In The Next Summer, 1691,
Frontenac Again Asks For Slate To Cover The Roof, And For 15,000 Or
20,000 Francs To Repair His Mansion.
In the next year the king promised to send him 12,000 francs, in
instalments.
Frontenac acknowledges the favour, and says that he will
erect a new building, and try in the meantime not to be buried under
the old one, as he expects to be every time the wind blows hard. -
(Frontenac au Ministre, 15 Septembre, 1692). A misunderstanding
with the Intendant, who had control of the money, interrupted the
work. Frontenac writes the next year that he had been "obliged to send
for carpenters during the night, to prop up the chateau, lest he
should be crushed under the ruins." The wall of the fort was, however,
strengthened, and partly rebuilt to the height of sixteen feet, at a
cost of 13,629 francs. It was a time of war, and a fresh attack was
expected from the English. - (Frontenac et Champigny au Ministre, 4
Nov, 1693). In the year 1854, the workmen employed in demolishing a
part of this wall, adjoining the garden of the chateau, found a copper
plate bearing an inscription in Latin as follows -
D. O. M.
Anno reparatae salutis
Millesimo sexcentesimo nonagesimo tertio
Regnante Augustissimo Invictissimo ac
Christianissimo Galliae Rege
Rege Ludovico Magno XIIII
Excellentissimus ac Illustrissimus Dnus Dnux
Ludovicus de Buade
Comes de Frontenac, totius Novae Franciae
Semel et iterum Provex,
Ab ipsomet, triennio ante rebellibus Novae
Angliae incolis, hanc civitatem Quebecensem,
Obsidentibus, pulsis, fusis ac penitus
Devictis,
Et iterum hocce supradicto anno obsidionem
Minitantibus
Hanc arcem cum adjectis munimentis
In totius patriae tutelam populi salutem
Nec non in perfidae, tum Deo, tum suo Regi
Legitimo, gentis iterandum confusionem
Sumptibus regies oedificari
Curavit,
Ac primarium hunc lapidem
Posuit,
JOANNES SOULLARD, Sculpsit
(Translation)
"In the year of Redemption, 1693, under the reign of the Most August,
Most Invincible, and Most Christian King of France, Louis the Great,
fourteenth of that name, the Most Excellent Louis de Buade, Count of
Frontenac, Governor for the second time of all New France, seeing that
the rebellious inhabitants of New England, who three years ago were
repulsed, routed, and completely vanquished by him, when they besieged
this town of Quebec, are threatening to renew the siege this very
year, has caused to be built, at the expense of the King, this
Citadel, with the fortifications adjoining thereto, for the defence of
the country, for the security of the people, and for confounding again
that nation perfidious alike towards its God and its lawful King, and
he (Frontenac) has placed here this first stone."
A year later, the rebuilding of the chateau was begun in earnest.
Frontenac says that nothing but a miracle has saved him from being
buried under its ruins, that he has pulled everything down, and begun
again from the foundation, but that the money has given out. -
(Frontenac au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1694) Accordingly, he and the
Intendant sold six licenses for the fur trade, but at a rate unusually
low, for they brought only 4,400 francs.
The King hearing of this sent 6,000 more. Frontenac is profuse in
thanks, and at the same time begs for another 6,000 francs, "to
complete a work which is the ornament and beauty of the city" (1696).
The Minister sent 8,000 more, which was soon gone; and Frontenac drew
on the royal treasurer for 5,047 in addition. The Intendant complains
of his extravagance, and says that he will have nothing but
perfection; and that besides the chateau, he has insisted on building
two guard-houses, with mansard roofs, at the two sides of the gate. "I
must do as he says," adds the Intendant, "or there will be a quarrel."
(Champigny au Ministre, 13 Oct., 1697). In a letter written two
days after, Frontenac speaks with great complacency of his chateau,
and asks for another 6,000 francs to finish it. As the case was urgent
he sold six more licenses at 1,000 francs each, but he died too soon
to see the completion of his favorite work (1698). The new chateau was
not finished before 1700, and even then it had no cistern. In a pen
sketch of Quebec, on a manuscript map of 1699, preserved in the Depot
de Cartes de la Marine, the new chateau is distinctly represented. In
front is a gallery or balcony resting on a wall and buttresses at the
edge of the cliff. Above the gallery is a range of high windows, along
the face of the building, and over these a range of small windows and
a mansard roof. In the middle is a porch opening on the gallery, and
on the left extends a battery, on the ground now occupied by a garden
along the brink of the cliff. A water-colour sketch of the chateau
taken in 1804, from the land side, by William Morrison, Jr., is in my
possession. [37] The building appears to have been completely
remodelled in the interval. It is two stories in height, the mansard
roof is gone, and a row of attic windows surmount the second story. In
1809 it was again remodelled at a cost of ten thousand pounds
sterling, a third story was added, and the building, resting on the
buttresses which still remain under the balustrade of Durham
(Dufferin) Terrace, had an imposing effect when seen from the river.
It was destroyed by fire in 1834. - (Parkman's Old Regime.)
HALDIMAND CASTLE
After sketching Fort St. Louis, begun in 1624, - a refuge against the
Iroquois, and whose bastions rendered useless disappeared shortly after
the conquest, as well as giving the history of the Chateau St. Louis
proper, destroyed by fire 23rd January, 1834, it behoves us to close the
narrative with a short account of the origin of the wing or new building
still extant, and used since 1871 as the Normal School. This structure
generally, though improperly styled the Old Chateau, dates back to
the last century.
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