I Had Been Not At All Well For Two Months Previous, And At
That Time Had Not Got Better With A Pain Which Obliged Me To Stay In
The Country, Where I Had Been All The Summer, Although Greatly Against
My Inclination.
I was allowed to remain peaceably by the rebels, until
the middle of January, when I was taken and
Carried with sword and
(fixed) bayonets before their general; the reason why, was, that after
their attack upon the town on the 31st December, the Yankees were
obliged to demand assistance of the country people to join them. I had
spoken and done what I could to hinder the people of the village where
I resided from going and taking arms with them. This came to light,
and I was told at their head-quarters their general, one Arnold, a
horse jockey or shipmaster, who then had the command, threatened to
send me over to the (New England) colonies. After being detained a ...
and two days, Arnold asked me, if he had not seen me before in Quebec.
I said he had, and put him in remembrance of having once dined with
him; upon which he said, on condition that I gave my word of honour
not to meddle in the matter, he would allow me to go away. I told him
the inhabitants were a parcel of scoundrels, and beyond a gentleman's
notice; upon this I got off, and remained for upwards of two months
without molestation, till the tracks of persons going to town from
Beauport had been observed; the country people immediately suspected
me, and came with drawn cutlasses to take me; luckily I was from home,
having gone two days before about fifteen miles to see an
acquaintance, and when I got back they had found out who had gone in
(to town). The ill-nature of the peasants to me made me very uneasy on
account of all the papers I had of Mr. Gray's, and dreading their
malice much, I determined to go from them. I found out a place about
five miles up amongst the woods, the Hermitage which being vacant I
immediately retired to it, and carried all my papers with me. Mr.
Peter Stewart had gone from his house in Beauport, down with his
family to the Posts, and gave me the charge of it, and having heard
that they (the Yankees) were going to put 150 men in it, I sent all
his furniture, &c., to the house I had taken, so that I had my house
all furnished; this was in the beginning of March; since which I have
remained there. The people who left the town in the fall have not been
allowed to go back. A Mr. Vi... one of the most considerable
merchants, went in immediately after the 6th of May, (the day when the
town people made a sally with about 900 men in all, who drove nigh
3000 of the Yankees from their camp, and relieved the town) and was
sent to prison and kept several days. Major John Nairn was so obliging
as to come out 8 or 9 days after that affair to see me; he asked me
why I had not been in town. I told him the reason; I had got no pass.
The next day he sent me one; except another, this is the only one
which had been granted by the Governor as yet, and it is thought some
won't be allowed to go in this summer, why, I cannot say. Every person
had liberty to leave or stay by a proclamation for that purpose, but
as it is military law, no person dare say it is wrong
I am going now again to remain in town, having now learned a little of
the French. I understand every word almost that is said, although I
cannot speak it as well; however I could wish that my brother John
knew as much of it. I three days ago wrote him they were gone to
Halifax, but am told they are to go from there to New York soon....
I am at present studying a little of the French law. If I do not make
use it, it will do me no harm. I expect you have had letters from my
brother Andrew....
I wish you would send me your vouchers of all your Jamaica debts I
could go easily from here to there. If I cannot get money I can get
rum, which sells and will sell, at a great price in this place. I can
only stay there a few months."
Nor must we forget the jolly pic-nics the barons held there some eighty
years ago. [329]
On quitting these silent halls, from which the light of other days had
departed, and from whence the voice of revelry seems to have fled forever,
I re-crossed the little brook, already mentioned, musing on the past. The
solitude which surrounds the dwelling and the tomb of the dark-haired
child of the wilderness, involuntarily brought to mind that beautiful
passage of Ossian, [330] relating to the daughter of Reuthamir, the
"white-bosomed" Moina: - "I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they
were desolate. The fire had resounded in the halls, and the voice of the
people is heard no more. The thistle shook there its lonely head; the moss
whistled to the wind. The fox looked out of the windows, the rank grass of
the wall waved round its head. Desolate is the dwelling of Moina, silence
is in the house.... Raise the, song of mourning, O bards! over the land of
strangers. They have but fallen before us: for one day, we must fall."
L'INTENDANT BIGOT - ROMANCE CANADIENNE.
PAR JOS. MARMETTE.
After perusing the Legend of Caroline, the Algonquin Maid, the lover of
Canadian story, can find a more artistically woven plot in one of Mr.
Marmette's historical novels L'Intendant Bigot. The following passage
is from a short critique we recently published thereon:
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