"The Ruins Of 'Le Palais' And Accessories Since 1775 Were Several
Times Fitted Up By The Military Authorities For Stabling,
Fodder-
sheds, wash-house, military stores, caretaker's quarters, &c., &c.,
and the vaults were leased for storing ice, wines and
Other liquors,
and storage generally to the inhabitants of the city, and the roof was
shingled or otherwise covered in on several occasions by the
Government.
"In the great fire of St. Roch's (1845) the Fuel Yard, about four
acres in extent, with some hundreds of cords of wood piled there, and
a very large quantity of coals in a 'lean-to-shed' against the Palais
walls were consumed - the coals continued to burn and smoulder for
nearly six months, - and notwithstanding the solidity of the
masonry, as already described, portions of it, with the heat like a
fiery furnace, gave way. Upon this occasion an unfortunate woman and
two children were burned to death in the Fuel Yard. Great efforts were
made by Mr. Bailey, a commissariat officer, and Mr. Boswell, owner of
the brewery, to save the lives of the victims, but unfortunately
without success. These gentlemen, after their coats had been burned
off their backs, and the hair from their heads and eyebrows, had to
fly at last to save their own lives.
"On the withdrawal of the Imperial troops in 1870-71, the whole of 'Le
Palais' property was handed over to the Dominion Government.
"CHARLES WALKEM, "(Late R. E. Civil Service Staff in Canada.)
"Ottawa, 24th July, 1876."
Doubtless to the eyes of the "free and independent electors" of La
Vacherie, in 1759, the Intendant's Palace seemed a species of "eighth
wonder" The eighth wonder lost much of its eclat, however, by the
inauguration of English rule, in 1759, but a total eclipse came over this
imposing and majestic luminary when Guy Carleton's guns from the ramparts
of Quebec began, in 1775, to thunder on its cupola and roof, which offered
a shelter to Arnold's soldiery: the rabble of "shoemakers, hatters,
blacksmiths and innkeepers," (says that savage old Tory, Colonel Henry
Caldwell), bent on providing Canada with the blessings of Republicanism. A
century and more has passed over the gorgeous Palace - now a dreary, moss-
covered ruin, surrounded in rear by coarse grass, fallen stones: Bigot -
his wassailers, - the fair but frail Madame de Pean, like her prototype of
Paris, Madame de Pompadour, have all fleeted to the land of shadows; and
tourists, high and low, still crowd to glance meditatively at those fast
fading traces of a guilty past. It was in October, 1879, the special
privilege of the writer to escort to these ruins one of our Sovereign's
gentle and accomplished daughters, H.R.H. the Princess Louise, accompanied
by H.E. Lord Lorne, as he had done the previous autumn with regard to the
learned Dean of Westminster, Revd. A. P. Stanley: proud he was to think
that though Quebec had no such attractions like antique, like classic
England, - turretted castles, moated granges, or even
"Old pheasant Lords,
"Partridge breeders of a thousand years,"
- its romantic past was not without pleasing or startling or interesting
memories.
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