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Those too large to be entirety included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ► signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdriaur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 f 5 6 ^Piilpipp TPiE} YOUNG SEIGNEUR; OR, NATION-MAKING.^ ■.#■ BY WILFRIJ) CHATEAUCLAIR ~7- MONTREAL: Wm. Drysdale & Co., Publishers, 232 St. James Street, 1888. '?S8'f73 I5b~ /a . • ^/{}i//rfl4LLy ^:^ 141437 Entered acconling to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand elghl hundred and eighty-eight, by Wm. Dbysdale t Co. , in the, Offuecf tlic Miuisiter of Agriculture. tREFACi;. ■ t „,,. . The chief aim of this book is the perhaps too bold one — to map out a future for the Canadian nation^ which has been hitherto drifting without any plan, A lesser purpose of it is to make some of the atmosphere of French Canada understood by those who speak English. The writer hopes to have done some service to these brothers of ours in using as his hero one of those lofty characters which their circle has produced more than once. The book is not a political work. It must by no means be taken for a Grit diatribe. The writer is an old-fashioned Tory and an old- fashioned Liberal : all his parties are dead, and he is at present in a universal Opposition. The party names he uses are, therefore, in any present-day applioation, simply typical, and the work is not a poli- tical one in any curretit sense. There are those who will say his characters are untrue and impos- sible. To these he would answer : Everything here, apart from a few little inaccuracies, is studied from the life, and you can find item, man and date .or the essential particulars. A charge of Metaphysics will be advanced also, by a generation not too willing to think. Mon ami, what we give you of that is not very .™,,a. IV PREFACE. , r hard. If you cannot understand it, leave it out or study Emersoti. Thi3 main subject of the book cannot be treated otlierwise than with an attempt to ground it deeply. If Bigotry may not impossibly be laid to the author by some, because he has drawn two or three of the characters from unusual quarters and described them freely ; the many who know him will limit any phrases to the several characters as individuals. Lastly, the book is not a novel. li; consequently escapes the awful charge of being ' a novel with a purpose.' None can feel more con- scious of its imperfections than the writer, or will regret more if it treads on any sensitive toes. WILFRID CHATEAUCLAIR. Dormilliere, March, 1888. TABLE OF CONTENTS, BOOK I. Chapter „ I. ThK MaNOIR of DORMILLlilRE j II. The Young Skignkur 4 III. Haviland's Ioka J IV. The Manusouipt . jo V. CONFRfeRIE jg VI. Alexandra oq VII. QoiNFT 00 VIII. The Toboggan Slide ^ 26 IX. Assorted Enthusiasms . 29 X. The Enthusiasm of Social Pleasure .... 33 XI. The Cave 43 XII. La Mere Patrie ^ XIII. Something more op Quinet ..... 52 XIV. The Enthusiasm of Leadership ..... 64 XV. The Life of Leadership 57 BOOK IL XVT. A Political Sermon . . . . . g» XVII. Zotique's Reception jo XVIII, The American France »g XVIII. A Disappearing Order gg XIX. Human Nature 88 XX. Chez-nous 91 XXI. Deliver us from the Evil One 100 XXII, The Manufactory of Reflections io4 ^jp^w^i^ fi Vi Ohaptkr XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII. XXXIX. XL. XLI. XLII. XLIII. XLIV. XLV. TABLE OF CONTENTS* Thr Statbsman's Dbkam . Thk Institutk . » , , The Campaign Plan . . Thk Low-Countuy Sun risk . The Ideal State . . . J08BPHTE . '? . < * Grandmoulin . . . . Chamilly .... An Oration under Difficulties LiBBRGKNT .... MlS^RIOORDB . Blkus Thb Freemason The Course of True Love , ZoTIQUE's MiSGIVINGa A Crime ! . . . . The Passing of the Host The Election Haviland Refuses . Fiat Justitia . . . BOOK III. Quinbt's Contribution . . . Haviland's Principle . Daughter of the Gods Not the End Pao« 106 109 111 120 12G 134 139 145 149 161 153 VS^ 166 162 168 170 173 175 178 180 137 191 194 199 BOOK I. THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR CHAPTER I. THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIERB. In the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy odd, about six years after the confederation of the Provinces into the Dominion of Canada, an Ontarian went doM'n into Quebec, — an event then almost as rare as a Quebecker entering Ontario. " It's a queer old Province, and romantic to me," said the Mont- realer with whom old Mr. Chrysler (the Ontarian) fell in on the steamer deboending to Sorel, and who had been giving him the names of the villages they passed in the broad and verdant panorama of the shores of the St. Lawrence. In truth, it is a queer, romantic Province, that ancient Province of Quebec, — ancient in store of heroic and picturesque memories, though the three centuries of its history would look foreshortened to people of Europe, and Canada herself is not yet alive to the far-reaching import of each deed and journe^ of the chevaliers of its early days. Here, a hundred and thirty years after the Conquest, a million and a half of Normans and Bretons, speaking the language of France and preserving her institutions, still people the shores of the River and the Gulf. Their white cottages dot the banks like an endless string of THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. I pi pearls their willows shade the hamlets and lean over the courses of brooks, their tapering parish spires nestle in the landscape of their new- world patrie. ^ "What is that*?" exclaimed the Ontarian, suddenly, lifting his hand, his eyes brightening with an interest unwonted for a man beyond middle age. The steamer was passing close to the shore, making for a pier some - distance ahead ; and, surmounting the high bank, a majestic scene arose, facing them like an apparition. It was a grey Tudor mansion of weather-stained stone, with churchy pinnacles, a strange-looking bright lin roof, and, cowering around the sides and back of its grounds a lofty walk of pine trees, marshalled in dark, square, overshadowing array, out of which, as if surrounded by a guard of powerful forest spirits, the mansion looked forth like a resuscitated Elizabethan reality. Its mien seemed to say : " I am not of yesterday, and shall pass tranquilly on into ohe centuries to come : old traditions cluster quietly about my gables ; and rest is here." . "That is the Manoir of Dormilli^re," replied the Montrealer, as the steamer, whose paddles had stopped their roar, glided silently by. Impressive was the Manoir, with its cool shades and air of erect lordliness, its solemn grey walls and pinnacled gables, the beautiful depressed arch of its front door; and its dream-like foreground of river mirroring its majestic guprd of pines. "I knew," said Chrysler, "that you had your seigniories in Que- bec, and some sort of a feudal history, far back, but I never c^'eamed of such seats." : ^r. . ><' ' \" '. , >:■ 'rf' :^-'' • -''■■ ■■" ••^-.sr^^Vi.v:-.' " 0, the Seigneurs * have not yet altogether disappeared," returned the Montrealer. " Twenty years ago their position was feudal enough to be considered oppressive; ai: I here and there still, over the Pro- vince, in .oome grove of pines or elms, or at some pictur sque bend of " The old French gentry or noblesse. c';' W THE MANOIR OF DORMILLlfiRE. a riveij or in the shelter of some wooded hill beside the sea, the old- fashioned residence is to be descried, seaied in its broad demesne witl trees, gardens and capacious buildings about it, and at no great distance an old round windmill." '' Who lives in this one V " The Havilands. An English name but considered French ; — grandfather an officer, an English captain, who married tl»e heiress of the old D'Argentenayes, of this place," "Mr. Haviland is the name of the person [ am going to visit." "TheM. P. f "Yes, he if an M. P." - " A fine young fellow, then. His first> name is Chamilly. His father was a queer man — the Honorable Chateanguay — perhaps you've heard of liiml Ho was of a sort of an antiquarian and genea- logical turn, you know, and made a hobby of preserving old civilities and traditions, so that Dormilliere is said to be somewhat of a rum place." The Ontarian thanked his acquaintance and got ready for landing at the pier. THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER 11. THB YOUNG SBIGNBUR. A young man stepped forward and greeted him heartily. It was the " Chamilly " Haviland of whom they had been speaking. Mr. Chrysler and he were members together of the Dominion Parliament and the present visit was the outcome of a special purpose. "It is a pity the rest of the country does not know my people more closely," Haviland wrote in his invitption : — " If you will do my house the honor of your presence, I am sure there is much of their life to which we could introduce you." " I am delighted you arrive at this time ; " ho exclaimed. " My election is coming." And he talked cheerfully and busied himself making the visitor comfortable in his drag. As luck will have it, the enactment of one of the old local customs occurs as they sit waiting for room to drive off the pier. The rustic gathering of Lower-Canadian habitants who are crowding it with their native ponies and hay-carts and their stuff-coated, deliberate persons, is beginning to break apart as the steamer swings heavily away. The pedestrians are already stringing off along the road and each jaunty Telesphore and Jacques, the driver of a horse, leaps jovially into his cart ; but all the carts are halting a moment by some carious common accord. Why is this ? Suddenly a loud voice shouts : " Malbrouok is Dead ! " A pause follows. THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. 5 " It is not truG^^ ono forcibly contradicts. " Yes, he is dead ! " reiterates the first. " It is not true ! " insists the other. " He is dead and in his bier ! " The second is incredulous : " You but tell me that to jeer 1 " But the crowd who have been smiling gleefully over the proceed- ings, affect to resign themselves to the bad news of Malbrouck's death, and all altogether groan in hoarse bass mockery : " 9A VA MA-A-A-L ! !" * Every one immediately dashes ofif in all haste, whips crack, wheels fly, and shouting, racing and singing aJong all the roads, the country- folk rattle away to their homes. Our two . jrn their wheels towards the Manor-house, gleefully amused. " Who is Malbrouck ? " Chrysler enquired. "Marlborough. That must have been originally enacted in the French camps that fought him in Flanders. I fancy the soldiers of Montcalm shouting it at night among their tents here as they held the country against the English." They drove along looking about the country and conversing. Chrysler breathed in the fresh draughts which swept across the wide stretches of river-view that lay open in bird-like perspective from the crest of Ihe terraces on which the Dormillifere cofe. or countryside, was perched, and along which the road ran. " Come up, my little buds ! " the young man cried in French, to a pair of baby girls who, holding each others' hands, v/ere crowding on the edge of the ditch-weeds, out of the wheels' way. *' Houp-la ! " he crica, helping the laughing little things up one after the other by their hands, and then whipping forward. " How * That is bad ! i>>: f g 9il 6 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. much are you going to give me for this? Do you think we drive people for nothing, eh?" The children nestled themselves down with beaming faces. " Tell me, hidoux^^ * he laughed again, " What are you going to give me ? " Both hung their heads. One of them quickly threw her arms up around his neck and, kissing him, said, " I will pay you this way," and the other began to follow suit. " Stop, stop, my dears. You must not stifle your seigneur," he cried in the highest glee, returning their embraces. One of our poets claims that there is something of earthliness in the kisses of all but children : — *' But in a little child's warm kiss Is naught but heaven above, So sweet it is, so pure it is, So full of faith and love." So it seemed to Chrysler as he saw this first of the relations between the young Seigneur and his people. * Bidoux is a term of endearment for children. !i HAVILAND'S IDEA. CHAPTER in. HAVILAND 8 IDEA. "Grand Master.— O, if you knew what our astrologers say of tho coining age and of our age, that has in it more liistoiy witliin a hundred years than all the world had in four thou- sand years before."— CAMPANELLA—r/i« City of the Sun. ^ k; When they arrived before the Manor House front, Mr. Chrysler could almost believe himself in some ancestral place in Europe, the pinnacles clustered with such a tranquil grace and the walk of pines surrounding the place seemed to frown with such cool, dark shades. Within, he found it a comfortable mingling of ancient family por- traits and hanging swords strui.g around the walls, elaborate, ornate old mantel ornaments, an immense carved fireplace, and such modern conveniences as Eastlake Cabinets, student's lamps and electric bell. In a distant corner of the largo united dining and drawing-room, tho evidently favorite object was a full-size cast of the Apollo Belvedere. Chamilly introduced him respectfully to his grandmother, Madame Bois-Hebert, an aged, quiet lady, with dark eyes. In the expressive face of the young man could be traced a resem- blance to hers, and the grace of form and movement which his firmer limbs and greater activity gave him. were evidently something like what the dignity of mien and carriage that were still left her by age had once been. He was tall and had a handsome make, and kindly, generous face. The features of his countenance were marked ones, denoting clear intelligeint opinions ; and his hair, moustache and young beard, I :in 8 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. all of jet black, contrasted well with the color which enriched his brunet cheek. Whether it was due to a happy chance or to the surroundings of his life, or whether descent from superior races has something in it, existence had been generous to him in attractions. When Madame withdrew, after the tea, he gave Mr. Chrysler a chair by the fireplace in the drawing-room end of the apartment, for it was a cool evening, and saying : — " Do you mind this ? It is a liking of mine," stepped over to the lamps and turned them down, throwing the light of the burning wood upon the pictures and ohjets d^art which adorned the apartment. * ' The great cast of Apollo, though in shadow, stood out against a back-ground of deep red hangings in its corner and attracted the older gentleman's remarks. " I have arranged the surroundings to recall my first impression of him in the Vatican Galleries," said the other. " I was wandering among that riches of fine statues and had begun to feel it an embarras, as our own phrase goes, when I came into a chamber and saw in the midst of it this most beautiful of the deities rising lightly before me, looking ahead after the arrow he has shot." " You have been in Italy, then ?" " I have. Sir," he answered, " I have had my Italian days like Longfellow ;" and, looking into the fire, he continued low, almost to himself : — " .... Land of the Madonna : How beautiful it is ! It seems a garden Of Paradise Long years ago / I wandered as a youth among its bowers And never from my heart has faded quite Its memory, that like a summer sunset, Encircles with a ring of purple light All the horizon of my youth." As Chrysler regarded him then and heard this free expression of HAVILAND'i IDEA. 9 feeling he could not but feel that Haviland was a foreigner, different from the British peoples. " And yet," mused Haviland, in a moment again, " Have we not a more than Italy in this beautiful country of our own 1" After weighing his companion in thought for a few mc nents longer, according to a habit of his, the elder man recollected another matter: '■•/:/;:-v,. "vV^ : :-■?■■■"■'.''■•'■'■ •;:'^^^:'"-''V:. •:■.'/---'■/'■ ;V.'--,v, " You have resigned your seat in the Dominion House to enter the Provincial Why is that?" : V : " " A new turn has arrived in affairs, sir. The Honorable Genest's fever has broken him down. He cannot fill a place where activity is needed. Until the fever, he was an influence, you know, in the Dominion House, while I was in the Local. After it, he arranged that we should exchange seats, as the Legislature has latterly been so quiet. Lately, however, Picault's corruptionists, whom we thought crushed, have made another assault for the moneys, bullied, lied, and bribed, weighed their silver to the Iscariots, and edged Gcnest out of his seat." ;;■''' 'f " Who is their man here ?" " Libergent, lawyer. The election was annulled for frauds, but by moving the heavens and earth of the Courts they saved Libergent from disqualification, and now ho appears again against us. Our cause calls for energetic action in the Legislature, so Genest and I are changing places back again." " I hope you will not be lost to us long ?" " No longer than I can help. The national work will never cease to attract me. Is it not sublime this nation-making 1 — that this gene- ration, and particularly a few individuals like you, sir, and myself should be honored by Heaven with the task of founding a people ! It is as grand as the nebulous making of stars ! " The seigneur's manner was full of enthusiasm. I 'i ilii' m r li' 10 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. " I can't see it as you young men do," Chrysler said, in an in- flection suggestive of regret. " What may we effect beyond trying to keep Government pure and prudent, and we are often powerless to do even that ? Nor can we form the future character of the people much, but must leave that to themselves, don't you think V " A partial truth," he returned, meditatively, — " a great one too. When I go into the country among the farmers, I often think : ' The people are the true nation-makers.'" " And Providence has apparently designed it," the old man pro- ceeded in his gentle strain, " to be our modest lot to follow the lead of other lands more developed and better situated. Where do you discover anything striking in the outlook 1 " " I do not care for a thing because it is striking ; but I care for a great thing if it is really great. Do not think me too daring if I suggest for a moment that Canada should aim to lead the nations instead of being led. I believe that she can do it, if she only has enough persistence. A people should plan for a thousand years and be willing to wait centuries. Still, merely to lead is very subordinate in my vii / : a nation should only exist, and will only exist per- manently, if it has a reason of existence. France has hers in the needs of the inhabitants of a vast plain ; local Britain in those of an island ; with Israel it was religion ; with Imperial Rome, organised civiliza- tion ; Panhellenism had the mission of intellect ; Canada too, to exist, must have a good reason why her people shall live and act together." " What then is our ' reason of existence ? ' " " It must be an aim, a ivorJc" he said soberly." The elder man was surprised. " My dear Haviland," he exclaimed, " Are you sure you are practical ? '■ " I think I am practical, Mr. Chrysler," Haviland replied firmly. "I have that objection so thoroughly in mind, that I would not expose my news to an ordinary man. It is because you are broad, liberal HAVILAND'S IDEA. 11 \ and willing to examine matters in a large aspect, and that I think that in a largo aspect I shall be justified, as at least not unreasonable, that I open my heart to you. Ijelieve mo, I am not unpractical, but only seeking a higher plane of practicality." " But how do you propose to get the people to follow this aim 1 " " If they were shown a sensible reason v/hy they miahf, in be a nation," said he with calm distinctness, — " a reason more simple and great than any that could be advanced against it — it is all tliey would require. I propose a clear ideal for them — a vision of what Canada ought to be and do ; towards which they c ^n look, and feel that every move of progress adds a defi?ii..e stage to a definite aiid really worthy edifice." ♦* The-oretical " Chrysler murmured slowly, shaking his head. " For a man, but not for a People ! " the young Member cried. Both were silent some moments. The elder looked up at last " What sort of Ideal would you offer them 1 " " Simply Ideal Canada, and the vista of her proper national work, the highest she might be, and the best she might perform, situated as she is, all time being given and the utmost stretch of aims. As Plato's mind's eye saw his Republic, Bacon his New Atlantis, More his Utopia ; so let us see before and above us the Ideal Canada, and Ijoldly aim at the programme of doing something in the world." " Can you show me anything special that we can do in the world V* the old man asked. His caution was wavering a little. " It is not impossible I may bo with yon," he added. The Ontarian, in fact, did not object in a s])irit of cavil. He did so apparently neither to doubt nor to believe, but simply to enquire, for in life he was a business man. His father had left him large lumber interests to preserve, and the responsibility had framed his prudence. He took the same kind of care in examining the joints of Haviland's scheme as he would have exacted about the pegging or chains of a timber crib which was going to run a rapid. I 1 12 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. " Why, here for instance," answered Haviland, " are groat problems at our threshold : — Independence, Imperial Federation, both of them bearing on all advance in civilized organizations, — Unification of Races — development of our vast and peculiar areas. Education, too, Foreign Trade, Land, the Classes — press upon our attention." " You would have us awake to some such new sense of our situa- tion as Germany did in Goethe's day ?" '' I pray for no long-haired enthusiasts. We have business differ- ent from altering the names of the Latin divinities into Teutonic gutturals." " The country itself will see to that. We have the fear of the nations round about in our eyes," grimly said Chrysler; then he added : " I have never known you as well as I wish, Haviland. You speak of this work as if you had some definite system of it, while all the notions I have ever met or formed of such a thing have been partial or vague." Chamilly stood up and the firelight shone brightly and softly upon his flushed cheek ; the dark portraits on the walls seemed to look out upon him as if they lived, and the statue of Apollo to rise and asso- ciate its dignity with his. " I have a system," he said. " I almost feel like saying a commis- sion of revelation. The reason, sir, why I asked you here was that you, my venerated friend, 'might understand my ideas and sympathize with them, and help me." He hesitated. " I will ask you to read a manuscript, of which you will find the first half in your room. The remainder is not written yet." Pierre, the butler, brought in coffee and they talked more quietlj of other subjects. THE MANUSCRIPT 13 CHAPTER IV. THE MANUSCRIPT. " When yollow-loeked and crystal- eyed, I tl reamed green woods among O, then the earth was young." — Isabella Valancby Crawford. When Chrysler went up to his bedchamber he found the following on a table between two candle« : — "book op enthusiasms. Nairative of Ghamilly d^ Argentenaye Haviland. Ai the Friars' School at Dormilli^re, racing with gleeful playmates around the shady playground, or glibly reciting frequent " Paters " and " Ave Marias," other ideas of life scarce ever entered my head ; till one day my father spoke, out of his calm silence, to my grand- mother ; and with the last of his two or three sentences, " I don't destine him for a Thibetan prayer-mill," (she had fondly intended me for the priesthood) he sat down to a letter, the result of which was that I found myself in a week at the Royal Grammar School at Montreal. Here, where the great city appeared a wilderness of palaces and the large School an almost universe oi youthful Crichtons whose superiorities seemed to me the greater because I knew little of their English tongue, the contrasts with my rural Dormillifere were so striking and continual that I was set thinking by almost every occurrence. 'I ii 14 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. A French boy ia nothing^ if not imaginative. The time seemed to me a momentouB opoch big with the question : " What patli shall I follow t " I admired the prize boys who were so clover and famous. I took a prize myself, and felt heaven in the clapping. I admired those equally who were skilled at athletics. I saw a tournament of sports and envied the sparkling cups and medals. These, — to be a brilliant man of learning and an athlete — seemed to me the two great caro(^rs of existence ! The first step, out of a number that were to come, towards a great discovery, was thus unconsciously by mo taken. What is greater than Life ? what discovery is more momentous than of its profound meaning 1 Anything I am or may do is the outcome of this one dis- covery I later made, which seems to me the very Secret of the World. But hold : — there is a memory in my earlier recollection, more fixed than the trees — they were poplars — of the Friars' School play- grcund. I leaped into a seat beside my father in the carriage ono day, and we drove back far into the country. Green and pleasant all the landscape we passed. Or did it pass us, I was thinking in my weird little mind ? Wo arrived at length at wide gates and drove up an avenue, liued by stately trees and running between broad grain fields, which led to a court shaded with leafy giants of elms and cobbled in an antique fashion; and under the woof of boughs and leaves overhead ran a very long old country-house, cottage-built. Surpassingly peaceful, and secluded was its air. It had oblique-angle- ad, shingled gables, and many windows with tliin-ribbed blinds ; -id a high bit of gallery. On one hand near it, under the hugest of the trees was a cool, white, well-house of stone, like a little tower. I remember vividly the red-stained door of that. On the other hand. THE MANUSCRIPT. w a short distance off, commenced the capacious pile of the barns. Close at the back of the house ran a long wooded hill. It was the ancient Manoir of Esneval — the Maison Blanche. — one of the relics of a feudal time. As wo drove in and our wheels stopped, a little exquisite girl sto( I on the gallery, looking. Her child's face eyed us with wonder but courage for a few moments ; then she ran within and, to the pang and regret of my heart, she appeared no more. The little, brave face of the Manoir d'Esneval haunied me, child as I was, for years. 16 THE YOUNG SMGNEUR CHAPTER V. CONPRBRIF. * McGill University sits among her grounds upon the beginning of the slope of Mount Royal which lifts its foliage-foaming crest above it like an immense surge just about to break and bury the grey halls, the verdant Campus and the lovely secluded corner of brookside park. It owes its foundation to a public-spirited gentleman merchant of other days, the Honorable James McGill, whose portrait, in queue and ruffles, is brought forth in state at Founder's Festival, and who in the days of the Honorable Hudson's Bay Co.'s prime, stored his merchandize in the stout old blue warehouses* by the Place Jacqaes- Cartier, and thought out his ^ar-sighted gifts to the country In the retirement of this pretty manor by the Mountain. To that little corner of brookside park it was often my custor.i to withdraw in the evenings. The trees, little and great, were my com- panions, and the sky looked down like a friend, between their leaves. One night, at summer's close, when the dark blue of the sky was unusually deep and luminous, and the moon only a tender crescent of light, I lay on the grass in the darkness, under my favorite tree, an oak, among whoso boughs the almost imperceptible moonbeams rioted. I was hidden by the shadows of a little grove just in front of roe. The path passed between, about a couple of yards away. 3(11 !i * NoTB— Now tume,d into the restaurant called the " Chateau de Raraozay," and soon pre hahly to be demolished. ^ : • - ,tj -^^^ ■; ' ?** s •-■: •: ; CONFRERIE. 17 Every stroller seemed to have gone, and I had, I thought, the peace of the surroundings to myself. All were not yet gone, hovveverj it seemed. The peculiar echo of steps on the hard sandy path indicated someone approaching. A shadow of a form just appeared in the darkness along the path, and turning off, disappeared for a moment into the dark grove. A deep sigh of despair surprised me. I lay still, and in a momert the form came partly between me and a glimmering of the moonlight between the branches. It was apparently a man, at least. I strained ray attention and kept perfectly still. There was something extra- ordinary about the movements of the shadow. Suddenly, it stepped forward a stride, I saw an arm go up to the head, both these became exposed in a open space of moonlight, and a glimmer reached me from something in the hand. Like a flash it came across me that I was in the presence of the extraordinary act of suicide. The glimmer was from the barrel and mountings of a revolver ! Those glintings were unmistakable. I would have leaped up and sprung into the midst of the scene at once had not something else been plain at the same moment, which startled me and froze rav blood. The arniy the face, were those of my classmate Quinet / An in- voluntary start of mine rustled a fallen dry branch, and the snap of a dry twig oi it seemed to dissolve his determination; the hand dropped, he sprang off — and rushed quickly away in the darkness. Quinet, — the life of this strange fellow always was extraordinary. There were several of our French-Canadians in college and they differed in some general respects from the English, but this striking- colored compatriot of mine, with his dark-red-brown hair, and dark- red-brown eyes set in his yellow complexion, was even from them a separated figure. He was fearfully clever : thought himself neglected : brooded upon it. His strange face and strange writings sometimes sn 18 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. Y- published, had often fastened themselves upon me. Now it was un- doubtedly my duty to save him. , '^ ' v; ' I followed h''m to his horn?, went up to his room and confronted him with the whole story, — myself more agitated than he was. I remember his passionate state : — •' Havilard, do rot wonder at me. Mankind are the key to the universe ; itnd I am sick of a world of turkey-cocks. To apeak frankly is to be proscribed ; to be kind to the unfortunate is to lose standing ; to think deeply brings the reputation of a fool. No one undei'stands me. They do not under- stand me, the imbeciles ! — Coglioni ! " cried he fiercely, grinding the Corsican cry in his teeth and rising to walk about. " As Napoleon the Great despised them so do I, Quinet. They never but made one wretched who had genius in him. Ard / have it, and dare to say that in their faces. The weapon for neglect is contempt ! If the wretched shallow world can make me miserable, they can never at least take away the delight of my superiority. I, who would have sympathized with and helped them and given my talents for them, shall look down with but scorn. Yes, I delight in these proud expressions, I am not ashamed of testifying, and one day I shall assert myself and make them bow to me, and shall hate them, and persecute them, and anatomize them for the derision of each other I " His conduct might have seemed completely lunatical to an English- man. It was strange in ar.y case. But to me it was his physique that was wrong, and I si juld see that all was put right. " Stick to me, Quinet," said I to him as soothingly as possible, " and I will always stick to you. Soyons amis, bon marin, ' Be we friends, good sailor ; ' and sail over every sea fearlesslv. Neither of us is under- stood, perhaps because our critics do not understand themselves." "Be it so," he said, dejectedly resigning himself. .,^~- . -,;-_--., His odd colour and eyes gave a kind of unearthly tone to the inter- view. CONFRERIE. 19 I met him a few days later in alaiost as great a depression again. " It's these English. I hate them. It is necessary that I should kill one." "My dearest misanthrope," I replied, "what you need is some horse-riding." ;^ „A,.i 20 THE lOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER VI. M ALEXANDRA. " Maiiitenant quo la bcUo saison dtale les 8i>lendcurs cle sa robe. ., * — Benj. Sultk. Listen ! A note is struck which, with an old magic, transforms the world ! In the dying beauty of an autumntide. Love Divine, last and most potent of the goddesses, came walking through the woods and diffused the mystery of heaven over the forest paths, the trees, the streets of the town ; and she melted into a sweet and noble human face — a face I caught but for a moment clearly on one of our galloping rideSj Quinet's and mine ; yet it remained and still looks upon me in the holy of holies of my heart's inner chapel. ' " What a rare autumn ! What perfect foliage ! What cool weather ! " Quinet had wakened up beyond my expectations, and soon we were racing along, laughing and shouting repartees at each other. We reined in at last to a walk. " Mehercle, be Charon propitious to thee when thy soul meets him at the river in Hades," he cried. " Be he propitious to thee, Chamilly, for making me a horseman i " Then the memorable picture ; — we speeding along that bit of road in ttie Park, the Mountain-side towering precipitously above us on the left and sloping beiow us in groves on the right ; our horses galloping faster and faster ; our dash into a bold rocky cutting ; our consternation ! — a young maiden picking up autumn leaves within two yards before our galloping horses ! Near by, I remember quite ALEXANDKA. 21 clearly now her companioji, and not far olF ilie carriage with golden- bay horses. '* Stop ! " I shouted. Even as I shouted, I was already past her, and the brush of Quinet's horse flying as near on the other side of her, snatched off her bouquet of autumn leaves and strewed them in a cioud. Thank God only that we had not gone over her ! The peril was frightful. My horse had had his head down and I could not pull him up. But what excited me most was the courage of the girl. She started ; bi^t rose straight and firm, facing us as we charged. Even in that instant, I could see changes of pallor and color leap across her brow and cheek — could see them as if with suoernatural vividness. Yet her eyes lighted proudly, her form held itself erect, and her cleai features triumphed with the lines as if of a superior race. She could only be compared, standing there, to an angel guarding Paradise ! How fair she was ! And the face was the face of the little girl of the Manoir of Esneval ! After the agitations of our apologies I retained just enough of my wits about me to enquire her name. " Alexandra Grant," she said gracefully enough. Ah yes, I recollected — the Grants, within a generation, had bought the Esneval Seigniory, and its Manor-house. 22 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER VII. QUINET. Now a little more of Quinet. Small, .,'aunt and strange-looking, I pitied him because he was a victim of our stupid educational wrecking systems. His was too fine an organization to have been exposed to the blunders of the scholastic managers ; for his course had exhibited signs of no less than the genius he had claimed. Most of his years of study had been spent as a precocious youth in that great Seminary of the Sulpician Fathers, the College tie Montreal. The close system of the seminaries, however, being meant for developing priests, is apt to produce two opposite poles of young men — the Ultramontane and the Red Radical. Of the bravest and keenest of the latter Quinet was. If newspapers were forbidden to be brought into the College : he had a regular supply of the most liberal If all books but those first submitted to approval were taints: Quinet was thrice caught reading Voltaire. If criticism of any of the doctrines of Catholic piety was a sin to be expiated hardly even by months of penance : there was nothing sacred to his inquiries, from the authority of the Popes of Avignon to the .stigma miracle of the Seraphic St. Francis. He was an enfant terrible; Revolutionist Rousseau had infected him ; Victor Hugo the Excommunir .ce was his literary idol ; hidden and forbidden sweets made their way by subterranean passages to his appetite ; he was the leader of a group who might some day give trouble to the Reverend gentlemen who managed the " nation Canadienne." And yet, " What a declaimer of Cicero and Bossuet ! QUINET. 23 I love him," exclaimed Uie professor of Rhetoric, in the black-robed consultations. " His meridians do me credit ! " cried the astronomical Father. No- -he was far too promising a youth to estrange by the expul- sion without ceremony which any vulgar transgressor would have got for the little finger of his offences. The record ended at length with the student himself, towards the approach of his graduation, when an article appeared in that unpardonable sheet La Lantrime du Progres, acutely describing and discussing the defects of the system of Seminary education, making a flippant allusion to a circular of His Grace the Archbishop, who prided himself on his style ; and signed openly with the boy's name at the bottom ! Imagine the severe faces of the outraged gowned, the avoidance aghast by terrified playmates — the council with closed doors, his dis- appearance into the mysterious Office to confront the Directeur alone, and the interview with him at white-heat strain beginning mildly : "My son" and ending with icy distinctness : " Then, sir. Go ! " He did go. He came to the Grammar School during my last session there, and at the end of it swept away the whole of the prizes, with the Dux Medal of the school, notwithstanding liis im- perfect knowledge of English, and was head in every subject, except good conduct and jrunctuality . At this he nearly killed himself. Proceeding, he carried off the highest scholarship among the Matriculants at the University, where his classical papers were said to be perfect. All through these two years and a half of College progress since, he had been astonishing us with similar terrible application and results. Professors encouraged, friends applauded, we wondered at and admired him. We did not envy him, however, for he became, as I commenced ,by saying, a pitiable wreck. Look at him as he stoops upon the horse ! * ♦ * * 24 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. Good old Father St. Esprit — oldest and humblest of the Order in the College — who was his friend, and whom everybody, and especially Qiiinet, venerated, took a private word with him before he departed from that institution. "My son," said ho, "I se3 the quality of thy mind, and that the Church of God will not be able to contain thee. Thou mayst wander, poor child ; yet carry thou at least in thy heart ever love of what thou seest to be good, and respect for what is venerated by another. Put this word away in thy soul in memory of thy friend the P^re St. Esprit." THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE. 25 CHAPTER VIII. THE TOBOaOAN SLIDE. " What is there in this blossom-hour should knit An omen in with every simple word ? " — Isabella Valancey Cbawfobd. During the next few days I could do nothing of interest to mo but make prudent enquiries about Alexandra Grant. I remember an ansM'er of Little Steele's " Ah — That is a beautiful girl ! " " You were beautiful, Alexandra ! " I caught glimpses of her on the street and in her carriage ; memory marks the spots by a fjlow of light ; they are my holy places. I saw her open her purse for a blind man begging on a church step. I watched her turn and speak politely to a ragged newsgirl. One day, when Quinet and I, coming down from College and seeing a little boy fall on the path, threw away our books and set him on his feet, it was her face of approval that beamed out of a carriage window on the opposite side of the street. I was introduced to her at the Mackenzie's, at a toboggan party given for Lockhart, the son, my friend. Shall I ever forget our slide on the toboggan hill and my emotions in that simple question, " Will you- slide with me 1 " I was already far into a grande passion^ — foolish and desperate. She assented, stepped over to my toboggan kindly, sat down and placed her feet under its curled front. The crown of the hill about us was illumined by a circle of Chinese lanterns, and the moon, ,j|ii,!ii|||""" 1! hi 26 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUK. rising in the East, reflected a dim light on th') fields of snow. I lifted the toboggan, gave the little run and leaped on at the end of ' the cushion, with my foot out behind to steer. Immediately wo shot down the first descent, and as I straightened the course of the quick- flying leaf of maple wood, I felt it correspond as if intelligently. The second descent spurred our rate to an electric speed. As I bent forward, the snow flying against my face, the sound of sliding growing louder and shriller, and my foot demanding a sterner pressure to steer, a surge of exhilarating emotions suddenly rushed over me, and a thought cried " This is Alexandra ! Alexandra whom you love." " Alexandra !" my heart returned, " I am so near you ! " Her two thick golden plaits of hair fell just before my eyes. She was sitting calm and straight. The toboggan shot on like a flash, and the drift beat fiercely in my eyes. But why should I heed ? Away ' Away ! Leave everything behind us and speed thou out with me, love, into some region where I can reveal to thee aloue this earnest soul which thou has awakened into such devotion ! Yet lo, our race slackening, the moment was even then over, and having carried us straight as an arrow, the toboggan undulated grace- fully like a serpent over a little rising in the path ard came to a stand. She rose. The light of the rising moon just enabled me to still catch the threaded yellow of her hair and the translucent com- plexion. ' One had been following us closely. " Permit me — ihrs next is ours, Miss Grant," he said, hastening eagerly forward to her, and I saw it was Quinet. v - ; I marked the deference which every one, old an'! young, paid to her, and at the house afterwards I looked on while a boisterous knot wore teachhig her euchre. :-'^,:''i::-\':'\-:.'^^^--\'yi' * " Change your ace," whispered Annie Lockhart, that pretty gambler. THE T()B()(!C}AN SLIDK. sr ** But," 8li(3 replied aloud in luu' frauk, inuocHMil uuuinor, '^Wouldn't that he uromj ?" The words camo to mc with tlio forco of an oraclo. " Let mo bow my hoad," I thought. " My patron ! My angel !" and as I looked upon her, passionate reverence overpowered mo. , " What am T that I dare to love you and aise my eyes towards your pure lij^dit? I am not worthy to love you !" " And you are so beautiful ! " As my meditations were pouring along in this absorbed way, a friend of ours, Grace Carter, a girl of the light, subtly graceful English type and a gay confidence of lead(!rship, came across the room. " O Mr. Haviland," she cried, " I've been watching your dolorous expression till I determined to learn how you do it ! " I half smiled at her, helplessly. ! " It is thoroughly fifth-act. The young man looks that way when he marches around in the limelight moonlight contemplating the ap- proach of the catastrophe. But what have you to do with catastrophes? Off the stage men only have that desperate look when they are in love. I trust you are safe, Mr. Haviland." She looked so arch that I could not help a laugh, though the eifect jarred on my mood. " You will find me dull, I am' afraid," I answered. • " That's of no consequence. Self-education is my mission. Believe me, I thirst for this knack of lugubriousness." I would have resented the trifling at that moment from almost any person but Grace. She divined my discomfort, veered her question- ing to College affairs, and detailed to me some amusing infor- mation on dances and engagements, to which I listened with what attention I could. But my eyes persisted in resting oftener and oftener on Alexandra, and some bread baked by her and Annie, — a triumph of amateur housekeeping —being passed by the latter in pieces 28 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. lii" among the cake, I imagined Uiat it tasted like the sacrament, and utterly lost track of what the nun'ry girl was saying. She left me to flood out her spirits on a friend wlio was rising to go ; wheioupon I recollected myself. Behold Quinet, poor follow, Quinot is too earnest for Society. Some supercilious young creature has cut him to the quick for com- mencing a historical '•emark. Smarting under his rebuke he with- draws a step or two. A kind voice accosts liim ; it is Alexandra. " Come here and speak to me, Mr. Quinet. You always talk what is worth while." " To talk of what is worth while makes enemies," he answered bitterly : " I am thinking of giving it up." " You should not do that," she said. " If I were a man I would think of nothing but the highest things." The night's sleep was broken by visions of her, as I had just seen her, so near, so fair. I tried to force my imagination into snatches of remembrance of her face as colored and clear-outlined as the reality — bearing the noble expression it had worn when she said " Would not that be wrong 1 " How I sank into self-contempt by comparison ! I wonder if Englishmen feel the passion of love as we French do. "I love her, I love her," was my burning ejaculation. " Yet how dare I love her ! I am unworthy to stand in her presence ! There is only left for me to purify and burn and subdue my heart until it is completely worthy of her holy sight. Worthy of her ! And what is worthy of her?" Again her presence passed before me and a voice seemed to cry " The highest things ! " Thenceforth " The highest thi; gs" should be my search, and noth- ing less. My ambitions had a ^ vanced a second step. .TV ; ASSOHTED ENTHUSIASMS. » CHAPTER IX. AS80UTBD BNTUUSIASMS. ^ *' Ici-bas touH los HIuH inourout; TouM lc8 chautH tics oiucaux aont courtu ; ♦ J« uhervlio aux ctis qui deiueitrent Toujours." - Bullt-Pbudhommk. And now of the influences which shaped that quest of " the higheet things." There were the conversations in our Secret Society, the " Centre-Seekers." Picture a winter's eve, a cosy fire, a weird hall, and a group whose initiation oath was simply "I promise to be sincere." " There is the solution of Epicurus," remarks Holyoake, our Agnostic ; " Pleasure, at least, is real. Wrap yourself in it, for you can do no better. Contentment is but one pleasure, as Salvation is another, and even sensuality may be best to you." " How about the man who lives for his children ? " asked young Fred. Lyle, whose ruady face was made brighter by the fire glow. " He has his enjoyment reflected from theirs." " What do you think of the friend in ♦ Vanity Fair,' who helps his rivaH" - ,. v"-- ■-■ .- " One of the fools," replied Holyoake, with an air of settling the matter. --.^■'■- --//v ---_/':]'"'■■■'- -/'^ Lyle reflected. : ' i " I can't believe it that way," he said thoughtfully. *^^^ .^^ . . One member was Lome Riddle ; a big bluff chap with a promising moustache, encouraged by private tuition. " C )me along there, IT i ^ ii i 1 1 i ill li 1 ' 1 - , ( ■ ■ 1 :' |i i i 'r' ' ■•■IHHI !i!!ll m 30 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. Haviland," he exclaimed, " a nob like you should be one of the ' boys !* " These fellows don't know what life is — but to think of a man of muscle going back on us ! " Kick not against the prigs, Riddle ! " cried Little Steele in face- tious delight. " Riddle, Riddle, thou art but a poor Philistine." " A man of Gath," contributed another. " The Philistine has his uses. He is the successful of Evolution," pronounced Holyoake. " The future will see methods better than Evolution," answered Brether, our great arm Scotchman. " If so, they will be of it," retorted the Agnostic. "Nov/ just kindly let up on that a little." Riddle continued, " you fellows are too confounded theoretical for me. What's the good of going round congesting your cerebrums about problems you can't settle ? I say let a fellow go it while he's young — moderately you know — and when he is old he will not regret the same. You fellows swot, and I sit in the orchestra chairs. You read your diges- tions to rack and ruin — or else you've got to be so mighty careful, — while I put in a fine gourmand's dinner every day, attended with the comforts of civilization. I dance while you are working up un- successful essays. The world owes nothing to fellows who do that. If you're fools enough to want to benefit the world, turn your minds to steam engines and telegraphs, that cheapen dinners and save us running, and I'll give you my blessing in spare moments when I've nothing do do. I take a kind of melancholy interest in this institu- tion, you know, but honestly upon my word, I hate your rational style, and I wouldn't for the world go round like a walking problem and have the fellows call mo ' Forlorno Riddle.' The place whv'.re I enjoy niyself most,— our [)rivato tlieatrical club, — is called tlie ' In- consistents ' on that principle. We don't care about being correct. ASSORTED ENTHUSIASMS. 31 We know we have the prettiest girls and chummiest fellows in town, and we're all right." " Of course if a fellow's legs are so crooked that he can't dance or appear in a play, he has got to solace himself with billiards or eating, or some of the elegant accomplishments like playing the guitar. That's my system. There's philosopliy in it too, by jove ! I've done lots of philosophy by the smoke of a cigarette. It's philosopliy properly tamed, in evening dress. It's philosophy made into a good Churchman and Tory ! " . " La morale de la cigarette ! " suggested Quinet. After all was not the highest thing simply to live the natural life of the time and place ? " I refuse that," I cried to myself, " I ask a Permanent, an Eternal ! " * ' * ♦ * \ In speculative Philosophy I sought it, urged by the saying reported- of Confucius : - " The Master said : * I seek an all-pervading Unity,' " and much useless labor did I spend upon the profound work of the monarch of modern tninkers — Immanuel Kant. In a depression at the end of this labor I finally threw my books aside. It was afternoon, dull and dusty : a thunderstorm was brewing. I walked to the Square. What is that carriage with golden-bay horses 1 — that fresh image of loveliness — so calm — serene in queenly peace — the spiritual eyes ! " Alexandra, I am miserable ; ilevate and purify my hopes with a smile, when I need thy presence — ma belle Anglaise" — No, she looks coldly and drives on in her equipage with- out even a recognition. — Is anything wrong? — I am deeply dispirited. — Anoth'jr street — she passes again without bowing — not even looking this time. ^ THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. Wretched Haviland !— Where is mercy arid what is left for me in the world 1—1 will rebel about this.— I will give up trying to seek the best, and turn away from Alexandra. At dinner that night, my grandmother said " You must go to Picault's ball, my dear ; " and my grave, oracular father added : " Yes, you shall go among our people now. I am about to send you to France." The prospect of that journey, to which it had been my joy at other times to look forward, affected me little in my disturbed condition. jiji:!! THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE. 3d CHAPTER X. THE ENTHUSIASM OP SOCIAL PLEASURE. Grace Carter came over on the way to tlie l)all, and when I descended I found her entertaining my grandmother, while a yonng man named Chinic, beaming witli good nature and compliments, sat near her and rising with the rest grasped me by the hand as I entered. Grace too, smiling, held out her hand. As we went to the door my grand- mother delivered me over to her, saying playfully : " Chamilly will be in your charge this evening. He is melancholy. C'est k toi de le guerir." " I will be his sister of Charity ! " she cried merrily and pressed my arm. I laughed. It was not so undelightful to be taken into the companionship of a graceful girl. As we whirled along in the carriage, the half-moon in the dark blue sky, making heavy shadows on the trees and mansions, lit her cheek and Greek-knotted hair on the side next me with a glamour so that her head and shoulders shone softly in it like a bust of Venus. Picault's was an extensive family mansion of sandstone, built thirty years before for one of the wealthiest merchants of Montreal. It was on a corner. One end rose into a rococo tower, lit then with the curious kind of clearness produced by a half-moon's light. In the centre, before the hospital door, projected a pillared portico, under which our carriage drove, and at the other end lurked the shades of a massive gate-way with cobbled road leading through. The carriage-road past the front 34 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. was bordered by lilacs in bloom — on tbe one side, as we went through, all shadows, on the other faintly colored, mingling their fragrance with that of huge rose-bushes. The doors were thrown open, and we saw a great staircase in a wide hall hung with colored lights, and entering passed into one of the most lavish of interiors. As I looked around the dressing-room to which Chinic and myself were shown and saw the windows stacked with tropical plants, the colored candles set about the walls in silver sconces ; the bijou paintings and the graceful carving of the furni- ture ; the deep blending of ti ts and shades in the carpets, curtains and ornaments, I felt another new experience — the sensation of luxury — and dropping back in an easy chair, asked my companion : " Chinic, what does Picault do ?" " Ma foi, I do not pretend to say,*' replied the 3'^oung Frenchman, half turning tv ' ^^ me from the mirror where lit was brushing his hair. " Suffice it is a millionaire, and I get summoned to drink his wine. Some say he is in politics, others that he deals ^vith stocks ; for me it is enough that he deals with the dance and good table. Is it not magnificent to so live ? I would sell my soul for fifteen years of it." The remark set me thinking a moment, but it only complicated the charm of delivering oneself over to sensations. We met Grace at the head of the stair-case. She had never looked more Venus-like than in this fairy glow, with a plant-filled window behind her, opening out into the summer darkness. The music of a waltz of Strauss was rising from below, and I felt a wonderful thrill as she again took my arm. Our respects being paid to the hostess, Madame Picault, Grace gave me a couple of dances on her card, and introducing me to a slender young girl, with pretty eyes, and two very long, crisp plaits of hair, went off on the arm of some one else. THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE 35 As my father's plan of education had taken me hitherto wholly into English society, so far as into any, the unique feeling of being a stranger to my own rsie came with full force upon me for a moment and I stood silent beside the pretty eyes and looked at the scene. The walls were a perfect gallery of sublime landscapes, and small pictures heavily set ; four royal chandeliers threw illumination over a maze of flowered trains and flushed complexions, moving through a stately " Lancers," under a ceiling of dork paintings, divided as if framed, by heavy gilded mouldings, like the ceiling of a Venetian Palace. " Is it not gay — that scene there ! " I exclaimed. " It is charming. Monsieur," said the pretty eyes. " Montreal is altogether charming." " Ah, you come from Quebec, Mademoiselle 1 " " No, Monsieur, from New Orleans," she replied confidingly. Now the Louisiana French are very interesting to us French of Canada. Once we formed parts of one continuous Empire, though now divided by many thousands of miles, and their fate is naturally a bond of strong sympathy to us. '* We have there only the Carnival," she continued with the winning prettiness of a child. " That is in the spring, and the young men dress up for three or four days and throw bon-bons and flowers at ua. When the carnival is over, they present the young ladies with the jewels they have worn ? " " And the ladies return them smiles more prized than jewels ? " She looked up at me in fresh-natured delight. " Monsieur, you must come to New Orleans sometime, during the season of the Carnival." " I shall most certainly if you will assure me tlio ladies of New Orleans are all of one kind." ■SWUHi mmmm 36 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. /.■ ■ " You are pleased to jest, sir. But judge from my sister. Is she not handsome ? " Her sister, a Southern beauty, the sensation just then of Montreal, — was truly a noble type. The pretty one watched my rising admira- tion. " What do you think of her V • " She is wonderful. — And she is your sister 1 " " My married sister, Monsieur. She is on her way to France. I will tell you a little romance about her. Last year she came to Montreal with our father, and they were delighted with it. She used to say she would not marry a Frenchman ; nor a blonde. Above all she detested Paris, and declared she would never live theve. While she was here she left her portrait with Mde. De Rheims as a souvenir. Soon a young officer in the army of France comes out and visits Mde. De Rheinis and sees the picture of my sister. He was struck with it, declared he would see the original, travelled strai^l.t to New Orleans, and has married my sister. See him there — he is a blonde and he is taking her to Paris." " How strange that is ! Montreal is a dangerous place for the ladies of your family." She glanced at me with sly pleasure. " But we are not dangerous tc Montreal, sir." " Ah non, ma'm'sclle." Then this was my first type to begin on, of our French society world. Were they all like her ? I watched the ladies and gentle- men who stood and sat chatting about, and saw that everyone else too made an art of charming. Grace also. She frequently passed, and 1 could catch her silvery French sentences and cheerful laugh. As a partner now took away my little Southern friend, I caught Chinic on the wing, got introduced once more, and found myself careering in a galop down the room with a large-looking girl — Mile. THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE. m Sylphe — whose activity was out of ]iroportion to her fipjiire, tliough in more harmony with lor name. Her huild was comnian(Hng, she was of dark complexion and hair, in manner demure, alluring with great power by the instrumentality of lustrous eyes, though secretly, I felt, ill J the tigress itself in cruelty to her victims. She was a raagnificent figure, and gave me a merry dance. After it, she set about explaining the meaning of her garland decorations and the language of flowers, the Convent school at Sault-au-liecoUet, dinner parties, and the young men of her acipiaintance. " You seem very fond of society V 1 advanced. " I adore society — it is my dream. I waltz, you see. I know it is wrong, and the church forbids it ; but — I do not dance in Lent. After all," shrugging her shoulders, " we can confess, you know, and when we are old it will suffice to repent and be devout. I shall begin to be excessively devout," (toying with a jet cross on her necklace) — "the day I find my first grey hair." '* You have then a number of years to waltz." Her dark eyes looked over my face as a possible conquest. " I tremble when I think it is not for ever. But look at my aunt's and that of Madame de Rheims ! " These ladies were indeed distinguished by their hair ; but I suspect that it was not the mere fact of its greyness to which she wished to draw my attention — rather it was to the manner in which they wore it, brushed up high and away from their foreheads, like dowagers of yore. Standing in a corner together very much each other's counter- part, both a trifle too dignified, they were obviously proud leaders of society. She watched my shades of expression, and cried : " There is my favorite quadrille — La LVla-la-la-la-a-lii," softly humming and nodding her head, an action not common among the English. I;.-: ■ <:''^'^'-W^^' " Pardon me, sir, your name is Mr. 'Aviland, I believe," interrupted 38 THE YOUNG SEIGNi^lUR. ^iii!l a young man witli a close-cut, very thick, very l)]ack board, and the waxed ends of liis moustache fiercely turned up. I bowed. "Our Sovereign Lady De Rheims requests the pleasure of your conversation." On turning to Mile. Sylphe to make my excuses, she smiled, say- ing with a regretful grimace : '* Obcissez." Mde. Do Rheims stood with Mde. Fee, the aunt of Mile. Sylphe, near the musicians, receiving and surveying her subjects, — a woman of majestic presence. Nodding dismissal to the fierce moustache, she acknowledged my deep bow with a slight but gracious inclination. " Madame F^e, permit me to introduce Monsieur Chamilly Haviland, a D'Argentenaye of Dovniilli^re, — and the last. My child, your attractions have been too exclusively of the ' West End.' You have lived among the English ; enter now into my society." Mde. F6e smiled, and Mde. de Rheims taking a look at me continued : "The stock is incomparable out of France. Remember, my child, that your ancestors were grande noblesse," haughtily raising her head. A novel feeling of distinction was added to my swelling currenu of new pleasures. . ' A ruddy, simply-dressed, black-haired lady, but of natural and cultured manner, was now received by her with much cordiality, and I had an opportunity to survey the whole concourse and continue my observations. Brought up as I had been for the last few years, I found my own people markedly foreign, — not so much in any obtrusive respect as in that general atmosphere to which we often apply the term. * In the first place there was the language — not patois as of habitants and barbers, nor the mode of the occasional caller at our house, whose pronunciation seemed an individual exception ; but an entire assem- : blage holding intercourse in dainty Parisian, exquisite as the famous THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASUUE. 39 dialect of tlio Hralmiaiis. Tliere was the <,'r;«'(iful compliment, the antithiitic doscription, the witty repartee. One could say the poetical or sententious without' being insulted by a stare. Some of the ladies were beautiful, some were not, but they had for the most part a quite ideal degree of grace and many of them a kind of dignity not too often elsewhere found. Every person laughed and was happy through the homely cotillion that was proceeding. The feelings of the young seemed to issue and mingle in .sympathy, with a freedom naturally delightful to my peculiar nature, and the triumphant strains of music excited my pulses. Mdc. De Rheims touched my arm and pointed individuals by name. " That strong young man is a d'Irumberry — the pale one, a Le Ber — that young girl's mother is a Guay dc Boisbriant. Do not look at her partner, he is some canaille. There was, true enough, some difference. The descendants of gentry were on the average marked with at least physical endowments quite distinctly above the rest of the race. But there was a ridiculous side, for I recognized some about whom my grandmother was used to make merry, such as the youth who could " trace his ancestry five ways to Charles the Fat," and the stout-built brothers in whose family there was a rule " never to strike a man twice to knock him down." My grandmother said that " those who could not knock him down kept the tradition by not striking him onco ! " Mde. l)e Rheims now introduced me to two people simultaneously — Sir Georges Mondelet, Chief-Justice, and the ruddy lady, Mde. Fauteux of Quebec. The Chief Justice was of that good old type, at sight of which the word gentil-homme springs naturally to one's lips He was small in figure, but his features were clearly cut, and the fall- ing of the cheeks and deepening of lines produced by approach of age, had but imparted to them an increased repose. His clear gaze and fine balance of expression denoted that remarkable comm ».WI| l | i .WH »WP W il wmWW !l«'PHI V I HH i HW 44 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. ,! ii'' iibl Bili iiin;'':iui!;i " But Mile. — your patriotism ! " " I am not very French,'* she said liaughtily, " My father is the son of a Spanish Minister." " But why do you disapprove of the French ? As to me, I find them excessively attractive." " It is because I know them well," she said gaily. " My husband is the only Frenchman I would have married. Their quest is self- gratification, to which ihey sacrifice no matter what. I despise them." — She laughed mock-heroically, — " Take now your Englishman ! Let him love a Frenchwoman, for it is only a Frenchwoman who can return such love ! Domestic, silent, energetic, — he atlores, protects, provides, and yet accomplishes ambitions. This is because he sacri- fices none of such things to the INIyself, who is the god of French- men ; " These words seemed of more importance to me than the beautiful speaker coul . have thought. I had almost committed my soul ; was it to a cup of Comus, to a fatal household of Circe 1 The lady smilingly glided away with her husband. Then new characteristias seemed in face of race patriotism, to dawn as I looked at those passing around. I imagined each facial ex- pression thoughtless, heartless, jaded or disgusted. I had taken the beautiful Creole's cynical words seriously, and thought I saw the search for self-gratification everywhere. Instead of striking a balance of impressions, I passed for the time from the extreme of admiration to the e.vtreme of criticism, and at last turned into the supper room to think. A dapper man of sanguine complexion and grey moustache and hair, a cynical gentleman-of- leisure and oid-establidied visitor at my grandmother's, was taking wino there, and he addressed me familiarly. I began to question him about several people : " Who is that man with the mass of locks and the queer beard ? " BH THE "CAVE." 45 " That," replied he like a showman, " is the Honorable Grand- moulin, the National Liar, Premier Minister of the Province, and First Juggler of its finances : — a profligate in public in the name of the Church — in secret in the name of Free-Thought — beau diseur — demagogue of the rabble and chieftain of the Cave." "The Gavel" He lifted his glass of ruby liquid and faced me across it. " You may not know, my simple Ali Baba, that the Government of this Province is the private property of Forty Thieves." " What are these thieves — this Cave ? — I do not understand what you mean, sir." " Chevaliers of the highway my child," (he had just enough in him to make him free of speech), "who obtain office through the credulity of Jean Baptiste the industrious Beaver, who, like Jacques in France, bears everything. Jean Baptiste labors. It is the duty of Jean Baptiste to believe everything he is told. Monsieur of the Forty and Company must live upon something. Tsha ! The Beavers were created to sweat — to load up their pack mules and be plu?idered. Quebec is the cave of the Forty, — and plunder is their sesame." " But how does siKih a man come to bo received into society % " exclaimed I, disturbed. The answer was prompt. " He is successful." Reason only too obvious. It staggered me to watch the man receiving and being greeted. Presently I asked again : " Are more of them present '< " "Assuredly. Like devils they fly in swarms : like the Apostles they never travel less than two — one to preach you the relics and the other to pick the pocket in the tails of your coat. The man with the Oriental beard there looks respectable, does he a- l *? Tell me, — does he not 1 " "It is true." w i iWf w w w j pgi^igjfjPt;^ 46 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. "■ He is the honest-man-figure-head and book-keeper of the Cave. This fellow near us," (gesturing towards a scraggy-looking little man), ** has got himself appointed a judge and once securely off the raft, poses as a little tyrant to young advocates, on the Kamouraska Bench." "What does our host, Mr. Picault do?" I said, to change the subject. What was ray surprise when he answered : *^ Picault is the Arch Devil — the organizer of the Cave — the man who manipulates the Government for the profit of his accomplices. When they require money the Province calls a loan ; it is members of the Cave who negociate it, exacting a secret commission which is itself a fortune. The loan is expended," he went on, marking each step of his narration by appropriate gestures of his right forefinger, as one who is expounding a science, " on salaries to the Cave supporters, who are appointed to ingenious sinecures. Vast contracts are given at extravagant prices, to persons who pay a large share to our friends. Then the works, such as railways, are sold, — if possible to Picault, or through him in the same manner. And finally, by this system no burden is left upon the Treasury except the loan to be paid. Between this and all sorts of minor applications of the principle, though they have not long begun, the end is clear ; — yet the electorate persists in being duped by these ruffians. Men cherish their prejudices," he closed oracularly. " Men cherish their prejudices with more care than their interests." " Until he began to control the politicans." he immediately re- sumed, " Picault was a bankrupt financier. Now he is nominally a banker with millions. Once bribed or scandalized, your politician is broken in ; and Picault's favourite maxim is ' You can buy the Pope, and pay less for a Cardinal.' " " I want to get out of this house ! " I cried, no longer able to retain my indignation. " Am I a thief to associate with these criminals 1 " THE "CAVE." 47 " My young man," said he, hokling mo quiet by the shoulder. " Accept the good points of Picault and drink your lemonade. The chieftain of fools is fever a knave ; he has Ix ot> tempted by the ignor- ance of the people." Such feelings of contempt and determination nevertheless took possession of me that the relish of Picault's magnificence and the charms of his assembly soured to very repulsion. Indignation above all with my own self took possession of me ; for this circle was what I was to have exchanged for the world of Alexandra. Must I endure to be detained here till the time of my appointment with Grace 1 I went up to her to toll hor abruptly I must go — what reason to give 1 knew not — and as I looked into those trustful, believ- ing eyes and flushed face, feelings of desperate abandon for an instant almost overcame me. But natural resolution increased with the antagonism, " I must leave, Grace," said I, shortly and fiercely. I cannot tell you the reason. Good night." Next morning my father sent me to France with Quinet. 48 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XII. LA MERE PATRIE. " Et pour la France un chant sacr6 8'61eve ; Qu'il brille pur, Ic ciel ile nos aieiix ! " -P. X. GARNRAr. " Chamilly ! Chamilly ! This is tlie soil of our forefathers ! " Quinet and I stood at last on the shores of France. We trod it with veneration, and looked around with joy. It was the sea-port of Dieppe, whose picturesqiie mediaeval Gothic houses ranged their tall gables before us. Hence my ancestor had sailed to the wild new Canada two centuries before. — O enchanted land ! " Behold the Middle Ages ! " — cried Quinet again, looking at the Gothic houses — " of which we have heard and read." " Is it not strange ! " — I exclaimed — " Yes, this is the old Patrie. — Is it possible to believe ourselves here ? — Stamp and see if the ground is real ! " " There is a Mouse ! — a pmjsan, as in the pictures — he wears the cap ! he has the wooden shoes ! " " It is our brother — the Frenchman ! " There was more nevertheless. Celestial angels, — I too have been in heaven. I have been a French Canadian in Paris ! Dieppe was the first note of the music, the noble and quaint Cathedral of Rouen and our railway glimpses of rural Normandy were the prelude. At last our pilgrim feet were in the Beautiful City. O much wo wandered in its Avenues, with throbbing dehght and love towards every face, that first memorable day. This river is the LA MERE PATRIE. 49 Seine ! that Palace so proud and ricli, the world-renowned Louvre. What is yon great carved front with twin towers — that pile with the light of morning melting its spires and roofs and flying buttresses as they rise into it — that world of clustered mediaeval saints in stone, beautiful, pointed-arched portals and unapproached and unapproach- able dignity — from which the edifices of the City seem to stand afar off and leave it alone, and which wears not the air of to-day or yesterday % — Ndtre Dame de Farts, vast monument of French art, recorder of chivalric ages, all the generations have had recourse to thine aisles and the heart of Paris beats within thee as the hearts of Quinet and this d'Argentenaye beat under the ribs of their human breasts. Paris knew and loved us. The fountains and great trees of the Tuilleries Gardens were palatial for us ; the Champs Elysees laughed to us as we moved through their groves ; the Arch de I'Etoile had a voice to us grandly of the victories of our race ; the Bois de Boulogne was gay with happy groups and glistening equipages. How well they do everything in Paris ! When shall the streets of Montreal be so smooth, the houses so artistically built, when shall living be reduced to such system of neatness and saving 1 Quinet betook himself much to the obscure cheese shops and caf6s in the quarters of the people, and ate and chatted with such villains that I called him " The Communard." He, on the other hand, called me " Le Grand Marquis," because I made use of some relatives who wore among the nobility. Between us we missed little. On the one hand the heart of the masses alFected us. Once we bought bread of a struggling baker hard by the famous abbey of St. Denis. We asked for a cup of water to drink with it, — " But Messieurs will not drink water ! " he cried, and rushed in his generosity for his poor bottle of wine. — My French- Canadian countrymen, that was a trait of yours ! ; ill ^4«wP^ yj.a !i M!iR^y5 es' g3 a wa B i»(iBgjy j HM Bai!^(fc iiiil I w II iill: liiiiH!lllii:p!li: .. '••■ 50 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. I remember too, — when my shoe hurt me and I 'limped badly one evening along the Avenue of the Bois, — the numbers of men and women who said to one anotlicr : "0, le pauvre jeune homme," Ye world-wide Pharisees, erring Paris cannot be so deeply wicked while its heart flows so much goodness ! But the enthusiasms will run away with my story. Eesolutely, revenons. While Quinet, the positive pole of our expedition, was ever edging our march towards his Bastille Column and his cut-throat Quartier Montmartre, I, the negative; drew it a little into more polished circles where wit and talent sparkled. The Vicomte D'Haberville, a French d'Argentenaye, took us to a reception — not too proud of us I daresay, for the gloss of his shoes and the magnificence of his cravat outshone us as the sleek skin of a race-horse does a country filly. Especially did he eye Quinet a little coldly, so that I could scarcely persuade the proud fellow to come. To the astonishment of the Vicomte, however, Quinet was the attraction of the evening. Taine and Thiers wore there, and fired by a remark from one of these his famous men, the young Kadical had ventured a clever saying. Thiers looked at him a sharp glance as he heard the accent : " Vous etes des Provinces, monsieur 'I " " No, sir — from New France." " We had once, — in America — a colony of the name," replied the statesman, reflecting. " France has it still. It is a colony of hearts ! " Quinet awakened interest ; v/as inquired into and drawn out, and we were invited to a dozen of the most interesting salons of the capital. O but those Parisians are clever ! Why is it they are so much more brilliant than we ? Perhaps because there intellect is honored. LA MERE PATRIE. M Quickly, through these surroundings, our knowledges and tastes advanced — Quinet's verging to t} .. path of social science — mine to an artistic sense which suddenly unfolded into life and became my chief delight. The enthusiasm for Paris gradually led me to another offer by Life of a Highest Thing. To say it shortly — the salons led to a pleasure in the artistic, the society of artists to a growing appreciation of fine works of skill, and these, to Italy and Rome. Do you desire to rest eyes upon the noblest products of the hand of man 1 Go into the Laud of Romance as we did, and wander among its castled hill-tops, its ruins of Empire, its cathedrals in the skill of whose exhaustless gi'andeurs Divinity breathes through genius. Meditate in reverence before the famous masterpieces of antiquity — the Venus of Milo — the silent agony of the Laocoon, the Hyperion Belvedere. Learn from Canova's pure marble, and Raphael's Chambers, and from Titian, and Tintoret, and the astonishing galaxies J of intellect that shine in their constellations in the sky of the true Renaissance. \ Then you may say as I did, " At length, I am finding something great and best. The beautiful is the whole that mankind can ^directly apprehend, and as for other things hoped for, symbolism is \he true outlet for his soul. Art is the union of this beauty and symbolism. No aspiration exists but can be expressed in pleasing forms." Does man desire God, he paints — iiow raptly ! — a saint ; does he feel after immortality, he sculptures an ever-young Apollo. Looking . to them, he has faith, as of an oracle, in their emblematic truth, and through them instructs the world. Art seemed to me then the Highest Thing. i 52 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. Among whom arc there more amiable I am seized with a wish to see that CHAPTER XIII. SOMETHING MORE OF QUINBT ? One evening as we sat on the Pincian Hill, in the semi-tropical garden, overlooking-the domes and towers of the Imperial City, Quinet broke our silence, and surprised me by saying abruptly : " Let us go to England." " What for ? " " Let us go ; I wish to go." " But what is your press about England. I thought you hated the English." " I do not hate the English, friends, more beautiful women, great people in their country." " You hated them some time ago. ■ , " In the present tense, that verb has with me the peculiarity of parsing itself negatively." / I reflected a little on this change of opinion in Quinet, and iis possible causes, till he again broke out abruptly : "Miss Carter gave me a message for you." The re(;ollection of my conduct at Picault's sent a pang through me. " What is it ? " I said. The tropical plants around us brought up vividly those at the ball." ' " I did not ask her," — his voice was curious — " what it meant, but she desired me to say for her ; 'I beg you to write me why you left the ball.'" ^ . /- SOMETHING MORE OF QUINET. 53 " So you do her page-work," I returned, for I thouglit I could now divine the reason of liis change towards the Englisli. ** Pretty work for a grown knight ! If you know her so well, you know the picturesque groves of St. Helen's Island where she lives. Why stop at page-work? One would think with an enchanted isle, and an enchanting maiden, the Chevalier would find his proper occupa- tion." '-'^''''-■" '"'■''" ■ Quinet changed aspect. " Do you not then admire her ? " he advanced quickly, with uncontrollable feeling. " Not admire Grace Carter ! " said I, for I felt as if I had done her injustice when I last left her, — " Yet no more than a friend, Quinet." " Is that the fact ? " he cried, springing up — " I thought it was she you were in love with ! I heard you were in one of Picault's alcoves together." ! i . i Niii 54 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XIV. THE ENTHUSIASJI OP LEADERSHIP. " DariH qxiclle terrc a borderez-vons (ini vciis soit plus chfire quo collo oh voiis 6tet) n6?" —Paul kt Viroinie. When I reached home my father took me to Doniulli6re, " The purpose is very special," ho said, so gravely that T trusted his wisdom and hastily despatching to Alexandra a brooch of Roman mosaic, which I had bought for her in Italy, I left with him. Life had another offer now to extend to me — Dormilli^re, and the power thereof. As we approached the pier, and I beheld its three green terraces one over another ; the grove of pines on the hill-top above the terraces ; and cottages, white, red and grey, appearing among the pines ; — dear home unvisited so long ; — and the spires of the Church in the sky glinting the light of the setting sun, and on the shore and pier familiar faces of old men and young men changed ; boys grown into stalwart fellows, and babes into boys and girls ; many quiet visions of youth rose and mingled with my thoughts, and this spell began its working, as those of Society and Art had done.. "Via Monseigneur !" called out Pierre, our coachman, on the pier, the lineaments of whose face half seemed a memory suddenly grown vivid and real. — " Mon Dieu ! " he cried laughing and crying, as he looked at me closely, " It's M'sieu Chamilly ! My dear child, it was painful to have you absent so long. Why did you not come even to see us ? — Please give me your hand again. But how you are THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP. (^ loaded ! Come, where is your valise 1 Let me do something for you, M'sieu Cliamilly." " Les v'la ! " " V'la Monseigneur ! " ^ " V'la M'sieu Chamiliy ! " the shouts went up. " It's the young Seigneur ! the young Seigneur ! " spread among the villagers, — they welcomed, they addressed us, the kind spirit of French Canadians took us to itself, and I was drawn to my people, as I had not been even during the conversation of the delightful Madame Fauteux. My father received them witli both hands and all sorts of gay remarks, "How do you like this, Chamiliy?" he laughed, with the satisfaction of an Archduke returned to his dominions. " Are you come to fish, Monsieur 1 " asked Pierre, in affectionate garrulity, as he took up the reins. " No, good Pierre, I do not know what I am coming for." "You will troll as formerly? Our magnificent maskinongd are polite as guests for a wedding. Yesterday I took one of ninety-seven pounds ! " The good hearted fellow kept talking as we drove. One familiar scene after another ! The village street of which I knew every doorstep. Ah ! — a new wayside across in front of Widow Priedieu's — and the gay mast before the Captain Martinet's — the blacksmith's dusty shop — the inn-keepers' poles holding out their oval hotel-signs— the merry little cocked house where they had that famous jollification immortalized in the song : '* Au grand bal chez Boul^." But my friends ! my friends ! — to see my old friends was the great enjoyment. " Ilola," deliberate Pierre : and you three Jeans — gros Jean, grand Jean and petit Jean ; " Monsieur le Notaire, bon jour ! " O the faces at the panes and the heads at the door ! nmmmm 56 THK YOUNG SEIGNEUR. And lo, tho gardens, — the broad fielcla so generous of harvest — the Manoir trees in the distance ' And as of yore, — driving up the road thooe merrymen in tho carts singing that well remembered "En roulant": '' Lo fils du roi s'en va chasHant En roulant, ma boule." * And with sympathetic exliilaration, I swing into the old life again on the current of the jovial chorus : ' " En roulant, ma boule roulant : En roulant, ma boulii ! " * "Tl>c Dnupliiii forth a hunting goes. Boll, roll on, my rolling ball." —Old Chanson. THK LTFK OF LKADERHHIP. 67 CHAPTER XV. TUB LIPB OF LEADEHSIIIP. " Poiirvu ((ii'ilH vivont noblement et ne faHHont ftucnn acto tltTot?eniit A iioM»>R8n," 1'atkntn ok Noiu.khsk. " Light tho lamps," my father ordered. Tardif, tho butler, did so with alacrity. "Tardif, thou canst withdraw," added my father. " Oui, monseigneur," replied Tardif, l)Owing respectfully, and went. The room and its antiquated splendors looked ancestral to me. Its size struck me. It was larger than any in our town house. The family portraits and furniture revived lifelong memories. We had a fine collection of forefatliers. " Chamilly " — began my father, walking up before the picture of one who was to me childhood's holy dream. He stopped for some moments, gazing up to her face with intense affection, and then turning to me, said in a broken voice — "Never forget your mother." "No, sir," I replied, bending my head. In a moment he went on to the other i)ortraits, and his manner altered to more of pride. " Your grandfather, the Honorable Chateauguay, this. This is his Lady, your grandmother. Here is her father, a LeGardeur de Repentigny. There is the old Marshal in armor. Here is Louise d'Argentenaye, of the time of Henry IV., who married a Montcalm. Here is the Count d'Argentenaye in armor." And thus he took me about on a singular round, and informed me concerning the whole gallery. llfl II iii'lS 58 THE YOUNG SEICJNKUR. He stopped at an old, solid v/ood cabinet, with spiral legs, bent over and opened it with a key. " Now," thought I, " these mysteries are going to be explained," " This is a dress sword," he went on, "worn in France, at the court of Louis XIII. It was worn by one of your forefathers. Here are two decorations — Crosses of St. Louis — what beautiful little things they are. They belong to two of us wlio were Chevaliers." I was ordy still more mystified. " Come into tlie office, my son," said he, leading nie into a room used for collecting the feudal rents anlialanx of soiled and common pews in the nave, were the first representative mass of French-Canadians whom A POLITICAL HKKMON. 71 he had been brouj^'ht to face. "Here," ho tliought, "are those wIkj apeuk the partner voice in our Confederation, and whom wo should ki, »w as brothers." A few stood out in the quality of parts of tlie whole, but only to emphasize it as a mass. Above tlie crowd, ho marked, for instance, the sober, responsible faces of the Marguilliers. A girl's face too, particularly attracted him — that of one who sat beside the Sisters attendant over the convent children in their gallery. No romantic seraphicness glowed upon her features or her form ; but she was following the service with the light of simply such spiritual earnest- ness and intelligence about her that she seemed to sit there a superior being. But it was the faces of the laborer and the solid farmer that oftenest dotted the surface of the sea of heads. So typical to him were the features and responses of all, that he could not shake off the feeling that it was not individuals ho saw, but a People. A People ! No flippant thing is it to feel oneself in the presence of so great an Organism. If some hour of one man's pain, or of the grandeur of some other one, may be thought-worthy things, how reverently must breath be hushed as we stand in presence of a race's life, and think wo hear its sorrows, cries and voices ! Ever, thou People's Song, must thou stir the heart that listens, sweeping its tenderest chords of pity, and chanting organ music to its aspirations. The cure's sermon following as before detailed, the congregation appeared oppressed with its denunciation, but it produced no eflect whatever upon llaviland, the Liberal leader, whose countenance rested its dark eyes un the tablets of his ancestors in the transept wail before him. mm Mi: 72 TH': YOUNG SEIGNEUR. Kil;, CHAITEK XVII. i ZOTIQUE S RKCBPTION. A noble looking inan of fitly years, stocd waiting io meet them as they made their way out, Oi olivo complexion, small cherry mouth and features, yet fine head and ])crson, and smiling benignly, he advanced a step before Chrysler noticed liim. " Sahit, M'sieu riIonor;ible," bowed Haviland. " Good-day, Chamilly," he replied quickly, without ceasing to smile directly towards the other man and holiling out hiy hand. Chrysler looked closer at Ids features. " Ah, Mr. Genest ! " ho exclaimed, with pleasure, recognizing the Hon. Aristido Genest, a personage potent in his time in Dominion Councils. " 1 hrtpe now to know the gentleman as comi)letely as I have admired him," Genest complimented in the Frencli way, twinkling his eyes merrily. "Many a time I have listened to your advices in the Parliament. I say to you 'Welcome.'" Chamilly started otf to talk with his innumerable constituents in the crowd. " I-et lis cross over here, sir, and hear what thoy have to say about the sermon," i)ro posed Genest. They crossed to a stone building on the other side of the road, and passed through a group of countrymen into a hall of some length, where sat sunk in a rustic rocking-chair, a singular individual, whose observations seemed to be amusing the crowd. ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION. 73 111 appearance, he reminded one of no less remarkable a person than the Devil, for he bore, the traditional nose and mouth of that gentleman, and his body was lean as Casca's ; ])ut he seemed at worst a Mephistopheles from the extravagance of the delivery of his sarcasms. The subject of discussion was the sermon. " Bapteme, it is terrible!" exclaiuied tlie cadavonms humorist. " Ever this indigenous Pius IX — fulminating, fuiuiinating, fulminat- ing! — Too much inferno. The euro dons half his burning for Beelzebub ! We are served in a constant auto-da-fe." "Hell, hell, heir." creaked an old skin-and-bones, with one tooth visible, which shook as the laugh emerged. Stolid men smoking deigned to smile. People seemed prepared to laugh at anything he said. " What is it that an auto-da-fe is 1 " a young man demanded from a corner. "You don't know auto-da-fes ?— A dish, my (.'hild. — An auto-da-f6 is Liberal broiled." The character of the room, at whi' li Chrysler now luld lime to glance, explained itself by a large painting of that lion-and-unicorn- supporting-the-liritish-arms, which em1)ellishes Courts of -lustice. "This room is the Circuit Court," Genest remarked — "/otique there, calls it the Circuitous Court — A very poor pun is received with hospitality here." " I should like to know that man," said Chrysler. "Nothing easier. Zoti(|ue, come here, my cousin." He caught sight of them, and rising, without altogether dropping his broadly liumorous expression, extended an invitation to take his rocking-chair, which Chrysler accepted. Zotiijue was like the Mephistopheles he resembled, one of ihose who have been every where, seen much, done everything. Bom 71 i I 'iiiMfmi 'i"''ffMri'fe. m 74 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. m ill; respental)ly, — a cousin of I'Honorable'.s — he had executed in his yoiing(»r days a record of pranks upon tlie neighbors, which at a safe distance cf time became good humoredly traditional. The trial and despair of Pere Galibert, and the disapproved of Chamilly's father, he ran away to Trois-Rivi6res as soon as he knew enough to do so ; thence to Montreal, and Joliette ; and a Fur Post near Saipasou (or, " Nobody-knows- Where," for Zotique asserts the region has tliat name) ; tlien was a veracious steamboat guide for tourists to the Gulf ; edited a comic weekly at Quebec, " illustrated " it, itself cheerfully and truly confessed, "with execrable wood-engravings;" as Papal Zouave, he embarked for Rome to gallant in voluminous trousers on four sous a day ; fought wildly, for the fun of it, nt the Pia Gate , against Victor Emmanuel's red-shirted patriots, — and came back to J)ormilli^re disgusted. The Registrarshiji of the county being vacant, a pious government appointed him to the position, upon recommendation by the "higli <^ !• rgy," as a martyr for the good cause ; and on a similar sacred ground he ol)tained the passage of a private bill through the Legislature, admitting him to the honorable profession of notary without the trouble of studying. So it came to pass that our friend was installed in the Registry Office end of the long cotiuge known as the Circuit Court House, and made use of the Court Hall it.selt for his Sunday receptions to the people. The people themselves were worth a brief catalogue. Jacques Poulin, the horse trader, stood against a window, with his big straw hat on. His trotting sulky was outside. Gtignant, the established merchant, with contented reticence of well-to-do-ness, was rema-king of some enterprise, " It won't pay its tobacco," Toutsignant, his insecure and overdaring young rival, who was bound to cut trade, and let calculation take care of itself, sat on the opposite side of the room, and, bantering with him, the shrewd Aft ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION. 75 habitants, Bourdon and Desrochers, who were to profit by his theory of an advance in rye. The young doctor, Boucher from Boucherville, leaned near, superior in broadcloth frock coat, red tie, and silk hat. Along a bench, squeezed a jolly half-dozen 'Ujargons" and a special mist of tobacco smoke hung imminent over their heads. About the floor, the windows, the corners of the room, the bar of the court, sat, lounged, smoked, and stood, in friendly groups, a host of neighbors, amiably listening, more or less, to Zotique's harangues and conversations. It cannot be said, however, that they abated much of their own little discussions. Every now and then some private Babel would break in like a surge, over the general noise, and attract attention for an instant. " The auto-da-fe — alas, it recalls me the ravishing country of Spain ! O those Sierras ! — those Vegas ! the mountains shining with snow ! the green plains watered 1 — but mis^re ! hot as — the disposition of the Cure. To-day, gentlemen, the affair becomes serious, for lo, the approach of a doubtful election, and a trifle of clerical interference, like a seed upon the balance, might well — " the sentence was appendixed by an explosive shrug. '* Now, the Council of war ! we must have a command to him from the Bishop ; and it is I, Zotique Genest, as prominent citizen ! as Registrar ! as Zouave ! who will write and get it. " But more — that sacre Grandmoulin is coming, and wo must receive liim at point of Viayonot, a la charge de cairasse ! that sacre Grandmoulin ! " '* He will be received ! " called out a voice. " The National Liar ! " proposed another. " The breach in our wall is the Cure," continued Zotique. *' Mais. " Qu'allons nous faire, pans cette galere ? . . . 76 THE YOUNG h N^ETftL "If we could only strap him up with nv»rr *: of ^wspeck. like the sacred white elephant of the lEOaes ! — A i; ;t, Tdnf laHhopj order ! Remark mv brother, I am nor: ailvoc:.i i — only coercion." Tlie laugh rose again. It was oot an much mydaing- iie saM, but his extraordinarily grotesque ways — a roU of "ge ^if^. or a drawing down of his long, tliin mouth, wnh MVJttK mi^k aicafully, in general, and almost as much in one spot as these great trees. After all, is there any condition in which mortal existence is happier than that of pure air and tranquility. We have a proverb, * Love God and go thy path.' To love God, to live, to die, are the complete circle." Chamilly's entrance put an end to these idyllic observations. He was driven up in a cart by a country jehu, and leaping out, there followed him a couple of friends. Haviland called Tardif, the head servant, who appeared at the door of the house, bareheaded, with an apron on : " Bring the dinner out here, Tardif," he ordered ; and a light table was set under the spreading boughs. " Now tell us, I)e La Lande, about your trip to Montreal." Of the two friends who drove uji with their host in the cart, one was Breboeuf, a hunchback. This little creature on being introduced, bowed and shook hands with an aspect of hopeless resignation, and sitting down, relapsed into thought, telescoping his neck into his squarish shoulders. His companion was a young man of small build, but spirited, good-looking face — I)e La Lande, schoolmaster of the village, a son of the farmer " Duke." "'.'J.f"'""..i ii'nm iiiiiiiMmnJMj ■h m !(:,; I 80 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. " And wliere coumience 1 " responded the schoolmaster to the recjiiest for an account of the trip to Montreal. " In the middle, as I am doing," retorted ITaviland, flourishing the carving-knife over the joint. " Ah well. The middle was the climax with me. It was the Fete of St. Jean Baptiste ? " "You saw Notre ])ame, and the great procession?" inquired the Honorable. '■ Yes, 1 saw that vast Cathedral fifteen thousand full ! And the Cur6 of Colonization climbed up in the niiilst, and 1 heard the most glorious words that were ever spoken to French Canadians ! " " Was the procession like ours here 1 " "At Dormilliere ? Pah ! — we have two Cur^s, a beadle and the choir-boys ! Theirs was a mile in length. There were nineteen bands playing music, all in fine uniforms, and there were all the Societies of St. Jean Baptiste walking, with their gold chains and their badges, and as many as forty magnificently decorated cars, bearing representations of the discovery of Canada by Jacques Cartier, and the workings of all the trades, and innumerable splendid banners, of white, and blue, and red and green, with gold inscriptions and pictures — and the Cur6 of Col — " " Were the streets well decorated ? How were the arches and flags 1 " "They were good. The streets were full of flying tricolors and Union Jacks stretched across them. They were lined with green saplings as we do here. The crowd was enormous. There were thousands from the States. And the Cathedral of Notre Dame was all excitement ; for the Cure — ," " Tell us about it ! Every one speaks of it ! What did he say ! (A well-known priest had just electrified the people of the land wi lown th an extraordinary declaration.) THE AMERICAN FRANCh:. 81 " But, to speak of liis aims, I must rei^oUect the iiuiiibera of our people." " l>i'el)oeuf, moil ])rel)is," said Cliamilly, turning to tlie little fel- low, "what is the numl)er of the French Canadians?" The liunchback liftcMl his face gravely, and issued in a monoton- ous voice, but with the ju-ecision of a machine: — "One million, eighty-two thousand, nine hundred and forty-three, in Canada, l)y the census of 1(S70; oui^ million, one hundrcil and ten thousand, in Canada, by the computation of the Abbe Zero; four hundred and thirty-five thousand in the IJnitjjd States by the computation of the same." The Ontarian was surprised at hi^ odd, machine-like accuracy, but Ilaviland only laughed a little < liuckle and Chrysler's glance was drawn away towards a figure entering the gate, walking ab- stractele responsive to sober and admirable aims." * " I have no doubt of it," remarked the visitor genially. " But I scarcely think you can be familiar with a group of start- ling projects lately cherished in our circles." " Plots against everybody," Quinet remarked. " Have the good- ness to pass me the asparagus." " The Continent of North America is a large acre," continued Haviland. ^' Can you fancy a race who a century ago were but ninety thousand, aspiring and actually planning for its complete control 1 " Chrysler looked amused at the idea, for the handful of French- Canadians. " That is our firmly-persuaded future ! " asserted the young man, De La Lande, eagerly and boldly. " The Cure of Colonization has demonstrated that it is possible. We shall reconquer the continent ! " " Is it your view ? " Chrysler asked of Chamilly. " I instance it/' he returned, " because it shows that my people are capable of thinking liigh." ' "There is a progression of plans ! " went on the eager De La Lande. " The first is to get control of the six English counties !" " I will trust the Anglo-Saxon for holding his own," the Ontarian laughed, in the amusement of vigorous confidence. "But we gain!" the young man cried. "Our race is always l^ench ! We win fast the British strongholds in our dear Province." I TIIK yVMKRICAN FKA.NOK 8.S (( All iire "Tills tho loast, of t,h(» plana," Haviliind remarked foiuiiled oil a eurioiia fact." "What fact is that?" "Our phenomenal multiplieation in laimbers," returned the Reij^neur, smiling. "What?" cried Chrysler. lie stop[)ed a moment open-eyed, and then laughed licovtily and long. He could not satisfy his laughter at such a basis for conquest of a continent, and it burst forth again at intervals for some time. " Nevertheless it is true, — -and Biblical," continued the undaunted schoolmaster. ^^Sicuf sareba3uf," said Haviland, who took some part with De Lii Lantle but joined in Chrysler's amusement, "help us. What was the number of French-Canadians at the conqiuist by the English 1 " "Sixty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five, by the census of the General Murray in 17G5, including approximately 500 others." "And now?" " One million and eight-two thousand nine hundred and forty, by the census of 1870." "You see, sir, what a growth. The clergy encourage it with satisfaction. It is not comfortable for bachelors in some of our parishes." All at the table were laughing, more or less, except De La Lande and the hunchback, who were perfectly serious. "One plan, sir, I confess freeiy," said the former, affects yourself. You are perfectly acquainted with the Ottawa River, separating your Province from our own, and that it cuts across and above yours, which is a peninsula. The fourth great plan (out of six), is to plant centres along the Ottawa which shall exert their expansive force downwards to overrun your peninsula." " What a dangerous race ! " ^J^ ^7^ ^%. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) i^ ^ A 1.0 141 ||||2.8 «4 i;'^^ 1.! t Big !.25 1.4 "M 2_2 20 ;8 1.6 P>w V. <^ /a 'fy.. '»^ ^ C^J # ^>y Photographic Sciences Corporation # c^^ ^v^ ' ^ " I will make them laugh i " ' ' \ - The young cur6, his vicar, who was present, tried to calm him, but could not. HUMAN NATURE. His energies turned to action ; he dismissed the parishioner, who, hat in hand, stood humbly by the door, and sitting down began to write letters and concoct vows. The first of the latter was to announce a spiritual boycott from the pulpit on Zotique and his iniquitous hall ; and with this he wrote to the Attorney-General on the scandal of the gross misuse of the Circuit Court and the bad character of the local Registrar. The second bitter vow was that the Liberals should lose their election : this inspired a letter to Grandinoulin, the " Cave " Chief. There were other vows and other letters ; one each to the Bishop and the Archbishop, — whose contents are unknown. At similar times, however, the Reverend gentleman had a recreation to which he was accustomed to turn for refreshment, and this was not long in rising in his mind. By law he was Visitor to the secular school : than which there was nothing he considered more nearly the root of all evil. He therefore took up his brown straw hat and black cane, and started determinedly out to exercise his habiu of vexing the high spirit of the school master, De La Lande. " Ah bon, frateilo ! " cried Zoticjue that afternoon when de La Lande appeared at his door, " How goes it 1 Come in and speak to' Mr. Chrysler, here." '*It goes ill, Zot'.que," answered the scliool master, gloomily, " I have had the Cur6 again." " And what did he say to you ?" " Quarrels with everything in the system. Our geography was galimatias, and book-keeping a crime : the people must not think they were on a level with the learned, and the children must do this and that. At last — at last — I was exasperated, and told him I had a right un<'er the laws to my position and powers. He said there can be no right against the Right ! 1 told him there were many 'i I I ^ I' . mm 90 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. wrongs against the Right ! And he went away saying he would bring me to a bed of straw." " Let him do ! " laughed the Registrar. But Zotique himself was not to escape quite scot-free, for when Chrysler stopped next day at his office, as he was getting accustomed to do. he found him in one of his excitements. * " Ac-r6-y6 ! " he was ejaculating. " Ah, good day, sir. Come in and take a seat. Aa-a-cr6y6, how they enrage us !" — and he cast an impatient glance on the floor at a large envelope deeply marked with his heel. " What is the matter ? " Chrysler queried. " The matter, sir, is that ! " — spummg the envelope. " An official notification ? " ' " Not official ! — No, sir, unofficial ! ultra-official, contra-official, pseud-official ! See, read it ! " He picked up and handed over the objectionable letter, which was headed with the stamp of the Attorney-General's Office : — " Dear Sir, — You are requested to grant Mr. Cletus libergent the use of tlie Circuit Court edifice and rooms, which are in your charge, for what- ever purpose he may desire, for the space of three weeks from the present date." T. OUAOUARON, Attorney-General." Chrysler smiled to Zotique. Could a Government that openly granted the public buildings to partisans pretend to a sense of right or dignity ? "" ' As to the effects of the Cure's second vow, thoy remain matter for narration to come. '' Note. —An evasive form of "Hacre," analogous to " Sapre," " Saciistie," "Sac," "St. Christophe," &p. ^f^^ti:'!p;f: CHEZ NOUS. 91 CHAPTER XX. I'm ^ CHEZ NOUS. " Boiijour ]-i iimitre et la iiiaitresse > Et tous les gens de la niaiaon." — Thb GuioNoLEK Carol,. The crimson and gold of sunset were stained richly across the west. Chrysler was walking leisurely out in the country. A mile from Dormilli^re, a white stone farm-house stood forward near the roaurs. and I and my family aro at your service. Enter, Monsieur." A dramatic gesture of humility recalled at once the man ii. blue homesimn, who had addressed the crowd at Zotiquo's, " Good evening, Mr. Benoit," the Oiitarinn said, opening the gate and mustering his French, "I shall he charmed." The air immediately hustled with hospitality. ** Come in, sir, come in," feehly rasped the voice of the old man from the door. " Josephte, hring a chair for Monsieur." " I will fttch one!" cried the good-wife. The girl Josephte, ro.se from her seat and followed her mother quickly into the hr use ; the pale young man in the garden doubled his cheerful smile ; and only the bar-tender endued himself in an aggressive grin of independence. " I assure you, monsieur," pronounced Jean Benoit, with his full armory of oratorical gestures, " that a friend of Monseigneur Chaniilly will always have our best. Ascend, sir.— Josephte;, place Monsieur the chair." Never was there a greater occasion of state. Their guest raised his hat to the young lady and her mother, who threw into her carriage all the dignity and suavity .she could command. Then he ascended and sat gratefrlly down, for he was fatigued. The grandfather had laid his instrument on a spinning-wheel within the door, and slowly lit a ]iipe with both hands. The Imr- tender jumped from his perch and stood with a familiar leer, of which when Benoit said " Mr. Cuiller, monsieur," Chrysler took trifling notice. On the other hand the pale lover remained modestly down the steps, and his cheerfulness redoubled when Chrysler nodded to him, passingly introduced as " Le Brun." Ml i M 94 THK YOUNG SKIGNRUR. " T)o('H the gentleman take white wlu.skey,* or well milk ?" asked the old man. " Josephte, lu'ing some milk." The daughter darted into tlu; house. — " There is tea on the stove, Josephte ! " Ma DELIVER US PROM THE EVIL ONE. " Aio 1 oela rcssiMiible un pen tV certaiiie fablo oeltbre, tlout la morale se resume i\, eeqi : ne comptez pas sans votre h6te." . — Bknjamin Sulte. " St. Gref^ory the Great ! Hero comes the Small-pox ! " exclaimed Zoti(jiie, as he ami Cliamilly, vvitli their guest, were off behiiul the Maiioir, and standing by the weather-worn Chapel in th.e hay- fields, which served as the tomb of the first Haviland, " the Pro- testant Seigneur." The name "Picault" offered itself so readily to the pun of "Picotte," — Small-pox, — that the jest had become almost a usage. Startled by Zotique's exclamation, Mr. Chrysler looked fvoin the commemorative table on the Chapel's side (whose rivulet of eulogies he was reading line by line), towards the pine-walk round the Manoir, whence a distant figure was sauntering towards tliem along the path, meditatively smoking a cigar. " That's a fact," exclaimed Cliamilly, straining his eyes towards the figure ; and the three looked at each other in astonishment. " Has he ., actually the enterprise to try me again 1 Or what can lie want ? " "I can answer you," the veracious Zotique undertook, "my eyes ; He is smiling fully a second hundred thousand." " That is coi'rage after what I gave him for the first." ** It is doubtless, then, glory : — say Member of tlie Council." Did I ever tell you of the last time ho came to me, and offered are good (( DELIVER US FROM THR EVIL ONE. 101 not only tluit Mombership, but Knally adviincod to tho Proaidency of it. Imagine the recklessness of the Province's interests — A President of the Council at twenty-four years ! More than that, if I wished for active glory, he would give either the local Premier- ship, or undertake to combine the French parties at Ottawa, and put me at their head, with a surety of being Premier of the whole country. And this again for a youth of twenty-four years ! — He tried to flatter me that I was a Pitt or a Napoleon. And I answered, that no man guilty of such a compact could l)o either." " You will do it without him," replied Zoti([ue, confidently. Chrysler looked closely at the approaching figure, growing larger and clearer. " Where is he Member for ? " he asked. " Member for Hoang-ho in 2)ctTtihHS ijiJidrUmn" replied Zotique, sarcastically. Picault sauntered up with a smile of unfalt(;ring genial sang-froid, bowed, removed his cigar, nnd addressed them. ''Salut, my dear Haviland, salut Messieurs. Oh.! my dear Genost, how goes itV offering his hand, which Zotique took with a caricature of extravagant joy and imitation of the other's style : '' My dear Small pox — pardon me — my dear friend, I am charmed to meet again a man of so much sense and honor." " Ah yes, we have fought on many a field, but we respect each other. ' Honneur au plus vaillant.' But why, my dear Haviland," turning, " why should the valiant oppose each other, and half of them lose at each battle 1 Is it not because they are divided ? Union makes vstrength ! " " Yes, it is because they are divided by impassable gulfs," said Chamilly, coldly. " Did you come to see me. Monsieur 1 " " ^ly dear fellow, can't we have a little private conversation 102 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. togetlier 1 I am, of course, in the country to oppose your politics, but being in Dormilli^re, I cannot forget our social acquaintanceship." " Do me the honor of saying here what you desire to say, Monsieur. I have no political secrets from these friends." "Pardon me, what I have to tell you, is strictly private." , ''',:~^f^'''y^ " If it is in political matters, I do not wish it to be so." " It is personal, I assure you." : "Then you will humor me, sir, by writing it." "My friend, do not let party differences put grimaces at each other on our real faces : — I would say rather party names ; for I am in reality as much a Red as yourself. If you were willing we would prove that to you by changing the title of our side to yours." .. " At that moment, sir, there would be what I live for in the nanie 'Blue.^" .-■-.:-:. .-:. ^ -, Picault drew a deliberative puff at his cigar, and lowered it again. " You will not, then, do me the honor of a personal interview ? " he asked, smiling unprovokably still. " Cease, cease ! replied Haviland, " It will soon be the noon of plain words ! " The tempter with nice discernment, perceiving that this short and bold interview was useless, and that he ought to withdraw, put his cigar between his lips, puffed a " Good-day, gentlemen," and turned back meditatively, along the path towards the pines of the Manoir. " Au plaisir ! " returned Zotique to him with facetious exactitude. Haviland was furious. " ShaH the children of these men, enriched perhaps and elevated through their crimes," he exclaimed, " pretend in time to come that they obtained their ' Honorables,' and Knighthoods, and seats on the Bench of Justice, and of Cabinets fairly from their country, and were DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE. 103 the world's groat and true ? Forbid it, and forbid that their names should live except in memory of their paltriness ' " "But dear Mr Chrysler,'Mie .Wed in a moment, "you must not take us for party bigots. Tiie masses of the JJleus are hoi ,st and any day our own name may be desecrated by a clique of knaves, our principles represented by the other name," 5 ■*■ h *■ 104 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XXII. THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS. Haviland's approaching election kept him very busy from this time forward, and deluged him with interviews, canvasses, meetings, great and little, and perpetual calls on his attention. His conscientiousness made him work almost unremittingly, for he determined his part in tlie struggle to be far more than a matter of mere verbiage and smiles. Mr. Chrysler, like a sensible fellow-Member, quite comprehended the situation, and was content to note the admirable way in which his friend did everything ; to receive a smile or friendly dirootion here and there, and to fall back on the attentions of I'Honorable, and the over-zealous Zotique. He felt his entry free, however, to the office where Haviland v/as principally employed, and which was not uninteresting of itself. There the young man had gathered a library of statistical volumes and other statesman's lore, with busts of Thiers and Caesar and strangely ideal and unlike the rest, — a pure white classic mask of Minerva on the wall opposite his chair, as if to strike the note of a higher life ; while Breboeuf, curious little object, devoured some blue-book in a corner. Now what were those great aims of Haviland's 1 Nation-making, we know in general. But what was the work upon which he was employed as the means *? On the occasion of one of Chrysler's quiet entries, Haviland rose fiom his table as the light began to fall, threw off his toils with a breath of relief, and turning towards the older gentleman, THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS. 105 called his attention to a large green tin case of pigeon-holes 'and drayvers of different sizes, labelled. ' . '* ^ " Here," he said, " is my manufactory of reflections." One compartment was marked " Finances," another " Labour," a small one " Defence," and a drawer lying open for use was titled "The Unity op Races." " Take out a paper, Mr. Chrysler." Chrysler put forth his hand willingly, and withdrawing one, held it to the windov and ?ad as follows : . ; "A great thought can be thought in any place. A great Empire may be planned in any corner." ' ':'fi-iy:'k The second was a note from " General Needs." ■. T . "What the country most requires is Devoted Men." Others read similarly, some long, some short. " I can show you what will strike you more," exclaimed Chamilly, in a moment. " I have been planning your visit a little." " Have you a geyser or a catacomb ?" "No sir, — a fountain of life," replied he, jocosely. "Let us get our hats." i:urt' 106 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. ! » CHArXEK XXIII. ill TUB STATESMAN S DREAM. As they went clown the village, Jie continued to banter, "You great Ontarians believe too firmly that there is no progress here. According to you there is no being to be met in these for- saken Avastes, except a superstitious peasant, clothed all the year in ' beefs ' and homespun, capped with the tuque, girded with the sash, and carrying the capuchin hood on his shoulders, like the figure on some of our old copper sous ; — who sows, after the manner of his fathers, a strip of the field of his grandfathers, and cherishes to his heart every prejudice of his several great, great-grandfathers." ** I do not think so," interrupted Chrysler laughing, " I might put you fifty years behind the age, but no further." " Yes, but you, sir, have seen us. Why do not more of you come and see 1" " For some of the same reasons perhaps why you do not know us." Some distance past the Church northward, the village, obscured by the great, irregularly-occurring pines, takes a turn and a sudden dip. The dip and the pines, which are thick at that end, obscure a section of the village known locally as La Reveilliere. As they came to the high ground where the dip occurs, the vista appeared below of a spacious avenue, down whose centre ran a straight and smooth road-bed, and on either side twice its breadth of lawn, rolled and cut, forming a sort of common, ornamented by a sparing group or two of the ubiquitous pines of the neighbourhood. Along the edges of this avenue or common, lay what could only be called a THE STATESMAN'S DREAM. 107 sort of I ramfiiiurcd Fiumcli -Canadian viUat/t', looking', in th(^ t[\\'u'i light of evening, as if pictured by some artist out of studies of the places in the country al)Out. The dwellings were larger, hotter drawn, their windows, attics and wings more varied in design, hut amid their picturesque variety could bo discerned in several, a suggestion of the chimney of a certain wild little cot in a dell near the Manoir ; in others, of the solid stone homo of Jean Benoit ; in many the chalet- eaved pattern of the ordinary cottage. Perhaps the latter were made prettiest of all — they were at least the airiest looking. It was in the colors and stainings applied to the gables and other parts that the greatest care had been taken. These were selected out of the ordinary red, yellow, white, and sage-green waslies in common use, with such taste as to cect a deeply harmonious and ideal issue. Again, the plan of the village was peculiar. It was simply an improve- ment on that of the local villages in general, the dwellings being upon the border of the street and not far apart, with their little, foot-wide flower-gardens close against the front. The circular fan of a patent windmill lifted itself lightly, the most prominent obj'^ct in the settle- ment, and a charming Gothic schoolhouse crouched farther down on the opposite side. Behind the houses, growths of trees formed an enclosing background, according to the tastes of the owners, but guided by some harmonizing supervision like the colors. And at a short distance the avenue was crossed by a white poplar grove, which brought the scene to a limit, and separated this dream of a rural statesman from the common world. " V'l^, monsieur," said Zotique, who had joined them, stretching his hand, " Behold the cherished work of our young seigneur." Upon the galleries, the verandahs, the green lawn, the picture moved with life. A half-haze, procursive of the twilight, lent scenic softness to the forms of old men puffing their pipes before the doors, a maiden listlessly strolling on the sward, a swarm of children playing IV B- 108 THE YOUNG aKTGNEUR. near tlio road, a tliataiit toilnr making' liia way homo, bearing his Hcytlie. Tho visitors wont down into the placo and (/hryshM* saw that the artistic shapes and i(kal colors were worn with daily use, tho men and women, serene-looking, were still the every day mortals of the region. " I think I have gained a great step in tho houses and street," said Ilaviland. "And the Reveilli6re is proud of its founder," added rilonorable. " We have a little newspaper — Lp Coup tVCEil." — cried Zotiquo. Chrysler congratulated Chamilly on his felicity of design in the dwellings. The greater size of the houses was chiefly for better ventilation. The windmill was part of a simple water-works system, which supplied the village with drauglits from the bottom of the river. The school was a gift of Chamilly's, "If we had some great architect among us," replied he, " he would transmute for our country a national architecture." A little liouse, conspicuous for the delicacy of its architecture, stood near them, and a young man — the schoolmaster — who was on the verandah, reading, in his shirtsleeves, threw down his newspaper at the call of Zotique, came forward and entered eloquently into the work of information about the Roveilli6re, flinging his cotton-clad arms recklessly towards the winds of heaven. " Tho Institute — the fountain of all — the gentleman has not seen the Institute 1 " inquired he, looking to the two Frenchmen, " I believe not," Zotiquo said. " Have you seen it, sir ? " " Not that I know of." " Monsieur, you must see the Institute." ,^^ " What is this Institute T' ,v , , ., v / _ . ^ *'The enfant perdu of Liberalism, the mainspring of Dormilli^re, the hope of French America I " THE INSTITUTE. 109 CHAPTER XXIV. THE INSTITUTE. " The battle for the swny, Of liberty, Fraternity, And light of the new day." — Mary Moroam. "About oightoen hundred and fifty," explained the Honorable. " L'Institut Caiiadien was our national thinking Society, and the spark of an awakening of great promise." "Under the French regime, our people received no education. They knew the forests, the ra})ids, the science of trapping beaver, and when to expect the Iroquois, and sow grain. The English conquest came next and cut us off from the new birth of modern Fra..ce, and the Church, our only institution, was very wilHng to ignore that stinudation of ideas. We lived on; we read little; we labored much. — But, monsieur," said THonorable, with his quiet dignity, " we were of the race of Descartes." " We slept. At last the awakening ! Our griefs and our grievances forced the Rebellion ; they brought our thoughts together and made us reason in common ; we demanded a now Canada, relieved of bureaucracy, of political disabilty, of seignioral oppression, some said even of abuses of the Church — a Canada of the People, in which every citizen should stand up c^^ual and free. " .^ .,.,-- -.^ " The first result demanded — and obtained — was responsible govern- ment. Among others came preparations for the abolition of feudal tenure, making a vassal population freeholders ! ^ rji i fsi^ 'fue firti ? THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. H^^rS. " The next cry was Education ! The French-Canadians were delighted with the opening world of knowledge and ideas, and there is no mce which ever rose with greater enthusiasm to pursui progress and ocience. A few young men of Montreal were banded into a Society for mutual advancement, to hold debates at which all races were to be free to contribute opinions, to open a library of useful books, and to seek truth witiiout any conditions. That was the Institut Canadien ! "These noble young enthusiasts soon attracted chosen spirits, a precious essence of the race. Tliey sprang into fame ; — fourteen were returned to Parliament in one year. Tliey called all the world freely to their discussions, and created 6clat by the brillancy of their programme. Tlie province kindled — every village ho'^ its Institute ! " "But 'sa-a-a-cr ! '" savagely ejaculated Zotique, and his eyes grew intense in their fierceness, " The Institut Canadien gradually excited the jealousy of certain ecclesiastics by its free admissions and the liberality of its researches. What is known as the " Struggle " conimenc»Al. A se les of combined assaults by episcopal summons, a pulpit crusade, excommunication, refusal of burial, encouragement of dissensions, and the establivsh- ment of rival Institutes bearing names such as " Institut Canadien Fran^ais," most of which existed only on paper, finally succeeded in crushing the movement. "Ac" — ejaculated Zotique. "The Institute at Dcrmilliere is the insignificant sole survivor." " I understand now your Reveilliere," Chrysler said.*-'^ ^ v ' THE CAMPAIGN PLAN. Ill CHAPTER XXV. THE CAMPAIGN ^'LAN. On Saturday evening of Chrysler's first week at the Manoir, tlioy went to the Institute. It was a house down the DormilUere Street, that held its head somewhat higher and tipped it back a little more proudly than the rest, — a long, old fashioned wooden cottage, of many windows, and some faded pretensions to the ornamental • iiiiW elegant in the light curve of its capacious grey roof, the slender turned pillars of its gallery, separated by horizontal oval arches, its row of peaked and moulded dormer windows, its ornaments, its broad staircase climbing up to the doorway, and the i)rovincial-aristocratic look of its high set-back position in its garden. The name of a rich luoney-lender, wno had been feared in days gone by — " Cletus the Ingrate," — was mentioned under breath in the stories about it. But ever since his death, many years before, it had been the faded outer shell into v/hich the intellectual kernel of JJorrailliure life withdrew itself, and in the passage as one entered, the sign " IN8T1TUT CANADIEN," which liad once had its place on the front, might be seen resting on the floor, — a beehive and the motto "Altius Tendimus," occupying the space between the two words. . ..The interior was a very great contrast to the outside. Its fittings were in the pleasantest of light-hued paints and varnished pine : maps casts, and pictures enlivened the walls and corners ; a handsome library and nucleus of a museum, with reading tables, opened to the left, and a large debating hall to the right — together occupying the whole of the principal floor. *,' '■'I 112 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. iiii That evenin|]j the row of front Avindovvs shone with particular illumination for a meeting of Chamilly's supporters, and as Chrysler entered with Haviland and Zotique, they cp.ught from De La Lande the fragmentary assertion, " It is France t'xat must be preached ! " " Aax armes, citoyens ! " roared Zotique, entering like a captain on the stage. " Give me my battalion ! Write me my letters of marque : " Then throwing one hand in air : " Allons ! what has been done ? " The audience sitting around on tables and windowsills, as well as on groups of chairs, laughed boisterously and thumped the floor, and recalled to the proper work of ^^be meeting, commenced a cry of " J Honorable ! " " The Honorable presides ! " intoned Eenoit, Hke a ri'ier ; and Genest, accustomed to understand their wishes, seated himself in the chair, wliile a momentary lull fell over the noisiness. " A Secretary ! " "De La Lande!" "Calixte Lefebvre ! " " Le Brun, Le Brun, Le Brun, Le Brun ! " " I nominate our good friend Descarries," smilingly spoke the Chairman. " Does the meeting agree ? " > " Yes ! " " Yeb ! " " "laitre Descarries for Secretary ! " " Maitre Descarries ! " " Carried ! " were the responses shouted together from . all sides. " We have to consider this evening," continued the Chairman, after the white-wigged official had seated himself in his place as Secretary, " our general organization and appointment of districts. The aim is to worl: Lard for Monsiei.r during the times coming. The people's meeting to take place to-morrow, is to be addressed for Libergent by Grandmoulin himself, and Picault will be in the county with them till the election. So vou see our task is not less than to defeat the v/hole THE CAMPAIGN PLAN. 113 strength of the Cave. As we fight with men of stature, there is need of valor and address." , " We'll have to pull the devil l>y tlie tail ! " cried one. The wonls were those of a common proverb referring to "close shaving." The Chairman added : " Mr. De La Lande, the floor seems to be already yours." " I have heard," began De La Lande, " that Grandmoalin has commenced to raise the issue of French patriotism." " You are right," said Zotique. " Well, then, why can wo Mot use a like word, that shall go to the heart of the people 1 Give us a national cry ! Let the struggle rest on our fundamental emotions of race ! Why can v/e not" — The face of the impetuous schoolmaster began to flame into eagerness and fire. *'' Because," interrupted Haviland, firmly, " we are in this particular country. Would you have us enter upon a campaign of injustice and ih ..ill ? Leave that, and the glory of it, to Grandmoulin and to Picaidt ! " " But, my chief, the positions of tlie French and the English ! — We who were first, are becoming last ! " " Come here if you please, sir," Haviland said, turning to Chrysler, who rose and advanced to him surprised. Haviland took him, and passing over to De La Lande, placeil the hand of the Ontario gentle- man in that of the high-spirited schoolmaster, who accepted it, puzzled. " There ! " cried Haviland, raising his voice to a pitch of solemnity. " Say wlLitever you can in that position. That is the position of the Canadian races ? " .,, > , A sliout rose in the hall, and every man sprang to his feet. Cheer rose upon cheer, while De La Lande shook the hand in his with feeling ; and the cheering, .smiling, and hand shaking, lasted nearly a minute. It ended at a story by Zotique. 114 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. " When I was a boy," — he began, in a deep, exaggcu'atod voice, and whirling liis two arms so as to include the whole of those present in the circle of his address. The cheers and confusion broke into a roar of laughter for a moment, that stifled itself almost as quickly, as they listened. < " We lived for a year in the Village Ste. Aldegonde, near to Montreal. In the Village Ste. Aldegonde there was a nation of boys. All these boys marched in daily to town to the great School of the Blessed Brothers. Along the way to the School of the ]>lessed Brothers, many Eugiish boys lay in wait between us and learning, and we passed certain streets like Hurons passing through the forests of Iroquois. Often we went in large war parties, and repeated the charges of Waterloo for hours up and down streets " One afternoon I passed there alone — accompanied by a great boaster. We behold three big English boys. We cross the street. They ccme after : — get before us : — command us to stop ! " The audience were worked up into suppressed fits, for Zotique's gestures were inimitable. " My friend the boaster steps forward with the air Napoleonic ! He sticks out his breast like this ; he shortens his neck, like this ; he frowns his brows ; lie glares at them a terrible look ; he cries : * I am of the Canadian blood ! ' " " And what does he do next, gentlemen ? " Zotique paused a moment. —"Runs for his life!" ' ' ' ^ The roar that followed shook the apartment. Zotique stopped it. " But what did / do, gentlemen ? " ^ . r- ^ No one ventured to guess. --.,-,==-=_^-»^- .- .^^ " I — perhaps because I was of the Dormillifere blood — did not run, but looked at the English. — We laughed all together. — And I passed along unmolested." THE CAMPAIGN PLAN. 115 " Messieurs, — with the exception of our oxcollent Do La Lande, T am afraid it is too often those who lack the virtues of their race who make most cry of it." The meeting now resumed its discussioro. " We require strategy ! " asserted a burly, red-liaired lawyer from the City. " I confess myself in favor of strategy," admitted Zotique also. "I am always in favor," said Chamilly, "of the strategy of organized tactics, of the avoidance of useless by-questions, and of spirit and intelligence in attack and defence." " But you will not let us lie a little in protection of you," retorted Zotique. '• To me the moral law is to beat Picault." "Assuredly !" the red-haired lawyer said indig!iantly, looking a half air of patronage tov,^ards Chamilly, and breathing in for a steady blast of ejoquence : " It is time these ridiculous ideas which forbid us so many successes w^re sent back to Paradise, and that such elections as the present were governed upon rational principles. We cannot offer the people directly what is good for them ; because it is not what they want. What ihey want, is what we must first of all assume to provide. Once in power we can pers'\atie them afterwards. Gentlemen, to (jet into poiver is the first absolute necessity. We cannot defeat the enemy except by opposing to them some of their own n\ethods. Revive the courage of the young men by offering what they deserve — good places in case of success ! Replenish the coffers by having our army of contractors to oppose to the ranks of theirs. If they lie, we have a right to lie. If they spend money, we must spend it. If they cajole with figures, surely our advantage as to the facts woidd enable us to produce others still more astjn- ishing. Human nature is not angelic — and you can never make it otherwise." *' My friend," answered Chamilly, raising his strong frame dtjliber- M ! ■''J 116 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. ately, " these are the very principles that I am resohitely determined to battle with all my forces, I care not whether among my foes or my friends. Must our young Liberals learn over again what Liberalism is? The true wa" to entsr politics is none other at any time than to deliberately chooi-e a higher stand and methods. Trickeries are easier and sometimes Liiad to a kind of success : if our objects were sordid, we might descend to demeaning hypocrisies, we might cheat, we might thieve, perjure, and be puppets, and perhaps so win our way to power ; we might think we could use these to better ends, though that doctrine succeeds but rarely ; — and perhaps what we might achieve may appear to you of some value, even of great value tp you. .^. " Yet, no, my friends of Dormilli^re, your very work is to lay the foundations of sincerity deep in this sphere, and to withstand and eradicate the existing political evils. ' One must determine,! said a very great man, ' to serve the people and not to please them.' If some youth replies, ' This is a laborious, troublesome, hopeless occupation, in which there is not reward enough to make it worth my while,' I tell him but ' Attack it : rejoice to see something so near to challenge your mettle, and if you meet the battle boldly S( , and ennoble yourself, you will immediately understand how to think of the ennoblement of your people and your country as glorious.' ^Altius tendimus ! We move towards a higher ! ' — The country reads our motto, and is watching what we practise. Give it an answer in all your acts ! " v "; Chamilly's manner of uttering these worels produced the only perfect stillness the meeting observed during the evening, for the French-Canadians have a custom of talking among themselves throughout any ordinary debate. Their respect for Charailly was striking. L'Honorable listened with a ;smile of pleasure ; Zotique looked all loyalty : and the young men beamed their over-flowing THE CAMPAIGN PLAN. 117 flowing endorsation of sentiments worthy of the Vigors, Dorions, and Papineaus, those grand men whose portraits hung upon their walls. As he stopped, there wi>,s a sudden movement all about. A spirit of energy took hold on all. Zotique, posing at the head of a largo table in front of the Chair, almost at once had installed De La Lande assistant-secretary, to do the real work of which punctilious old Maitre Descarries could only make a courageous show ; had swept towards him an inkstand, shaken open a drawer and whipped out some foolscap, and darting his cadaverous eyes from one to another around, despotically appointed them to places of various service, now sharply answering, now ignoring a question by the appointee, while De La Lande scribbled his directions ; arid (; very one was so anxious to find some post that there was no grumbling at his heedless good generalship. In a trice they were all being called for at various tables and corners, which lie fixed for the operations of the Com- mittees. The most zealous and loquacious of those who pressed forward to be given positions of trust was Jean Benoit. " What pig will you shear 1 " demanded Zotique, (looking for an instant, as he turned to shout towards another quarter, "En'oyez done; en'oyez ! ") " I take the Re veilliere." "The Reveillere is parted among three." — ("Be ([uiet there ! ") " Well then," — grandiloquently, — " I take from St. Jean de Dieu to the parish Church of Dormilli^re." " Too much for four ! " pronounced Zotique. Spoon pressed heavily behind Benoit, and whispered something. " La Misericorde then," said Benoit, hastily. Zotique shouted to the Secretary : " Jean Benoit the country-side of La Misericorde ! " And to Benoit again : " There is your committee." m 1'! 1 118 THE YOUNG SEIGNP^UR. But Jean would have a hand in shoving forward his admired l)ar- tonder : " Give monsieur sometliing near my own." "Cuiller — the village of La Misericorde," directed Zotique. " Now^ both of you, the chief thing yo\i have to do is to report to us if the Bleus commence to work there. Go ; go ! " " Salut, Benoit ; how goes it ; how is the wife ? and the father ? — the children also 1 I hope you are well. Comment f;a-va-t-il Cuiller ?" — asked Chamilly. ' ■"■ c. -^v v> - " I have always accepted your friendship, Benoit, and trusted you," smiled generous Haviland. " See here, Zotique, give Benoit a responsible post. — How different must be our feelings at this priceless service of personal affection from those of our opponents, served only ■ for money." " No money 1 " blurted Spoon. " Taurieu ! Au election without money?" Chamilly, with one quiet glance, turned away to I'Honorable. " Without ' tin,'— St. Christophe, I say !— St. Laurent ! " " Keep quiet — silence, I pray thee," returned Benoit, and drew his companion aside. " Why did Benoit call himself Director ? " Chrysler asked. THK CAMPAIGN PLAN. ^^^ It IS a weakness of his ever since he wa. nut on ih.U , r our Agricultural Society. Do not lan..h .,.. ''^'^^ ""^ of mankind." "^^'' ""^"''^ ""' ^^'' «"""""^^ vanity •;¥,q 120 Til 10 YOUN(J SKICNKUR. CHAPTER XXV. THE LOW-COUNTRY SUNRISE. "Chariin son RoAt. Moi, j'iifino niionx la nature iniinitivn qui ii'sst i>aa i\, 1ft nio ]iourra jamais doinoder J'aiiiui oo, quo j'aiiiic, et vouh, vouh aiiiicz aiitro choso. Grand Men vous TaHHc— je vouh adniiic, Monsiiiiir Tout-lo-Mondo." — Bkn.i. Sulte " I am going to rise before tlie sun to-morrow. Would you like to coiiie out fishing ? " remarked Ilaviland, cheerfully, on the way home. Chrysler signified assent. At grey dawn, before it was yet quite daybreak, they were on the road. All the houses in the neighliourhood looked ar^eep. Heavy dews lay upon the grass. The scene was chilly, and a little comfortless and suggestive of turning back to bed. " Where are we going 1 " the visitor asked, trying to collect his spirits. " To find r>onhomme Le Brun, who superintends the boating interest. — ' Bonhomme ' — 'Good Man' — is a kind o{ jocular name we give to every simple old fellow. ' Le Brun' is not quite correct either. His real name — or rather the onlv one extant among the noms-dc-giierre of his predecessors, is Vadebonca3ur — * Go willingly,' which the Notaries I suppose wo"^. 1 wriie ' Vadeboncoeur dit Le Brun.' " Notwithstanding the early hour they were not alone on the road. A wrinkled woman, bent almost double, was toiling slowly along with heavy sighs, under a sack of firewood. '"' See here, madame," Chamilly called out, stepping forward to her, TllK LOW-COUNTRY SUNKISK. 121 "give me the sack;" which lie unloaded from i er back uiul threw over his slioulrhn*. " You are always so {^'ood, mons(u*<,ninur Chiimilly," tlui old woman groaned in a plaintive, palsieonhomme at the house 1 " he enquired. " I think not, sir; he was pnjparing to go to [sic of Ducks." "Just whore I thought," exclaimed llavilaiul in Kiiglish. " This Le Brun is of the oddest class — a secular iMniiiit on the solitudes of the river — n impedes of mystery to the others. Sometimes he is seen paddling among the islands far down ; sometimes seining a little by methods invented by himself ; sometimes carrying home an old gun and more or less loaded with ducks; sometimes his torch is seen far out in the dark, night-fishing ; but f(5w meet him face to face besides myself. When a boy I used to think he lived on the water because his legs were crooked, though more proi)ably his legs are crooked because he avoids the land. lie k('(^)s my sail-boat for me and I let him use the old windmill we shall come to by those trees." The windmill and the cot of Le lU'un stood in a birch-grown hollow, not far off, where a stream cascaded into the 8t. Lawrence, and had worn down the precipitous bank of earth. It was a wild picture. The gable of the cot was stained Indian red down to the eaves, and a stone chimney was embedded irregularly in its log side. The windmill, towering its corneal roof and rusty weathervane a little distance off, and stretching out its gray skeleton arms as if to creak more freely in the sweep of gales from the river, was one of those rcmbrandtesque relics which prove so picturescpiely that Time is an artist inimitable by man. A clay oven near the cot completed this group of erections, around and behind which the silver birches and young elms grew up and closed. 122 THK YOUN(i SKKJNKUa. No, M«!8si(nir.M, L(» Jinin was not at homo ; he hiul ^'one to Isle of Ducks ; ami all iho bhissings of tlic M.unts upon MonscsigiuMir for his kindiuisa to a poor old woman. — " Ah, S-'ignc-ur ! " Chamilly took his skiff from the hoatlKJUso himself, and was soon pulling swiftly from the shore, while as they got out upon it the vastness and power of the stream became apparent. From its broad surface the mists began to rise gracefully in long drifts, moved by the early winds and partly ()l)scuriiig the distant sliores, whoi^e fringe of little shut uj) houses still suggested slumber. The dews had freshened the pines of Dormilliere, and the old Church stood majestically forward among them, throwing back its head and keeping shieplcss watch towaids the opposite side. Gradually receding, too, the Manoir showed less and less gable among its mass of foliage. If the Church is one great institution of that country, tlie St. Lawrence is ;io less another, — displaying thirty miles unbroken blue on a clear day in the diri^ction of the distant lull of Montreal, and on the other hand, towar«ls Lake St. Peter, a vista oceanlike and unhorizoned. In certain regions numerous flat islands, covered V)y long grasses and rushes intersected by labyrinthine passages, hide the boatman from the sight of the world and form iiinumeral)le nooks of quiet which have a class of scenery and inhabitants altog(ither their own. As the chaloupe glides around some unsuspected corner, the crane rises heavily at the s[)lash of a paddle, wild duck fly off low and swiftly, the plover ci Aa away in bright handsome flocks, the gorgeous kingfisher leaves ?! ; little tree. In the water different spots have their special finny denizens. In one place a broad deep arm of - the river — which throws off a dozen such arms, each as large as London's Thames,- without the main stream appearing a whit less broad — shelters auiong its weeds exhaustless tribes of perch and pickerel ; in another place a swifter and profounder current conceals TilK LOW CUirNTUY SUNKISK. 123 the great Hiur<,'»'oii and lion-like ni!iMkin<»ng<^* ; wlnlc amon^' (••'riuin shallower, less active corners, the hottoni is clotiicd with nnnldy cat lish. They approached a reH;i()n of this kind, skininieil alon^' l»y spirited athh^tic strokes, and had arrived at the head of the low-Iyinj; arehi- pelaj,'() just (hjHcrihod, where they vAiuie upon a motionless lij,'ure sittin<,' fishinj^ in a [)init, some distance; along a hroad passage to the 'eft. Short hlue blouse, litth* cap and flat-lxittonuMl boat, the ,ip[)earance of the figure at that hour made one with the drifting mists and rural strangeness of the landscape, and Chrysler knew it was Le Ilrun, and remarked so to Haviland. " Without doubt, Bonhomme is part of nature and unmistakable. — Ilola Honhomme ! " " Mo-o-o-o-nseigneur," he sung in reply, without looking u[» or taking further notice of them. Haviland gave a few more vigorous strokes. " How does it bite, Bonhomme ? " " A little badly, monseigneur ; all perch here ; one pickerel. Shall we enter the little channels ? " " I do not wi"h to enter the little channels : I remain here." They were soon fishing beside him, Chamilly at one mmMiKmmM«^ ^ wz III''. li' if": 130 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUK. good deeds. Materially, if we can learn to employ all our available time at something, we shall be the richest of nations. Why have we so many men idling about the villages ? Why do so many women simply live on a relative 1 How different the country would look if the man spent his waste moments in building a gallery, an oriel wiiidow, or an awning, to his house, and the idle girl practised some home manufacture. The prosperity of certain Annapolis valley farmers once struck me. 'Do you know why it is?' said a gentleman who was born there, ' The forefathers of these people were a colony of weavers, and there is a loom in every house.' "The Habit of Economy is simply making the best use of our possessions and powers. " The Habit of Progress, or of constantly seeking to improve, is to be deeply impressed. It alone will bring us eve.^ thing. It is never time to say, " Let us remain as we are." . " We could attend to some minor habits with benefit. How the popular intelligence would be improved, for instance, by : — " A habit of asking for the facts. " A habit of thinking before asserting. " A mean between liberality and tenacity of conviction. " Now one more piece of etiuipment, but it is the highest : The Canadian, if he is to live a life thoroughly scaled on the scale of the reasonable, must place the greatest importance on those interests which transcend all his others, his future fare beyond this make-shift existence ; his relations to the unseen world ; and how to lay hold on purity and righteousness. Think what he may of them, he should at any rate think. Let him set apart times to ponder over these matters : and for this, I say that to be a lofty and noble nation, we must all borrow the rational oljservance of the Sabbath, not as a day merely of rest and still less of Highty recreation, but a necessary period devoted to man's thought upon his more tremendous atiairs." THE IDEAL STATE. 131 Si? \ \ After the equipment of the ideal Canadians, Chamill}' proceeded to describe their work. They were to see its pattern above them in the skies- The Perfect Nation. Among themselves a few great ideas were to be striven for : " We must be One People," " Canada must be Perfectly Independent : " " There must be No Proletariat.'' The principle of government was to be " Government by the Best Intelligence." " We must try to amend unfair distributions of wealth. Yet not to take from the rich, but give to the poor. Fortunes should ])e looked upon as national, and we should seek means to bring the wealthy to apply their fortunes to patriotic uses. The surroundings of the poor should be made beautiful. No labour should be wasted. Men should learn several occupations, and Government find means of instant communication between those who would work and those who would employ. The lot of the poor must not be made hopeless from generation to generation ! " The next demand of the Ideal was, " There must be No Vice." " The ditficulties ! " sighed Chrysler. " We ought to be ashamed to complain till we have done as well as Sweden." " Again, we must stamp our action with the Spirit of Organization. The nation must work all together as a whole. The public plan must be clearly disseminated, and especially the aim ' To do pre-eminently well our portion of the improvement of the world.' Consecrated by our ideal also we must seek to draw together, and foster a national distinctiveness. Canada must mean to us the Sacred Country, and our young men learn to weigh truly the value of such living against foreign ladvantages. F«r there is no surety of any excellence equal to a national atmosphere of it. They have always been artists in Italy ; they have always been sternly free in Scotland : for a word of glory £S»v?^i!»'jyrTrvtai 132 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR the French rush into the smoke of battk; : the Kiiglislinian is a success in courage and practicaUty ; the German has not given his existence in vain to thoroughness ; nor the American to business. Let us make to ourselves proper customs and peculiarities, like the good old New Year's call, the Winter Carnival, the snow-shoe costume, and a secular procession of St. Jean Baptiste. Tradition too ! Why should we forget the virtues of our fathers ; or perhaps still better their faults ? Let the man who was a hero — Daulac; Brock; the twelve who sortied at Lacolle Mill ; our deathless three hundred of Cliateauguay, — never to be forgotten. Have them in our books, our school books, our buildings. Make a Fund for Tablets, so that the people may read every-where : ' Here died McGee, who loved this nation.' * Papineau spoke here.' ' Li this house dwelt Heavysege.' So might all Canada be a Quebec of memories." He held that the office of our literature and art was to express the spirit of our work. " Nor let the poet," he said, " find the keystone of our spirits dull ; let him not fear he sings a vain song when he leaves that voice lingering in some vale of ours that conjures about it forever its moment of richest beauty and romance." ^ ^ In dress, in manners, we should be common-sense, tasteful and fearless, and in the development of our territory energetic and full of hope. " Believe me, sir, we shall yot learn how to have bright fire- sides on the shores of the Arctic." " And where is our world- work 1 " Chrysler asked, like one awakening. " Wherever there is world- work undone that we can reach to do." " Think," cried he, finally, " of a country that lives, as I am suggest- ing, on the deepest an that sunrise and say, ' See yon beautiful city whoso palaces and diurches tower with the grace and splendors of all known architecture ; those rural plains and vales of park and garden, where every liome nestles so as one could not conceive it more lovely ; that race of heroes and god- desses in strength and thought ; those proud tablets and monuments of national and international honor and achievement and blessing.' And if any say, ' How can we attain to that greatness 1 ' I would write him this amulet : ' Begin at the Possible ! ' " The patriot ended, and when he had finished, Chrysler exclaimed : " Work it out, Haviland ! If a convert is any use to you, take me over and send me forth. It's a noble scheme. But, for Heaven's sake, fortify yourself. How many proselytes do you expect in the first hundred years ? " " You forget," replied Haviland. " I have always this faithful little legion of Dormillifere. Has not Lareau said," and he smiled half in joke, half seriously, " that we are a people of ideals." They returned to their fishing in silence, broken by a meditative query now and then from Chrysler, but no movement of curiosity from the Bonhomme. hil* 134 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XXVII. JOSEPHTB. " Sister Elisa," lispod Ru(lol[)ho, tlie tiny boy. (In tho j^ardon the cliildren of the farmer of the domain, and of Pierre, were playing together.) " Mr. Ch'ysl' has told me he was a Canadian." " Did he say so, mon fin ? " asked motlierly ten-year-old ElisA,, picking a " belle p'tite " flower for the little fellow, whom she held by the hand. " He's not Canadian," put in the large boy, Henri, with contempt befitting his twelve years of experience. " Because he doesn't speak Frencli. He's an English." " Speaking French don't make a Canadian," answered Elisa. " The Honorable says every one who is native in Canada is a Canadian, speak he French, speak he English." " O, well — the Honorable — the Honorable — " retorted Henri, testily. While this went on, the voice of Josephte could be heard singing low and happy, in a corner of the walk of pines which surrounded the garden and the back of the grounds : n* " Eglantine est la fleur que j'aime La violette est ma couleur ...."* Next, lower, but as if stirred softly by the lingering strain rather than feeling its sadness : * " Egla^itine is the flower I love. My color is the violet." JOSEPHTE. 135 " . . . .Dana le sonci tu vois remblbme Dea cimgrinH de mon triste couur." * When she got thus far, she stopped and caUod out, choerfidly : — " Come along, my little ones ; come along ; come along and recite your duties ! " And in a trice they all raced in and wore panting in a row about her. Thus one sultry afternoon, Mr. Chrysler found hor sitting, book and sewing on her lap and only a rosary about her neck to relieve the modest black dress, whose folds, " Plain in their neatness," accorded well with her indefinably gentle bearing. Seeing him, she stopped and dropped hor head, like a good convent maiden. " Procedez, ma'amselle," he said, nodding benevolently. " L)o not disturb yourself." " But, monsieur," she said, and blushed in confusion. *' Go on. I shall be interested in these young people's lessons." " As monsieur wishes," she replied. " Now, my little ones, your catechism." They ranged themselves in a line. " Elisa, thee first ; repeat the Commandments of God." Elisa commenced a rhyming paraphrase of the Ten Commandments. " Ah, no, cherie, — more reverence. Say it as to the Holy Virgin." ElisS, went through it in a soft manner to the end. " Rudolphe ; the Seven Commandments of the Church." The childish accents of the little one repeated them : — 1. Mass on Sundays thou shall hear And on feasts commanded thee. 2. Once at least in every year, Must thy sins confessed be. ' Tho symbol shall the emblem prove Of my sad heart and eyelids wet" 136 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. 3. Thy Creator take at least At Easter with humility. 4. And keep holy every feast, Whereof thou shalt have decree. 5. (^uatre-temps, Vigils, fasts are met, And in Lent entirely. 6. Fridays flesh thou shalt not eat ; Saturdays the same shall be. 7. Church's every tithe and fee Thou shalt pay her faithfully." " Henri, what is the Cliurcli which Jesus Christ has established ?" "The Chiuv.h which Jesus Christ has ostal)lishc(l," said he stoutly, "is the Church Catholic, Apostolic and Roman." The next was Henri's eight year old sister. " Can anyone be saved outside of the Church Catholic, Apostolic and Roman 1 " " No," (solemnly,) " out of the Church there is no sa^ 'on." " Say now the Act of Faith all together." " My God," said the children in unison, " I believe firmly all that the Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches, because it is you who have said it and you are Truth Itself." " You may rest yourselves." " Chrysler was most curious regarding what he heard thus instilled. The thought struck him : ** There's something like that in our Calvinism too." " My dear demoiselle," he said aloud, " as I am a Protestant — " " A Protestant, sir ! " She regarded him with visibly extraordi- nary emotions, and involuntarily crossed herself. " It is impossible ! " It was the first time a Protestant and she had ever been face to .lOSEPHTE. 137 face. " Monsionr," sho ajipeuled in ai^'itaiiou "why do y'>" »<»t enter tl»e bosom of the true ClnmOi ?" " Must o\w not act as he believes'}" '* Imt, sir," said the dear j^drl. piiiiifully, still ro^'ardin^' him with j^'reat wonder, " on studying,' trne doctrine, the saints will mak(? you believe ; the priest can baj^tize yon. He will he deli^dited, I am cer- tain, to save a soul from destruction." She could not restrain the flow of a tear. " My child," Chrysler said, for lu; saw that curiosity liad led him too far : " Leave this to God, who is f,'reater than you or I and knows every heart." "Monsieur, then. l)elieves in God ! ' IIiu- present astonishment was e(iual to that before. The rising voices of the chihben relieved him. That of Klisa, who sat in a ring of the rest, nodding her head decidedly and rhyth- mically, was coi'spicuous : " I am goinjj, to join the Sisterliood of the Holy Rosary and go to chv^rch early, early, often, often, four times a day, and pray, pray, and 3ay my paters and my aves, and gain my indulgences, and be more devout than Sister Jesus of God ; and then I am going to take the novitiate and wear a beautiful white veil and fast every day, and at last — at last — I am going to be a Religieuse." " What name will you take, Elisa 1 " " I have decided," the little convent girl responded, " to take the name of ' Sister St. Joseph of the Cradle.' " "Mais, that is pretty, that! But I prefer 'St. Mary of the Saviour.' " " What are you going to be 1 " Elisa asked of the smaller girl. " I will be^ — I will be — I will take my first communion." " I have taken it already," replied Elisa, with superiority. "Henri! Henri! it is your turn." Mlii': 138 THE YOUNG SEIGNP:UR. ' ii'.f "I om j,'oinn ■ * "What shaL that greatness be— that splendor of our Canada to '^r liiu'i 148 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. como t " He pictnrod its possibilities in grand vistas. The people were spell-bound by noble hopes and emotions which curried them upward. Involuntarily, as Chrysler looked at his face and bearing, he was reminded of the prophets, and the old white church behind seemed to be rising and throwing back its head, and with- drawing its thoughts into some proud region of the great and super- natural. The old man forgot the crowd and the crowd totally forgot Chrysler : "Canadians!" Chamilly closed, his figure drawn up like a hero's and his rich voice sounding the name again with that wonderful utterance, " the memories of our race are compatible only with the good of the world and our country. If you are unwilling to accept me on this basis, do not elect me, for I will only express my convictions." AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 149 CHAPTER XXX. AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES. '' On high in yonder old church tower, The ancient bell rings out the hour, Sonio+lmes with voice of wondrous iiower." —John Bkbakemkidoe. Monsieur Editor Quinet mounted the platform and stood there, cool and masterful. At the same moment the Cur6 in his black gown, bolted up from his chair beside his young vicar, on the gallery of the parsonage, and regarding the orator with indignation, raised his breviary towards the church with outstretched arm. " Messieurs, what ruins us "... . Quinet commenced. His sentence was shattered to pieces ! ♦' Kling-klanq-q-g-g ! " a loud church bell resounded from one of the towers, sending a visible shock over the assembly and drowning the succeeding words. " What ruins us "... . Quinet, with imperturbable composure, com- menced again in a louder voice. A Clashing peal from the opposite belfry replied to the first and compelled him to stop. The Gur6, swelling with triumph, nmrohed up and down his gallery, turning quickly at each end; while the bells of both Mie towers, swing- ing confusedly in their belfries, sent forth one horrible continued torrent of clangor over the amazed crowd. I <|iM Bm i» . i »|i !i W i »« i» > i ii < to li 150 THK YOUNG SEIGNKUR. The speaker was soon convinced that no amount of cool waiting would prevail. Ho did, therefore, what was a more keenly eirectivo continuation of his sentence than any words, — raised his finger and pointed it steadily for a few moments at the Cur6, and then with- drew. For many a day the story of (^uinet and the bells was told in Dormilii^re. L1BEK(}ENT. 151 CHAPTER XXXI. LIBERGBNT. During the addresses, Libergent, Chamilly's nominal opponent, seemed to do nothing more tlian stand behind the rostrum and lot things proceed. Libergent, lawyer, was a man of a shrewd low order of ability. About forty years of age and medium height, his compact, athletic physique, partly bald head, small but well rounded skull, close iron-grey hair and moustache would have made him a perfect type of the French military man, were it not for a sort of stoop of determination, which, however, added to his appearance of athletic alertness, while it took away much dignity. The expression of his face was not bad. The decided droop of the corners of the mouth, and hardness of his grey-brown eyes indicated, it is true, a measure of irritability, but on the whole, the objectionable element of the expression was only that of a man who was accustomed to measure all things on the scale of commonplace personal advantage. His life was not belied by his appearance. He found his chief pleasures in fishing, and shooting, and kept a trotter of rapid pace. His quarters were comfortable in the sense of the smoker and sportsman. When he did not wear an easier costume for convenience, his shining hat and broad-cloth coat would have been the envy of many a city confrere. He lived a very moderate, regular life : now and then took a little liquor with a friend, but always with some sage remark against excess ; made himself for the most part a reasoimble and mhi^ 162 THE YOUNG Mi^UGNEUK. m sufficiently agreeable companion ; and had no higher tastes, unless a collection of coins, well mounted and arranged and at times added to, may claim that title. He tlierefore considered Haviland stark mad in spending so much money and brains upon nonsense ; and the subject made him testy when he reviewed his refusal to accept some arrange- ment by which they could share the local political advantages between them. " Politics is a sphere of business like any other," he said, " Haviland is doing the injury to himself and me that a theorist in business always does. He makes himself a cursed nuisance." misii:ricorde. 153 CHAPTER XXXII. MIS^RICORDE. Fiercely the election stirred the energies of Dormilliere. For more than a generation, enthusiasm for political contest had been a local characteristic ; but now the feelings of the village, — as pronounced and hereditary a "Red " stronghold, as Vincennes across the river was hereditarily "Blue," — may be likened only to the feeling of the Trojans at the famous siege of Troy. Their Seigneur was the Hector, and their strand beheld debarking against it the boldest pirates of the French-Canadian Hellas. In Chrysler's walks he met signs of the excitement even where a long stroll brought him far back into the country. The one of such corners named Mis^ricorde from its wretchedness, was a hamlet of thirty or forty cabins crowded together among some scrub tree? in the midet of a stony moor. The inhabitants, of whom a good share were broken-down beggavc and nondescript fishermen, varied their discouraged existences by drinking, wood sawing and doing odd jobs for the surrounding farmers, while their slatternly women idled at the doors and the children grew up wild, trooping over the surrounding waste. Politically, the place was noted for its unreliability. It was well known that every suffrage in it was open to corruption. In ordinary times the Rouges troubled themselves little about this, but the strong combination they had now to fight might make the vote of La Mis^ricorde of considerable importance; hence, there was some value in the trust which had been placed, at the meeting, in Benoit and Spoon. . < . , 154 THE YOlTNa SEIGNEUR. Here tlie latter, even more than at Dormillifere, was in liis element. A drinkin*,' house, misnamed " li6tel," was the most prominent building in Misericorde. It would not have ornamented a more respect- able locality but, on the whole, possessed a certain picturesqueness among these hovels, and arrested the Ontarian's steps. Stained a dark grey by at least fifty years of exposure, yet slightly tinted with the traces of a by-gone coat of green, it lifted a high peaked roof in air, which in descent, suddenly curving, was carried far out over a high-set front gallery reached by very steep steps. On the stuck-out sign, which was in the same faded condition as the* rest of the l)uil(ling, were with difficulty to be distinguished in a suggestion of yellov; color the shapes of a large and small French loaf, and the inscription " Boulonge," but the baking had apparently passed away with the paint. While he was curiously surveying this antique bit, a loud voice sounded through the open door, and the heavy form of the " Yankee from Longueuil " precipitated itself proudly, though a trifle unsteadily, forward down the steps and along the middle of the street, swearing, boasting and heading a swarm of men and boys, and loudly drawling a line of Connecticut notions in blasphemy. It could be seen that Spoon was some kind of a hero in the eyes of Misericorde. Rich, — for he had paid the drinks ; travelled, — they had his assertion for it ; courageous, — he could anathematize the Arch- bishop ; Misericorde had seldom such a novelty all to itself. " Sacr6 ! To blazes wit' you ; set 'em up all roun', you bias' Canaydjin nigger ! Du gin, vite done ! John Collins' pour le crowd ! I'm a white man, j'sht un homme blanc, j'sht Americain ; I'm from the Unyted States, I am ! Sacr6 bleu ! Health to all ! " " Health, monsieur !" " Health, monsieur !" "A thousand thanks." " Set 'em up again, bapt^me, you bias' Canayjin nigger !" MIS15RIC0RDE 155 II "What does he say !" inquired the landlord, on the verge of hcing offended. " Shut up, Potdevin !" said the only man who understood English, fearful lest the second treat should go astray. " Take !" cried Spoor., in a fit of reconciliation, throwing down a five dollar bill; and at the sight of the money, Potdevin, true landlord, proceeded with the pouring out of the beverages into very small glasses* with very thick bottoms. It was funny, when ho had precipitated himself from the door, as above said, to contemplate the fellow with his low ha'u on one side and far down on ].\z nose, his swelling shirt-front, striped breeches, and miglity brass chain, leading the trooping crowd like some travelling juggler. All this, however, was election work. Was it the kind of method Chamilly would approve 1 There was a short and certain answer. AVhich then of Haviland's friends supplied Spoon with m.oney for these only too obvious processes of vote-obtaining. It was not tlie Honorable, it was not l)e La Lande, it would not be penurious Benoit 1 " Ah, well," Chrysler thought, " I am here but to observe. Am I not under obligations to Zotique, if it be he, which prevent my interfering ? " Another of Chryslers theories too was exploded. He had long revolved a suspicion that it was Cuiller who had stolen Francois' $750. " Where else, thought he, " does he get these liberal suras to spend ? " Once he had ventured to ask Spoon himself about Le Brun's loss but was plumply faced with the growl, *' Do you suppose / stole iti" and, ashamerl of himself, withdrew the theory almost from his own mind. Now he could explain even the American's expenditure, m inr 156 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XXXIII. BLBUS. The Haviland party were not the only peoph; alive to the necessi- ties of the contest. It wfis not seldom that in the Ontarian's walks during those few days, the steady, inscrutable bust of Grandmoulin passed him, driven in one direction or another by Libergent ', and sometimes Picault accompanied. GrandmouHn, indeed, made herculean efforts. His grand chefs (Vcenvre of oratory — soul stirring appeals, in the name of all that Avas sacred in honor and religion, for his hypocritical and corrupt purposes, were lifted in noble structures of eloquence before the people, till it stjemed as if the lavishness of his genius and labor could only be explained by the desire of challenging the other great orator of the race. The young energies of Haviland responded readily. Their speeches were reported in full for the journals of the cities and watched for everywhere. It was the battle of Cataline and Cicero. The back parishes were not so soundly " Red " as Dormilliere : they usually polled a considerable Blue vote, and were very unstable. Here were concentrated the efforts of Grandmoulin to cajole and Picault to buy. Once thus Chrysler met Libergent driving Grandmoulin in a "buck- board," while another person sat in the back seat. *' Chrysler ! Chrysler ! — Listen ! " exclaimed the person in the back seat. Chrysler recognizied an Ottawa acquaintance, BLEITS. 167 " De Blenry ! how do you do ! " De Bleiiry put his hand on the reins to stop the vehicle : " Come up here, Chrysler, we go past the Manoir." " Thank you, I enjoy walking." " Come along, come along ; we don't hear excuses in the country. Come, Chrysler, the road is long," In order not to oft'end, Chrysler, in spite of his objection to the company, took the unoccupied place behind Grandmoulin. With Libergent, Chrysler did not reap much in conversa- tion. He was conciliatory in his solitary-like way, and had indulged for once in too much liquor. "Right Hon'ble Premier,— Sec' State.— Hon'ble Mr. Grandm'lin— all my fren's. You know dose gen'lmen 1 All my fren's. Da's all. My fren's goin' make it all right, eh? I re'spect'ble 'nough." Tiie half-seas-confidential style. Grandmoulin acknowledged the stranger but gravely, and was at once immutable — oppressed with thought for the country's welfare ! As he sat before Chrysler, and the latter felt the near- ness of his broad shoulders and coarse black mass of hair, he could not but picture the man within sinking into littleness and self- contempt at the debased uses of his great talent. ■ « 158 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XXXIV. THE FREEMASON. Ross de Bieury, the hospitable passenger, was a character. A man of immense physical strength and abounding spirits, soundly and stoutly built, of medium height, brown hair, full eyes and large nostiils, and strong merry lips, always devising some inge- nious adventure. One of his schemes, a quarter joke, three-quarters half-serious, was to band together all persons in the Dominion bearing the Ross name into one Canadian clan, he to be chief ! His own surname had first of all been simply Bieury, but energetic genea- logical researches having discovered to him that the founder of his line in France was a Scotch adventurer, he made bold to resurrect the original name, and add to it what was already a " Charles R6ue Marie-Auguste-Raoul-St. Cyr-de Bieury." Jest, quip and lively saying shortened his route to the door- way of the Circuit Cfturt, and he insisted on Chrysler's passing to his quarters upstairs. The court-room was stocked with dusty benches and tables, on and about which a small but noisy com- pany were postured. One reckless fellow swinging an ale-mug was singing : — "Tant qu' on le pourra, larirette, On se damnera, larirk ! " Two girls stood together near the door laughing brazen giggles. They were the Jalberts, daughters of the innkeeper, who himself with two young politicians from Montreal were impressing on a THE FREEMASON. 159 habitant : " If you (]on't vote for I.ibergent, you cau't go to heaven ; " Jalbert being an adlierent of the Blues in the hope of " running" Dormilliore, if tliey succeetled, for his license liad l)een taken away by the new movement. The bailiff, a wolfish-looking creature, who was always to be had for drink, also sat there trailing his vast loose moustache over a table. When Grandmoulin entered, a little crowd, like the tail of a comet, followed liini into the room. As he passed through he said no word, but drew his cloak about him and moved forward sphinx-like to the bar of the court, wliere he sat down and commenced to converse witli Libergent, Chrysler mounted the stairs with his entertainer and came upon an entirely different scene. De Bleury's spacious attic was appropriated to the rough and ready convenience of himself alone, and there was something quizzical about its expanses of brown dimnesses and dark- nesses, the cobwebby light that struggled in through the one high dor- mer window, the closet-like partition in the middle with a ticket- selling orifice, and the three or four rough chairs, which, with table, newspaper, and a basket of bottles, formed the furniture of this apart- ment. What work was done here, and how any one could choose such a spot to do work in were questions asked you mysteriously by every object about. As soon as he had waved Chrysler to one of the chairs and sank back upon another into a shadow, he stretched out his hand and pulled the basket of bottles towards him. " Now, sir, the question of fortune to every good man as he enters the world : ' What will you have.' I don't believe in fate : I believe in fortune : good things for everybody ; let him choose. It's the man who won't accept good mouthfuls who is miserable. My Lord, what will you liave ?" " I never take anything, thank you !" " Eh, Mon Dieu ! You would'nt have me drink alone ! You grieve my soul, Chrysler ! Bois, done, my dear friend, we will be merry ■ w 160 THE YOUNO SEIGNEUR. together. In this cursed country, among these oxen of the farms, we don't often meet u civilized friend." In saying this, he was dexter- ously pulling the cork from a bottle of champagne, which his right hand now poured into two wine glasso.«;, as skilfully as his left had whisked them out of a corner of the basket. " Drink quickly, — Eh bien, you do not wi.sh to? Your health then ! — May you long survive your principles, and experience a blessed death of gout ! " He quaffed off the glass and poured out another, laughing and chatting on with such bounding, irresistible spirits that his guest caught a kind of sympathetic infection. Glass after glass interminable disap})eared down his throat in a kind of intermittent cascade. The Ontarian laughed more than he had done for many a year. " But, De Bleury," he got breath to say, "what is your important capacity here, that they give you such sumptuous quarters?" " Commercial traveller in the only comnuirce of the country. We have no business here, you know, except statesmanship, the trade in voters. Is metier de ministre. You see a man ; — tell me how much he owns : — I can tell you his election price. The schedule is simply : How much taxes does he pay ? — Pay my taxes ; I vote your side. There lies the only shame of my Scotch blood that they have never devised a commerce so obvious. It's like a bailiff we used to tease ; he had no money, poor devil, so when he came into the bar he used to say to us. 'Make me drunk and have some fun with me.' * Pay my taxes and have some fun with me : ' the same thing, you see. All men are merchandise Ross de Bleury alone has no price — bnt for a regular good guzzler, I could embezzle a Returning Officer." A rap sounded on the door of the stairs. " I resemble my ancestor, the Chevalier Jean Ross, who, when he was storming a castle in Flanders, exclaimed : " Victory, companions ! we command the door of the wine cellar !" THE FREEMASON. 161 The words of a Persian proverb : " Yon are u liar, but you delight me," passed through Chrysler's mind. The rap sounded again, and louder, on the door below. Do Bleury's manner changed. He looked at his companion as if revolving some plan; then moving rapidly to the ticket-office-like-closet, he opened a door, and beckoned liira in, signing to sit down and keep quiet. The closet was darker than the darkest part of the surrounding garret, for the dormer window in it, similar to the one near the table, was boarded up, all but a single irregular aperture, admitting light enough only to reveal the surroundings after lapse of some time. De Bleury, however, by holding his purse up to the chink of light, managed to assure himself of the denomination of a bank- note, and then, turning hastily, lifted the sliding door of the ticket- hole a trifle and pushing out the money, left it partly under the slide, letting in a grey beam on their darkness. He then silently applied his eye to an augur-hole above the slide, and waited. Meantime the knock sounded once more and pair of heavy steps came up the stairs, and tramped towards them ; and some indefinable recognition of the heavy tread came vaguely to Chrysler. The steps stopped, the note was withdrawn, the tread sank away down the stairs, and De Bleury, rollicking with suppressed laughter, opened the door. " You have overseen a ceremony of the Freemasons," he said. "Truly. You don't believe HI I am a Freemason, I ain, Chrys- ler," he said, sententiously, with a tracp of the champagne, " I have observed a square and compass among the charms at your watch-chain. You know, therefore, your duties towards a brother, not, perhaps, not to see ; but having seen, not to divulge. You understand V " Perfectly, my dear De Bleury. Excuse me, I have an engage- ment at the Manoir." R 162 THE YOUNud ;ind hxid of fright and agcay, towards the glimmer that he must fly to those he ha> wronged. To her Hrst — to Josephto* his cruelly-treated daughter — tlie hour tells him where she ixs ! Flying, stumbling, pained, groaning, out of breath, fearing Uic lone hedges of tlie road, in wild struggle throwing his vain luxsl oi ?ippeAvauoe^ for once to the winds, and having behind and !\Kwe him as he fled, th(^ sky tilled with vast pursuing shapes, with shriekvs v^ud curses, mvX before all the pvursuers the coiiPSK, he reaches i'llii i38iiiifcfaifi.i.i^ii"Vir;'lr ftf-ri 172 THE YOUN(i SKIGNEUH. at last the Maiioir, aiul stops beforo it crying out. It seems as if the instinct failed liiui here, and the Mansion's imposing froiit forbade. She hears thougli. The maiden's lieart, amid the world's indefinite voices, beats sharply at certain sounds before the ear has caught them, for they strike tho inner strings of its being. First a i)ang of great alarm, — and then she heard. Rushing forth, she clasps the sobbing wretch in her arms and cries, " My father, what say'st thou ! My God, what is it 1 — what has befallen Fran(^ois ? — O my dear father !" " He is dead, he is dead ! — thy loved one, — at La Misericorde. " " O Holy Virgin !" Josephte did not fall in a swoon : she darted towards the gate. Chrysler took the man and made him sit down on a bench, — a wild spectacle of reason in the course of dethronement. The household stoo'l about : the two visitors looked on curiously and made useless suggestions. Haviland and Zotique, driving past to make sure of Misericorde, heard a commotion and turned their horses in. Benoit threw himself on his knees to Cliamilly, violently begging his forgive- ness, and incoherently confessing the evil work of himself and Spoon, whereat Zotique attacked him with maledictions. Cliamilly restrained his companion. Soul of man was never seen to soar more easily over injury. " My dear friend, calm yourself. If there has been bad work, what should be done now is to try and rectify it. Kepeat what you were saying of Francois." " The poor ycung man ! The poor young man ! I have seen him dead on the road." The impulse to act was that which came naturally to Haviland. " Not a moment, Zotique !" and almost immediately the rattle of the wheels! was dying into the distance. THE PASSING OF THE HOST. 173 iiii CHAITEK XXXVIII. •t : THE PAHSING OF THE HOST. They found Francois, Chainilly said, witli Joseplito kneoling over liim looseniiif,' his colhir, and tenderly Innding Iier neckercliief over his head witli neatness and gentleness (juitc enough indeed for any Heaven-selected Sister of Charity. Running home breathless, dishevelled and desperate, she had frightened her brother and grandfather into speechless activity by a terrible command to harness a horse ! Dragging out a light vehicle herself she speedily completed the arrangements, and whipping tlie animal pitiless lashes, dashed out of the presence of her relatives and was soon at the side of her injured lover, on the moorland road. It must not tell against Zotique's humanity that he had all this time such a mastering sense of the necessity of getting on to Mis^ri- corde that, after barely aiding to place the body on Chamilly's vehicle, he took possession of the lighter one of Josephte, and sped on for his destination. The young girl and Haviland, however, conveyed their charge carefully and safely to the farm-house, had him laid upon her own prettily-belaced bed, and Haviland insisted — was it not a sacrifice in him on that critical evening of his election ! — in watching with her the whole night by the bedside of Frangois. As the silent hours were broken by the occasional sobs of Josephte, the young seigneur often gazed anxiously into the face of his faithful friend, wiping the bruised forehead and lioping that he might not die. Chrysler hurried down into the village in the dusk for medi- li'if I 'iii : ^f^l^WW!^ 174 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. cine. ]>y the occasional lights of houses he discerned the people, up and out discussing the exciting topic. Shadowy young men were standing on the path, straining their eyes to make out who passed by ; shadowy fathers of families sat together at their doorways ; half discernible women conversed from window to window. A hand-bell rings somewhere in the dark. It slowly swings and rings a thin, melancholy warning tone, comes nearer, a lan- tern appears, the young men, the fathers, the women, the mis- cellaneous groups, seem, for hulf-a-second, to disappear like lights put out, they drop on their knees so instantly wherever they happen to be. A white-robed figure — an acolyte — passes ; feebly^ shone upon by a lantern ; the " young cure " follows, bearing the holy wafer, — a ghostly procession ; and Chrysler takes off his hat, for he recognizes it as the passing of the Host. When they are fairly past, and have disappeared into the gloom, the shadowy shapes all rise from their knees, and follow the direction with eyes and ears, and a distinct, ominous niurmur passes through the whole village, for clearly Francois Le Brun is in articulo mortis. THE ELECTION. 175 CHAPTER XXXIX. THE BLJIOTION. Election day at Dormilli< re was as election days in country places always — that is, a great peal of driving to and fro, and a great deal of crowding about the doors of the poll, and a dense atmosphere of smoke and bad jokes among the few to whom the polling-room was reserved, and nov and then a flying visit from Haviland, Libergent, or Grandmoulin, for either of whom the people immediately made way by stumbling back on each other's toes ; and intermittent activity at head-quarters ; and ominous quiet at the parsonage. Zotique was mysterious, ajd in better humor. He supervised with determination, and seemed to know how to calculate the exact effect of everything. Breboeuf was marvellously transformed into a little flying spider, running backwards and forwards strengthening Haviland's wel). The Honorable seemed to act slowly, but really with deliberation and effect, remarking neg- lected points, and h:niself seeing that certain " weak ones'' were brought to the righl side of the poll. The schoolmaster was away haranguing the back parishes. For the Blue side, Picault and Grandmoulin appeared but once on the scene, but the energy of Ross do Blcury was astonishing. Cajoling, ordering, opening bottles aside and treating, volubly greeting everybody in his strong voice all day, he seemed to have raised suppcjrters for his party of whom no one would have dreamt except Zotique ; ill: I' Ir r Hi' ! li 176 I 5 :) 1 1 •j THE YOUNU SEKiNKUR. but the little closet up in the attic satisfied the requirements of strict logic. Haviland had added the fatigues of the last night to weeks of wearing labor, with consetiuences at length upon his fund of spirits, and also plainly on his face. He felt, like Grandnioulin, that his battle was principally with De la Lande in the back of the county, cheering up his ranks. About two o'clock Zotique drove over to Misericorde alone. He did not return for an hour and a half, and when he did, his ex- pression had altered to one of decided triumph, though still myste- rious and silent. Zotique, in fact, the evening before, when he drove to Misericorde in Josephte's little g^ig, found what he had sus- pected to be the truth, that Benoit and S[)Oon had bought every vote of the hamlet, and paid for them, in the interest of Libergent ; but he still believed it possible, — Benoit being incapacitated, and Spoon, he felt sure, not likely to turn up — to bend this plastic material the other way with the same tool, and casting, therefore, aside all deli- cate distinctions, he succeeded, by a reasonable hour in the evening, in obtaining once more the adhesion of the hotellier and most of the population, giving — for lie had no Government funds like his oppo- nents — his own personal notes for the amounts, and enjoining on the tavern-keeper to have the whole of the suffrages polled early. This was all he could do, as it was impossible for him to be present on the morrow, or to delegate any other person of Haviland's circle. His remaining anxiety was removed, when, on driving over, his in- vestigations proved tliat the arrangement had been fully completed. De Bleury only got the news in the morning, and Picault, who immediately hurried over at his suggestion, found himself too late, and his carefully prepared representation that "promissory notes repre- senting an innnoral compact were invalid " was of no use, while his invitation of the crowd to ' whiskey blanc ' only produced useless THE ELECTION. 1 / / con(lolonc-.^- ^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) w ^ €<■ :/, 1.0 !.[ IM ill 2.8 ii5 11132 IM :i; a^ M 1.3 ml 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 4" fc. ^^ ^m A^ V^i /a f o 7 Photographic Sciences Corporation m\ %. % •# V r^ \ \ ^>. ^^ '•^^.^ ^^\. ^ 23 WEST MA!N STREET WEBSTER, N.Y 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^^^ mtm tm. <#§;^ J4 l! 178 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. J " CHAPTER XL. HAVILAND REFUSES. " Noblonesa still makes us proud." — Freokriok Gkouge Scott. The election was Ilavi land's. A great crowd gathered into Dovmillifere at the close of that long day, thickening and pouring in from the country around, and arriving by boats across the river, to hear the returns : and as Zotique read them in triumph from a chair at the door of the Circuit Court, and the issue, at first breathlessly uncertain, linally appeared, the cheer- ing became frantic. Chamilly himself came out to them, an incom- prehensible, deuermined aspect on his face, and amid deafening hurrahs, was seized and hurried on their shoulders across the square to the crier's rostrum, where he stood up before them. And then and there took place the most unheard of incident, ihe most remarkable outcome of Haviland's lofty character, of which there as yet was record. His voice can be heard distinct and clear over a perfect hush. What does he say? tell me, — have we really caught it correctly 't Fact unique in political history ; he was refusing the election on account of th'i frauds / " Grandmoulin," — was Picault's subsequent remark, "The young fool has courage. What a deep game he is playing. I tell you he has more talent than the whole of our side together except yourself — curse him." *4'^»ftr HAVILAND REFUSES. 179 " It demonstrates tlie impracticality of his methods ! " said the burly Montreal politician to Zotique, with self-satisfied disgust. " No," returned Zotique, firmly, " If we had followed his methods it would have been far better. But nothing can make up for lack of intelligence : Sacre hkm. I ought to have had a better head than to leave these people to such as Cuillcr and Benoit ! " Chamilly addressed firm words to the disappointed electorate : " I seek not my own cause, friends It is yours in which I do this thing and do you, too, give all for country's h >nor. Lose not heart. Work on, like iron figures, receiving blows without feciling them. Be we young in our strength and hope, as Trutli our mistress is perennial. Accept from me who according to the rule of faint hearts ought to be most crushed by our failure, tiie motto, '' KnnmmiH by disaster!" . 180 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XLI. \ . FIAT JUSTITIA. " I wonder at you ! — I wonder at you ! " exclaimed Chrysler, pacing the drawingroom of the Manor-house, to his friend, " Wliat will be the result of it ? " " Cher Monsieur," Haviland replied. " I have done my duty and what have I to do with events 1 What is Dormilliiire county and a year or two of the consequences of this election ? I do not live in them or of them." The face of the far-seeing god himself, whose statue stood once more near, could scarcely show less regret than the easy, indomitable countenance of Chamilly ; yet that his nerves had been strained to a severe pitch, lines of exhaustion upon it clearly told, and his restless, reckless movements from one spot and position to another made his friend anxious. A raw wind storm had risen quickly from the east and whistled without. He advanced to the window and threw both its curtains wide apart, revealing under an obscured snatch of struggling moonlight, the heavens covered with rapid-moving clouds, and the poplars opposite bending their vague shapes beneath the wind, — the beginning of one of those storms which come up from the Gulf, and overrun the whole region for days. ' " I should like to be on the River now," he remarked exultingly. Madame entered at the moment and heard him. ' , . -' - " Be quiet, Chamilly," eluded the Seigneuresse. >; " Alors, Alors," he said impatiently, as if casting about for some- thing active to do, and left the room. FIAT JUSTITIl. : 4 181 " Madame de Bois-Hebert," Chrysler said, " have you news from Mademoiselle JosRphte ?" " That you))g person," replied she, " has descended to the plane of her condition : I have no further interest in her." But the devout lady sighed. - ' The Gulf storm lowered steadily and disfigreeably all next day and the visitor saw nothing of Chamilly, who kept in his room until the evening. But there was one excitement which occupied everyone else's attention : ' " Who do you think struck Fran9ois ? " Chrysler said to Zotique at the Circuit Court IIousl r " The Bonhomme has tracked Spoon through every bush and bay on the coast, and has caught him getting aboard the steamboat at Petite Argentenaye," the Registrar replied. ' A crowd came down the road. All the crowd were excited. They ran about a long waggon in wlfich were on the first seat, the Honorable and Bonhomme ; on the second a constable and prisoner handcuffed. Spoon, who cowered like a captured wild beast ready to whine with fright, was clapped into a private room end a stray Bleu flew off for Libergent to act as advocate. The crowd, soon uncomfortably larger, diverted itself by taking oratorical views of his guilt or innocence : but the prevailing opinion of the prisoner personally was expressed by one in an unfastidious proverb : " Grosse crache, grosse canaille." Libergent, accompanied by De Bleury, came over at once, for he had a good deal at stake in seeing that Spoon's trial should lead to no unpleasant revelations or consequences to the party. Closeted not mote than half an hour he came out and said publicly to I'Honorable, who took seat as Magistrate upon the Bench under the great lion-and- unicorn painting. " My client makey option of opening the investi- gation at once. He is not guilty of the charge and caii clear himself." 182 THE YOUNG SEiGNEUR. i ■1 The P»onhomme cried excitedl3', — " It's false ! " His wife joined him witli a wild scream of disappointment. A murmuring ran about. " Silence ! " shouted the constable. ^^ * . r^; ■ Every one involuntarily obeyed ; and Chrysler absorbed himself examining the articles taken from the prisoner's person. ■ . . '. The evidence was as soon disposed of as Libergent could have wished. Josephte gave her testimony to the appearance and surroundings of the injured man as she had found him. She could relate no circum- stances that pointed to Spoon. The Bonhomme eagerly proffered his evidence. It was torn to tatters by the advocate : he had nothing to tell but rambling suspicions, and was told to stand down. It was dis- covered that none in fact had anything pertinent to say. Benoit was mad ; Fran9ois, unconscious ; and Libergent triumphantly asked for the prisoner's immediate discharge. - \. The great doubt on the part of justice was, clearly, why did the prisoner disappear'^ But this was quickly resolved by witnesses who swore that Cuiller was entrusted with secret political business which necessitated absences and journeys in different parts of the country, and this, in the state of political affairs, was an obvious enough excuse. Libergent pressed once again for the discharge. "I must grant it," simply pronounced Mr. Genest. Another scream pierced their ears " Justice, oh God ; " the old wife of Le Brun slirieked in trembling syllables. "They kill without hanging. I demand justice ! Hear me, great God ! " and her bent frame and wrinkled face writhed pitiably. But it was done. Spoon descended with a sudden, wild grin and found himself free. " In a few hours," he probably thought obscurely, " I can be far on my road." " Pardon me," said Chrysler, however, standing up, to the surprise of everybody. " Your Honor, I have another charge to bring against the prisoner, and I ask his re-arrest." i-- & ' T^-tt*5 FIAT JUSTIT'A. 183. Tho Honorable niaile a sign to the constable to stay Cuillcr. " Tlios(! bills," Chrysler feaid, holding out the bank notes which were found in the purse of Spoon, " are marked with the initials of Frangois Le Brun's name. I am ready to charge the prisoner with having committed a larceny of money from Francois Le Brun on his journey from Montreal. I sustain it by these initials at the corners of bills just found on the prisoner's person. I am informed — " " I object, your Honor," fairly shouted Libergent — " I object to any hearsay." v : ,. - " What can you swear to of your own knowledge 1 " asked I'Honorable of Chrysler, gently. . " To seeing these marks — " v v I .*;;;, "Which might be anything ! " snapped Liijergent. ■ ; " To hearing — " •---:> " No hearsay, sir ! " •, , " To having a conviction — " " Upon no grounds whatever ! — Your Honor, I press my just appli- cation for an immediate discharge." " I cannot see that there is yet evidence enough," I'Honorable so id courteously. " There are two charges, but both of them seem founded on vague suspicions which I cannot consider sufficient to detain the prisoner." Libergent triumphantly glanced from Spoon to the audience. At that moment, however, the man at his side rose up : — Ross de Bleury ! " If what Monsieur says is true," he exclaimed to the Honorable, throwing out his clenchou hand, — " if these letters are found upon those notes, then I understand it. I can prove that this infernal, greasy, treacherous devil, — be he friend or traitor, or whatever he chooses to be, to the Bleu party or myself, — committed that despicable iarcenv and has wronged that poor young man. I was on the steam- m I! 184 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. boat. I saw it. I saw him do it to his friend. Talking to the purser, I saw the act, but could not believe it a reality. On the parole of all my ancestors, I would never go back on a common thief, I would keep faith inviolate with a parricide, I have a secret sympathy with every brigand, but I have no place out of Venfer it&vlf for a traitor, Dieu merci. " Swear the informant," said the Magistrate. The picture at this instant of the frightened face of Spoon who collapsed into a seat by the Bar, of the excitement of the crowd, which had been gradually brought to a climax, the disgust of Libergent, relief of Chrysler, satisfaction of the little Bonhomme pnd his wife, the cynical roll of Zotique's eyes round the room, and serene, judicial face of the Honorable on the bench above, would have made the reputation of the greatest painter in Paris. Afer all, Spoon was remanded for trial, and in due time, the Queen's Bench Court condemned him to the fullest penalty of the lavf for his murderous assault and larceny. rran9ois meanwhile recovered, and was taken, pale and weak, but indescribably happy, in a carriage one morning beside Josephte to church, where the young Cure made her his faithful bride. As for Benoit, " il est tout en campagne,^^ they said. In less expressive terms, " his mind was hopelessly wandering." ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ To return to our current day however ; in the evening Chamilly came into the drawing room with some more manuscript, which he handed to Chrysler. " Here is the rest of the story I have been writing," said he, " take it sir, and may it amuse you a little ; it is the key to the rest. I am going out on the River." And he went out of the Manoir door into the storm. The manuscript proceeded as follows : BOOK III. BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS (CONTINUED.) 1 QUINET'S CONTRIBUTION. 187 CHAPTER XLII. QUINET S CONTRIBUTION. "O, skyward-looking, fleet-winged soul, Karth hath no name for thine ideal flower I" -Mahy Moboan. For a night and a day after my talk with my father, I was a fool. Swelling names of ancestors rang proudly in my ears, and I shudder to think how easily I might have ended in a genealogist. "Salut, Milord de Quinet." " Bon soir, Chamilly," replied he, soberly, "Aha, thou melancholy friend, the liver again, eh 1 " We were strolling along the half illuminated Grosvenor street under the elms. The dim, substantial mansions in their grounds and trees, pleased my foreign eyes and I was glad to find the city of Alexandra able to vie with the great cities of the world, and I thought of her as near, and for the moment, could not understand the humor of Quinet. " You don't seem to know," said he, " at least, I thought I would tell you — that Miss Grant has gone away," — he stopped and looked at me earnestly. — "I sympathise with you." "Away !" I caught my breath. My spirits sank with disappoint- ment. Alas ! Heaven seemed to ordain that my passion for her should never become a close communion, but only keep this light, ethereal touch upon me. And so Quinet knew. "I do not ask you how: evidently you have known it all along T (It was the first time I had been spoken to 188 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. ,j I ' iihout luy love for hor, and it mndo me fool peculiarly.) " Mou ami, C^uiiiet, til es heiiroux ne paa aimer. Quo penses tu do ma cliero?" " (}o on, my friend Chamilly ; bo steadfast, for thou could'st not have chosen a sweeter, lovelier, holier divinity. O my friend, be steadfast and be happy. Yes, as thou hast said, I have known this." Quinet was diverting our steps along up-leading streets which tended towards the Mountain, and soon wo reached the head of one, where a wall met us. " This way," he said, striking aside into a field which formed part of the Park. " Adieu, civilization of Htroot lights !" and ho pressed up into a dark grove where I ntumbled after, and next, under the twi- light of a sk^ full of stars, could descry dim outlines of the surround- ings of our path and even of the Mountain, silent above us like a huge black ghost. We toiled up the steep stair, guiding ourselves by feel- ing, aud in a few minutes were at Prospect Point, that jutting bit of turf on the precipice's edge where the trees draw back and allow in daytime a wide view of the city and surrounding country, and we both stood breathless there in the dimness, in front of a sight bewilder- ingly grand enough to of itself take one's breath away. ••Above were the radiant constellations. Below, between a bslt of weird horizon and the dark abyss at our feet, the city shone, its dense blackness mapped out in stars as brilliant and myriad-seeming as those overhead, — a Night above, a Night below ! Once before had I looked from that crag upon Montreal, in a memorable sunset hour, and remembered my impression of its beauty. Below, the scarped rock fell : the tops of trees which grew up the steep face lost them- selves, lower, in a mass of grove that flourished far out, and besieged the town in swollen battalions and columns ot foliage. Half over- whelmed by this friendly assault, the City sat in her robes of grey and rod, proud mistress of half a continent, noble in situation as in destiny. A hundred spires and domes pointed up, from streets full QUINET'a CONTKIBUTION. 189 n 'h of qimiut names of saints and tloeds of horoos. Tho pinnacled towers of Notro Damo rose impressively in the distance. Past ran tho glorious St. Lawrence, with its lovely islands of St. Helen's and tho Nuns'. Now, however, it seemed no longer a place upon eaith at all. It was a living spirit. Quiet as the sky itself, its bright eyes looked far upward, and it was communing, in the loveliness of Nature, with the constellations. " This is Life !" cried Quinet, who had hitherto been excited with suppressed feeling. "The vast winds come in to us from Ether. Night hides all that is common, and sprinkles tho dark- blue vault with gold-dust ; the planets gleam far and pure amidst it, and Space sings his awful solo. " All is one mighty Being. There he moves, the Great Creature, his crystal boundlessness encompassing his countless shapes. He faces us from every point. His God-soul looks through to us. He rises at our feet.. He surrounds us in our- selves ; speaks and live^ in us. Is he not resplendent, wondrous ! " We are out of the world of vain phantoms, Chamilly ! We are above the chatter of a wretched spot, a nai row life. Down there, nothing is not ridiculed that is not some phase of a provinciality. Tho dances in certain houses, the faces of some conceited club, long- spun names, business or gossip, or to drive a double carriage, are the gaslight boundaries of existence ! Pah ! it is a courtyard, bounded by four square walk, a path or two to walk -n, and the eyes of busy- bodies to order our doings and sneer us out < ^ our souls. How they deny us that ths centre of the systems is immeasurably off there in Pleiades ! What fools we are. We follow trifles we value at the valuation of iiliots ; we cherish mean ideas ; we believe contracted doctrines ; we do things we are ashamed of ; dropping at last like the animals, with alarm that we die. 190 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. " Look off into the heart of It ! the heart of It ! beyond there ! " he exclaimed, stretching his arm. " Forget our courtyard ! Nay, returring there, lot us remember thp^, this infinite ocean is above it — 1» boundless ser* beneath and around, an unknown universe within. Take in this scene and feel the rich thrills of its majesty stir you. you are of it ; you carne out of it ; it is your mother, father, lover ; it will never let you die ; that heart of it to which your utmost straining cannot pierce, was once and will again be known to you. Its beauty caresses your soul from another world, and it is Love Divine which moves those stars.* Youi own sweet passion, Cham illy, is the child of that divine Love, and in it you mount towards the heavens, and yearn as by inspiration, for a mysterious ideal existence 1 The poets and romancers lightly say of it "a divine power:'' they think they say a metaphor — a lie ; but I tell you it is true ! May it assist you to live the life of the universe," - ^ . . ■ - "Each man," he cried, " who pursues his highest is a prophet ! Ever tliere is an inward compulsion m our race to press on, and we iiear the heroes of the front as they fall, crying " Forward, forward, forward, forward, forward ! " : - ■ ? While he spoke, for he said much besides, many of the lights were disapiDearing, we seemed to be being left alone, and the church- towers of the city chorussed the hour of ten. *Dante — Divina Comu" dia. rl-" mki. i>, ►■ HAVILAND'S PRINCIPLE. 191 CHAPTER XLIII. HAVILANDS PRINOIPLE. - Tlie final step in the progression of influences was, strange to say, a dream. Our residence wab then on Grosvenor street, — a Florid Gothic one after the model of Desdemona^s House in VGiiice. My own little room was fitted up in a Moorish fashion. After the scene with Quinet on Prospect Point, I sat up till a lute hour, for I found a letter from Grace, telling jocularly of their journey just commenced in the delightful OldWorld, and seriously of Alexandra's ambitions. I sat thinking with my arms folded on the table till I fell asleep. Then I felt at first that I was lifted up on the Mountain again, and leaving that presently, was carried out into space far away among the stars. Phosphorescent mists and cloud masses passed over the region, and among these appeared various figures, the last of v/hich was that of a certain old Professor of ours. ■ v -^ The most apparently dissimilar things come to us in dreams. A lecture of the Professor's had once greatly impressed me : " Conscience is Reason," he said. " To do a right thing is to do simply the reason- able thing ; to do wrong is to do what is unreasonable. — v ., "Now think," he said, " what thi^' means," ' ' What could such words have to do with a dream 1 :' " "What is Duty?" he proceeded, "Whence the conviction, tlie mysterious fact, that whatever my inclination may be, I rmglit to do some act — ought to do it though the cup of pleasure be dashed from the lifting hand, thougli a loved face must pale, though the stars in 192 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. their high courses reel, and tho gulfs of perdition smoke, — why is it that the grave, unalterable ' Ought' must still demand reverence?" His voice rose. ! ; ^ '. 1- '; ... " Immanuel Kant !" ■.■.:' \':vr---' ■.^^'■r. The familiar name caught ray ear, and I attended. " To him Heaven gave it to solve the problem. Think what Reason is ! Eo men I'or once and attend to one deep matter ! Think v/hat Reason is ! — the divinest part of us, and common with tho Divine, as with every Intelligence; speaking not of the voice of the individual, but one sound everywhere to all. It is more truth than metaphor to name it the voice of God." In my dream, the Professor repeaced, as if with mystic significance, the cry : " Conscience is Reason !" and as these words vaguely reached me, his figure dissolved into a rolling cloud, which grew at once into a shape of giant form, and addressed me in echoing tones . " The unalterable Ought ! the unalterable Ought !'* reverberating from the depths and heights. I awoke at the sound, and collecting my energies — for I had been half-asleep, — stretched out my hand to my note-book, looked up the lecture, and with the words swaying before me, read sleepily : — " Leave us Reason in any existence ; — strip us of sight, sound, touch, and all the external constitution of nature^ clothe us with whatever feelings and powers, place us in whatever scenes may come — but gift us with this universal faculty, our power of knowing truth. Otherwise, with rudder lost, we are dreamers on a drifting wreck, and where were the Divine One, and this harmonious architecture of the universe, and all things ^^ rust worthy, proportioned, eternal, exalting ? " Leave us Reason, and, children of God, we may from any point start out to see Our Father, His voice indicating from within the paths to Him which somewhere surely lie near to evary- whore. Leave us Reason, and, brothers of men, we recognize HAVILAND'S PRINCIPLE. 193 that each Intelligence is of value equal to ourselves, and more pre- cious than aught else can be, and we perceive the due relations of an orderly world. > "The voice within in simple dignit}'^ commands " — But the lines swam before me : I could not hold my head up : the ' Moorish room expanded to the height and magnificence of a Hall of Magic, the dream of starry space returned and the pure lights circled in it singing to me in chorus. Space itself seemed to become the \eiled countenance of a Mysterious Power, which "half-revealed and half-concealed " itself on every hand, and out of the midst of a dark-blue sky, appeared the form and face of Alexandra, like a Princess-Madonna, smiling, O so earnestly nnd kindly. I started, and woke again. The Professor's notes were still under my eyes, and I read the words, " Lose yourself and live as if you were -"■if one of the otliers. Exalted on this pinnacle you are prepared for any existence ; you have learnt your path through eternity, and the v/orld and its vicissitudes may sweep by you like winds past a statue." As I slowly thought over all the dream, and comprehended its remarkable character, I conceived it as a revelation. " The highest things, — I have found them at last !" I exultantly cried, in a final enthusiasm — " the total subjection of self and obedience of the whole b'fe to Reason ! What fihall I care more for events and opinions, or any matter that l)ut concerns myself and a fleeting world ! I will seek in my actions ever the greater, finer, nobler thing for all, and the rule will be aim sufficient ! " " I saw that duty is the Secret of the World." It was only a question to choose my Ir.rgest, finest, noblest field of work for all. Difficulties disappeared, and the great aim soon appear- ed before me of the cultivation of the national spirit. The nation must found and shape its own work on the sam*" deep idea. 194 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. CHAPTER XLIV. [P DAUGHTER OF THE GODS. "Soft was the breath of balmy spring 111 that fair month of May." —Geo. Murray, Time flew brightly for some days, as an early spring, having poured its thousand rivulets out of the melting snows, began to dry the soil and instil into the willows and birches the essences that soon cover them with refreshing green, and earth suddenly teems with leafing and flying life, with odor of buds and laughing variety of shade and sun. I, as is my nature, was deeply under the spell. ; , r , " Rossignolet du bois joli, Emporte-moi-t-une lettre !" > Alexandra was coming home ! St. Helen's Island, named affectionately by Champlain after his fair young wife, Hel^ne, stretches its half-mile of park along the middle of the River opposite the city of Montreal. It is at all times a graceful sight ; in summer by the refreshing shade of its deep groves beheld from the dusty city ; in winter by the contrast of its flowing purple crest of trees with the flat white expanse of ice-covered river. Tlie lower end, towards which the outlines of its double hill tend, is varied by the walls and flagstaff's of a military establishment, comprising some gray barracks, a row of officers' quarters, and a block- house, higher on the hill. In former times, when British redcoats were stationed here, and military society made the dashing teature in fashionable life; when gay and high-born parties scattered their S^V DAUGHTER OF THE GODS. 195 laughter through the trim groves, irrproved and kept in shape by labor of the rank and file, and "the Fusileers and the Grenadiers" marched in or out with band and famous colors flying, and the regimental goat or dog, and shooting practice, officers' cricket and foot- ball matches, and mess dinners, kept the island lively and picturesque, St. Helen's was a theatre of unceasing charm to the citizens. ' " Is she here yet ?" I asked, eagerly grasping the hand of Grace, who, more exceedingly pretty than ever, had invited all their friends to meet them on the island, in the grove, " I am delighted to see you back. It is almost worth the absence." " And I welcome you as Noah the dove, after the waste of waters," exclaimed she, laughing. " But I must answer your first question before it is repeated. No, mon frere, I am afraid she is not to be here to day. She is a little ill with fatigue." " O my poor friend !" I exclaimed, and led Grace down the avenue of leafing trees in which we were ; for this grove had been planted in regular walks by the garrison forty years before, and the turf had been sown with grass that sprang up at that season a vivid green. The dell had been a theatre of the gaieties of days past. To me it was deserted loveliness — a scene prepared and not occupied. " Is she very ill r' " No ; merely tired. You see she is a thousand times more industrious than I. Nothing could content her over there unless she was putting out her utmost. She said it was her ambition to improve, like the great men and women ; that she was strong and ought to make up for some of her imperfections by greater diligence. I never saw anyone so anxious to do a thing perfectly. The great Bertini in Florence said of her — ' She will certainly be greater than Angelica KaufFmann.'. . , ' Alexandra,' he said, * will rank with men.' The egotism of the creature ! You see there are others wlio admire her besides yourself." 196 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. '■' None more passionately." " I thouglit so. — But look this way, Tityrus," said she, wheeling quickly and stepping forward. " How do you do, Alexandra !" There she stood, pale and ill, but proud of carriage as over. " So you came after all ? Here is Mr. Haviland, gladder even than I to see you !" I saw Grace, in a moment, the duties of hostess being temporarily undertaken by Annie, walking down a path with soldierly Lockhart Mackenzie, who had come over from the " quarters " in his uniform. Alexandra and I found ourselves wandering into the wood and climbing the hillside at the loftiest point of the Island, wliere, on the summit, the trees permitted us a wide view of the St. Lawrence, its islands and ships and the open country ; while the afternoon sunlight fell brokenly upon the faint colors of her face and her golden hair. " Do you admire distant landscapes T I asked constrainedly. '* They remind me of high aims and the broad views of great minds," returned she, looking outward. " You favor aiming high," I said, " I always thought so of you.' She turned her glance for a moment to me, and asked seriously ; " Ho'v/ can people aim low? Do you know the lines of Goethe ;" " Thou must either strive and rise, Or thou must sink and die." Daughter of the immortals ! <' I wonder what you will say of my aims," I stammered. " May you tell them % I should like very much to hear." And as she seemed to bend from a queen into a womanly companion, I noticed my gift, the brooch of Roman mosaic, on her breast. While she listened, for I told her fully the story of my quest for the highest things, its strange solution, and my present pur- poses, I was surprised to discover that her intelligence was master DAUGHTER OF THE GODS. 197 of the whole without effort. "O, I have often talked philosonhy with Mr. Quinet," she (explained. Iler spiritual eyes glistened with pro- found beautiful depths as she looked down into the forest shades before us. A color had suffused itself over her face so lovely that the glorified creature beside me seemed to surpass my intensest ideal. " It is the Voice of the Universe," she said, and her cheeks flushed, " I once heard the Spirit of All, called, ' Heart of Heaven, Heart of Earth,' and I added ' Heart of Man.' Obey it, obey your best thoughts." She looked at me with such a glance of sacred sympathy, that — joy, the first words filling life with fragrance have been spoken ! ♦ i^ i^ * 9|c It was short, our sweet bridal and few days of united life, and of bliss at the old chateau d'Esneval. Gravely ill, — worse, — recovering, — then Dead. God, was it possible ? Yes ; I saw her lying amid garlands of evergreens and white robes, in a low-lighted chamber of the chateau, still and transfigured into a changed, unearthly beauty, the alas ! so tnin lips lightly parted in a smile, the abundant golden hair I used to admire brushed neatly away from her forehead, the darkened eyelids that told of long exhaustion peacefully closed as if on visions of heaven — as if she saw God, being pure in heart. Supernatu;ally lovely as her soul had been through life the wearied sufferer lay in death, white tuberoses pressing her poor thin cheek — one purity affectionate to another. Ah, it was a vision. I never saw one on whom Heaven loved so constantly to breathe sweetness. Neither health could roughen her beauty nor sickness drive it away : for the soul, after all, will shine through the body, will lift it up, and if glorious will leave it worthy of itself. ::#*■ i 1 198 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR. i Alas, iingovornable, passionate f^rief ! Ala;^ Uk; sight of heart- broken friends and i)ainful rites of burial, the anguish of bereavement, the irresistible longing to die and ])e with her; — and (^Jjuinet's grief also; for then he had confessed that he had loved her too. 9ie « ■' ''->w^ *. ''v ■-.:>'■ lii ■■• ■■■ And now we who knew her recognise that she was sent into this world for a season, and tenderly watched and favored of heaven for high purposes — for the stirring example and strong influence of a short but lof ' J life. In moments of weakness the irresistible longing to go to her returns upon me, but it is she whose Athdne vision impels to throw it off, to stand ground firmly t,nd push forward with determination towards the years which must be endured, and the glorious work which calls to be achieved. Canada, beloved, thy cause is led by an angel ! " "What of Quinet ? Noble friend, when I gave way unlike a man (though that is with God, who knows how much hearts can bear) ; he it was who held his own desp ir sternly back and put out etTorts to solace and quiet mine. In these years he has grown stronger^ but become ascetic towards the outer world — an Ishmaelite who cares not to own himself a son of Abraham, but lives wild in the deserts of philosophy on locusts and wild honey. He will never marry, but has devoted himself to the problems of the Secret of the World, in which he too believes, though his studies have led him far more scientifically than me ; and yet in his hours of thought, I know that a vision of beauty and a sweet voice will often startle him, and he rises then into scenes of his loftiest, grandest life. O, Alexandra ! Alexandra ! CONCLUSION OF CHAMILLY HAVILAND S NARRATIVE. NOT thp: end. 199 CHAPTER XLV. NOT THE END, "Requiem Kjteriiam dona eia, Doiniuo, et lux peiiietu' Iiioeat eis." — Pa. cxiv. When Chrysler came to this sad close of the story, he woke from his ahsorption in tlie manuscript and became conscious of the surround- ings. The late hour, the strange place, even the silent-burning candles, and above all the shock of grief for Chamilly at his great bereavement, oppresspd him into deep loneliness. The wind dashed gusts of rain against the casement and shook it savagely. He thought of the storm and blackness without — how the tempest must be hound- ing the black waves — the wolfish ferocity of their onward rushes — the dread battle any mortal would fight who found himself among them on anight like this. Is Chamilly safe at home again ^ ? Of course, at this hour. What an unusual fellow. How strange to enjoy such beating rain, such blinding darkness and fievce contest of strength with nature ! How fearless ! How few like him in this or any virtue ' Did there in fact exist another his equal ? No ; Haviland stood alone — the climax of a race. As Chrysler pondered, dull sounds reached him, breaking in on these meditations. A door opened below, and heavy feet tramped in. Voices, and then cries of alarm, and then lamentations of all the household startled him. Steps sounded coming up the stairs, and a man's sob, and then a gentle knock. 200 THE YOITNG SEKJNEUR. "Open!" Chrysler responded. Pierre entered, the picture of woe, and broke down : " nionseig- nenr Monseigneur Chaniilly is dead." They had found his boat and his body, washed ashore. The windows of the Parish Church were darkened with thick black curtains, the altar was heavily draped, the strains of the mournful Mass of the Dead swayed to the responses of a sorrowing people. In the midst, raised upon a lofty catafalque whose sable drapery was surrounded with a starry maze of candle-lights, lay tlie silent remains of Cham illy Haviland, who loved Canada. Pure and earnest in life, he receives his reward in the world of her he loved, who went before him. A tablet among those of his fathers, facing the Seigniorial pew, recorded, for a little, the name of the last d'Argentenaye ; but now the proud Cure at length has had his will, and instead of its venerable house of God, Dormilli^re wears in its centre a pretentious nondescript structure of cut-stone. Chrysler has done what he could to repair the country's loss by raising his voice with rejuvenated energy in support of good will and progress, in the Legislative halls. " L''ide6 Canadienne too," Quinet asserts with hope and fire, in his seer-Hke editorials, " is not lost ; it is founded on the deepest basis of existence : on the simplicity of common sense ; on the true affections, the true aspirations of the people, on righteousness, on love of God, on DESTINY !" THE END.