This Gallery Serves As A Very
Agreeable Walk After Dinner, And Those Who Come To Speak With The
Governor-General Wait Here Till He Is At Leisure.
The palace is the
lodging of the Governor-General of Canada, and a number of soldiers
mount the guard
Before it, both at the gate and in the court-yard; and
when the Governor, or the Bishop comes in or goes out, they must all
appear in arms and beat the drum. The Governor-General has his own
chapel where he hears prayers; however, he often goes to Mass at the
church of the Recollets, which is very near the palace."
Such it seemed, in 1749, to the learned Swedish naturalist and philosopher
Peter Kalm. How many rainbow tints, poetry and romance can lend to the
same object, we may learn from the brilliant Niagara novelist, William
Kirby! In his splendid historical novel "Le Chien d'Or," whilst venturing
on the boldest flights of imagination, he thus epitomises some striking
historical features of the state residence of the French Viceroys of
Canada.
"The great hall of the Castle of St. Louis was palatial in its
dimensions and adornment. The panels of wainscoting upon the walls
were hung with paintings of historic interest - portraits of the Kings,
Governors, Intendants and Ministers of State, who had been
instrumental in the colonization of New France.
"Over the Governor's seat hung a gorgeous escutcheon of the Royal
arms, draped with a cluster of white flags, sprinkled with golden
lilies - the emblems of French sovereignty in the colony; among the
portraits on the walls, beside those of the late (Louis XIV.,) and
present King (Louis XV) - which hung on each side of the throne - might
be seen the features of Richelieu, who first organized the rude
settlements on the St. Lawrence in a body politic - a reflex of feudal
France; and of Colbert, who made available its natural wealth and
resources, by peopling it with the best scions of the Mother Land - the
noblesse and peasantry of Normandy, Brittany and Aquitaine. There,
too, might be seen the keen, bold features of Cartier, the first
discoverer, and of Champlain, the first explorer of the new land, and
the founder of Quebec. The gallant, restless Louis Buade de Frontenac
was pictured there, side by side with his fair countess, called, by
reason of her surpassing loveliness, "The Divine." Vaudreuil, too, who
spent a long life of devotion to his country, and Beauharnois, who
nourished its young strength until it was able to resist, not only the
powerful confederacy of the Five Nations, but the still more powerful
league of New England and the other English Colonies. There, also,
were seen the sharp intellectual face of Laval, its first bishop, who
organized the church and education in the colony; and of Talon, wisest
of Intendants, who devoted himself to the improvement of agriculture,
the increase of trade, and the well being of all the King's subjects
in New France. And one more portrait was there, worthy to rank among
the statesmen and rulers of New France - the pale, calm, intellectual
features of Mere Marie de l'Incarnation - the first superior of the
Ursulines of Quebec, who in obedience to heavenly visions, as she
believed, left France to found schools for the children of the new
colonists, and who taught her own womanly graces to her own sex, who
were destined to become the future mothers of New France." (Page 109.)
It were difficult to group on a smaller and brighter canvass, so many of
the glorious figures of our storied past.
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