Rollet was born in the year 1550 in a small village near the fishing port of La Rochelle. He was the youngest son of his family and was destined for entry into the priesthood. The family inheritance, though meager was never to be his. At the time of his birth, this was well known by all, except him.

Almost one year later to the day, my future husband and father of my children Louis Hebert’s mother Jacqueline Pajot was born to her elegant Parisian family. She was the seventh child of Simon and Jehanne Pajot.

Jacqueline’s favorite sibling was the younger of the twins named Isaac, who later married Catherine Gaude. Isaac and Catherine Pajot had two daughters. The first was named Catherine who later became a nun in the holy church of the Notre Dame de Paris. The younger daughter was Marie Claude who would play an important part in my life and that of my darling Louis.

That same year that Marie Claude Pajot was born, our close friend Samuel Champlain was born at a small sea port town in the old province of Brouage, which is located southeast of Roquefort and opposite the Island of Oleron. He never spoke to us of his childhood, though would often relate tales of his love of the sea that was given to him by his uncle for whom he was named after.

On July 10, 1559, Henri II died. Henri the II died after one of his infamous jousting tournaments from being pierced in the eye. Despite the noble efforts of his surgeon Pare, he succumbed to his mortality. The political career of Catherine truly began then. Her son, Francois, became the King of France and married Marie Stuart of Scotland. Mary’s uncles, the Guises were in power in France. This fact must have overtaxed Catherine’s patience with their extremist Catholic beliefs.

At the death of her husband, Catherine stepped down as Queen and became the Queen Mother, while her physically weak son Francois came into reign as the King.

Mary Stuart was made Queen of Scotland after the death of her father when she was only nine months old. Her mother was Marie de Guise, from a powerful royal house in France. Mary’s father was the King of Scotland, James V and she was the only surviving child of that royal union.

Catherine truly had the power behind her son who was constantly falling ill and still very young in age. Yet, the Guises, who were staunchly Roman Catholic held the country in the thrall of a radical Catholicism. Marie Stuart of Scotland was the rightful Queen of Scotland and the Queen of France. So much power for a girl still in her peak of innocence…

Catherine de Medici was torn between the power of the Catholics and the persuasive commentaries of the Huguenots or Protestants who had begun to rely on her possibly due to her well-known love for the psalms of Marot, which were indisputably Huguenot in view. Inspired by them she had recently promised the Prince de Conde and the Admiral de Coligny, who were Huguenot leaders, liberty and security to them and their followers.

In March of 1560, Catherine was obliged to allow the Guises to quell the conspiracy of Amboise, and for a few months to exercise a sort of Catholic dictatorship.

Then in August of 1560, to check their power, Catherine appointed Michel de l’Hopital chancellor, who was a Calvinist. This was a reformist Protestant movement in France started by a man named John Calvin or Jean Cauvin. She then convoked an assembly of notables at Fontainebleau at which it was decided that the punishment of heretics should be suspended, and the States General, from which religious peace was looked for, were to meet in December of 1560.

On December 5th: the young King François de Valois died of an aneurysm to the brain at the age of 16 after having reigned barely a year after the death of his father Henri II. He was the oldest son of Catherine and the King of France. His young queen, Marie Stuart, departed France to reign in Scotland, which left the Guises without their most powerful chess piece.

Due to her son’s death, the planned meeting was not held and the policy remained the same as it had during the brief reign of Francois II. Catherine was continually moving alliance between Catholics and Protestants in order to establish the dominion of the royal family. She was forever maneuvering to attain Elizabeth I of England as a daughter in law and Catholic Spain with Philip II.

Charles, her second son then acceded the throne after the death of Francois II to become Charles IX. He was only ten years old at the time. Catherine was regent and virtually sole ruler of France due to his youth.

Catherine then named Anthony of Bourbon, King of Navarre who was a Protestant, the lieutenant general of the kingdom. This caused quite a stir across France. It increased the power of L’Hopital, and inflicted upon the extremist Guise family a sort of political defeat by imposing a major political block in power to the marriage of Marie Stuart to Don Carlos, son of Philip II. It also convoked the conference of Poissy in an endeavor to bring about the theological understanding between the Catholics and the Huguenots.

In January of 1562: Catherine de Medici opposed her son-in-law Philip II of Spain, who demanded severity against the Huguenots and the edict in place that he then set. She opposed it publicly and insured their toleration.

In March of that year, spring arrived to the great halls of Chateau Chambord, where the royal family was safe and secure from the infamous Vassy Massacre. This great bloodshed had only opened the door for religious war. That factor alone was a victory for the Guise’s policy and a defeat for that of regent, Catherine. This famous event was of the death of eighty Huguenot’s who worshipped in a barn at the town of Vassy and were killed on the whim of Francois, the Second Duke of Guise. In this action-the eighty mentioned worshippers were killed and many others were injured. This event sparked several other such events that led to the treaty, which ensued in January of 1562 in order to quash any further atrocities.

On the political front of France in the early part of the year, on February 18 of 1563, occurred the assignation of Poltrot de Mere, who was of the Guise family by a Huguenot. This only hastened the hour of peace that was prayed for by the populace. On March 12, 1563: due to the assignation of Poltrot de Mere, the Treaty of Amboise had granted in writing, certain liberties to the Protestants.

On June 27, 1563, Catherine’s son, Charles IX had reached his majority and declared to her that she should govern more than ever… Therefore, on the next day, Catherine, had sent him to recover LeHave, which Admiral de Coligny had yielded to the English. This was to show Europe that they had no discord between the Huguenots and the Catholics,

In 1564, Jacqueline Pajot married Nicolas Hebert. They were married at the Seine in Paris, Isle de France. He was the personal physician of the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici.

Chateau de Channonceau was Catherine’s favorite residence in Amboise, France. When her late husband Henri died and her son Francois took the reign of the throne of France, she took over the palace from the royal mistress Diane de Poitiers, and added the second of the two marvelous gardens. Catherine was the one who added the famous addition over the water.

(A painting of Chateau Channonceau by, Karen Brooks)

Nicolas Hebert was a grocier and apothecary from Saint Germaine-des-Pres, which was a popular district in Paris, France. The Queen Mother frequented his lush Shoppe on the Boulevard de Saint-Germaine near the oldest church in Paris of which the Boulevard was named. She would visit Monsieur Hebert on many occasions with her attendants when in residence at the Chateau Louvre.

She had stress ailments that could keep her in bed for days fretting over her family’s power in France, the house of Valois. Nicholas would prepare a medicinal tea, which had the ingredient of the bright purple herb Valerian and sweetened with the root of licorice, among other ingredients-his son, my beloved Louis, later perfected this.

This was a new life for Jacqueline, entering into the hustle and bustle of the busy Parisian court life. She had spent her whole life in the rustic countryside of her families’ manor in virtual political obscurity. Jacqueline recalled that her mother warned her of the dangers of Paris and the intrigues that were well known there as she was sent off to her new life with her energetic husband Nicolas. They were both eager to take part in whatever life offered and soon after they were married, they seemed almost immediately to enter into the court life with a brief start in Amboise. In an interesting note of the times, Jacqueline had been betrothed two prior times from early childhood of which both of those promised to her had died.

The opulence of Chateau Channonceau must have assailed their young senses as well as the other many royal residences, including the Chateau Blois. The addition of Catherine to Château Channonceau was built magnificently over the river, almost cascading over it. Two large gardens adorned the roadway that lead to this impressive home of their employer. Chateau Chambord was refurbished by Francois I, from an old hunting lodge into a new royal residence and was a large as a city.

On April 11, 1564, Catherine and her son the king, made a treaty with England and it assured Calais to the possession of France. This was an important port along the channel. It was in the prior hands of the English, though on French soil. Soon after the treaty was made, the Queen mother and her son, made a tour of the provinces. Their absence left the young Nicolas and Jacqueline Hebert to dance in the glow of the rich court life in the recognition of the Queen.

My mother Anne was born this year. I was never told where her family was from or of her heritage. I had learned while young from her that she was the youngest of a large family that owned a farm somewhere far away.

Maman had told me that her father was a squire to a famous knight in England. I had assumed that she was from there, though she had never verified it to me. She had a sweet accent that seemed almost musical to my very young ears and her face has long since faded from memory. She had told me that she and Papa had fallen in love when her mother had presented her to court in Paris. They did not have much hope, but what could it hurt to dream for their beloved daughter.

It was whispered that she did not have much luck where she was from, since her father was involved in a scandal and was apparently hung for it. It was cried over by Maman when young. She had thought that I was asleep. Had her father been entangled in a web that was well beyond his means and had died for it? I was never led to believe that he was an outlaw of any sort.

The family of my papa had long since settled in La Rochelle across the channel of their homeland as small fishing merchants and had set up a Shoppe there.

At the end of 1564, the first child was born to Nicolas and Jacqueline Hebert. Her name was Charlotte. She was born in their first residence in Paris.

Meanwhile in June of 1565, the Bayonne Interview between Catherine and the Duke of Alba caused a renewal of trouble; the Protestants spread the rumor that the great Queen Mother had conspired against them with the King of Spain and a serious resort to arms was underway.

Unfortunately, by being close to the busy life of Paris, it had opened up the door for scandal to reach the Hebert family. For on May 28, 1566, Guillaume Hebert was born to Barbe Laniepe, who was the mistress of Nicolas Hebert. There was no mention as to how this sad woman had died, only that her son was added to the household of Nicolas and his new wife Jacqueline. Guillaume and the other children of Nicolas were simply told that Barbe had died in childbirth. Perhaps, one would wonder, if she had been secretly sent away to live on a farm far from the life of Paris. Jacqueline had also found out that her Nicolas possibly had at least two other mistresses named Marie Auvray and Renee Savoreau.

These women had only been hinted at, though sealed the fate of the future Jacqueline and her attitude in life. For after that, the small provincial farm girl who was previously sheltered from all of the possible horrors of court life by her parents, had begun to form her hard shell. This shell would become in later years as strong as steel and caused many a dispute amongst the family with her domination. She became cynical and cold, so hardened by the court life that molded her. She told her wayward husband to keep his scandalous affairs well away from her and the family. That Guillaume would be the last one accepted into her home.

In 1568, I suppose Jacqueline finally forgave her wayward husband his indiscretions to keep the family peace for in June of that year Jacques Hebert was born. On the other hand, perhaps she was only doing her wifely duty.

In all of the tales told of the mighty Jacqueline Hebert, never once was it told that she had treated the son of her husband’s mistress any different from her own son. She possibly adored that child for the joy he grew to be and held him blameless for any tears she had cried over his mother. Her love for the two boys grew, especially since her first-born daughter Charlotte had died the year before at the tender age of five. Thus in 1571, when another daughter was born to Jacqueline and Nicolas, they named her Charlotte in memory of their first precious gift.

Queen Mother Catherine de Medici would often visit the young mother Jacqueline in consolation after having lost some of her own children. She had never healed after the death of her precious Francois. She had missed nursing him and felt idle, even though she played a notorious part in Paris politics through her children who reigned after her husband.

On August 19, 1572, Henri Duke de Navarre married Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Catherine De Medici and King Henry II. His father was Antoine de Bourbon Duc De Vendome and his mother was Jeanne D'Albret the Queen of Navarre. It was a bold political move in uniting the religions to marry her daughter to this brave young Duke. No one could dispute his path to the throne of France. The move was so audacious that a famous massacre took place on their wedding day that was named the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in which several thousand Protestants were killed in Paris and throughout France.

On May 30, 1574, Catherine’s son Charles IX died. Henri, the Duke of Anjou, was the next to become King. He became Henri III and Catherine had recently made him the King of Poland. Catherine loved her third son, but only had a limited influence over him.

In 1575 at Saint-Germaine, L’Auxer at a house called Montier D’Or or the Golden Mortar (an apothecary tool used in mixing herbs) in Paris, which was located at 129 Rue Saint Honore in the Quarter de Saint Germaine, my darling Louis was born to his parents Jacqueline and Nicolas Hebert. He was the younger brother of Charlotte, Guillaume and Jacques and was adored by them all and even the Queen Mother visited the young family to wish them all well with their new son.

On May 5 the next year, Catherine’s son Henri III, brought about a treaty to the Protestants called the ‘Treaty of the Monsieur’. In this treaty, the concessions made to the Protestants brought about the Holy League for the protection of Catholic interests. The power of the Guises grew rapidly and Catherine suffered cruelly as a result.

Through all of the strife of religion, the Heberts remained relatively outside of the politics that fired around them and were still in the heart of their beloved and strong-willed Queen Mother and benefactress.

The following year in 1577 brought about another bundle of joy to the elated Heberts, Marye Marie Hebert. She was always blissfully ignorant of the wiles of court life that seemed to surround the doting family but never entangle them after Jacqueline laid down her ultimatum. Life was peaceful for them, yet all the emotion was from their mother, who doled out skepticism to the world outside the nursery of the house called "Montier D’Or in Paris.

In 1579, my parents married after their fateful meeting in the court of Paris. Both with hearts full of hope at their good fortune. My papa was named Claude and was a humble nobleman from the faraway fishing village outside of the famous port of La Rochelle, in search of his fortune in the court of Paris. I assumed that he probably appeared all of the far-removed royalty that he was. It was whispered around my home as a child that his family had held lands across the channel and was many generations removed from the lineage of the throne to really matter, yet enough to grant him a visit to the court. Another scandal had even caused my father to change his name to Roulette. I had in later years tried to research his family in vain, having only found Rowlett’s in England, though no positive proof of the actual connection to my own family. Did the family have connections to the royal line of England? It was almost as if all traces of my father’s family had been erased at the death of his father. Such was the mystery that I inherited.

Not until I met my darling Louis, did I even begin to understand the complexities and great universe of the family close and extended. This world had never touched the one that I was born into for both of my parents had settled far from where they were from and only ended up in Paris to escape something. I never did find out exactly what until much later on in my life.

Maman was from England, but told her children nothing of her former life, only brief mentions of her personal memories, leaving no true trace of actual names or places. She probably had something to hide or did not want to relive. As if by not mentioning those places where her roots were from, it might keep their hiding place secret to protect us.

I suppose that was what drew my own parents together and solidified their bond. I never recalled one word spoken harshly to the other, only a strong love that emanated through the whole room when both were present. I cherished those memories long after and wished for them for myself when I grew up and I thought all parents shared this love. Never had I heard of marriages made for political gain or marriages that had to be endured. I had believed in my child-hood innocence that two hearts would always find the other for which it belonged.

Later that year on October 27, the older sister of Louis, Charlotte married Nicolas Maheut. That same year, Rene Maheut was born to Charlotte Hebert Maheut and Nicolas Maheut.

On September 15, 1580, Jacqueline Pajot Hebert died at their home in Paris; Louis was only five years old at the time. His youngest sister Marye Marie was three when she was left without a mother. Guillaume was fourteen, Jacques was twelve, and Charlotte was nine. By this time, the younger children of Jacqueline and Nicolas were in the care of his Cousin Marie Claude who was their only family in Paris. She who was yearning for her own children had given them great amounts of love while in her care.

Louis and Marye were originally sent to live with the older brother of his mother named Hugues Pajot and his wife Barbe. When it was learned that her pregnancy was proving to be complicated, the children were sent to live with their aunt Marie Claude, the younger niece of their mother who was six years the younger. Barbe Pajot was feared to be near the point of death during her eighth pregnancy when the children were discreetly sent away to live with Marie Claude and her husband Jean.

The rest of the Heberts and Pajot family were far from the city where their father had his business. Jacqueline also had a great fondness for the betrothed of Marie Claude named Jean Biencourt de Poutrincourt. She knew how her son Louis adored the man and wanted to be like him as well as his own father.

It was at this home that Louis found his love for travel, which far exceeded his love in the family trade of being an apothecary and grocier. By the time that Catherine’s youngest son had died and the Valois family lost their grip on the throne of France, Nicolas was earning his business at his Shoppe in Paris at Pres de Saint Germaine due to his reputation of being her favorite. The children were often by their father’s side in frequent visits him upon the doting arm of their Taunte Marie Claude or their Oncle Jean."

Fleurette or Little flower was what Maman called me from my earliest memory, while Claude was to them their petit fleur de lis after the flower of their new homeland. My Maman must have had her hands full with my twin brother and me.

My earliest precise memory of Louis Hebert was in the year 1586, when I was barely six years old and Louis was a grown boy of eleven.

By the spring of 1586, the settlers of Roanoke were barely surviving on roots and oysters. Sir Francis Drake picked them up and brought them back to England. Sir Francis Drake had just returned from his orders from Queen Elizabeth, which were to raid the Spaniards in the West Indies."

-written by Marie Rollet Hebert Hubou

(Photo of Chateau Channonceau taken by Karen Brooks in 2000)

Chapter 1

That morning the sun poured rapturously through the tall windows of their fashionable home. Fleurette awoke to the new day at the sounds from the kitchen servants in the street level chamber preparing their morning meal. Her brother’s curls fell from his evening cap on the pillow made of the softest down from their chicken house out back. She watched him for a few moments until their Maman came into the nursery to rouse them for their meal. She appeared an angel to little Marie with her skin almost as white as the winter snow with her always-bright rosy cheeks. Her hair was long and unbound in the morning before it was prepared by her maid and fell way past her hips.

Maman arrived in the chamber in her long cotton evening gown with her cap in her hands almost in perfect presentation as if for the stage. She appeared an angel with her perfection at all times. When most people would appear rather out of sorts-, she was never askew. Her hair was the color of the darkest of moonlit nights and soft as clouds. Maman loved to wear gowns that were bright and glittered like the sun or the honey from the hives out back. She would shine over anyone who was in her presence since her gowns glittered so.

Though they lived in Paris, all of the fashionable townhouses had their own chicken coop with fresh eggs and honey hives. Their own home was built over two hundred years ago and was solidly constructed with huge beams of hardwood. The floors might have tilted a bit, though it was hardly noticeable to the family who resided within.

That morning was a promising one for Fleurette for she knew that her Maman was going to the grocier in town, a man by the name of Monsieur Hebert. He always gave her and Claude cinnamon sticks while they waited for their Maman.

Ma petit Fleurette and brave little fleur de lis, today is the day we go into town! A new adventure awaits you little ones! With that almost in perfect unison, her little twins jumped out of bed to the sound of their mother’s voice.

Their tiny feet touched the soft fur rug that papa had purchased the month before from a land far across the sea. It was dark brown almost the color of the old Oak tree in the front of their home. Papa had told them that it came from a ferocious giant animal called the bear. He also told them that there used to be some a long time ago here and from where his family was from, though are very rare and not quite as large as this one was from across the ocean.

The rug greeted their tiny cold toes and almost protected them from the elements outside of their tall nursery window that was edged with the cold early spring frost. The diamond paned lead-glass windows always showed a view outside that looked as if it were underwater. Yet, the children loved it, especially how the sun would dance as it shone through by adding whimsical patterns to the floor.

Into the room came their nurse, Madame Perrine, who bustled amply her large and comforting frame into the nursery as if it were her own to shuffle her two young charges in the ready for their mother’s errand to town. Maman left to be dressed herself by her own servants.

Madame Perrine would accompany twins while Madame Roulette would tend to business matters with Monsieur Hebert and the errands at the town market.

Madame Perinne sang an old folk tune while she briskly took off their sleeping gowns and caps and adorned them in the brocaded fashions of the time. Little Mademoiselle Claudine would be wearing an exact replica of her mother’s gown that was made of the darkest of green brocade, stiffly starched to meet the latest of fashions. The embroidery was exquisite and wandered almost frivolously down the large puffy sleeves to taper off her delicate hands ending in a fine starched lace border that was matched at the hem. She laced the fine silken chord into the tiny button loops that lined down the back of the dress over a much smaller replica of her own mother’s imported bone hoop. This flared out the skirt. The shirt tapered at the bottom down to a v halfway down the length of the long floor length stiffly flounced skirt.

Madame Perinne looked at the little mademoiselle and could not help to admire her work in dressing her. Her small cap tilted perfectly, she would do well in compliment to her mother. Her petit grace was just starting to notice as well her lady-like tolerance to the modern fashions. Madame Perinne had plaited her little charge’s hair with care and pinned the soft tresses just so. She would look the almost perfect miniature replica of her mother.

She looked over at her petit Monsieur Claude and the work of their man- servant, Jacques. His tiny cap was in the latest of fashion and made of the same fabric as the garments of his sister and mother. The fabric was recently purchased by the merchant from the land of Cathay and was embroidered with the silk made from worms. His jacket was short and tapered up front and had a small tail in the back over his puffy and stiff upper leggings. The under-leggings were made of the softest of silk tied up to his waist underneath, with the wrinkles neatly smoothed out. He appeared a smaller version of his father in fashion.

Little Claude’s garb was complete when his small dagger was placed into the hilt that his father had just given him that had the family crest on it. He even had a few tiny coppers in his money purse given to him by his mother so that he could feel like a little man. Little Claude pranced around the room while he was waiting for his sister waiving his small dagger in the air in challenge of his imaginary foes. En garde, you evil daemon, I shall banish you from our castle. I protect the damsels fair!

Marie giggled in response to her brother. She so wanted to be a soldier as her brother would be and wondered why girls were not allowed. Madame Perinne, I want a dagger too!

Fleurette, you know that swords belong to the boys, for they will protect you. Your brother will be very brave when he grows up and someday your own husband will protect you as well! She continued, Besides, you must stand still while I adjust these pins!

Madame, I want to protect all of you and Maman and Papa as well! For I fight as well as Claude. Claude made me a sword of my own out of wood and I almost always beat him!

Mon Dieu! Fleurette, you must stop that nonsense at once, for it is no way for a lady to behave. You must learn to tend to a manor, while your husband someday will fight the battles to protect his king and country and even yourself!

Both of the twins started what they called the endless giggle and almost rolled to the ground in laughter. They did in spirit to the dismay of Perrine and Jacques who waived up their hands at this. They knew the two little charges were literally trapped to the fashion of their station. They could not even begin to be the children they were when all starched up in their town clothes. In exasperation, the two adults stood there trapped by their laughter praying that the clothes would at least hold up until they reached town, even if only a few blocks away.

The rustling of the keys worn around the waist of their mother signaled her arrival. They clanked to announce her arrival and her importance of station. For the whole house answered to her alone after Papa.

My little Claude and Claudine, have you been the cause of mischief for your poor nurse? She smiled mischievously to her two children and then looked over at the nurse as if to almost show her sympathy.

Come stand beside your old Maman and let us glance into the looking glass to see what a little lady and gentleman that you both are!

With that, Claude and Claudine ran the best that they could in their stiffly starched forest green garments. Perrine and Jacques could not help but notice how well the two children complimented their mother. With their hair, the same deepest shade of brown possible framed their oval faces. The children’s faces were more round than their mother’s and appeared like dots, so adorable were they in their fine noble fashion. Madame Roulette had the hair of the oldest tribes of Britain and she appeared almost as beautiful as the legendary Boadicea must have looked. She was tall and graceful and carried herself like a Queen. Her long stiff gown only made her more magical for she made it appear to all as if she were gliding into each chamber that she entered. Her keys and money bag that hung from her waist revealed her station as the lady of the small manor.

Next to Madame Roulette, her children appeared the perfect noble miniatures of their parents with their mother’s fine dark hair. Their father had hair of a light brown that was rich in curls. The children inherited the long cascading curls of both of their parents. The fashion of the time dictated that it be finely plaited under a small cap. Still it did not make her appearance severe, as it would to the average woman who was a slave to the fashion as Madame Roulette.

Madame led her charges out of the house, a twin on each side. They all walked on the neatly swept cobbled street with the shadows of the imposing and ancient townhouses greeting them on all sides. The streets were already teeming with life, the noises filled with the certain joie de vivre of the French in commerce. The smell of manure of the medieval slop drains that trailed the metropolitan street was almost inevitable and mingled with the fresh, strong, and pungent herbs of the fast approaching apothecary Shoppe. They had only walked a few blocks when they approached the grand façade of the Shoppe Hebert, named Le Mortier D’Or or the Golden Mortar. The mortar was part of an apothecary’s most important tool, the mortar, and pestle that was used to ground the precious herbs used in medicinals.

It was rather ostentatious for the block and seemed almost to dominate the street in its grandeur. Everyone knew that Monsieur Hebert was the personal physician of the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici, mother to King Henri III.

Maman had told them that the stone of the building’s façade was imported from Florence and was chosen by her majesty herself. That fact brought looks of wonder from the children and even from Jacques and Perrine.

They entered the front of the imposing structure that had large glass windows of the latest and newest of fashions that was of leaded heavy glass welded in triangles. Everything seemed new and freshly painted.

Inside, the ground meandered in to the parlor towards the grand heavy oak doors. The sign looming ominously overhead in fine French Script displayed the name with pride. The chamber was lavishly decorated in fine heavy velvets that covered plushy deep and ornately carved dark mahogany wood furniture. This was the chamber where they would wait for their Maman to be served. The drying herbs out back, wafted into the room to assault the senses in a pleasant manner.

They waited only a moment before a young man entered the room. He had flaxen blonde hair and was dressed in the latest Parisian fashion. His garment was of a dark blue that appeared to the little Fleurette, the color of midnight. It matched his soft eyes that looked at the group assembled in the waiting room.

Mesdames and Messieurs! Welcome to my father’s fine establishment! He scanned the room with an equally welcoming voice. My name is Louis, I am his apprentice!

Ah, Monsieur! What a joy to see you young Louis! It has been many years and you have grown into a fine young man! How like your father you look! Turn round! Maman always had a way with young men, for her great beauty seemed to command the attention of men of any age as they jumped to her command, always prettily placed.

Ah, Madame Roulette, what a pleasure to see you again! And what a fine young lady and gentleman you have attending you! He smiled, for the twins delighted in his comment in that they were grown adults.

Non, Monsieur, I am Marie Claudine, her daughter! Her dimples shone bright with whimsy as they all laughed at the little Mademoiselle.

No Claudiney, you are Maman’s little Fleurette! Claude thought the name was deprecatory and not the endearment that it was to their mother.

A fleurette indeed, for someday, you will grow into a beautiful blossom like your mother, for you are a perfect miniature of her!

Louis noticed the children gathered in fascination next to Madame Roulette. He hoped someday to find a wife such as her for all who knew her, admired her control of the large household of her merchant husband and she earned considerable respect for such. When he grew up to be a man and apothecary like his father, he would hope to have a fine wife like Madame Roulette, since his older brothers Guillaume and Jacques had already taken wives by now, and soon it would be his own turn.

Louis’ own father respected and admired Madame Roulette and it was whispered throughout the most notorious gossip circles in Paris that she was from English nobility and that her own father had been involved in some sort of political scandal. Naturally, Paris only welcomed such intrigue and basked in the glow of the mystery that Madame Roulette guarded as well as her dainty money purse. The people of Paris loved the mystery and welcomed any scandal, especially from England with relish and anticipation. It forever fueled the gossipmongers of the street, which disguised themselves in titles and old noble lineage.

Louis and his father knew that Madame Roulette kept closely guarded her secret, possibly from even her own children. She would not join in the ridiculous fun of the nobles and kept soundly and respectfully to her own business.

Into the room sauntered Nicolas Hebert with the unmistakable grace of a close confident of the royals. He was tall like his son promised to be with a regal Nordic air about him. It was reputed that his family was originally from Switzerland deep in the Alps.

Mesdames and Messieurs, I see that you have met my noble youngest son, Louis!

All joined Monsieur Hebert with his contagious smile.

Monsieur Nicolas, How are your other children Jacques and Guillaume and Charlotte? I hear that darling Charlotte married Monsieur Maheut?

You hear correctly Madame. Only this year, their first child was born, a fine young son named Rene! He absolutely beamed in pride over this, as did his son Louis who stood proudly beside his father.

Madame Roulette, I have some fine tobacco for your husband from the Americas.

"Oh, I am sure that he would love to try it Monsieur.

Monsieur, did you hear of the settlers the English have sent to their colony of Virginia… I hear that it is a second attempt to colonize their settlement called Roanoke. Do you believe that it will fare well, unlike the first time?"

Ah, Madame Anne, your fine attention to politics serves you well. For it should not concern you at all. They will probably do fine. I had also heard that Sir Francis Drake is leaving to check on the colony and will be there by the end of the month, should the winds direct them well.

I hope they are all right, for they are brave and noble souls to risk all to live so far away from home in a new and barbaric land!

Rightfully so Madame! Are they your own kin Madame? He inquired in concern knowing that she was from England.

Non, Monsieur, for I only greatly admire their bravery and strength to do what has never been done before.

Louis has dreams to be an apothecary on those same barbaric lands when he grows up, do you not my son? He looked down indulgently at his tall young son.

That I do papa! He almost seemed to stand taller at the thought of his dreams of a great future overseas.

You better hope that the King of France takes a fancy for settling overseas, for this to occur. I do not think that England will allow a boy with close connections with the Queen Mother to join in their campaign. He laughed softly over this.

Oui Monsieur, I agree. However, I feel that young Louis will make a fine adventurer and apothecary like his father. He seems the type of young man that will make gold appear to everything that he touches with his interest!

The twins looked admirably at the young man before them and wondered if they too would be allowed to travel to the glorious land far across the horizon. They heard rumors from the servants of the riches to be found over there and of how wild and untouched the land was with fierce natives painted in wondrous colors.

Claudine wondered if she too would be allowed to go. Her Maman and Perrine, her nurse were always telling her the proper behavior of a young lady and she guessed that going to a wild land across the world was not exactly proper.

Louis almost appeared to sense her thoughts for he seemed to focus on her eyes alone and winked at her. No one seemed to know, nor even care of this little exchange. Nevertheless, it was at this very moment that she decided that she would marry the handsome and adventurous young Louis, the son of the great and personal physician of the Queen Mother.

From this moment on, Louis was no longer just someone whom she knew from her earliest memories, but a new conquest for her. She hoped that he would notice her and learn to appreciate her for she wanted desperately to be the one that he chooses to fight beside him in the strange new land across the sea. It all seemed very adventurous to her, of what her life would be like with Louis Hebert in it.

After that day, she would find any reason at all for her Maman to take her to see the Apothecary, Monsieur Hebert and his son.

"The English still had their grip on settling a colony over-seas in 1587 while France seemed to have forgotten it, for another group of one hundred and seventeen settlers from England arrived at Roanoke Island. At least seventeen of them were women. One of them was Roanoke’s Governor White’s daughter by the name of Elizabeth and her husband Ananias Dare. Elizabeth gave birth to the first English child born in America named Virginia Dare on August 18, 1587. White, their leader set off to England for the supplies that they needed.

At this point, Catherine’s youngest son, Henri III was weakening in his grip over France as their King. For the true power belonged to the family of the Guises and their radical Catholicism.

On May 12, 1588, on the ‘Day of the Barricades’, Catherine saved her son’s honor by going in person to negotiate with Guise who received her as would a conqueror. She thus gained time for Henri III to flee secretly from Paris.

By July of that year, Catherine worked with Henri, the Duke of Guise on behalf of her son, in order for him to flee Paris. It enabled her to make a ‘Treaty of Union’ for the people of France.

On December 23, 1588, Catherine was at the palace and had bought her son more time to have the crown on his head, and more time for the Valois family on the royal throne. She had found out that her son had rid himself of Henri, Duke of Guise, by assassination. Upon learning of this, she was at the palace for a meeting with the States General. Her reaction to the news was tragic and she told her son, You have cut out, my son, but you must sew together.

In the year 1589, the English commander White finally returned to Roanoke and found the entire settlement of Roanoke abandoned with no sign of struggle. Not one settler was ever found.

Up until this point, prior to 1584, the entire east coast of the Americas was known as Florida. Then it was divided into three geographical districts; Florida (belonged to the Spaniards), Virginia (belonged to the English), and Arcadia (belonged to the French). No one was capable of defining the western borders of these three geographical areas.

My mother would recall a more festive side of Catherine de Medici, for she had attended five of the court fetes sponsored by the Queen Mother; at Fontainebleau and Bayonne; La Paradis d’Amour, Balet des Polonaise, and Le Balet Comique de la Reine. Maman loved entertainments in any form and told us all about them upon her return. Her gowns were simple, yet elegant and she carried herself as if she were a queen herself.

Years later as an adult, I would hear of another side of the late great Catherine de Medici. She was known as dictatorial, unscrupulous, calculating, and crafty. She was told that the subtlety of her policy harassed all parties concerned and perhaps might have possibly contributed to the aggravation of discord throughout the land. Catherine was intensely superstitious and surrounded herself with astrologers, though she was strongly empty in deep religious faith, and acted in favor of Catholicism only due to the advantage of that that she saw for the crown. There was never a joint interest in the church and Catherine’s religious policy. Her methods were so essentially egotistical, they bordered on cynicism wrote a few critics of her policy.

Despite her many cares, Catherine still found time to enrich the Bibliothèque Royale, to have Philibert Delorme erect the Tuileries, and Pierre Lescot build the Hotel Soissons. She was a woman of the Renaissance, a disciple of Machiavelli. A woman in a world of men who rose above all of that with the best she was allowed.

Maman saw the joy in what she created, I learned of both as a woman on my own. One thing was certain; she was a great woman of our time."

Chapter 2

The days and weeks flew by in the bliss of youth for the house full of twins. Their laughter escalated at almost all hours of sunlight when they were together. Papa, when he was done with the full day of work could not wait to bask in the glow of his cozy and vibrant family. He was not exactly a tall man, but he was wise to all who loved him. He claimed humble origins, yet carried himself like a noble king.

Maman took her little Fleurette and her brave growing Fleur de lis with her to town as a special outing for all to enjoy. Fleurette was most always by the side of her mother learning the ways of the lady that she would someday become. Her mother would tell her of how the search was going to find her daughter a proper marriage. At the age of nine, Fleurette was well aware of her future from all of those around her.

Fleurette would listen with half closed dreamy eyes, nodding when appropriate and whispering the correct responses to her mother’s natural concern for her. Yet, in her mind, she was far away. In the past years whenever Louis was at the shop of his father, he would often sit down with her and tell of the wild lands that the Vikings once found five hundred years before. He told her of Cartier, Verrazano, and Cabot. He would paint pictures of great and untouched forests far away from any sign of civilization and even bought to her commentaries from the geographers on the strange new lands. She longed to see what a native of that land would look like and her dreams at night would fill her sleep with thoughts of endless mountain ranges and pure rivers unforced by humankind.

Sometimes when all of her chores were done, Fleurette would walk to church with Louis Hebert. She would generally skip, while he had a steady purposeful stride and gazed straight ahead on their