In The Early Times, We Find
This Famous Seat Of Learning Playing A Prominent Part In All Public
Pageants; Its Annual Examinations And Distribution Of Prizes Called
Together The Elite Of Quebec Society.
The leading pupils had, in
poetry and in verse, congratulated Governor d'Argenson on his arrival in
1658.
On the 2nd July, 1666, a public examination on logic brought out,
with great advantage, two most promising youths, the famous Louis Jolliet,
who later on joined Father Marquette in his discovery of the Mississippi,
and a Three Rivers youth, Pierre de Francheville, who intended to enter
Holy Orders. The learned Intendant Talon was an examiner; he was remarked
for the erudition his Latin questions displayed. Memory likes to revert to
the times when the illustrious Bossuet was undergoing his Latin
examinations at Navarre, with the Great Conde as his examiner; France's
first sacred orator confronted by her most illustrious general.
How many thrilling memories were recalled by this grim old structure?
"Under its venerable roof, oft had met the pioneer missionaries of New
France, the band of martyrs, the geographers, discoverers, savants
and historians of this learned order: Dolbeau, de Quen, Druilletes,
Daniel, de la Brosse, de Crepieul, de Carheil, Breboeuf, Lallemant,
Jogues, de Noue, Raimbeault, Albanel, Chaumonot, Dablon, Menard, LeJeune,
Masse, Vimont, Ragueneau, Charlevoix, [58] and crowds of others." Here
they assembled to receive from the General of the Jesuits their orders, to
compare notes, mayhap to discuss the news of the death or of the success
of some of their indefatigable explorers of the great West; how the "good
word" had been fearlessly carried to the distant shores of Lake Huron, to
the bayous and perfumed groves of Florida, or to the trackless and
frozen regions of Hudson's Bay.
Later on, when France had suppressed the order of the Jesuits, and when
her lily banner had disappeared from our midst, the College and its
grounds were appropriated to other uses - alas! less congenial.
The roll of the English drum and the sharp "word of command" of a British
adjutant or of his drill sergeant, for a century or more, resounded in the
halls, in which Latin orisons were formerly sung; and in the classic
grounds and grassy court, [59] canopied by those stately oaks and elms,
which our sires yet remember, to which the good Fathers retreated in sweet
seclusion, to "say" their Breviaries and tell their beads, might have
been heard the coarse joke of the guard room and coarser oath of the
trooper.
It had been claimed as a "magazine for the army contractor's provisions on
14th November, 1760." On the 4th June, 1765, His Excellency General James
Murray had it surveyed and appropriated for quarters and barracks for the
troops, excepting some apartments. The court and garden was used as a
drill and parade ground until the departure of Albion's soldiers. Here was
read on the 14th November, 1843, by Major-General Sir Jas. Hope's
direction, the order of the day, at the morning parade, congratulating
Major Bennet and the brave men of the 1st Royals, whom he was escorting to
England in the ill-fated transport "Premier," on the discipline and good
conduct manifested by them during the incredible perils they had escaped
at Cape Chatte when the Premier was stranded.
How singular, how sad to think that this loved, this glorious relic of the
French regime, entire even to the Jesuit College arms, carved in
stone over its chief entrance, should have remained sacred and intact
during the century of occupation by English soldiery - and that its
destruction should have been decreed so soon as the British legions, by
their departure, in 1871, had virtually handed it over to the French
Province of Quebec?
The discovery of the 28th August, 1878, of human remains beneath the floor
of this building - presumed to be those of some of the early missionaries -
induced the authorities to institute a careful search during its
demolition. These bones and others exhumed on the 31st August, and on the
1st and 9th September, 1878, were pronounced by two members of the
Faculty, Drs. Hubert Larue and Chas. E. Lemieux, both Professors of the
Laval University, (who signed a certificate to that effect) to be the
remains of three [60] persons of the male sex and of three [61] persons of
the female sex. Some silver and copper coins were also found, which with
these mouldering remains of humanity, were deposited under lock and key in
a wooden box; and in September, 1878, the whole was placed in a small but
substantial stone structure, in the court of the Jesuit Barracks, known as
the "Regimental Magazine," pending their delivery for permanent disposal
to Rev. Pere Sachez, Superior of the Jesuits Order in Quebec.
In May, 1879, on opening this magazine, it was found that the venerable
bones, box and all had disappeared, the staple of the padlock on the door
having been forced. By whom and for what purpose, the robbery?
THE RECOLLET CONVENT.
Let us walk on, and view with the Professor's eyes the adjoining public
edifice in 1749, the Recollet Convent, "a spacious building," says Kalm,
"two story high, with a large orchard and kitchen garden." It stood
apparently on the south-eastern extremity of the area, on which the
Anglican Cathedral was built in 1804, across what is now the southern
prolongation of Treasury Street; it is said its eastern end occupied a
portion of the site now occupied by the old Place d'Armes - now the
Ring.
Its church or chapel was, on 6th September, 1796, destroyed by fire; two
eye-witnesses of the conflagration, Philippe Aubert DeGaspe and Deputy-
Commissary-General James Thompson, the first in his Memoires, the second
in his unpublished Diary, have vividly portrayed the accident.
"At the date of the conflagration of the Recollets Church, 6th
September, 1796, the bodies of those who had been interred there were
taken up. The remains of persons of note, those among others of Count
de Frontenac, were re-interred in the Cathedral (now the Basilica), it
is said, under the floor of the Chapel N. D. of Pity.
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