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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Seigneur, by Wilfrid Châteauclair
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Young Seigneur
+       Or, Nation-Making
+
+Author: Wilfrid Châteauclair
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15256]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Wallace McLean, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team. Page images were kindly provided by
+www.canadiana.org
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR;
+
+OR,
+
+NATION-MAKING.
+
+BY
+
+WILFRID CHÂTEAUCLAIR
+[hand written: i.e. William Douw Lighthall]
+
+
+MONTREAL:
+
+WM. DRYSDALE & CO., PUBLISHERS, 232 ST. JAMES STREET, 1888.
+
+Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one
+thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, by WM. DRYSDALE & CO. in the
+Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The chief aim of this book is the perhaps too bold one--_to map out a
+future for the Canadian nation_, which has been hitherto drifting
+without any plan.
+
+A lesser purpose of it is to make some of the atmosphere of French
+Canada understood by those who speak English. The writer hopes to have
+done some service to these brothers of ours in using as his hero one of
+those lofty characters which their circle has produced more than once.
+
+The book is not a political work. It must by no means be taken for a
+Grit diatribe. The writer is an old-fashioned Tory and an old-fashioned
+Liberal: all his parties are dead, and he is at present in a universal
+Opposition. The party names he uses are, therefore, in any present-day
+application, simply typical, and the work is not a political one in any
+current sense.
+
+There are those who will say his characters are untrue and impossible.
+To these he would answer: Everything here, apart from a few little
+inaccuracies, is studied from the life, and you can find item, man and
+date for the essential particulars.
+
+A charge of Metaphysics will be advanced also, by a generation not too
+willing to think. _Mon ami_, what we give you of that is not very hard.
+If you cannot understand it, leave it out or study Emerson. The main
+subject of the book cannot be treated otherwise than with an attempt to
+ground it deeply.
+
+If Bigotry may not impossibly be laid to the author by some, because he
+has drawn two or three of the characters from unusual quarters and
+described them freely; the many who know him will limit any phrases to
+the several characters as individuals.
+
+Lastly, the book is not a novel. It consequently escapes the awful
+charge of being 'a novel with a purpose.' None can feel more conscious
+of its imperfections than the writer, or will regret more if it treads
+on any sensitive toes.
+
+WILFRID CHÂTEAUCLAIR. _Dormillière, March, 1888._
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+   BOOK I.
+
+   CHAPTER                                        PAGE
+
+   I. THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIÈRE                      1
+   II. THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR                            4
+   III. HAVILAND'S IDEA                              7
+   IV. THE MANUSCRIPT                               13
+   V. CONFRÉRIE                                     16
+   VI. ALEXANDRA                                    20
+   VII. QUINET                                      22
+   VIII. THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE                         25
+   IX. ASSORTED ENTHUSIASMS                         29
+   X. THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE             33
+   XI. THE CAVE                                     43
+   XII. LA MÈRE PATRIE                              48
+   XIII. SOMETHING MORE OF QUINET                   52
+   XIV. THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP                54
+   XV. THE LIFE OF LEADERSHIP                       57
+
+   BOOK II.
+
+   XVI. A POLITICAL SERMON                          67
+   XVII. ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION                        72
+   XVIII. THE AMERICAN FRANCE                       79
+   XVIII. A DISAPPEARING ORDER                      86
+   XIX. HUMAN NATURE                                88
+   XX. CHEZ-NOUS                                    91
+   XXI. DELIVER US FROM THE-EVIL ONE               100
+   XXII. THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS            104
+   XXIII. THE STATESMAN'S DREAM                    106
+   XXIV. THE INSTITUTE                             109
+   XXV. THE CAMPAIGN PLAN                          111
+   XXV. THE LOW-COUNTRY SUNRISE                    120
+   XXVI. THE IDEAL STATE                           126
+   XXVII. JOSEPHTE                                 134
+   XXVIII. GRANDMOULIN                             139
+   XXIX. CHAMILLY                                  145
+   XXX. AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES              149
+   XXXI. LIBERGENT                                 151
+   XXXII. MISÉRICORDE                              153
+   XXXIII. BLEUS                                   156
+   XXXIV. THE FREEMASON                            158
+   XXXV. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE                   162
+   XXXVI. ZOTIQUE'S MISGIVINGS                     168
+   XXXVII. A CRIME!                                170
+   XXXVIII. THE PASSING OF THE HOST                173
+   XXXIX. THE ELECTION                             175
+   XL. HAVILAND REFUSES                            178
+   XLI. FIAT JUSTITIA                              180
+
+   BOOK III.
+
+   XLII. QUINET'S CONTRIBUTION                     187
+   XLIII. HAVILAND'S PRINCIPLE                     191
+   XLIV. DAUGHTER OF THE GODS                      194
+   XLV. NOT THE END                                199
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIÈRE.
+
+
+In the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy odd, about six years
+after the confederation of the Provinces into the Dominion of Canada, an
+Ontarian went down into Quebec,--an event then almost as rare as a
+Quebecker entering Ontario.
+
+"It's a queer old Province, and romantic to me," said the Montrealer
+with whom old Mr. Chrysler (the Ontarian) fell in on the steamer
+descending to Sorel, and who had been giving him the names of the
+villages they passed in the broad and verdant panorama of the shores of
+the St. Lawrence.
+
+In truth, it _is_ a queer, romantic Province, that ancient Province of
+Quebec,--ancient in store of heroic and picturesque memories, though the
+three centuries of its history would look foreshortened to people of
+Europe, and Canada herself is not yet alive to the far-reaching import
+of each deed and journey of the chevaliers of its early days.
+
+Here, a hundred and thirty years after the Conquest, a million and a
+half of Normans and Bretons, speaking the language of France and
+preserving her institutions, still people the shores of the River and
+the Gulf. Their white cottages dot the banks like an endless string of
+pearls, their willows shade the hamlets and lean over the courses of
+brooks, their tapering parish spires nestle in the landscape of their
+new-world _patrie_.
+
+"What is that?" exclaimed the Ontarian, suddenly, lifting his hand, his
+eyes brightening with an interest unwonted for a man beyond middle age.
+
+The steamer was passing close to the shore, making for a pier some
+distance ahead; and, surmounting the high bank, a majestic scene arose,
+facing them like an apparition. It was a grey Tudor mansion of
+weather-stained stone, with churchy pinnacles, a strange-looking bright
+tin roof, and, towering around the sides and back of its grounds a lofty
+walk of pine trees, marshalled in dark, square, overshadowing array, out
+of which, as if surrounded by a guard of powerful forest spirits, the
+mansion looked forth like a resuscitated Elizabethan reality. Its mien
+seemed to say: "I am not of yesterday, and shall pass tranquilly on into
+the centuries to come: old traditions cluster quietly about my gables;
+and rest is here."
+
+"That is the Manoir of Dormillière," replied the Montrealer, as the
+steamer, whose paddles had stopped their roar, glided silently by.
+
+Impressive was the Manoir, with its cool shades and air of erect
+lordliness, its solemn grey walls and pinnacled gables, the beautiful
+depressed arch of its front door; and its dream-like foreground of river
+mirroring its majestic guard of pines.
+
+"I knew," said Chrysler, "that you had your seigniories in Quebec, and
+some sort of a feudal history, far back, but I never dreamed of such
+seats."
+
+"O, the Seigneurs[A] have not yet altogether disappeared," returned the
+Montrealer. "Twenty years ago their position was feudal enough to be
+considered oppressive; and here and there still, over the Province, in
+some grove of pines or elms, or at some picturesque bend of a river, or
+in the shelter of some wooded hill beside the sea, the old-fashioned
+residence is to be descried, seated in its broad _demesne_ with trees,
+gardens and capacious buildings about it, and at no great distance an
+old round windmill."
+
+[Footnote A: The old French gentry or _noblesse_]
+
+"Who lives in this one?"
+
+"The Havilands. An English name but considered French;--grandfather an
+officer, an English captain, who married the heiress of the old
+D'Argentenayes, of this place."
+
+"Mr. Haviland is the name of the person I am going to visit."
+
+"The M.P.?"
+
+"Yes, he is an M.P."
+
+"A fine young fellow, then. His first name is Chamilly. His father was a
+queer man--the Honorable Chateauguay--perhaps you've heard of _him_? He
+was of a sort of an antiquarian and genealogical turn, you know, and
+made a hobby of preserving old civilities and traditions, so that
+Dormillière is said to be somewhat of a rum place."
+
+The Ontarian thanked his acquaintance and got ready for landing at the
+pier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR.
+
+
+A young man stepped forward and greeted him heartily. It was the
+"Chamilly" Haviland of whom they had been speaking.
+
+Mr. Chrysler and he were members together of the Dominion Parliament and
+the present visit was the outcome of a special purpose. "It is a pity
+the rest of the country does not know my people more closely," Haviland
+wrote in his invitation:--"If you will do my house the honor of your
+presence, I am sure there is much of their life to which we could
+introduce you."
+
+"I am delighted you arrive at this time;" he exclaimed. "My election is
+coming." And he talked cheerfully and busied himself making the visitor
+comfortable in his drag.
+
+As luck will have it, the enactment of one of the old local customs
+occurs as they sit waiting for room to drive off the pier. The rustic
+gathering of Lower-Canadian _habitants_ who are crowding it with their
+native ponies and hay-carts and their stuff-coated, deliberate persons,
+is beginning to break apart as the steamer swings heavily away. The
+pedestrians are already stringing off along the road and each jaunty
+Telesphore and Jacques, the driver of a horse, leaps jovially into his
+cart; but all the carts are halting a moment by some curious common
+accord. Why is this?
+
+Suddenly a loud voice shouts:
+
+"MALBROUCK IS DEAD!"
+
+A pause follows.
+
+"_It is not true_" one forcibly contradicts.
+
+"Yes, he is dead!" reiterates the first.
+
+"It is not true!" insists the other.
+
+"He is dead and in his bier!"
+
+The second is incredulous:
+
+"You but tell me that to jeer?"
+
+But the crowd who have been smiling gleefully over the proceedings,
+affect to resign themselves to the bad news of Malbrouck's death, and
+all altogether groan in hoarse bass mockery:
+
+"ÇA VA MA-A-A-L!!"[B]
+
+Every one immediately dashes off in all haste, whips crack, wheels fly,
+and shouting, racing and singing along all the roads, the country-folk
+rattle away to their homes. Our two turn their wheels towards the
+Manor-house, gleefully amused.
+
+[Footnote B: That is bad!]
+
+"Who is Malbrouck?" Chrysler enquired.
+
+"Marlborough. That must have been originally enacted in the French camps
+that fought him in Flanders. I fancy the soldiers of Montcalm shouting
+it at night among their tents here as they held the country against the
+English."
+
+They drove along looking about the country and conversing. Chrysler
+breathed in the fresh draughts which swept across the wide stretches of
+river-view that lay open in bird-like perspective from the crest of the
+terraces on which the Dormillière _côte_, or countryside, was perched,
+and along which the road ran.
+
+"Come up, my little buds!" the young man cried in French, to a pair of
+baby girls who, holding each others' hands, were crowding on the edge of
+the ditch-weeds, out of the wheels' way.
+
+"Houp-la!" he cried, helping the laughing little things up one after the
+other by their hands, and then whipping forward. "How much, are you
+going to give me for this? Do you think we drive people for nothing,
+eh?" The children nestled themselves down with beaming faces. "Tell me,
+_bidoux_,"[C] he laughed again, "What are you going to give me?"
+
+[Footnote C: Bidoux is a term of endearment for children.]
+
+Both hung their heads. One of them quickly threw her arms up around his
+neck and, kissing him, said, "I will pay you this way," and the other
+began to follow suit.
+
+"Stop, stop, my dears. You must not stifle your seigneur," he cried in
+the highest glee, returning their embraces.
+
+One of our poets claims that there is something of earthliness in the
+kisses of all but children:--
+
+   "But in a little child's warm kiss
+   Is naught but heaven above,
+   So sweet it is, so pure it is,
+   So full of faith and love."
+
+So it seemed to Chrysler as he saw this first of the relations between
+the young Seigneur and his people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+HAVILAND'S IDEA.
+
+   "GRAND MASTER.--O, if you knew what our astrologers say of the coming
+   age and of our age, that has in it more history within a hundred years
+   than all the world had in four thousand years before."
+   --CAMPANELLA--_The City of the Sun_.
+
+
+When they arrived before the Manor House front, Mr. Chrysler could
+almost believe himself in some ancestral place in Europe, the pinnacles
+clustered with such a tranquil grace and the walk of pines surrounding
+the place seemed to frown with such cool, dark shades.
+
+Within, he found it a comfortable mingling of ancient family portraits
+and hanging swords strung around the walls, elaborate, ornate old mantel
+ornaments, an immense carved fireplace, and such modern conveniences as
+Eastlake Cabinets, student's lamps and electric bell. In a distant
+corner of the large united dining and drawing-room, the evidently
+favorite object was a full-size cast of the Apollo Belvedere.
+
+Chamilly introduced him respectfully to his grandmother, Madame
+Bois-Hébert, an aged, quiet lady, with dark eyes.
+
+In the expressive face of the young man could be traced a resemblance to
+hers, and the grace of form and movement which his firmer limbs and
+greater activity gave him, were evidently something like what the
+dignity of mien and carriage that were still left her by age had once
+been.
+
+He was tall and had a handsome make, and kindly, generous face. The
+features of his countenance were marked ones, denoting clear intelligent
+opinions; and his hair, moustache and young beard, of jet black,
+contrasted well with the color which enriched his brunet cheek. Whether
+it was due to a happy chance or to the surroundings of his life, or
+whether descent from superior races has something in it, existence had
+been generous to him in attractions.
+
+When Madame withdrew, after the tea, he gave Mr. Chrysler a chair by the
+fireplace in the drawing-room end of the apartment, for it was a cool
+evening, and saying:--"Do you mind this? It is a liking of mine,"
+stepped over to the lamps and turned them down, throwing the light of
+the burning wood upon the pictures and _objets d'art_ which adorned the
+apartment.
+
+The great cast of Apollo, though in shadow, stood out against a
+background of deep red hangings in its corner and attracted the older
+gentleman's remarks.
+
+"I have arranged the surroundings to recall my first impression of him
+in the Vatican Galleries," said the other. "I was wandering among that
+riches of fine statues and had begun to feel it an _embarras_, as our
+own phrase goes, when I came into a chamber and saw in the midst of it
+this most beautiful of the deities rising lightly before me, looking
+ahead after the arrow he has shot."
+
+"You have been in Italy, then?"
+
+"I have, Sir," he answered, "I have had my Italian days like
+Longfellow;" and, looking into the fire, he continued low, almost to
+himself:--
+
+     "... Land of the Madonna:
+   How beautiful it is! It seems a garden
+   Of Paradise ... Long years ago
+   I wandered as a youth among its bowers
+   And never from my heart has faded quite
+   Its memory, that like a summer sunset,
+   Encircles with a ring of purple light
+   All the horizon of my youth."
+
+As Chrysler regarded him then and heard this free expression of feeling
+he could not but feel that Haviland was a foreigner, different from the
+British peoples.
+
+"And yet," mused Haviland, in a moment again, "Have we not a more than
+Italy in this beautiful country of our own?"
+
+After weighing his companion in thought for a few moments longer,
+according to a habit of his, the elder man recollected another matter:--
+
+"You have resigned your seat in the Dominion House to enter the
+Provincial. Why is that?"
+
+"A new turn has arrived in affairs, sir. The Honorable Genest's fever
+has broken him down. He cannot fill a place where activity is needed.
+Until the fever, he was an influence, you know, in the Dominion House,
+while I was in the Local. After it, he arranged that we should exchange
+seats, as the Legislature has latterly been so quiet. Lately, however,
+Picault's corruptionists, whom we thought crushed, have made another
+assault for the moneys, bullied, lied, and bribed, weighed their silver
+to the Iscariots, and edged Genest out of his seat."
+
+"Who is their man here?"
+
+"Libergent, lawyer. The election was annulled for frauds, but by moving
+the heavens and earth of the Courts they saved Libergent from
+disqualification, and now he appears again against us. Our cause calls
+for energetic action, in the Legislature, so Genest and I are changing
+places back again."
+
+"I hope you will not be lost to us long?"
+
+"No longer than I can help. The national work will never cease to
+attract me. _Is it not sublime this nation-making?_--that this
+generation, and particularly a few individuals like you, sir, and myself
+should be honored by Heaven with the task of founding a people! It is as
+grand as the nebulous making of stars!"
+
+The seigneur's manner was full of enthusiasm.
+
+"I can't see it as you young men do," Chrysler said, in an inflection
+suggestive of regret. "What may we effect beyond trying to keep
+Government pure and prudent, and we are often powerless to do even that?
+Nor can we form the future character of the people much, but must leave
+that to themselves, don't you think?"
+
+"A partial truth," he returned, meditatively,--"a great one too. When I
+go into the country among the farmers, I often think: 'The people are
+the true nation-makers.'"--
+
+"And Providence has apparently designed it," the old man proceeded in
+his gentle strain, "to be our modest lot to follow the lead of other
+lands more developed and better situated. Where do you discover anything
+striking in the outlook?"
+
+"I do not care for a thing because it is striking; but I care for a
+great thing if it is really great. Do not think me too daring if I
+suggest for a moment that Canada should aim to lead the nations instead
+of being led. I believe that she can do it, if she only has enough
+persistence. A people should plain for a thousand years and be willing
+to wait centuries. Still, merely to lead is very subordinate in my view:
+a nation should only exist, and will only exist permanently, if it has a
+_reason of existence_. France has hers in the needs of the inhabitants
+of a vast plain; local Britain in those of an island; with Israel it was
+religion; with Imperial Rome, organised civilization; Panhellenism had
+the mission of intellect; Canada too, to exist, must have a good reason
+why her people shall live and act together."
+
+"What then is our 'reason of existence?'"
+
+"It must be an _aim_, a _work_," he said soberly.
+
+The elder man was surprised. "My dear Haviland," he exclaimed, "Are you
+sure you are practical?"
+
+"I think I am practical, Mr. Chrysler," Haviland replied firmly. "I have
+that objection so thoroughly in mind, that I would not expose my news to
+an ordinary man. It is because you are broad, liberal and willing
+to-examine matters in a large aspect, and that I think that in a large
+aspect I shall be justified, as at least not unreasonable, that I open
+my heart to you. Believe me, I am not unpractical, but only seeking a
+higher plane of practicality."
+
+"But how do you propose to get the people to follow this aim?"
+
+"If they were shown a sensible reason why they _ought_ to be a nation,"
+said he with calm distinctness,--"a reason more simple and great than
+any that could be advanced against it--it is all they would require. I
+propose a clear ideal for them--a vision of what Canada ought to be and
+do; towards which they can look, and feel that every move of progress
+adds a definite stage to a definite and really worthy edifice."
+
+"The-oretical" Chrysler murmured slowly, shaking his head.
+
+"For a man, but not for a People!" the young Member cried.
+
+Both were silent some moments. The elder looked up at last "What sort of
+Ideal would you offer them?"
+
+"Simply Ideal Canada, and the vista of her proper national work, the
+highest she might be, and the best she might perform, situated as she
+is, all time being given and the utmost stretch of aims. As Plato's
+mind's eye saw his Republic, Bacon his New Atlantis, More his Utopia; so
+let us see before and above us the Ideal Canada, and boldly aim at the
+programme of doing something in the world."
+
+"Can you show me anything special that we can do in the world?" the old
+man asked. His caution was wavering a little. "It is not impossible I
+may be with you," he added.
+
+The Ontarian, in fact, did not object in a spirit of cavil. He did so
+apparently neither to doubt nor to believe, but simply to enquire, for
+in life he was a business man. His father had left him large lumber
+interests to preserve, and the responsibility had framed his prudence.
+He took the same kind of care in examining the joints of Haviland's
+scheme as he would have exacted about the pegging or chains of a timber
+crib which was going to run a rapid.
+
+"Why, here for instance," answered Haviland, "are great problems at our
+threshold:--Independence, Imperial Federation, both of them bearing on
+all advance in civilized organizations,--Unification of
+Races--development of our vast and peculiar areas. Education, too,
+Foreign Trade, Land, the Classes--press upon our attention."
+
+"You would have us awake to some such new sense of our situation as
+Germany did in Goethe's day?"
+
+"I pray for no long-haired enthusiasts. We have business different from
+altering the names of the Latin divinities into Teutonic gutturals."
+
+"The country itself will see to that. We have the fear of the nations
+round about in our eyes," grimly said Chrysler; then he added: "I have
+never known you as well as I wish, Haviland. You speak of this work as
+if you had some definite system of it, while all the notions I have ever
+met or formed of such a thing have been partial or vague."
+
+Chamilly stood up and the firelight shone brightly and softly upon his
+flushed cheek; the dark portraits on the walls seemed to look out upon
+him as if they lived, and the statue of Apollo to rise and associate its
+dignity with his.
+
+"I _have_ a system," he said. "I almost feel like saying a commission of
+revelation. The reason, sir, why I asked you here was that you, my
+venerated friend, might understand my ideas and sympathize with them,
+and help me."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"I will ask you to read a manuscript, of which you will find the first
+half in your room. The remainder is not written yet"
+
+Pierre, the butler, brought in coffee and they talked more quietly of
+other subjects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT.
+
+   "When yellow-locked and crystal-eyed,
+    I dreamed green woods among
+          *       *       *       *       *
+    O, then the earth was young"
+
+               --ISABELLA VALANCEY CRAWFORD.
+
+
+When Chrysler went up to his bedchamber he found the following on a
+table between two candles:--
+
+BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS.
+
+_Narrative of Chamilly d'Argentenaye Haviland_.
+
+At the Friars' School at Dormillière, racing with gleeful playmates
+around the shady playground, or glibly reciting frequent "Paters" and
+"Ave Marias," other ideas of life scarce ever entered my head; till one
+day my father spoke, out of his calm silence, to my grandmother; and
+with the last of his two or three sentences, "I don't destine him for a
+Thibetan prayer-mill," (she had fondly intended me for the priesthood)
+he sat down to a letter, the result of which was that I found myself in
+a week at the Royal Grammar School at Montreal. Here, where the great
+city appeared a wilderness of palaces and the large School an almost
+universe of youthful Crichtons whose superiorities seemed to me the
+greater because I knew little of their English tongue, the contrasts
+with my rural Dormillière were so striking and continual that I was set
+thinking by almost every occurrence.
+
+A French boy is nothing if not imaginative. The time seemed to me a
+momentous epoch big with the question: "What path shall I follow?"
+
+I admired the prize boys who were so clever and famous. I took a prize
+myself, and felt heaven in the clapping.
+
+I admired those equally who were skilled at athletics. I saw a
+tournament of sports and envied the sparkling cups and medals.
+
+These,--to be a brilliant man of learning _and an athlete_--seemed to me
+the two great careers of existence!
+
+The first step, out of a number that were to come, towards a great
+discovery, was thus unconsciously by me taken. What is greater than
+Life? what discovery is more momentous than of its profound meaning?
+Anything I am or may do is the outcome of this one discovery I later
+made, which seems to me the very Secret of the World.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But hold:--there is a memory in my earlier recollection, more fixed than
+the trees--they were poplars--of the Friars' School playground. I leaped
+into a seat beside my father in the carriage one day, and we drove back
+far into the country. Green and pleasant all the landscape we passed. Or
+did it pass us, I was thinking in my weird little mind? We arrived at
+length at wide gates and drove up an avenue, lined by stately trees and
+running between broad grain fields, which led to a court shaded with
+leafy giants of elms and cobbled in an antique fashion; and under the
+woof of boughs and leaves overhead ran a very long old country-house,
+cottage-built. Surpassingly peaceful, and secluded was its air. It had
+oblique-angle-faced, shingled gables, and many windows with thin-ribbed
+blinds; and a high bit of gallery. On one hand near it, under the hugest
+of the trees was a cool, white, well-house of stone, like a little
+tower. I remember vividly the red-stained door of that. On the other
+hand, a short distance off, commenced the capacious pile of the barns.
+Close at the back of the house ran a long wooded hill.
+
+It was the ancient Manoir of Esneval--the Maison Blanche.--one of the
+relics of a feudal time. As we drove in and our wheels stopped, a little
+exquisite girl stood on the gallery, looking. Her child's face eyed us
+with wonder but courage for a few moments; then she ran within and, to
+the pang and regret of my heart, she appeared no more.
+
+The little, brave face of the Manoir d'Esneval haunted me, child as I
+was, for years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CONFRERIE.
+
+
+McGill University sits among her grounds upon the beginning of the slope
+of Mount Royal which lifts its foliage-foaming crest above it like an
+immense surge just about to break and bury the grey halls, the verdant
+Campus and the lovely secluded corner of brookside park. It owes its
+foundation to a public-spirited gentleman merchant of other days, the
+Honorable James McGill, whose portrait, in queue and ruffles, is brought
+forth in state at Founder's Festival, and who in the days of the
+Honorable Hudson's Bay Co.'s prime, stored his merchandize in the stout
+old blue warehouses[D] by the Place Jacques-Cartier, and thought out his
+far-sighted gifts to the country in the retirement of this pretty manor
+by the Mountain.
+
+[Footnote D: NOTE--Now turned into the restaurant called the "Chateau de
+Ramezay," and soon probably to be demolished.]
+
+To that little corner of brookside park it was often my custom to
+withdraw in the evenings. The trees, little and great, were my
+companions, and the sky looked down like a friend, between their leaves.
+One night, at summer's close, when the dark blue of the sky was
+unusually deep and luminous, and the moon only a tender crescent of
+light, I lay on the grass in the darkness, under my favorite tree, an
+oak, among whose boughs the almost imperceptible moonbeams rioted. I was
+hidden by the shadows of a little grove just in front of me. The path
+passed between, about a couple of yards away. Every stroller seemed to
+have gone, and I had, I thought, the peace of the surroundings to
+myself.
+
+All were not yet gone, however, it seemed. The peculiar echo of steps on
+the hard sandy path indicated someone approaching. A shadow of a form
+just appeared in the darkness along the path, and turning off,
+disappeared for a moment into the dark grove. A deep sigh of despair
+surprised me. I lay still, and in a moment the form came partly between
+me and a glimmering of the moonlight between the branches. It was
+apparently a man, at least. I strained my attention and kept perfectly
+still. There was something extraordinary about the movements of the
+shadow.
+
+Suddenly, it stepped forward a stride, I saw an arm go up to the head,
+both these became exposed in a open space of moonlight, and a glimmer
+reached me from something in the hand. Like a flash it came across me
+that I was in the presence of the extraordinary act of suicide. The
+glimmer was from the barrel and mountings of a revolver! Those glintings
+were unmistakable.
+
+I would have leaped up and sprung into the midst of the scene at once
+had not something else been plain at the same moment, which startled me
+and froze my blood.
+
+_The arm, the face, were those of my classmate Quinet!_ An involuntary
+start of mine rustled a fallen dry branch, and the snap of a dry twig of
+it seemed to dissolve his determination; the hand dropped, he sprang
+off--and rushed quickly away in the darkness.
+
+Quinet,--the life of this strange fellow always was extraordinary. There
+were several of our French-Canadians in college and they differed in
+some general respects from the English, but this striking-colored
+compatriot of mine, with his dark-red-brown hair, and dark-red-brown
+eyes set in his yellow complexion, was even from them a separated
+figure. He was fearfully clever: thought himself neglected: brooded upon
+it. His strange face and strange writings sometimes published, had often
+fastened themselves upon me. Now it was undoubtedly my duty to save
+him.
+
+I followed him to his home, went up to his room and confronted him with
+the whole story,--myself more agitated than he was. I remember his
+passionate state:--"Haviland, do not wonder at me. Mankind are the key
+to the universe; and I am sick of a world of turkey-cocks. To speak
+frankly is to be proscribed; to be kind to the unfortunate is to lose
+standing; to think deeply brings the reputation of a fool. No one
+understands me. They do not understand me, the imbeciles!--_Coglioni!_"
+cried he fiercely, grinding the Corsican cry in his teeth and rising to
+walk about. "As Napoleon the Great despised them so do I, Quinet. They
+never but made one wretched who had genius in him. And _I_ have it, and
+dare to say that in their faces. The weapon for neglect is contempt! If
+the wretched shallow world can make me miserable, they can never at
+least take away the delight of my superiority. I, who would have
+sympathized with and helped them and given my talents for them, shall
+look down with but scorn. Yes, I delight in these proud expressions, I
+am not ashamed of testifying, and one day I shall assert myself and make
+them bow to me, and shall hate them, and persecute them, and anatomize
+them for the derision of each other!"
+
+His conduct might have seemed completely lunatical to an Englishman. It
+was strange in any case. But to me it was his physique that was wrong,
+and I should see that all was put right. "Stick to me, Quinet," said I
+to him as soothingly as possible, "and I will always stick to you.
+Soyons amis, bon marin, 'Be we friends, good sailor;' and sail over
+every sea fearlessly. Neither of us is understood, perhaps because our
+critics do not understand themselves."
+
+"Be it so," he said, dejectedly resigning himself.
+
+His odd colour and eyes gave a kind of unearthly tone to the interview.
+I met him a few days later in almost as great a depression again.
+
+"It's these English. I hate them. It is necessary that I should kill
+one."
+
+"My dearest misanthrope," I replied, "what you need is some
+horse-riding."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ALEXANDRA.
+
+   Maintenant que la belle saison étale les splendeurs de sa robe.
+
+   --BENJ. SULTE.
+
+
+Listen! A note is struck which, with an old magic, transforms the world!
+In the dying beauty of an autumntide, Love Divine, last and most potent
+of the goddesses, came walking through the woods and diffused the
+mystery of heaven over the forest paths, the trees, the streets of the
+town; and she melted into a sweet and noble human face--a face I caught
+but for a moment clearly on one of our galloping rides, Quinet's and
+mine; yet it remained and still looks upon me in the holy of holies of
+my heart's inner chapel.
+
+"What a rare autumn! What perfect foliage! What cool weather!" Quinet
+had wakened up beyond my expectations, and soon we were racing along,
+laughing and shouting repartees at each other. We reined in at last to a
+walk.
+
+"Mehercle, be Charon propitious to thee when thy soul meets him at the
+river in Hades," he cried. "Be he propitious to thee, Chamilly, for
+making me a horseman!"
+
+Then the memorable picture;--we speeding along that bit of road in the
+Park, the Mountain-side towering precipitously above us on the left and
+sloping below us in groves on the right; our horses galloping faster and
+faster; our dash into a bold rocky cutting; our consternation!--a young
+maiden picking up autumn leaves within two yards before our galloping
+horses! Near by, I remember quite clearly now her companion, and not far
+off the carriage with golden-bay horses.
+
+"Stop!" I shouted.
+
+Even as I shouted, I was already past her, and the brush of Quinet's
+horse flying as near on the other side of her, snatched off her bouquet
+of autumn leaves and strewed them in a cloud. Thank God only that we had
+not gone over her! The peril was frightful. My horse had had his head
+down and I could not pull him up.
+
+But what excited me most was the courage of the girl. She started; but
+rose straight and firm, facing us as we charged. Even in that instant, I
+could see changes of pallor and color leap across her brow and
+cheek--could see them as if with supernatural vividness. Yet her eyes
+lighted proudly, her form held itself erect, and her clear features
+triumphed with the lines as if of a superior race. She could only be
+compared, standing there, to an angel guarding Paradise! How fair she
+was! And the face was the face of the little girl of the Manoir of
+Esneval!
+
+After the agitations of our apologies I retained just enough of my wits
+about me to enquire her name. "Alexandra Grant," she said gracefully
+enough. Ah yes, I recollected--the Grants, within a generation, had
+bought the Esneval Seigniory, and its Manor-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+QUINET.
+
+
+Now a little more of Quinet. Small, gaunt and strange-looking, I pitied
+him because he was a victim of our stupid educational wrecking systems.
+His was too fine an organization to have been exposed to the blunders of
+the scholastic managers; for his course had exhibited signs of no less
+than the genius he had claimed. Most of his years of study had been
+spent as a precocious youth in that great Seminary of the Sulpician
+Fathers, the _Collége de Montréal_. The close system of the seminaries,
+however, being meant for developing priests, is apt to produce two
+opposite poles of young men--the Ultramontane and the Red Radical. Of
+the bravest and keenest of the latter Quinet was. If newspapers were
+forbidden to be brought into the College: he had a regular supply of the
+most liberal. If all books but those first submitted to approval were
+_tabu_: Quinet was thrice caught reading Voltaire. If criticism of any
+of the doctrines of Catholic piety was a sin to be expiated hardly even
+by months of penance: there was nothing sacred to his inquiries, from
+the authority of the Popes of Avignon to the stigma miracle of the
+Seraphic St. Francis. He was an _enfant terrible_; Revolutionist
+Rousseau had infected him; Victor Hugo the Excommunicate was his
+literary idol; hidden and forbidden sweets made their way by
+subterranean passages to his appetite; he was the leader of a group who
+might some day give trouble to the Reverend gentlemen who managed the
+"nation Canadienne." And yet, "What a declaimer of Cicero and Bossuet! I
+love him," exclaimed the professor of Rhetoric, in the black-robed
+consultations. "His meridians do me credit!" cried the astronomical
+Father.
+
+No--he was far too promising a youth to estrange by the expulsion
+without ceremony which any vulgar transgressor would have got for the
+little finger of his offences. The record ended at length with the
+student himself, towards the approach of his graduation, when an article
+appeared in that unpardonable sheet _La Lanterne du Progrès_, acutely
+describing and discussing the defects of the system of Seminary
+education, making a flippant allusion to a circular of His Grace the
+Archbishop, who prided himself on his style; and signed openly with the
+boy's name at the bottom!
+
+Imagine the severe faces of the outraged gowned, the avoidance aghast by
+terrified playmates--the council with closed doors, his disappearance
+into the mysterious Office to confront the Directeur alone, and the
+interview with him at white-heat strain beginning mildly: "My son" and
+ending with icy distinctness: "Then, sir, Go!"
+
+He did go. He came to the Grammar School during my last session there,
+and at the end of it swept away the whole of the prizes, with the Dux
+Medal of the school, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of English,
+and was head in every subject, _except good conduct and punctuality_.
+
+At this he nearly killed himself. Proceeding, he carried off the highest
+scholarship among the Matriculants at the University, where his
+classical papers were said to be perfect. All through these two years
+and a half of College progress since, he had been astonishing us with
+similar terrible application and results. Professors encouraged, friends
+applauded, we wondered at and admired him. We did not envy him, however,
+for he became, as I commenced by saying, a pitiable wreck. Look at him
+as he stoops upon the horse!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Good old Father St. Esprit--oldest and humblest of the Order in the
+College--who was his friend, and whom everybody, and especially Quinet,
+venerated, took a private word with him before he departed from that
+institution.
+
+"My son," said he, "I see the quality of thy mind, and that the Church
+of God will not be able to contain thee. Thou mayst wander, poor child;
+yet carry thou at least in thy heart ever love of what thou seest to be
+good, and respect for what is venerated by another. Put this word away
+in thy soul in memory of thy friend the Père St. Esprit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE.
+
+   "What is there in this blossom-hour should knit
+   An omen in with every simple word?"
+
+--ISABELLA VALANCEY CRAWFORD.
+
+
+During the next few days I could do nothing of interest to me but make
+prudent enquiries about Alexandra Grant. I remember an answer of Little
+Steele's "Ah--_That_ is a beautiful girl!"
+
+"You _were_ beautiful, Alexandra!"
+
+I caught glimpses of her on the street and in her carriage; memory marks
+the spots by a glow of light; they are my holy places. I saw her open
+her purse for a blind man begging on a church step. I watched her turn
+and speak politely to a ragged newsgirl. One day, when Quinet and I,
+coming down from College and seeing a little boy fall on the path, threw
+away our books and set him on his feet, it was _her_ face of approval
+that beamed out of a carriage window on the opposite side of the street.
+
+I was introduced to her at the Mackenzie's, at a toboggan party given
+for Lockhart, the son, my friend.
+
+Shall I ever forget our slide on the toboggan hill and my emotions in
+that simple question, "Will you slide with me?"
+
+I was already far into a _grande passion_,--foolish and desperate.
+
+She assented, stepped over to my toboggan kindly, sat down and placed
+her feet under its curled front. The crown of the hill about us was
+illumined by a circle of Chinese lanterns, and the moon, rising in the
+East, reflected a dim light on the fields of snow. I lifted the
+toboggan, gave the little run and leaped on at the end of the cushion,
+with my foot out behind to steer. Immediately we shot down the first
+descent, and as I straightened the course of the quick-flying leaf of
+maple wood, I felt it correspond as if intelligently. The second descent
+spurred our rate to an electric speed. As I bent forward, the snow
+flying against my face, the sound of sliding growing louder and
+shriller, and my foot demanding a sterner pressure to steer, a surge of
+exhilarating emotions suddenly rushed over me, and a thought cried "This
+is Alexandra! Alexandra whom you love."
+
+"Alexandra!" my heart returned, "I am so near you!" Her two thick golden
+plaits of hair fell just before my eyes. She was sitting calm and
+straight. The toboggan shot on like a flash, and the drift beat fiercely
+in my eyes. But why should I heed? Away! Away! Leave everything behind
+us and speed thou out with me, love, into some region where I can reveal
+to thee alone this earnest soul which thou has awakened into such
+devotion!
+
+Yet lo, our race slackening, the moment was even then over, and having
+carried us straight as an arrow, the toboggan undulated gracefully like
+a serpent over a little rising in the path and came to a stand. She
+rose. The light of the rising moon just enabled me to still catch the
+threaded yellow of her hair and the translucent complexion.
+
+One had been following us closely. "Permit me--this next is ours, Miss
+Grant," he said, hastening eagerly forward to her, and I saw it was
+Quinet.
+
+I marked the deference which every one, old and young, paid to her, and
+at the house afterwards I looked on while a boisterous knot were
+teaching her euchre.
+
+"Change your ace," whispered Annie Lockhart, that pretty gambler.
+
+"But," she replied aloud in her frank, innocent manner, "_Wouldn't that
+be wrong?_"
+
+The words came to me with the force of an oracle.
+
+"Let me bow my head," I thought, "My patron! My angel!" and as I looked
+upon her, passionate reverence overpowered me.
+
+"What am I that I dare to love you and raise my eyes towards your pure
+light? I am not worthy to love you!"
+
+"And you are so beautiful!"
+
+As my meditations were pouring along in this absorbed way, a friend of
+ours, Grace Carter, a girl of the light, subtly graceful English type
+and a gay confidence of leadership, came across the room.
+
+"O Mr. Haviland," she cried, "I've been watching your dolorous
+expression till I determined to learn how you do it!"
+
+I half smiled at her, helplessly.
+
+"It is thoroughly fifth-act. The young man looks that way when he
+marches around in the limelight moonlight contemplating the approach of
+the catastrophe. But what have you to do with catastrophes? Off the
+stage men only have that desperate look when they are in love. I trust
+you are safe, Mr. Haviland."
+
+She looked so arch that I could not help a laugh, though the effect
+jarred on my mood.
+
+"You will find me dull, I am afraid," I answered.
+
+"That's of no consequence. Self-education is my mission. Believe me, I
+thirst for this knack of lugubriousness."
+
+I would have resented the trifling at that moment from almost any person
+but Grace. She divined my discomfort, veered her questioning to College
+affairs, and detailed to me some amusing information on dances and
+engagements, to which I listened with what attention I could. But my
+eyes persisted in resting oftener and oftener on Alexandra, and some
+bread baked by her and Annie,--a triumph of amateur housekeeping--being
+passed by the latter in pieces among the cake, I imagined that it tasted
+like the sacrament, and utterly lost track of what the merry girl was
+saying. She left me to flood out her spirits on a friend who was rising
+to go; whereupon I recollected myself.
+
+Behold Quinet, poor fellow, Quinet is too earnest for Society. Some
+supercilious young creature has cut him to the quick for commencing a
+historical remark. Smarting under his rebuke he withdraws a step or two.
+A kind voice accosts him; it is Alexandra. "Come here and speak to me,
+Mr. Quinet. You always talk what is worth while." "To talk of what is
+worth while makes enemies," he answered bitterly: "I am thinking of
+giving it up." "You should not do that," she said. "If I were a man I
+would think of nothing but the highest things."
+
+The night's sleep was broken by visions of her, as I had just seen her,
+so near, so fair. I tried to force my imagination into snatches of
+remembrance of her face as colored and clear-outlined as the
+reality--bearing the noble expression it had worn when she said "Would
+not that be wrong?"
+
+How I sank into self-contempt by comparison!
+
+I wonder if Englishmen feel the passion of love as we French do.
+
+"I love her, I love her," was my burning ejaculation. "Yet how dare I
+love her! I am unworthy to stand in her presence! There is only left for
+me to purify and burn and subdue my heart until it is completely worthy
+of her holy sight. Worthy of her! And what is worthy of her?"
+
+Again her presence passed before me and a voice seemed to cry "The
+highest things!"
+
+Thenceforth "The highest things" should be my search, and nothing less.
+My ambitions had advanced a second step.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+   ASSORTED ENTHUSIASMS.
+
+   "Ici bas tous les lilas meurent;
+    Tous les chants des oiseaux sont courts;
+   Je cherche aux étés qui demeurent
+           Toujours."
+
+   --SULLY-PRUDHOMME.
+
+
+And now of the influences which shaped that quest of "the highest
+things." There were the conversations in our Secret Society, the
+"Centre-Seekers." Picture a winter's eve, a cosy fire, a weird hall, and
+a group whose initiation oath was simply "I promise to be sincere."
+
+"There is the solution of Epicurus," remarks Holyoake, our Agnostic;
+"Pleasure, at least, is real. Wrap yourself in it, for you can do no
+better. Contentment is but one pleasure, as Salvation is another, and
+even sensuality may be best to you."
+
+"How about the man who lives for his children?" asked young Fred. Lyle,
+whose ruddy face was made brighter by the fire glow.
+
+"He has his enjoyment reflected from theirs."
+
+"What do you think of the friend in 'Vanity Fair,' who helps his rival?"
+
+"One of the fools," replied Holyoake, with an air of settling the
+matter.
+
+Lyle reflected.
+
+"I can't believe it that way," he said thoughtfully.
+
+One member was Lome Riddle; a big bluff chap with a promising moustache,
+encouraged by private, tuition. "Come along there, Haviland," he
+exclaimed, "a nob like you should be one of the 'boys!'" These fellows
+don't know what life is--but to think of a man of muscle going back on
+us!
+
+"Kick not against the prigs, Riddle!" cried Little Steele in facetious
+delight.
+
+"Riddle, Riddle, thou art but a poor Philistine."
+
+"A man of Gath," contributed another.
+
+"The Philistine has his uses. He is the successful of Evolution,"
+pronounced Holyoake.
+
+"The future will see methods better than Evolution," answered Brether,
+our great firm Scotchman.
+
+"If so, they will be of it," retorted the Agnostic.
+
+"Now just kindly let up on that a little." Riddle continued, "you
+fellows are too confounded theoretical for me. What's the good of going
+round congesting your cerebrums about problems you can't settle? I say
+let a fellow go it while he's young--moderately you know--and when he is
+old he will not regret the same. You fellows swot, and I sit in the
+orchestra chairs. You read your digestions to rack and ruin--or else
+you've got to be so mighty careful,--while I put in a fine gourmand's
+dinner every day, attended with the comforts of civilization. I dance
+while you are working up unsuccessful essays. The world owes nothing to
+fellows who do that. If you're fools enough to want to benefit the
+world, turn your minds to steam engines and telegraphs, that cheapen
+dinners and save us running, and I'll give you my blessing in spare
+moments when I've nothing to do. I take a kind of melancholy interest in
+this institution, you know, but honestly upon my word, I hate your
+rational style, and I wouldn't for the world go round like a walking
+problem and have the fellows call me '_For_lorne Riddle.' The place
+where I enjoy myself most,--our private theatrical club,--is called the
+'Inconsistents' on that principle. We don't care about being correct. We
+know we have the prettiest girls and chummiest fellows in town, and
+we're all right."
+
+"Of course if a fellow's legs are so crooked that he can't dance or
+appear in a play, he has got to solace himself with billiards or eating,
+or some of the elegant accomplishments like playing the guitar. That's
+my system. There's philosophy in it too, by jove! I've done lots of
+philosophy by the smoke of a cigarette. It's philosophy properly tamed,
+in evening dress. It's philosophy made into a good Churchman, and Tory!"
+
+"La morale de la cigarette!" suggested Quinet.
+
+After all was not the highest thing simply to live the natural life of
+the time and place?
+
+"I refuse that," I cried to myself, "I ask a Permanent, an Eternal!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In speculative Philosophy I sought it, urged by the saying reported of
+Confucius:
+
+"The Master said: 'I seek an all-pervading Unity,'" and much useless
+labor did I spend upon the profound work of the monarch of modern
+thinkers--Immanuel Kant.
+
+In a depression at the end of this labor I finally threw my books aside.
+
+It was afternoon, dull and dusty: a thunderstorm was brewing. I walked
+to the Square. What is that carriage with golden-bay horses?--that fresh
+image of loveliness--so calm--serene in queenly peace--the spiritual
+eyes! "Alexandra, I am miserable; elevate and purify my hopes with a
+smile, when I need thy presence--ma belle Anglaise"--No, she looks
+coldly and drives on in her equipage without even a recognition.--Is
+anything wrong?--I am deeply dispirited.--Another street--she passes
+again without bowing--not even looking this time.
+
+Wretched Haviland!--Where is mercy and what is left for me in the
+world?--I will rebel about this.--I will give up trying to seek the
+best, and turn away from Alexandra.
+
+At dinner that night, my grandmother said "You must go to Picault's
+ball, my dear;" and my grave, oracular father added: "Yes, you shall go
+among our people now. I am about to send you to France."
+
+The prospect of that journey, to which it had been my joy at other times
+to look forward, affected me little in my disturbed condition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE.
+
+
+Grace Carter came over on the way to the ball, and when I descended I
+found her entertaining my grandmother, while a young man named Chinic,
+teaming with good nature and compliments, sat near her and rising with
+the rest grasped me by the hand as I entered. Grace too, smiling, held
+out her hand. As we went to the door my grandmother delivered me over to
+her, saying playfully: "Chamilly will be in your charge this evening. He
+is melancholy. C'est à toi de le guérir."
+
+"I will be his sister of Charity!" she cried merrily and pressed my arm.
+I laughed. It was not so undelightful to be taken into the companionship
+of a graceful girl.
+
+As we whirled along in the carriage, the half-moon in the dark blue sky,
+making heavy shadows on the trees and mansions, lit her cheek and
+Greek-knotted hair on the side next me with a glamour so that her head
+and shoulders shone softly in it like a bust of Venus.
+
+Picault's was an extensive family mansion of sandstone, built thirty
+years before for one of the wealthiest merchants of Montreal. It was on
+a corner.
+
+One end rose into a rococo tower, lit then with the curious kind of
+clearness produced by a half-moon's light. In the centre, before the
+hospital door, projected a pillared portico, under which our carriage
+drove, and at the other end lurked the shades of a massive gate-way with
+cobbled road leading through. The carriage-road past the front was
+bordered by lilacs in bloom--on the one side, as we went through, all
+shadows, on the other faintly colored, mingling their fragrance with
+that of huge rose-bushes.
+
+The doors were thrown open, and we saw a great staircase in a wide hall
+hung with colored lights, and entering passed into one of the most
+lavish of interiors. As I looked around the dressing-room to which
+Chinic and myself were shown and saw the windows stacked with tropical
+plants, the colored candles set about the walls in silver sconces; the
+bijou paintings and the graceful carving of the furniture; the deep
+blending of tints and shades in the carpets, curtains and ornaments, I
+felt another new experience--the sensation of luxury--and dropping back
+in an easy chair, asked my companion:
+
+"Chinic, what does Picault do?"
+
+"Ma foi, I do not pretend to say," replied the young Frenchman, half
+turning towards me from the mirror where he was brushing his hair."
+Suffice it he is a millionaire, and I get summoned to drink his wine.
+Some say he is in politics, others that he deals with stocks; for me it
+is enough that he deals with the dance and good table. Is it not
+magnificent to so live? I would sell my soul for fifteen years of it."
+
+The remark set me thinking a moment, but it only complicated the charm
+of delivering oneself over to sensations.
+
+We met Grace at the head of the staircase. She had never looked more
+Venus-like than in this fairy glow, with a plant-filled window behind
+her, opening out into the summer darkness. The music of a waltz of
+Strauss was rising from below, and I felt a wonderful thrill as she
+again took my arm.
+
+Our respects being paid to the hostess, Madame Picault, Grace gave me a
+couple of dances on her card, and introducing me to a slender young
+girl, with pretty eyes, and two very long, crisp plaits of hair, went
+off on the arm of some one else.
+
+As my father's plan of education had taken me hitherto wholly into
+English society, so far as into any, the unique feeling of being a
+stranger to my own race came with full force upon me for a moment and I
+stood silent beside the pretty eyes and looked at the scene. The walls
+were a perfect gallery of sublime landscapes, and small pictures heavily
+set; four royal chandeliers threw illumination over a maze of flowered
+trains and flushed complexions, moving through a stately "Lancers,"
+under a ceiling of dark paintings, divided as if framed, by heavy gilded
+mouldings, like the ceiling of a Venetian Palace.
+
+"Is it not gay--that scene there!" I exclaimed.
+
+"It is charming, Monsieur," said the pretty eyes. "Montreal is
+altogether charming."
+
+"Ah, you come from Quebec, Mademoiselle?"
+
+"No, Monsieur, from New Orleans," she replied confidingly.
+
+Now the Louisiana French are very interesting to us French of Canada.
+Once we formed parts of one continuous Empire, though now divided by
+many thousands of miles, and their fate is naturally a bond of strong
+sympathy to us.
+
+"We have there only the Carnival," she continued with the winning
+prettiness of a child. "That is in the spring, and the young men dress
+up for three or four days and throw bon-bons and flowers at us. When the
+carnival is over, they present the young ladies with the jewels they
+have worn?"
+
+"And the ladies return them smiles more prized than jewels?"
+
+She looked up at me in fresh-natured delight.
+
+"Monsieur, you must come to New Orleans sometime, during the season of
+the Carnival."
+
+"I shall most certainly if you will assure me the ladies of New Orleans
+are all of one kind."
+
+"You are pleased to jest, sir. But judge from my sister. Is she not
+handsome?"
+
+Her sister,--a Southern beauty, the sensation just then of
+Montreal,--was truly a noble type. The pretty one watched my rising
+admiration.
+
+"What do you think of her?"
+
+"She is wonderful.--And she is your sister?"
+
+"My married sister, Monsieur. She is on her way to France. I will tell
+you a little romance about her. Last year she came to Montreal with our
+father, and they were delighted with it. She used to say she would not
+marry a Frenchman; nor a blonde. Above all she detested Paris, and
+declared she would never live there. While she was here she left her
+portrait with Mde. De Rheims as a souvenir. Soon a young officer in the
+army of France comes out and visits Mde. De Rheims and sees the picture
+of my sister. He was struck with it, declared he would see the original,
+travelled straight to New Orleans, and has married my sister. See him
+there--_he is a blonde_ and _he is taking her to Paris_."
+
+"How strange that is! Montreal is a dangerous place for the ladies of
+your family."
+
+She glanced at me with sly pleasure.
+
+"But we are not dangerous to Montreal, sir."
+
+"Ah non, ma'm'selle."
+
+Then this was my first type to begin on, of our French society world.
+Were they all like her? I watched the ladies and gentlemen who stood and
+sat chatting about, and saw that everyone else too made an art of
+charming. Grace also. She frequently passed, and I could catch her
+silvery French sentences and cheerful laugh.
+
+As a partner now took away my little Southern friend, I caught Chinic on
+the wing, got introduced once more, and found myself careering in a
+galop down the room with a large-looking girl--Mlle. Sylphe--whose
+activity was out of proportion to her figure, though in more harmony
+with her name. Her build was commanding, she was of dark complexion and
+hair, in manner demure, alluring with great power by the instrumentality
+of lustrous eyes, though secretly, I felt, like the tigress itself in
+cruelty to her victims. She was a magnificent figure, and gave me a
+merry dance. After it, she set about explaining the meaning of her
+garland decorations and the language of flowers, the Convent school at
+Sault-au-Recollet, dinner parties, and the young men of her
+acquaintance.
+
+"You seem very fond of society?" I advanced.
+
+"I adore society--it is my dream. I waltz, you see. I know it is wrong,
+and the church forbids it; but--I do not dance in Lent. After all,"
+shrugging her shoulders, "we can confess, you know, and when we are old
+it will suffice to repent and be devout. I shall begin to be excessively
+devout," (toying with a jet cross on her necklace)--"the day I find my
+first grey hair."
+
+"You have then a number of years to waltz."
+
+Her dark eyes looked over my face as a possible conquest.
+
+"I tremble when I think it is not for ever. But look at my aunt's and
+that of Madame de Rheims!"
+
+These ladies were indeed distinguished by their hair; but I suspect that
+it was not the mere fact of its greyness to which she wished to draw my
+attention--rather it was to the manner in which they wore it, brushed up
+high and away from their foreheads, like dowagers of yore. Standing in a
+corner together very much each other's counterpart, both a trifle too
+dignified, they were obviously proud leaders of society. She watched my
+shades of expression, and cried:
+
+"There is my favorite quadrille--Là là-là-là-là-là-à-là," softly humming
+and nodding her head, an action not common among the English.
+
+"Pardon me, sir, your name is Mr. 'Aviland, I believe," interrupted a
+young man with a close-cut, very thick, very black beard, and the waxed
+ends of his moustache fiercely turned up.
+
+I bowed.
+
+"Our Sovereign Lady De Rheims requests the pleasure of your
+conversation."
+
+On turning to Mlle. Sylphe to make my excuses, she smiled, saying with a
+regretful grimace: "Obeissez."
+
+Mde. De Rheims stood with Mde. Fée, the aunt of Mile. Sylphe, near the
+musicians, receiving and surveying her subjects,--a woman of majestic
+presence. Nodding dismissal to the fierce moustache, she acknowledged my
+deep bow with a slight but gracious inclination.
+
+"Madame Fée, permit me to introduce Monsieur Chamilly Haviland, a
+D'Argentenaye of Dormillière,--and the last. My child, your attractions
+have been too exclusively of the 'West End.' You have lived among the
+English; enter now into _my_ society." Mde. Fée smiled, and Mde. de
+Rheims taking a look at me continued: "The stock is incomparable out of
+France. Remember, my child, that your ancestors were grande noblesse,"
+haughtily raising her head. A novel feeling of distinction was added to
+my swelling current of new pleasures.
+
+A ruddy, simply-dressed, black-haired lady, but of natural and cultured
+manner, was now received by her with much cordiality, and I had an
+opportunity to survey the whole concourse and continue my observations.
+Brought up as I had been for the last few years, I found my own people
+markedly foreign,--not so much in any obtrusive respect as in that
+general atmosphere to which we often apply the term.
+
+In the first place there was the language--not patois as of _habitants_
+and barbers, nor the mode of the occasional caller at our house, whose
+pronunciation seemed an individual exception; but an entire assemblage
+holding intercourse in dainty Parisian, exquisite as the famous dialect
+of the Brahmans. There was the graceful compliment, the antithetic
+description, the witty repartee. One could say the poetical or
+sententious without being insulted by a stare. Some of the ladies were
+beautiful, some were not, but they had for the most part a quite ideal
+degree of grace and many of them a kind of dignity not too often
+elsewhere found. Every person laughed and was happy through the homely
+cotillion that was proceeding. The feelings of the young seemed to issue
+and mingle in sympathy, with a freedom naturally delightful to my
+peculiar nature, and the triumphant strains of music excited my pulses.
+
+Mde. De Rheims touched my arm and pointed individuals by name. "That
+strong young man is a d'Irumberry--the pale one, a Le Ber--that young
+girl's mother is a Guay de Boisbriant. Do not look at her partner, he is
+some _canaille_."
+
+There was, true enough, some difference. The descendants of gentry were
+on the average marked with at least physical endowments quite distinctly
+above the rest of the race. But there was a ridiculous side, for I
+recognized some about whom my grandmother was used to make merry, such
+as the youth who could "trace his ancestry five ways to Charles the
+Fat," and the stout-built brothers in whose family there was a rule
+"never to strike a man twice to knock him down.". My grandmother said
+that "those who could _not_ knock him down kept the tradition by not
+striking him once!"
+
+Mde. De Rheims now introduced me to two people simultaneously--Sir
+Georges Mondelet, Chief-Justice, and the ruddy lady, Mde. Fauteux of
+Quebec. The Chief Justice was of that good old type, at sight of which
+the word gentil-homme springs naturally to one's lips He was small in
+figure, but his features were clearly cut, and the falling of the cheeks
+and deepening of lines produced by approach of age, had but imparted to
+them an increased, repose. His clear gaze and fine balance of expression
+denoted that remarkable common sense and personal honor for which I
+divined his judgments and conduct must be respected. His smile was
+charming, and displayed a set of well-preserved teeth. The few words he
+spoke to me were not remarkable. They were simple and kind like his
+movements.
+
+To Mde. Fauteux I offered my arm, and conducted her into the large
+conservatory opening off the parlors, where we walked.
+
+"Is it not a great privilege, Monsieur, to be an Englishman?" she began
+with polite banter. "You are the conquerors, the millionaires; yours are
+the palaces, and the high and honorable places! But you, Monsieur, you
+are not too proud to patronize our little receptions."
+
+"Pardon me, Madame, I am not English."
+
+"Is that true? But you have the air."
+
+"There is no air I could prefer to that of a man like Sir Georges
+Mondelet."
+
+"Nor I too, in seriousness. That is the true French gentleman. He cares
+little even for his title, and prefers to be called _Mr._ Mondelet,
+holding his judicial office in greater esteem. I once heard him say in
+joke, 'that there could be many Knights but only one Chief Justice.'"
+
+"That is true," I said.
+
+"Yes, it is true," she echoed. "Law is a noble philosophy, and its
+profession the most brilliant of the highways to fame."
+
+"Do you know," she continued, "that we inherit our law from the Romans.
+This beautiful system, this philosophic justice of our Province, is the
+imperial legacy bequeathed us by that Empire in which we once took our
+share as rulers of the world--the shadow of the mighty wings under which
+our ancestors reposed. We all have Roman, blood in our veins. Do you see
+that face there?--that is a Roman face. Our Church speaks Latin, and
+looks to the city of Cæsar. Our own speech is a Latin tongue. The
+classics of our young men's study are still those that were current on
+the Forum. Our law is Roman law."
+
+If the gaiety of the French world had satisfied me, what was not my
+wonder and joy at discovering in it a reflective side; and for half an
+hour I remained in a leafy alcove listening to her refined
+converse,--dealing with books like "Corinne," and "La Chaumière
+Indienne,"--La Fontaine, Molière, Montesquieu,--and especially
+interesting me in the society which moved around us, which as she
+touched it with her wand of history and eloquence, acquired an
+inconceivable interest for me, and I was for the first time proud of
+being a French-Canadian.
+
+In the midst of these excitements, as I stood so listening, and now
+joined by two others,--
+
+"Chamilly, my brother, I have come for you," suddenly broke in Grace;
+and stood before me all radiance, dropping somebody's arm. Excusing
+myself, I took her in charge and we moved gaily off. Waltzing with her
+was so easy that it made me feel my own motion graceful; the swirl of
+mingled feelings impelled me to recognize how superior she was in other
+things, and to proudly set her off against each lovely or dignified or
+sprightly figure there; and when the music closed abruptly, we started
+laughing together for the conservatory of which I have spoken, at the
+end of the vast rooms. This conservatory ended in a circular enlargement
+divided into several nooks or bowers, and we wandered into one in which
+the moonlight came faintly on our faces through the glass and the vines.
+
+Again the Greek head with the light upon it!
+
+Strains of other music floated in. Every sense was enraptured.
+
+"Let Alexandra go!" I thought. "Let me live as my people have discovered
+how to live."
+
+"Mon cher, am I tending you faithfully."
+
+"Charmingly, my sister."
+
+She laughed at the way I said it, because I spoke with perfect
+resignation.
+
+The thread running through all my other experiences of the evening had
+been admiration of Grace. Pleased as I was with this society, I had
+compared her with each of the best members of it, to her advantage. She
+had in her young way, the dignity of Madame de Rheims; all the
+gracefulness of the Southern girl with the pretty eyes; beauty as
+striking, though not the same as that girl's sister; the gaiety of
+Chinic; and now I was to find that she was apparently as cultured as
+Mde. Fauteux. For she did talk seriously and brightly about books and
+languages and artistic subjects:
+
+"I would abhor beyond everything a life of fashionable vanity. My desire
+for life is to always keep progressing."
+
+Whilst she talked I was reflecting, and mechanically looking around at
+the divisions into nooks.
+
+"Don't you think this arrangement inviting, Chamilly? It has a history.
+An engagement has taken place in each of these alcoves except one."
+
+I looked around at them again; then asked:
+
+"Which is the one?"
+
+"The alcove we are in, mon frère."
+
+I glanced at her, the moonlight still falling brokenly-upon the Venus
+head, and could see a crimson blush sweep over her countenance and her
+eyelids droop.
+
+"Grace," I said--agitatedly, "Will you give me more of your evening
+after the next dance you promised?"
+
+"Take from then to the end!--three dances that I have kept for you
+especially; I wish they were longer. But I am ashamed to sit here after
+what I have happened to say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE "CAVE."
+
+
+A whirl of rapid thoughts made it some time till I could regain presence
+of mind, and I found my eyes following her feverishly into the weavings
+of another waltz, and was roused by the "Salut, Monsieur," of a quiet
+man who did not know me, but turned out from his remarks, to be Picault,
+the owner of the mansion. His observations were general and of a kind of
+a conciliatory tone, and seemed to be each uttered after grave
+deliberation. There was a prudence and respectability and an air of
+inoffensiveness about his manner which indicated the quiet merchant of
+means. He spoke of Madame De Rheims with great respect, and drew my
+attention to quondam Mlle. Alvarez, the New Orleans beauty, as though
+her presence was a marked honor to his house; and hearing that I was not
+acquainted with her, he insisted on an introduction and I found myself
+leading her into the alcove Grace and I had left. She spoke first of New
+Orleans, where English, she said, was taking the place of our language,
+and I gathered that the latter was becoming gradually confined to a
+limited circle. There was a French quarter apart from the American city,
+though in its midst.
+
+"The fate of your people should make you intensely French," said I.
+
+"Monsieur has an English descent, to judge by his name. Well then, I
+will say something I say at home. I do not admire Frenchmen."
+
+"But Mlle.--your patriotism!"
+
+"I am not very French," she said haughtily, "My father is the son of a
+Spanish Minister."
+
+"But why do you disapprove of the French? As to me, I find them
+excessively attractive."
+
+"It is because I know them well," she said gaily. "My husband is the
+only Frenchman I would have married. Their quest is self-gratification,
+to which they sacrifice no matter what. I despise them."--She laughed
+mock-heroically,--"Take now your Englishman! Let him love a Frenchwoman,
+for it is only a Frenchwoman who can return such love! Domestic, silent,
+energetic,--he adores, protects, provides, and yet accomplishes
+ambitions. This is because he sacrifices none of such things to the
+Myself, who is the god of Frenchmen!"
+
+These words seemed of more importance to me than the beautiful speaker
+could have thought. I had almost committed my soul; was it to a cup of
+Comus, to a fatal household of Circe?
+
+The lady smilingly glided away with her husband.
+
+Then new characteristics seemed in face of race patriotism, to dawn as I
+looked at those passing around. I imagined each facial expression
+thoughtless, heartless, jaded or disgusted. I had taken the beautiful
+Creole's cynical words seriously, and thought I saw the search for
+self-gratification everywhere.
+
+Instead of striking a balance of impressions, I passed for the time from
+the extreme of admiration to the extreme of criticism, and at last
+turned into the supper room to think. A dapper man of sanguine
+complexion and grey moustache and hair, a cynical gentleman-of-leisure
+and old-established visitor at my grandmother's, was taking wine there,
+and he addressed me familiarly. I began to question him about several
+people:
+
+"Who is that man with the mass of locks and the queer beard?"
+
+"That," replied he like a showman, "is the Honorable Grandmoulin, the
+National Liar, Premier Minister of the Province, and First Juggler of
+its finances:--a profligate in public in the name of the Church--in
+secret in the name of Free-Thought--_beau diseur_--demagogue of the
+rabble and chieftain of the Cave."
+
+"The Cave?"
+
+He lifted his glass of ruby liquid and faced me across it. "You may not
+know, my simple Ali Baba, that the Government of this Province is the
+private property of Forty Thieves."
+
+"What are these thieves--this Cave?--I do not understand what you mean,
+sir."
+
+"Chevaliers of the highway my child," (he had just enough in him to make
+him free of speech), "who obtain office through the credulity of Jean
+Baptiste the industrious Beaver, who, like Jacques in France, bears
+everything. Jean Baptiste labors. It is the duty of Jean Baptiste to
+believe everything he is told. Monsieur of the Forty and Company must
+live upon something. Tsha! The Beavers were created to sweat--to load up
+their pack mules and be plundered. Quebec is the cave of the Forty,--and
+plunder is their sesame."
+
+"But how does such a man come to be received into society?" exclaimed I,
+disturbed.
+
+The answer was prompt.
+
+"He is successful."
+
+Reason only too obvious. It staggered me to watch the man receiving and
+being greeted.
+
+Presently I asked again: "Are more of them present?" "Assuredly. Like
+devils they fly in swarms: like the Apostles they never travel less than
+two--one to preach you the relics and the other to pick the pocket in
+the tails of your coat. The man with the Oriental beard there looks
+respectable, does he not? Tell me,--does he not?"
+
+"It is true."
+
+"He is the honest-man-figure-head and book-keeper of the Cave. This
+fellow near us," (gesturing towards a scraggy-looking little man), "has
+got himself appointed a judge and once securely off the raft, poses as a
+little tyrant to young advocates, on the Kamouraska Bench."
+
+"What does our host, Mr. Picault do?" I said, to change the subject.
+
+What was my surprise when he answered:
+
+"Picault is the Arch Devil--the organizer of the Cave--the man who
+manipulates the Government for the profit of his accomplices. When they
+require money the Province calls a loan; it is members of the Cave who
+negociate it, exacting a secret commission which is itself a fortune.
+The loan is expended," he went on, marking each step of his narration by
+appropriate gestures of his right forefinger, as one who is expounding a
+science, "on salaries to the Cave supporters, who are appointed to
+ingenious sinecures. Vast contracts are given at extravagant prices to
+persons who pay a large share to our friends. Then the works, such as
+railways, are sold,--if possible to Picault, or through him in the same
+manner. And finally, by this system no burden is left upon the Treasury
+except the loan to be paid. Between this and all sorts of minor
+applications of the principle, though they have not long begun, the end
+is clear;--yet the electorate persists in being duped by these ruffians.
+Men cherish their prejudices," he closed oracularly. "Men cherish their
+prejudices with more care than their interests."
+
+"Until, he began to control the politicans," he immediately resumed,
+"Picault was a bankrupt financier. Now he is nominally a banker with
+millions. Once bribed or scandalized, your politician is broken in; and
+Picault's favourite maxim is 'You can buy the Pope, and pay less for a
+Cardinal.'"
+
+"I want to get out of this house!" I cried, no longer able to retain my
+indignation, "Am I a thief to associate with these criminals?"
+
+"My young man," said he, holding me quiet by the shoulder. "Accept the
+good points of Picault and drink your lemonade. The chieftain of fools
+is ever a knave; he has been tempted by the ignorance of the people."
+
+Such feelings of contempt and determination nevertheless took possession
+of me that the relish of Picault's magnificence and the charms of his
+assembly soured to very repulsion.
+
+Indignation above all with my own self took possession of me; for this
+circle was what I was to have exchanged for the world of Alexandra.
+
+Must I endure to be detained here till the time of my appointment with
+Grace? I went up to her to tell her abruptly I must go--what reason to
+give I knew not--and as I looked into those trustful, believing eyes and
+flushed face, feelings of desperate abandon for an instant almost
+overcame me. But natural resolution increased with the antagonism, "I
+must leave, Grace," said I, shortly and fiercely. "I cannot tell you the
+reason. Good night."
+
+Next morning my father sent me to France with Quinet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+LA MERE PATRIE.
+
+   "Et pour la France un chant sacré s'éleve;
+    Qu'il brille pur, le ciel de nos aieux!"
+      --F.X. GARNEAU.
+
+
+"Chamilly! Chamilly! This is the soil of our forefathers!" Quinet and I
+stood at last on the shores of France. We trod it with veneration, and
+looked around with joy. It was the sea-port of Dieppe, whose picturesque
+mediæval Gothic houses ranged their tall gables before us. Hence my
+ancestor had sailed to the wild new Canada two centuries before.--O
+enchanted land!
+
+"Behold the Middle Ages!"--cried Quinet again, looking at the Gothic
+houses--"of which we have heard and read."
+
+"Is it not strange!"--I exclaimed--"Yes, this is the old Patrie.--Is it
+possible to believe ourselves here?--Stamp and see if the ground is
+real!"
+
+"There is a _blouse_!--a _paysan_, as in the pictures--he wears the cap!
+he has the wooden shoes!"
+
+"It is our brother--the Frenchman!"
+
+There was more nevertheless. Celestial angels,--I too have been in
+heaven. I have been a French Canadian in Paris!
+
+Dieppe was the first note of the music, the noble and quaint Cathedral
+of Rouen and our railway glimpses of rural Normandy were the prelude. At
+last our pilgrim feet were in the Beautiful City. O much we wandered in
+its Avenues, with throbbing delight and love towards every face, that
+first memorable day. This river is the _Seine_! that Palace so proud and
+rich, the world-renowned _Louvre_. What is yon great carved front with
+twin towers--that pile with the light of morning melting its spires and
+roofs and flying buttresses as they rise into it--that world of
+clustered mediæval saints in stone, beautiful, pointed-arched portals
+and unapproached and unapproachable dignity--from which the edifices of
+the City seem to stand afar off and leave it alone, and which wears not
+the air of to-day or yesterday?--_Nôtre Dame de Paris_, O vast monument
+of French art, recorder of chivalric ages, all the generations have had
+recourse to thine aisles and the heart of Paris beats within thee as the
+hearts of Quinet and this d'Argentenaye beat under the ribs of their
+human breasts.
+
+Paris knew and loved us. The fountains and great trees of the Tuilleries
+Gardens were palatial for us; the Champs Elysees laughed to us as we
+moved through their groves; the Arch de l'Etoile had a voice to us
+grandly of the victories of our race; the Bois de Boulogne was gay with
+happy groups and glistening equipages.
+
+How well they do everything in Paris! When shall the streets of Montreal
+be so smooth, the houses so artistically built, when shall living be
+reduced to such system of neatness and saving?
+
+Quinet betook himself much to the obscure cheese shops and cafés in the
+quarters of the people, and ate and chatted with such villains that I
+called him "The Communard." He, on the other hand, called me "Le Grand
+Marquis," because I made use of some relatives who were among the
+nobility.
+
+Between us we missed little. On the one hand the heart of the masses
+affected us. Once we bought bread of a struggling baker hard by the
+famous abbey of St. Denis. We asked for a cup of water to drink with
+it,--"But Messieurs will not drink water!" he cried, and rushed in his
+generosity for his poor bottle of wine.--My French-Canadian countrymen,
+that was a trait of yours!
+
+I remember too,--when my shoe hurt me and I limped badly one evening
+along the Avenue of the Bois,--the numbers of men and women who said to
+one another: "O, le pauvre jeune homme." Ye world-wide Pharisees, erring
+Paris cannot be so deeply wicked while its heart flows so much goodness!
+
+But the enthusiasms will run away with my story. Resolutely, _revenons_.
+
+While Quinet, the positive pole of our expedition, was ever edging our
+march towards his Bastille Column and his cut-throat Quartier
+Montmartre, I, the negative; drew it a little into more polished circles
+where wit and talent sparkled. The Vicomte D'Haberville, a French
+d'Argentenaye, took us to a reception--not too proud of us I daresay,
+for the gloss of his shoes and the magnificence of his cravat outshone
+us as the sleek skin of a race-horse does a country filly. Especially
+did he eye Quinet a little coldly, so that I could scarcely persuade the
+proud fellow to come.
+
+To the astonishment of the Vicomte, however, Quinet was the attraction
+of the evening. Taine and Thiers were there, and fired by a remark from
+one of these his famous men, the young Radical had ventured a clever
+saying.
+
+Thiers looked at him a sharp glance as he heard the accent:
+
+"Vous êtes des Provinces, monsieur?"
+
+"No, sir--from New France."
+
+"We had once,--in America--a colony of the name," replied the statesman,
+reflecting.
+
+"France has it still. It is a colony of hearts!"
+
+Quinet awakened interest; was inquired into and drawn out, and we were
+invited to a dozen of the most interesting salons of the capital.
+
+O but those Parisians are clever! Why is it they are so much more
+brilliant than we? Perhaps because there intellect is honored.
+
+Quickly, through these surroundings, our knowledges and tastes
+advanced--Quinet's verging to the path of social science--mine to an
+artistic sense which suddenly unfolded into life and became my chief
+delight. The enthusiasm for Paris gradually led me to another offer by
+Life of a Highest Thing. To say it shortly--the salons led to a pleasure
+in the artistic, the society of artists to a growing appreciation of
+fine works of skill, and these, to Italy and Rome.
+
+Do you desire to rest eyes upon the noblest products of the hand of man?
+Go into the Land of Romance as we did, and wander among its castled
+hill-tops, its ruins of Empire, its cathedrals in the skill of whose
+exhaustless grandeurs Divinity breathes through genius. Meditate in
+reverence before the famous masterpieces of antiquity--the Venus of
+Milo--the silent agony of the Laocoon, the Hyperion Belvedere. Learn
+from Canova's pure marble, and Raphael's Chambers, and from Titian, and
+Tintoret, and the astonishing galaxies of intellect that shine in their
+constellations in the sky of the true Renaissance.
+
+Then you may say as I did, "At length, I am finding something great and
+best. The beautiful is the whole that mankind can directly apprehend,
+and as for other things hoped for, symbolism is the true outlet for his
+soul. Art is the union of this beauty and symbolism. No aspiration
+exists but can be expressed in pleasing forms."
+
+Does man desire God, he paints--O how raptly!--a saint; does he feel
+after immortality, he sculptures an ever-young Apollo. Looking to them,
+he has faith, as of an oracle, in their emblematic truth, and through
+them instructs the world.
+
+Art seemed to me then the Highest Thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+SOMETHING MORE OF QUINET?
+
+
+One evening as we sat on the Pincian Hill, in the semi-tropical garden,
+overlooking the domes and towers of the Imperial City, Quinet broke our
+silence, and surprised me by saying abruptly:
+
+"Let us go to England."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Let us go; I wish to go."
+
+"But what is your press about England. I thought you hated the English."
+
+"I do not hate the English. Among whom are there more amiable friends,
+more beautiful women. I am seized with a wish to see that great people
+in their country."
+
+"You hated them some time ago."
+
+"In the present tense, that verb has with me the peculiarity of parsing
+itself negatively."
+
+I reflected a little on this change of opinion in Quinet, and its
+possible causes, till he again broke out abruptly:
+
+"Miss Carter gave me a message for you."
+
+The recollection of my conduct at Picault's sent a pang through me.
+
+"What is it?" I said. The tropical plants around us brought up vividly
+those at the ball.
+
+"I did not ask her,"--his voice was curious--"what it meant, but she
+desired me to say for her; 'I beg you to write me why you left the
+ball.'"
+
+"So you do her page-work," I returned, for I thought I could now divine
+the reason of his change towards the English. "Pretty work for a grown
+knight! If you know her so well, you know the picturesque groves of St.
+Helen's Island where she lives. Why stop at page-work? One would think
+with an enchanted isle, and an enchanting maiden, the Chevalier would
+find his proper occupation."
+
+Quinet changed aspect. "Do you not then admire her?" he advanced
+quickly, with uncontrollable feeling.
+
+"Not admire Grace Carter!" said I, for I felt as if I had done her
+injustice when I last left her,--"Yet no more than a friend, Quinet."
+
+"Is that the fact?" he cried, springing up--"I thought it was she you
+were in love with! I heard you were in one of Picault's alcoves
+together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP.
+
+   "Dans quelle terre a borderez-vous qui vous soit plus chère que celle
+    où vous êtes né?"
+     --PAUL ET VIRGINIE.
+
+
+When I reached home my father took me to Dormillière. "The purpose is
+very special," he said, so gravely that I trusted his wisdom and hastily
+despatching to Alexandra a brooch of Roman mosaic, which I had bought
+for her in Italy, I left with him.
+
+Life had another offer now to extend to me--Dormillière, and the power
+thereof. As we approached the pier, and I beheld its three green
+terraces one over another; the grove of pines on the hill-top above the
+terraces; and cottages, white, red and grey, appearing among the
+pines;--dear home unvisited so long;--and the spires of the Church in
+the sky glinting the light of the setting sun, and on the shore and pier
+familiar faces of old men and young men changed; boys grown into
+stalwart fellows, and babes into boys and girls; many quiet visions of
+youth rose and mingled with my thoughts, and this spell began its
+working, as those of Society and Art had done.
+
+"V'la Monseigneur!" called out Pierre, our coachman, on the pier, the
+lineaments of whose face half seemed a memory suddenly grown vivid and
+real.--"Mon Dieu!" he cried laughing and crying, as he looked at me
+closely, "It's M'sieu Chamilly! My dear child, it was painful to have
+you absent so long. Why did you not come even to see us?--Please give me
+your hand again. But how you are loaded! Come, where is your valise? Let
+me do something for you, M'sieu Chamilly."
+
+"Les v'la!"
+
+"V'la Monseigneur!"
+
+"V'la M'sieu Chamilly!" the shouts went up.
+
+"It's the young Seigneur! the young Seigneur!" spread among the
+villagers,--they welcomed, they addressed us, the kind spirit of French
+Canadians took us to itself, and I was drawn to my people, as I had not
+been even during the conversation of the delightful Madame Fauteux. My
+father received them with both hands and all sorts of gay remarks, "How
+do you like this, Chamilly?" he laughed, with the satisfaction of an
+Archduke returned to his dominions.
+
+"Are you come to fish, Monsieur?" asked Pierre, in affectionate
+garrulity, as he took up the reins.
+
+"No, good Pierre, I do not know what I am coming for."
+
+"You will troll as formerly? Our magnificent maskinongé are polite as
+guests for a wedding. Yesterday I took one of ninety-seven pounds!"
+
+The good hearted fellow kept talking as we drove.
+
+One familiar scene after another! The village street of which I knew
+every doorstep. Ah!--a new wayside across in front of Widow
+Priedieu's--and the gay mast before the Captain Martinet's--the
+blacksmith's dusty shop--the inn-keepers' poles holding out their oval
+hotel-signs--the merry little cocked house where they had that famous
+jollification immortalized in the song:
+
+   "Au grand bal chez Boulé."
+
+But my friends! my friends!--to see my old friends was the great
+enjoyment. "Holà," deliberate Pierre; and you three Jeans--gros Jean,
+grand Jean and petit Jean; "Monsieur le Notaire, bon jour!" the faces at
+the panes and the heads at the door!
+
+And lo, the gardens,--the broad fields so generous of harvest--the
+Manoir trees in the distance!
+
+And as of yore,--driving up the road those merrymen in the carts singing
+that well remembered "En roulant":
+
+   "Le fils du roi s'en va chassant
+   En roulant, ma boule."[E]
+
+And with sympathetic exhilaration, I swing into the old life again on
+the current of the jovial chorus:
+
+   "En roulant, ma boule roulant:
+   En roulant, ma boule!"
+
+[Footnote E:  "The Dauphin forth a hunting goes.
+                Roll, roll on, my rolling ball."
+                --OLD CHANSON.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE LIFE OF LEADERSHIP.
+
+.... "Pourvu qu'ils vivent noblement et ne fassent aucun acte dérogeant à
+noblesse."
+
+PATENTS OF NOBLESSE.
+
+
+"Light the lamps," my father ordered.
+
+Tardif, the butler, did so with alacrity.
+
+"Tardif, thou canst withdraw," added my father.
+
+"Oui, monseigneur," replied Tardif, bowing respectfully, and went.
+
+The room and its antiquated splendors looked ancestral to me. Its size
+struck me. It was larger than any in our town house. The family
+portraits and furniture revived lifelong memories. We had a fine
+collection of forefathers.
+
+"Chamilly"--began my father, walking up before the picture of one who
+was to me childhood's holy dream. He stopped for some moments, gazing up
+to her face with intense affection, and then turning to me, said in a
+broken voice--"Never forget your mother."
+
+"No, sir," I replied, bending my head.
+
+In a moment he went on to the other portraits, and his manner altered to
+more of pride.
+
+"Your grandfather, the Honorable Chateauguay, this. This is his Lady,
+your grandmother. Here is her father, a LeGardeur de Repentigny. There
+is the old Marshal in armor. Here is Louise d'Argentenaye, of the time
+of Henry IV., who married a Montcalm. Here is the Count d'Argentenaye in
+armor." And thus he took me about on a singular round, and informed me
+concerning the whole gallery.
+
+He stopped at an old, solid wood cabinet, with spiral legs, bent over
+and opened it with a key.
+
+"Now," thought I, "these mysteries are going to be explained."
+
+"This is a dress sword," he went on, "worn in France, at the court of
+Louis XIII. It was worn by one of your forefathers. Here are two
+decorations--Crosses of St. Louis--what beautiful little things they
+are. They belong to two of us who were Chevaliers."
+
+I was only still more mystified.
+
+"Come into the office, my son," said he, leading me into a room used for
+collecting the feudal rents and other business.
+
+"It is coming now," I exclaimed to myself.
+
+My father lifted out an iron box, ornamented with our arms in color, and
+handed to me a parchment, having an immense wax seal, which I took and
+read.
+
+Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, Councillor of the King in his
+Councils of the State and Privy Council, Governor and Lieutenant-General
+of His Majesty in Canada, Acadia, and other countries of Septentrional
+France. To All Those who shall see these present letters: HIS MAJESTY
+having at all times sought to act with "zeal proper to the just title of
+Eldest Son of the Church, has passed into this Country good number of
+his subjects, Officers of his troops in the Regiment of Carignan and
+others, whereof the most part desiring to attach themselves to the
+country by founding Estates and Seigniories proportionate to their
+force; and the Sieur JEAN CHAMILIE D'ARGENTENAY, Lieutenant of the
+Company of D'Ormillière, having prayed us to grant him some such: WE,
+in consideration of the good, useful, and praiseworthy services he has
+rendered to His Majesty as well in Old France as New, do concede to the
+said Sieur Jean Chamilie D'Argentenay, the Extent of Lands which shall
+be found on the River St. Lawrence from those of Sieur Simon de la
+Lande to those heretofore granted to the Sieur de Bois-Hébert, to enjoy
+said land _en Fief et Seigneurie_ at charge of the Faith and Homage,
+the said Sieur Jean Chamilie D'Argentenay his heirs and representatives
+shall he held to render at Our Castle of St. Louis at Quebec.
+
+"DE FRONTENAC."
+
+I laid down the parchment.
+
+"This is the original grant of the seigniory?"
+
+"Yes," he replied with animation, "The 'HIS MAJESTY' there is the Grand
+Monarque himself! De Frontenac is the Great Count, and that Jean
+Chamilly D'Argentenaye, cadet of the Chamillys of Rouen, is our first
+predecessor on these lands."
+
+Taking a large genealogical tree out of the box, and spreading it on the
+table, he showed me my descent. "The Honorable Chateauguay drew this up
+at the time of my marriage," he began.
+
+"The whole tree is mine then?" I ventured, surveying it.
+
+"Yes," he cried, "and these are brave and honorable names! The wish of
+my heart has been that you preserve their record. See: the first
+marriage is a Mlle. Boucher de Boucherville, whose father, Pierre,
+Governor of Three Rivers, was so honest and wise in the perilous early
+course of the Colony! Madeline de Verchères, heroic holder of the fort
+surprised by Iroquois, is near her. See! we date from the fourteenth
+century, and are allied with the Montaignes, Grammonts, Sullys, La
+Rochefoucaulds. Here is Le Moyne d'Iberville, and there De Hertel, brave
+and able,--a Juchereau du Chesnay; a Joybert de Soulanges. Down here is
+De Salaberry, the Leonidas of Lower Canada. There behold Philippe de
+Gaspé, who wrote 'Les Anciens Canadiens;' there Gaspard Joly, the Knight
+of Lotbinière.--But you can inform yourself about these names. They will
+be useful in your enterprises by raising you above the reproach of being
+an adventurer. Seat yourself over there."
+
+"My father," thought I to myself, "you and your pride are both very much
+out of date," but I obeyed him and seated myself where he indicated.
+
+"The reason why I have brought you here, is to tell you, that it has
+always been intended that you should in some way, succeed in these
+properties. Before you developed, it was not possible to predict exactly
+how you might do it; but within the last few years you have surpassed
+our hopes; and I have no trepidation in putting before you my views of
+your future position. You may think I am strong in health, but I shall
+soon pass away."
+
+My heart suddenly started.
+
+"And you will find yourself here with revenues ample for the moderate
+purposes of a gentleman. You may live in the country, or in the city, as
+you please; but my desire is that you should live here, and continue in
+the paths of your grandfather and myself: for he was a just Englishman,
+and taught me that no one must take without an equivalent; and that a
+landlord owed duties to his people, of the value of the moneys they paid
+him. Formerly the lord gave his vassals armed protection for their
+rents: now there is nothing to which the law forces him; thus his
+returns must be fixed by his sense of duty."
+
+"Do not fear that I am proposing anything too sombre, Chamilly: It is an
+agreeable life. There is no demand for your being shut up in the place;
+and one can surround himself very conveniently with his private tastes."
+
+But I did not feel the scheme repugnant. The house and locality had
+struck me before as a comfortable retirement to prosecute the study of
+Art, "and perhaps, I might bring here"--(I dared not put her name into
+syllables in such a flight of hope.)
+
+"You will find, though, more than you anticipate to do"
+
+I looked up.
+
+"And greater undertakings to accomplish properly than I have been
+strong enough to meet."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" I enquired.
+
+"These poor simple people," he said, "have many enemies, and they
+sometimes do not know their friends. You are their hereditary guardian.
+Instead of mediæval protection, you must give them that of a nineteenth
+century Chief."
+
+"A nineteenth century Chief?" I could not but exclaim, "What is a
+nineteenth century Chief?"
+
+"The people's friend and leader."
+
+"Yes, but what am I to do, sir?"
+
+"In the first place, discourage litigation and its miseries. Offer
+mediation wherever you can. Keep drink out of the villages. Preserve the
+ancient forms of courtesy. Grow timber, and introduce improvements in
+farming."
+
+He spoke of other things. I was to fight especially the Ultramontanes
+and the demagogues. My father was an uncompromising Liberal of the old
+school.
+
+"But what can I do about this?" I asked, my artistic skies beginning to
+cloud with the prospect.
+
+"You can speak! I know you will make an orator. You will be a member at
+Quebec; and then you can effect something. I mourn over the state of
+affairs, but I do not fear for the true end; and I yearn, as if across
+the grave to see the vigor of another generation of us pressing into the
+struggle. Remember our ancient motto," and he laid his finger on the
+little coat of arms on the iron box, with its scroll: "_Sans Hésiter_."
+
+I did not answer him, but sat thinking, while gathering up the documents
+into the box, he carried it back to the office.
+
+   END OF THE FIRST PART OF THE
+   BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS.
+
+When Chrysler arrived next morning at the break in Chamilly's
+manuscript, the sun was rising high and shining upon the river and
+front hedge, and on the green lawn before the Ontarian's window, and he
+could see Haviland walking backwards and forwards meditatively across
+the grass waiting for him to descend to breakfast. He hurried down, and
+as he came to his host, remarked, "The drift of your story is not quite
+clear to me."
+
+"I wish I had the sequel written," the young man replied, "I am trying
+to lead on to a great matter."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A POLITICAL SERMON.
+
+   "In the crowded old Cathedral all the town were on their knees."
+
+   --D'ARCY MCGEE
+
+
+"That's not preaching _la morale_. And it's _actionable_!" a vigorous
+man energetically gesticulated among the crowd in the Circuit Court
+Room.
+
+The subject of excitement was a sermon by the Curé.
+
+Messire L'Archeveque, of Dormillière, was in most respects an
+unimpeachable priest. He ministered to the sick faithfully, after the
+rites of the Church, he gave to the poor, he rendered unto Cæsar.
+But--but, he hated Liberalism. On this point he was rabid; and as his
+Reverence was a stout, apoplectic person, of delivery and opinions not
+accustomed to criticism, it sometimes laid him somewhat open to
+ridicule.
+
+How the sermon was delivered, matters little to us. Suffice it that it
+was a bold denunciation of the Liberals, named by their party name, and
+that there were some strong expressions in it:
+
+"My brothers--when the priest speaks, it is not he who speaks,--but God."
+
+"My brethren, when the Priest commands you, it is the Church which
+commands you; and the voice of the Church is the voice of the Eternal.
+... Look at France. Remind yourselves what she was in the centuries of
+her faith, devout and glorious, the lily among the kingdoms of the
+earth, because she was the Eldest Daughter of the Church. Behold her at
+this time, among the nations, dying in the terrible embraces of
+FREE-MASONRY!!"
+
+"Take warning by her, brethren. Follow her not! It is the Liberals who
+have done this. Crush out the seeds of that doctrine! Let the spirits
+which call themselves by this name never have peace among you. Avoid
+them! Distrust them! Have nothing to do with that people! May the wrath
+of our Father descend upon them, the damnation of the infernal dungeons!
+and--" he brought down his book's edge loudly on the pulpit,--"the
+excommunication of the Church of God, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman!"
+
+The book was taken up once more, and slamming it down again with all its
+force, the good curé turned and waddled from the pulpit.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Since the first moments when Chrysler's eyes rested on the village of
+Dormillière from the steamer's deck, the observations of the place and
+its people were to him a piquant and suggestive study.
+
+He had been there but a few hours when he discovered its central fact.
+The Central Fact of Dormillière was the Parish Church.
+
+First, it was the centre in prominence as a feature of the view, for
+with the exception of the Convent school, no one of the string of
+cottages and buildings, stone, brick and wood, which constitute the
+single street of the place, presumed to rival it even in size, but all
+of them disposed themselves about it, and, as it were, rested humbly in
+its protection, particularly the Convent school itself, a plain
+red-brick building, which stood by its side.
+
+It was also the centre by position; being situate about mid-way between
+the ends of the long street, standing back commanding the only square,
+which was flanked on its two sides by the sole other edifices of public
+character, the priest's residence, or _presbytère_, and the friars'
+school for boys.
+
+It is needless to say that the Church was the central fact
+architecturally also. Large and of ancient look, its wrinkled, whited,
+rude-surfaced face was impressive, notwithstanding that it was relieved
+by but little ornament; for its design was from the hand of some by-gone
+architect of broad and quiet ability.
+
+Be in no hurry, friend reader, but let us look it over, for it is an
+antiquity, and worthy of the title.
+
+The facade consisted of a great gable, flanked by two square towers. The
+gable roof had a steep mediæval pitch, and was pinnacled by the statue
+of a saint. A small circular window was set in the angle, and looked
+like the building's eye. Three larger windows and the great door came
+below in the broad front at their proper stages of the design; and in
+the centre a cut stone oval, bore the date "1761," in quaint figures--a
+date that seemed a monument of the fatal storming of Quebec, just over,
+and the final surrender of Montreal, just to be made--the end of French
+dominion over three quarters of North America!
+
+A number of details afforded entertainment to the curious eye. There
+were the rude capitals "St. J.B." and "St. F.X." on the keystone of the
+round-arched side doors at the foot of the towers. There were the series
+of circular windows leading one above another, on the towers, up to the
+charming belfry spire which crowned them. There were high up in the air
+on the latter, the fleur-de-lys and cock weather-vane, symbolical of
+France. Nine gables too, had the church, of various sizes. Its roof was
+shingled and black, and where it sloped down in the rear, a little third
+belfry pointed its spire. A stout, stone sacristy grew out behind. A low
+pebbled platform, two steps high, extended in front, and had a crier's
+pulpit upon it. And amid these varied features, the body of the church
+on all sides cloaked itself in its black roof with a mien of dignity,
+and its graceful tin-covered belfries, fair in their mediæval patterns
+and pointing sweetly to heaven, glinted far over the leagues of the
+River.
+
+Yet it was not alone as to prominence of appearance, situation, and
+architectural attractiveness--that Dormillière found its centre in the
+Parish Church. No relation of life, no thought, no interest, no age in
+years, but had its most intimate relation with it. There alike weary
+souls crept to pray for consolation, and vain minds sought the pomp of
+its ecclesiastic spectacles and ceremonies; the bailiff cried his
+law-sales before it, the bellman his advertisements; there was holy
+water for the babe, holy oil for the dying, masses for the departed; the
+maiden and the laborer unveiled their secret lives in its
+confessional-box; and all felt the influence, yea some at that period,
+the sternly asserted rule, of the Master of the institution.
+
+Chamilly went with Chrysler to it on the first morning of his stay in
+Dormillière, which was a Sunday. As they approached it through the
+square, filled with the tied teams of the congregation, a beadle,
+gorgeous in livery of black and red, with knee-breeches and cocked hat,
+emerged from the side door and proceeded to drive the groups of
+stragglers gently inwards with his staff, as a shepherd guides a flock.
+
+Haviland looked at his friend, smiling.
+
+"You are not in Ontario," he said.
+
+"Clearly not," replied Chrsyler, "In my democratic Province, such a
+proceeding would be impossible."
+
+When they entered, the gorgeous beadle led them soberly up one of the
+aisles,--carrying his staff in a stately manner--to the seigneurial pew,
+a large, high enclosure, with a railing about the top like a miniature
+balustrade, and a coat-of-arms painted on the door; and into this he
+ushered them with grave form, and the Ontarian vividly began to realize
+that he was in a feudal land: after which he took a glance about him.
+
+Filling the great phalanx of soiled and common pews in the nave, were
+the first representative mass of French-Canadians whom he had been
+brought to face. "Here," he thought, "are those who speak the partner
+voice in our Confederation, and whom we should know as brothers."
+
+A few stood out in the quality of parts of the whole, but only to
+emphasize it as a mass. Above the crowd, he marked, for instance, the
+sober, responsible faces of the Marguilliers. A girl's face too,
+particularly attracted him--that of one who sat beside the Sisters
+attendant over the convent children in their gallery. No romantic
+seraphieness glowed upon her features or her form; but she was following
+the service with the light of simply such spiritual earnestness and
+intelligence about her that she seemed to sit there a superior being.
+But it was the faces of the laborer and the solid farmer that oftenest
+dotted the surface of the sea of heads. So typical to him were the
+features and responses of all, that he could not shake off the feeling
+that it was not individuals he saw, but a People.
+
+A People! No flippant thing is it to feel oneself in the presence of so
+great an Organism. If some hour of one man's pain, or of the grandeur of
+some other one, may be thought-worthy things, how reverently must breath
+be hushed as we stand in presence of a race's life, and think we hear
+its sorrows, cries and voices! Ever, thou People's Song, must thou stir
+the heart that listens, sweeping its tenderest chords of pity, and
+chanting organ music to its aspirations.
+
+The curé's sermon following as before detailed, the congregation
+appeared oppressed with its denunciation, but it produced, no effect
+whatever upon Haviland, the Liberal leader, whose countenance rested its
+dark eyes on the tablets of his ancestors in the transept wall before
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION.
+
+
+A noble looking man of fifty years, stood waiting to meet them as they
+made their way out. Of olive complexion, small cherry mouth and
+features, yet fine head and person, and smiling benignly, he advanced a
+step before Chrysler noticed him.
+
+"Salut, M'sieu L'Honorable," bowed Haviland.
+
+"Good-day, Chamilly," he replied quickly, without ceasing to smile
+directly towards the other man and holding out his hand.
+
+Chrysler looked closer at his features.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Genest!" he exclaimed, with pleasure, recognizing the Hon.
+Aristide Genest, a personage potent in his time in Dominion Councils.
+
+"I hope now to know the gentleman as completely as I have admired him,"
+Genest complimented in the French way, twinkling his eyes merrily. "Many
+a time I have listened to your advices in the Parliament. I say to you
+'Welcome.'"
+
+Chamilly started off to talk with his innumerable constituents in the
+crowd.
+
+"Let us cross over here, sir, and hear what they have to say about the
+sermon," proposed Genest.
+
+They crossed to a stone building on the other side of the road, and
+passed through a group of countrymen into a hall of some length, where
+sat sunk in a rustic rocking-chair, a singular individual, whose
+observations seemed to be amusing the crowd.
+
+In appearance, he reminded one of no less remarkable a person than the
+Devil, for he bore the traditional nose and mouth of that gentleman, and
+his body was lean as Casca's; but he seemed at worst a Mephistopheles
+from the extravagance of the delivery of his sarcasms.
+
+The subject of discussion was the sermon.
+
+"Baptême, it is terrible!" exclaimed the cadaverous humorist. "Ever
+this indigenous Pius IX--fulminating, fulminating, fulminating!--Too
+much inferno. The curé does half his burning for Beelzebub! We are
+served in a constant auto-da-fé."
+
+"Heh, heh, heh," creaked an old skin-and-bones, with one tooth visible,
+which shook as the laugh emerged. Stolid men smoking, deigned to smile.
+
+People seemed prepared to laugh at anything he said.
+
+"What is it that an auto-da-fé is?" a young man demanded from a corner.
+
+"You don't know auto-da-fes?--A dish, my child.--An auto-da-fé is
+Liberal broiled."
+
+The character of the room, at which Chrysler now had time to glance,
+explained itself by a large painting of that lion-and-unicorn-supporting
+-the-British-arms, which embellishes Courts of Justice.
+
+"This room is the Circuit Court," Genest remarked--"Zotique there,
+calls it the Circuitous Court--A very poor pun is received with
+hospitality here."
+
+"I should like to know that man," said Chrysler.
+
+"Nothing easier. Zotique, come here, my cousin."
+
+He caught sight of them, and rising, without altogether dropping his
+broadly humorous expression, extended an invitation to take his
+rocking-chair, which Chrysler accepted.
+
+Zotique was like the Mephistopheles he resembled, one of those who have
+been every where, seen much, done everything. Born respectably,--a
+cousin of L'Honorable's--he had executed in his younger days a record
+of pranks upon the neighbors, which at a safe-distance of time became
+good humoredly traditional. The trial and despair of Père Galibert, and
+the disapproved of Chamilly's father, he ran away to Trois-Rivières as
+soon as he knew enough to do so; thence to Montreal, and Joliette; and a
+Fur Post near Saipasoù (or, "Nobody-knows-Where," for Zotique asserts
+the region has that name); then was a veracious steamboat guide for
+tourists to the Gulf; edited a comic weekly at Quebec, "illustrated" it,
+itself cheerfully and truly confessed, "with execrable wood-engravings;"
+as Papal Zouave, he embarked for Rome to gallant in voluminous trousers
+on four sous a day; fought wildly, for the fun of it, at the Pia Gate
+against Victor Emmanuel's red-shirted patriots,--and came back to
+Dormillière disgusted. The Registrarship of the county being vacant, a
+pious government appointed him to the position, upon recommendation by
+the "high Clergy," as a martyr for the good cause; and on a similar
+sacred ground he obtained the passage of a private bill through the
+Legislature, admitting him to the honorable profession of notary without
+the trouble of studying.
+
+So it came to pass that our friend was installed in the Registry Office
+end of the long cottage known as the Circuit Court House, and made use
+of the Court Hall itself for his Sunday receptions to the people.
+
+The people themselves were worth a brief catalogue.
+
+Jacques Poulin, the horse trader, stood against a window, with his big
+straw hat on. His trotting sulky was outside. Gagnant, the established
+merchant, with contented reticence of well-to-do-ness, was remarking of
+some enterprise, "It won't pay its tobacco." Toutsignant, his insecure
+and overdaring young rival; who was bound to cut trade, and let
+calculation take care of itself, sat on the opposite side of the room,
+and, bantering with him, the shrewd _habitants_, Bourdon and Desrochers,
+who were to profit by his theory of an advance in rye. The young
+doctor, Boucher from Boucherville, leaned near, superior in broad-cloth
+frock coat, red tie, and silk hat. Along a bench, squeezed a jolly
+half-dozen "_garçons,"_ and a special mist of tobacco smoke hung
+imminent over their heads. About the floor, the windows, the corners of
+the room, the bar of the court, sat, lounged, smoked, and stood, in
+friendly groups, a host of neighbors, amiably listening, more or less,
+to Zotique's harangues and conversations. It cannot be said, however,
+that they abated much of their own little discussions. Every now and
+then some private Babel would break in like a surge, over the general
+noise, and attract attention for an instant.
+
+"The auto-da-fé--alas, it recalls me the ravishing country of Spain! O
+those Sierras!--those Vegas! the mountains shirting with snow! the green
+plains watered!--but misère! hot as--the disposition of the Curé.
+To-day, gentlemen, the affair becomes serious, for lo, the approach of a
+doubtful election, and a trifle of clerical interference, like a seed
+upon the balance, might well--" the sentence was appendixed by an
+explosive shrug.
+
+"Now, the Council of war! we must have a command to him from the Bishop;
+and it is I, Zotique Genest, as prominent citizen! as Registrar! as
+_Zouave_! who will write and get it."
+
+"But more--that sacré Grandmoulin is coming, and we must receive him at
+point of bayonet, _à la charge de cuirasse_! that sacré Grandmoulin!"
+
+"He will be received!" called out a voice.
+
+"The National Liar!" proposed another.
+
+"The breach in our wall is the Curé," continued Zotique.
+
+"Mais."
+
+   Qu'allons nous faire,
+   Dans cette gallère?
+
+"If we could only strap him up with, every mark of respect, like the
+sacred white elephant of the Indies!--But first, the Bishop's order!
+Remark my brother, I am not advocating disobedience:--only coercion."
+
+The laugh rose again. It was not so much anything he said, but his
+extraordinarily grotesque ways--a roll of his large eyes, or a drawing
+down of his long, thin mouth, with some quick action of the head, arms
+or shoulders, that amused them.
+
+"Me, I say _sacré_ to the Curés," boasted a heavy, bleared fellow,
+stepping forward and looking round. His appearance indicated the class
+of parodies on the American citizen, known vulgarly as "Yankees from
+Longueuil," and as he continued, "I say to them,"--he added a string of
+blasphemy in exaggerated Vermontese.
+
+"Be moderate, Mr. Cuiller," Zotique interposed, "None of us have the
+honor of being ruffians."
+
+"In the Unyted Staytes," continued Cuiller, however, jerking his heavy
+shoulder forward, "when a curé comes to them they say 'Go on, cursed
+rascal,'" More oaths in English. The hearers looked on without knowing
+how to act, some of them, without doubt, in that atmosphere, tremblingly
+admiring his hardihood.
+
+"Cuiller,"--commenced the Honorable, easily.
+
+"My name is Spoon," the Yankee from Longueuil drawled, "I've got a white
+man's name."
+
+Cuiller, in fact, was of the host who have Anglicised their patronymics.
+Many a man who goes as "White" in New England, is really Le Blanc;
+Desrochers translates himself "Stone," Monsieur Des Trois-Maisons calls
+himself "Mr. Three-Houses," and it is well authenticated that a certain
+Magloire Phaneuf exists who triumphs in the supreme ingenuity of
+"My-glory Makes-nine."
+
+"There is a respect due," proceeded the Honorable, ignoring the
+correction "to what others consider sacred, even by those who themselves
+respect nothing. This gentleman, besides, sir, is an English gentleman,
+and your use of his tongue cannot but be a barbarism to his taste."
+
+The big fellow shoved his hands into the hip pockets of his striped
+trousers; and putting on a leer of pretended indifference, turned to a
+man named Benoit, who was regarding him with admiration.
+
+This was an orator and a Solomon. He was a farmer, middle-aged, and
+somewhat short, whose shaven lips were drawn so over-soberly as to
+express a complete self-conviction of his own profundity, while his
+unstable averted glance warned that his alliances were not to be
+depended on where he was likely to be a material loser. A particularly
+"fluent" man, accomplished in gestures such as form an ingredient in all
+French conversation, he was in Zotique's Sunday afternoons a zestful
+contestant. His clothes were of homespun, dyed a raw, light blue, and he
+was proud of his choice of the color, for its singularity.
+
+"Monsieur Genest," he began, with oratorical impressiveness, coming
+forward, and bowing to Zotique, "Monsieur l'Honorable; Monsieur;" bowing
+low; "and Messieurs. I speak not against the clergy, whom the good God
+and His Pontifical Holiness have set over us for instruction and
+guidance. I am not speaking against those holy men. But it seems to me
+to-day that you, my friend, are a little rash--a very little severe--in
+reproaching my friend, Mr. Cuiller, upon the language which he uses,
+coming from a foreign country where neither the expressions, nor the
+customs, are the same as ours; and it seems to me that there is a point
+a little subtle which should have been noticed by you before commencing,
+and on which I dare to base my exception to the form; and this point is,
+I pretend, that Mr. Cuiller has said nothing directly himself against
+the clergy, but has simply told how they were treated in the United
+States."
+
+This beginning, delivered with appropriate gestures--now a bow, now an
+ultra-crossing of the arms, only to throw them apart again, now a
+chopping down with both hands from the elbow, now again a graceful
+clasping of them in front, made a satisfactory impression on Benoit
+himself, who prepared to continue indefinitely had not Zotique
+interrupted.
+
+"Benoit, you are too fine for good millstone. But respecting friend
+Cuiller, we are willingly converted to your delusion. He is honorably
+acquitted of his crime."
+
+"And now," he cried, "Oyez! Let all who have not forgotten how to make
+their marks, sign the requisition which I observe in the hands of Maître
+Descarries."
+
+Maître Descarries, Notary, an elderly, active little man, carefully
+attired and wearing his white hair brushed back from his forehead, in a
+manner resembling a halo, or some silvery kind of old-time wig, stood at
+the door holding a document,--a paper nominating Sieur Chamilly Haviland
+to represent the Electoral District of Argentenaye.
+
+The Notary, advancing, laid it on the bar of the Court, and everybody
+crowded to look on and see those requested to sign do so.
+
+The Honorable, the first to be called, went forward and affixed his
+name, and Maître Descarries turned to a person who was apparently an old
+farmer, but a man with a face of conspicuous dignity.
+
+"Will you sign, Mr. De La Lande?"
+
+"Ah yes, Monsieur Descarries--'with both hands,'"--answered he, bowing
+quickly; and his signature read, to the Ontarian's astonishment: "De La
+Lande, Duke of St. Denis, Peer of France."
+
+Thus, at this after-mass reception, Chrysler was introduced to a circle
+of whom he was to see much in the events to follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE AMERICAN FRANCE.
+
+
+Chrysler and Genest, after reaching the Manoir, sat conversing under the
+large triple tree on the side of the lawn.
+
+"You have no idea of the simplicity of life here," l'Honorable
+philosophised. "We dwell as peacefully, in general, and almost as much
+in one spot as these great trees. After all, is there any condition in
+which mortal existence is happier than that of pure air and tranquility.
+We have a proverb, 'Love God and go thy path.' To love God, to live, to
+die, are the complete circle."
+
+Chamilly's entrance put an end to these idyllic observations. He was
+driven up in a cart by a country jehu, and leaping out, there followed
+him a couple of friends.
+
+Haviland called Tardif, the head servant, who appeared at the door of
+the house, bareheaded, with an apron on:
+
+"Bring the dinner out here, Tardif," he ordered; and a light table was
+set under the spreading boughs.
+
+"Now tell us, De La Lande, about your trip to Montreal."
+
+Of the two friends who drove up with their host in the cart, one was
+Breboeuf, a hunchback. This little creature on being introduced, bowed
+and shook hands with an aspect of hopeless resignation, and sitting
+down, relapsed into thought, telescoping his neck into his squarish
+shoulders. His companion was a young man of small build, but spirited,
+good-looking face--De La Lande, schoolmaster of the village, a son of
+the farmer "Duke."
+
+"And where commence?" responded the schoolmaster to the request for an
+account of the trip to Montreal.
+
+"In the middle, as I am doing," retorted Haviland, flourishing the
+carving-knife over the joint.
+
+"Ah well. The middle was the climax with me. It was the Fête of St. Jean
+Baptiste!"
+
+"You saw Notre Dame, and the great procession?" inquired the Honorable.
+
+"Yes, I saw that vast Cathedral fifteen thousand full! And the Curé of
+Colonization climbed up in the midst, and I heard the most glorious
+words that were ever spoken to French Canadians!"
+
+"Was the procession like ours here?"
+
+"At Dormillière? Pah!--we have two Curés, a beadle and the choir-boys!
+Theirs was a mile in length. There were nineteen bands playing music,
+all in fine uniforms, and there were all the Societies of St. Jean
+Baptiste walking, with their gold chains and their badges, and as many
+as forty magnificently decorated cars, bearing representations of the
+discovery of Canada by Jacques Cartier, and the workings of all the
+trades, and innumerable splendid banners, of white, and blue, and red
+and green, with gold inscriptions and pictures--and the Curé of Col----"
+
+"Were the streets well decorated? How were the arches and flags?"
+
+"They were good. The streets were full of flying tricolors and Union
+Jacks stretched across them. They were lined with green saplings as we
+do here. The crowd was enormous. There were thousands from the States.
+And the Cathedral of Notre Dame was all excitement; for the Curé----,"
+
+"Tell us about it! Every one speaks of it! What did he say?"
+
+(A well-known priest had just electrified the people of the land with an
+extraordinary declaration.)
+
+"But, to speak of his aims, I must recollect the numbers of our
+people."
+
+"Breboeuf, mon brebis," said Chamilly, turning to the little fellow,
+"what is the number of the French Canadians?"
+
+The hunchback lifted his face gravely, and issued in a monotonous voice,
+but with the precision of a machine:--"One million, eighty-two thousand,
+nine hundred and forty-three, in Canada, by the census of 1870; one
+million, one hundred and ten thousand, in Canada, by the computation of
+the Abbé Zero; four hundred and thirty-five thousand in the United
+States by the computation of the same."
+
+The Ontarian was surprised at his odd, machine-like accuracy, but
+Haviland only laughed a little chuckle and Chrysler's glance was drawn
+away towards a figure entering the gate, walking abstractedly, his hands
+in his hip pockets and eyes on the path. He was of slender but agile
+person, the decision which marked every movement showing his
+consciousness of latent activity. Haviland espied him presently:
+
+"Bravo, here is Quinet. Quinet, what are you doing?"
+
+"Cultivating dulness," replied the figure, scarcely glancing up.
+
+"Come and cultivate us, for a contrast, my friend."
+
+"Would I be changing occupation?"
+
+"Sit here and we will show you. Yourself may be as dull as you like."
+
+The stranger, nonchalantly, and half-defiantly, seated himself, after
+introduction. Chrysler scanned him curiously in recollection of the
+references to him in Haviland's Book of Enthusiasms, and recognized the
+strange red-brown scale of hues of hair, eyebrows and moustache, which
+gave character to his appearance; but the pale countenance was strong
+now, and tanned, though spare, and all the signs of former weakness had
+departed.
+
+Chamilly continued to Chrysler:
+
+"I am not a little proud of the cheerfulness, the spirit, the
+respectability, the intelligence of my little people. And if you had
+seen the mottoes which I have read on cars and banners in the
+processions of our national saint; such as, "GOD HAS MADE LAW TO EVERY
+MAN TO LABOR," and: "TO MAKE THE PEOPLE BETTER,"--you would have felt
+with me that it must be a people responsive to sober and admirable
+aims."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," remarked the visitor genially.
+
+"But I scarcely think you can be familiar with a group of startling
+projects lately cherished in our circles."
+
+"Plots against everybody," Quinet remarked. "Have the goodness to pass
+me the asparagus."
+
+"The Continent of North America is a large acre," continued Haviland.
+"Can you fancy a race who a century ago were but ninety thousand,
+aspiring and actually planning for its complete control?"
+
+Chrysler looked amused at the idea, for the handful of French-Canadians.
+
+"That is our firmly-persuaded future!" asserted the young man, De La
+Lande, eagerly and boldly. "The Curé of Colonization has demonstrated
+that it is possible. We shall reconquer the continent!"
+
+"Is it your view?" Chrysler asked of Chamilly.
+
+"I instance it," he returned, "because it shows that my people are
+capable of thinking high."
+
+"There is a progression of plans!" went on the eager De La Lande. "The
+first is to get control of the six English counties!"
+
+"I will trust the Anglo-Saxon for holding his own," the Ontarian
+laughed, in the amusement of vigorous confidence.
+
+"But we gain!" the young man cried. "Our race is always French! We win
+fast the British strongholds in our dear Province."
+
+"This the least, of the plans," Haviland remarked. "All are founded on
+a curious fact."
+
+"What fact is that?"
+
+"Our phenomenal multiplication in numbers," returned the seigneur,
+smiling.
+
+"What?" cried Chrysler.
+
+He stopped a moment open-eyed, and then laughed heartily and long. He
+could not satisfy his laughter at such a basis for conquest of a
+continent, and it burst forth again at intervals for some time.
+
+"Nevertheless it is true,--and Biblical," continued the undaunted
+schoolmaster. "_Sicut saggittae in manu potentis, ita filii
+excussorum_."
+
+"Breboeuf," said Haviland, who took some part with De La Lande but
+joined in Chrysler's amusement, "help us. What was the number of
+French-Canadians at the conquest by the English?"
+
+"Sixty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five, by the census of the
+General Murray in 1765, including approximately 500 others."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"One million and eight-two thousand nine hundred and forty, by the
+census of 1870."
+
+"You see, sir, what a growth. The clergy encourage it with satisfaction.
+It is not comfortable for bachelors in some of our parishes."
+
+All at the table were laughing, more or less, except De La Lande and the
+hunchback, who were perfectly serious.
+
+"One plan, sir, I confess freely," said the former, "affects yourself.
+You are perfectly acquainted with the Ottawa River, separating your
+Province from our own, and that it cuts across and above yours, which is
+a peninsula. The fourth great plan (out of six), is to plant centres
+along the Ottawa which shall exert their expansive force downwards to
+overrun your peninsula."
+
+"What a dangerous race!"
+
+"While another contingent meets it further south, where our progress is
+well known. So we shall win the centre itself of the Dominion. Let us
+possess the North, says our Peter the Hermit, and we can rest sure of
+the whole. Yes, let us possess the North! let us populate the shores of
+Hudson's Bay!" the enthusiast cried, losing himself in his vision, "Let
+us possess the shores of Hudson's Bay, where d'Iberville of old
+dislodged our enemies!"
+
+"Peter the Hermit!" laughed Chamilly. "What a name for our jolly old
+Curé of Colonization. But all that is well enough for ecclesiastics to
+recommend, since none others would invite their friends to die on those
+refrigerated wastes.--Yet the people themselves are heroically willing."
+
+"Our next ambition," proceeded De La Lande, absorbed in his enthusiasm
+and quite guileless of any personal enmities, "is the conquest of the
+United States. Northern Maine is French Canadian. In New England we
+count half a million. Lowell, Worcester, Lawrence, Nashua and Fall River
+are ours. In farms, in parishes, in solid masses, we shall establish
+ourselves on the banks of the Merrimac as we have on our own historic
+streams, to increase and multiply and possess the land, replacing the
+degenerate New Englander, _possedentes januas hostium_, performing a
+divine mission, working out a high destiny for our language and the
+Catholic faith, and establishing a new, magnificent State out of the
+portions of those destroyed, over which shall fly the lilies of old--"
+
+"And perhaps reign a duly fat Bourbon," interrupted Quinet over his
+salad.
+
+"We shall re-unite at last again with France! The affection of this
+remnant of her children, turned adrift in their few arpents of snow, has
+never died towards the land so changed from the time of our forefathers.
+It is still to us the Palestine of our speech, our history and our faith
+of St. Louis! We are the American France! We are all ready. We are the
+people of God. In the words of a brother: 'This blood was set in
+America in the midst of a material world, like France in Europe, to
+regenerate these peoples and perpetuate the reign of ideals. God has
+willed it: 'GESTA DEI PER FRANCOS!'"
+
+Chamilly turned to Chrysler as the school master ended, and said with a
+smile: "Do you not think there is enterprise in a people like this?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A DISAPPEARING ORDER.
+
+   "Qu'il est triste d'etre vaincu!--"
+
+   --DU CALVET.
+
+
+From Quinet who had been deliberately dealing with his dessert, now came
+words:
+
+"Mistaken impulses! Led after will o' the wisps by dreamers and
+designers! If it were not that all movements work but one way, like the
+backward and forward of a machine--towards _advancement_, these things
+would make a man despond."
+
+"What then, sir," Chrysler asked, "are your ideas?"
+
+"Hear me, like a different messenger from the same battle. The motto,
+'God has made Law to Every Man to Labour,' means that the slaves of
+priestcraft are to be contented with their servitude. 'To Make the
+People Better,' means to blind the second eye of their obedience."
+
+"To--?"
+
+"Stop my dear friend," Chamilly interrupted with emotion, "that motto's
+words are sacred to me and will ever justly be to all our people. Do not
+disparage that motto?"
+
+"I will never disparage making the people truly better. It is to the
+tone of those who usurp the aim, you should apply my critique. The men
+who lip these terms are none other than the evil geniuses of history. It
+is the _Jesuits_ who would make us poor and miserable,--who have wrecked
+French America, past and future. Without them we should have welcomed to
+our dominions from the first, an immigration twice larger than
+England's: we should have held the continent north, south and centre;
+our people would have been vitalized by education instead of so ignorant
+that no commoner but one ever wrote a book; they would have built and
+flourished and extended; and in place of a poor and helpless people they
+would have been rich, powerful, and self-reliant, like the Bostonians;
+Bigot and his nest of horse-leeches would never have sucked our blood
+and left us to ruin!"
+
+He paused, but as if not yet quite finished. His hearers listened.
+
+"And _since_--," he suddenly and energetically added, with a stern look
+around and a bitter suggestiveness on the word as if it were enough to
+pronounce it; and in truth, it silenced both De La Lande and Chamilly,
+and appeared to make a completely effective ending.
+
+In the evening, walking out on the road before retiring, Chamilly and
+Chrysler commented on the discussion, and Chrysler said, "I must say I
+was unprepared for this debate. I was a poor helpless Briton, caught
+like Braddock in Mr. De La Lande's ambush. Tell me what you think
+yourself of these things."
+
+"It is a sad thing to belong to a disappearing order," Haviland replied,
+"Sympathising with my people, I am grieved in a sense to believe their
+present aspirations dreams. It is sad to behold any race, and deeply so
+if it is your own, blind in the presence of unalterable forces which
+will soon begin their removal of what it considers to be dearest."
+
+"I sympathize with them and you," Chrysler said.
+
+"Ecclesiasticism ruins us!" exclaimed Quinet the Radical, who was with
+them:
+
+   "Quiconque me résiste et me brave est impie
+   Ce qu'ici-bas j'écris, là-haut Dieu la copie."
+
+"You should moderate your animosity," Chamilly said. "These Jesuits are
+most certainly humble, self-devoted men?"
+
+"I detest them as machines, not as men!" retorted the Radical.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HUMAN NATURE.
+
+   "Va ...
+   A monsieur le Curé
+   Lui dire que sa paroisse
+   Est tout bouleversee."
+
+   --POPULAR BALLAD.
+
+
+Curé L'Archeveque, black skull-cap on head, was in the best of humour,
+playing with his little dog in the ample reception-room of the
+parsonage, when a laborer came and brought an account of several late
+doings in the village.
+
+When Messiré heard what had been said at Zotique's, his rotund black
+stole writhed as if founts of lava boiled in him; his face swelled to
+the likeness of a fiery planet; indignation choked his speech for four
+minutes by the face of the tall clock in his sitting-room; and then the
+lava rose to the surface in jets:
+
+"Gang of accurseds!"
+
+"Atheists!"
+
+"Freemasons!"
+
+He turned for a moment to the laborer again who had come to inform him.
+Then he exploded successively as before:
+
+"They laughed?"
+
+"They laughed!"
+
+"I will make them laugh!"
+
+The young curé, his vicar, who was present, tried to calm him, but could
+not.
+
+His energies turned to action; he dismissed the parishioner, who, hat
+in hand, stood humbly by the door, and sitting down began to write
+letters and concoct vows.
+
+The first of the latter was to announce a spiritual boycott from the
+pulpit on Zotique and his iniquitous hall; and with this he wrote to the
+Attorney-General on the scandal of the gross misuse of the Circuit Court
+and the bad character of the local Registrar.
+
+The second bitter vow was that the Liberals should lose their election:
+this inspired a letter to Grandmoulin, the "Cave" Chief.
+
+There were other vows and other letters; one each to the Bishop and the
+Archbishop,--whose contents are unknown.
+
+At similar times, however, the Reverend gentleman had a recreation to
+which he was accustomed to turn for refreshment, and this was not long
+in rising in his mind. By law he was Visitor to the secular school: than
+which there was nothing he considered more nearly the root of all evil.
+He therefore took up his brown straw hat and black cane, and started
+determinedly out to exercise his habit of vexing the high spirit of the
+school master, De La Lande.
+
+"Ah bon, fratello!" cried Zotique that afternoon when de La Lande
+appeared at his door, "How goes it? Come in and speak to Mr. Chrysler,
+here."
+
+"It goes ill, Zotique," answered the school master, gloomily, "I have
+had the Curé again."
+
+"And what did he say to you?"
+
+"Quarrels with everything in the system. Our geography was galimatias,
+and book-keeping a crime: the people must not think they were on a level
+with the learned, and the children must do this and that. At last--at
+last--I was exasperated, and told him I had a right under the laws to my
+position and powers. He said there can be no right against the Right! I
+told him there were many wrongs against the Right! And he went away
+saying he would bring me to a bed of straw."
+
+"Let him do!" laughed the Registrar.
+
+But Zotique himself was not to escape quite scot-free, for when Chrysler
+stopped next day at his office, as he was getting accustomed to do, he
+found him in one of his excitements.
+
+[F]"Àc-ré-yé!" he was ejaculating.
+
+[Footnote F: NOTE--An evasive form of "Sacre," analogous to "Sapre,"
+"Sacristie," "Sac," "St. Christophe," &c.]
+
+"Ah, good day, sir. Come in and take a seat Àa-a-créyé, how they enrage
+us!"--and he cast an impatient glance on the floor at a large envelope
+deeply marked with his heel.
+
+"What is the matter?" Chrysler queried.
+
+"The matter, sir, is that!"--spurning the envelope.
+
+"An official notification?"
+
+"Not official!--No, sir, unofficial! ultra-official, contra-official,
+pseud-official! See, read it!"
+
+He picked up and handed over the objectionable letter, which was headed
+with the stamp of the Attorney-General's Office:--"Dear Sir,--You are
+requested to grant Mr. Cletus Libergent the use of the Circuit Court
+edifice and rooms, which are in your charge, for whatever purpose he may
+desire, for the space of three weeks from the present date."
+
+   T. OUAOUARON,
+   Attorney-General.
+
+Chrysler smiled to Zotique. Could a Government that openly granted the
+public buildings to partisans pretend to a sense of right or dignity?
+
+As to the effects of the Curé's second vow, they remain matter for
+narration to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CHEZ NOUS.
+
+   "Bonjour le maître et la maîtresse
+   Et tous les gens de la maison."
+
+   --THE GUIGNOLEE CAROL.
+
+
+The crimson and gold of sunset were stained richly across the west.
+Chrysler was walking leisurely out in the country. A mile from
+Dormillière, a white stone farm-house stood forward near the road. In
+front, across the highway, the low cliff swelled out into the stump of a
+headland, which bore spreading on its grassy top three mighty and
+venerable oaks.
+
+Chrysler, pondering as was his wont upon this and everything, noting the
+surges of color in the sky, the clear view, the procession of
+odd-looking homesteads down the road; their narrow fields running back
+indefinitely; the resting flocks and herds; here a group of
+thatched-roof barns, and there a wayside cross; passed along and mused
+on the peace of life in this prairie country, and the goodness of the
+Almighty to His children of every tongue.
+
+The strains of a violin in the farm-house struck his ear. Someone was
+fiddling the well-known sprightly air, "Vive la Canadienne:"
+
+   "Long live the fair Canadian girl,
+   With her sweet, tender eyes."
+
+The house was a large cottage, having around its door a slender gallery,
+at whose side went down a stair. Its chimnies were stout, and walls
+thick, its roof pitched very steep and clipped off short at the eaves;
+a garden of lilac-bushes and shrubs, some of which pressed their dark
+green against its spotless white-wash, surrounding it in front and on
+one side, while on the other lay the barn-yard, with a large wooden
+cross in its centre, protected by a railing. Two hundred years ago such
+houses were built in Brittany.
+
+Chrysler's glances took in with curiosity the tiny window up in the
+gable, the quaint-cut iron bars of the cellar openings, the small-paned
+sashes of the four front windows.
+
+Above the door, was the rude-cut inscription:
+
+   A DIEU LA GLOIRE
+   J.B.
+   1768.
+
+The fiddler drew his attention particularly, however, to the people on
+the gallery. There was one at least whom he had seen before. A
+_cavalier_ of much shirt-front and large mouth, and on whose make-up,
+Nature had printed "BAR-TENDER" in capitals--in short the "Spoon" of
+Zotique's reception--was sitting on the balustrade of the little
+gallery, making courtship over the shoulder of a dark-eyed maid, whose
+mother--a square-waisted archetype of her--stood in the door.
+Paterfamilias sat on the top step with his back to Chrysler, barring the
+stair rather awkwardly with his legs. A second young man slender, and
+dressed in a frock coat of black broad-cloth, and silk hat, and with
+face pale, but of undiscourageable obserfulness, though without doubt
+repulsed by the father's attitude from a front attack on the position,
+was taking the three steps in the garden necessary to bring him
+alongside the gallery. And, unobserved, down beside her dress, the
+maiden's fair hand was dropping him a sprig of lilac.
+
+Within, the grandfather bent crooked over his violin.
+
+Our traveller halted, there was a whisper, and the music stopped.
+
+"Salut, Monsieur," cried the householder, stumbling down the steps and
+hurrying half-way across the garden, where he took up a position,
+"Monsieur is tired. Will he honour my roof? All here is yours, and I and
+my family are at your service. Enter, Monsieur."
+
+A dramatic gesture of humility recalled at once the man in blue
+homespun, who had addressed the crowd at Zotique's.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Benoit," the Ontarian said, opening the gate and
+mustering his French, "I shall be charmed."
+
+The air immediately bustled with hospitality.
+
+"Come in, sir, come in," feebly rasped the voice of the old man from the
+door. "Josephte, bring a chair for Monsieur." "I will fetch one!" cried
+the good-wife. The girl Josephte, rose from her seat and followed her
+mother quickly into the house; the pale young man in the garden doubled
+his cheerful smile; and only the bar-tender endued himself in an
+aggressive grin of independence.
+
+"I assure you, monsieur," pronounced Jean Benoit, with his full armory
+of oratorical gestures, "that a friend of Monseigneur Chamilly will
+always have our best. Ascend, sir.--Josephte, place Monsieur the chair."
+
+Never was there a greater occasion of state.
+
+Their guest raised his hat to the young lady and her mother, who threw
+into her carriage all the dignity and suavity she could command. Then he
+ascended and sat gratefully down, for he was fatigued.
+
+The grandfather had laid his instrument on a spinning-wheel within the
+door, and slowly lit a pipe with both hands. The bar-tender jumped from
+his perch and stood with a familiar leer, of which when Benoit said "Mr.
+Cuiller, monsieur," Chrysler took trifling notice. On the other hand the
+pale lover remained modestly down the steps, and his cheerfulness
+redoubled when Chrysler nodded to him, passingly introduced as "Le
+Brun."
+
+"Does the gentleman take white whiskey,[G] or well milk?" asked the old
+man. "Josephte, bring some milk."
+
+[Footnote G: Highwines.]
+
+The daughter darted into the house.--"There is tea on the stove,
+Josephte!" Madame called hurriedly inwards, "and bring out some cakes
+and apples, and perhaps Monsieur would like new honey.--Be comfortable,
+sir."
+
+"Monsieur has come into the parish for the election?" the old man
+queried politely.
+
+"Only to see what passes," he replied, accepting the bowl of milk which
+Josephte tendered him, and a piece of raisin cake from a pile on a
+blue-pattern plate.--"What do you think of it?"
+
+But a diversion occurred. The wife had retired a few moments, and a
+veteran piano commenced playing, while a spirited boy's voice struck up
+a hymn from the services of the Church,--"O Salutaris Hostia." It was
+her youngest son, whom she had not been able to resist showing off a
+little. Chrysler praised the voice, which was excellent, and the boy,
+attired in a neat, black, knee-breeches suit with white stockings, was
+proudly brought forward and presented.
+
+The grandfather had the twinkle in his eye of a true country violinist.
+
+"I was going to tell them a story of the old times, sir. Will you pardon
+me?" he said, with the twinkle sparkling.
+
+Chrysler protested his own desire to listen.
+
+"We always like to hear about the old times," said young Le Brun,
+apologetically.
+
+"It's about a rascality of Zotique's, the droll boy, when we were
+young--the delectable history of Mouton. Mouton, the servant of Père
+Galibert, who in those times was Curé, was a fat man, of the air of a
+tallow image. You know Legros--the butcher's son,--just like that. If he
+had had red hair there would have been spontaneous combustion."
+
+"Someone stole the sacramental wine of Pére Galibert, and everyone
+except the Pére knew it was Mouton. Messire would never believe them,
+though it so angered him he preached fourteen discourses against the
+thief. They were eloquent sermons."
+
+"One Sunday afternoon--it was about the Day of St. Michel, when we went
+in to pay the seigneur his rents--Zotique was at the presbytère with me
+and his brother the Honorable, and all of us playing cards with Pére
+Galibert. Zotique had come down from the city with a new keg of wine for
+the Sacrament, and they were discussing the disappearance. Mouton was
+there, and he says never a word. "Let it alone," says Zotique, and he
+looks around and takes up the inkbottle carelessly from the shelf and
+goes off to the kitchen and down into the cellar, where he puts away the
+wine, and then he comes back to us, upstairs. Mouton disappears in a
+moment. Zotique pretends to play,--but he is calculating the seconds.
+Presently he says, "Monsieur le Curé, you and I are too good players.
+Let Mouton take my place, and do you play against Benoit and my cousin,"
+and without waiting for any answer he flies out to the kitchen, and
+cries sharply: "Mouton, Messire wants you!" adding, "Quick, quick, tête
+de Mouton!" Mouton rushes upstairs, brushing his mouth. There he stands
+before us, solid as the image of tallow; but his mouth was as black as
+an oven's, _and his features indistinguishable with ink_."
+
+The circle, all eagerly listening, burst forth:
+
+"How did Zotique do it?" they cried.
+
+"Voila the mystery."
+
+"What was done to Mouton?"
+
+"Pére Galibert boiled him down into tapers, and sold him to the
+congregation."
+
+The old man put his pipe, which had gone out, once more to his lips and
+nonchalantly repeated the operation of lighting it between his hands.
+
+Spoon, his low felt hat tipped over his eyes made Josephte blush crimson
+with his attentions. Her glances and smiles were to François.
+
+Chrysler as he watched her, saw that it was she whose spiritual
+expression had attracted him at church. Near at hand, he took notes of
+her appearance. She was of modest face, regular and handsome in
+features, though not striking, and her cheek wore just a suggestion of
+color. Dressed in black, her apparel and demeanor were quietly perfect.
+
+The fine sweep of view from the gallery across the water attracted him,
+and his eyes rested upon the leafy monarchs shadowing the river-bank
+before them.
+
+"Your house is well placed," he said in admiration.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur," replied the old man, simply, and he pointed out the
+various parishes whose spires could be descried across the water.
+
+Thus conversing and observing, the Ontarian spent an instructive and
+delightful hour. When he rose to go, calm and rested, the hospitality
+again became profuse. "The gentleman will not walk!" shrilly protested
+highly-pleased mater familias. "Go François," turning to young Le Brun:
+"row Monsieur to the Manoir, you and Mr. Cuiller. Take the rose
+_chaloupe_, and Josephte shall go too."
+
+Chrysler made a very admirable guest. He would have struck you as a
+fine, large man, of kindly face, and influential manner, and people
+pressed upon him their best wherever he went. "You speak our tongue,
+sir," said the grandfather, "That is a great thing. I have often thought
+that if all the people of the earth spoke but one speech they would all
+be brothers. What an absurdity to be divided by mere syllables."
+
+So they parted, with many "Au revoirs" and mutual compliments at the
+water-side. The willing François planted one foot on a stone in the
+water and handed the young lady into the boat, and Cuiller hastening for
+the seat next her, made a pretended accidental lunge of his heavy
+shoulder at him into the water. François kept his balance and, quite
+unconscious of the malicious stratagem, held the ill-wisher himself from
+going over, which he almost did, to Josephte's demure amusement; next
+Chrysler got in and François essayed to push off. But as the boat stuck
+in the bottom and refused to stir, he suddenly dropped his hold, and
+with an "Avance done!" gallantly slushed his way into the water
+alongside, in his Sunday trousers, lifted the gunwale and started her
+afloat, amidst a shower of final "Au revoirs," and the rose _chaloupe_
+moved with noiseless smoothness down the current.
+
+Peace reigned over every surrounding. The broad, molten-like surface;
+the dusky idealizing of the lines of cottages and delicate silhouetting
+of the trees along the shore near them; the artistic picture of the old
+white farm-house, mystic-looking in the soft evening light, with its
+shapes of lilac-trees rioting about it and the three great oaks
+darkening the bank in front; the ghost of light along the distant
+horizon; the gentle coolness of the air; the occasional far-off echo of
+some cry; and the regular splash and gleam of the oars as they leave the
+water or dip gently in again. A fish leaps. An ocean steamer, low in the
+distance, can be descried creeping noiselessly on. The islands and
+shores mirror themselves half-distinctly in the water.
+
+A mile above, some boatful of pensive hearts are singing. So calm is the
+evening that the cadences come distinctly to us, and almost the words
+can be plainly caught. In a lull of their song, faint sounds of another
+arrive from far away. Rising and falling, now heard and now not,
+plaintive and recurring, it is like the voices of spirits.
+
+But farther, farther yet, a still more distant echo--a suggestion
+scarcely real--floats also to us. The whole river, in its length and
+breadth, from Soulanges and the Lake of Two Mountains, and the tributary
+Ottawa, to Quebec and Kamouraska and the shores of the Gulf beyond, all
+is alive with plaintive sweetness, echoing from spirit to spirit, (for
+it is a fiction that music is a thing of lips and ears), old accents of
+Normandy, Champagne, and Angoulême.
+
+The brimming François strikes up by natural suggestion of his dipping
+oars;
+
+   A la claire fontaine
+   M'en allant promener.
+
+   I.
+
+   Beside the crystal fountain
+   Turning for ease to stray,
+   So fair I found the waters
+   My limbs in them I lay.
+
+               Long is it I have loved thee,
+               Thee shall I love alway,
+                         My dearest.
+               Long is it I have loved thee,
+               Thee shall I love alway.
+
+   So fair I found the waters,
+     My limbs in them I lay:
+   Beneath an oak tree resting,
+     I heard a roundelay.
+                   Long is it, &c.
+
+   III
+
+   Beneath an oak tree resting,
+     I heard a roundelay,
+   The nightingale was singing
+     On the oak tree's topmost spray.
+                   Long is it, &c.
+
+   IV.
+
+   The nightingale was singing
+     On the oak tree's topmost spray:--
+   Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
+    Thou who hast heart so gay!
+                  Long is it, &c.
+
+  V.
+
+   Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
+     Thou hast a heart so gay,
+   Thou hast a heart so merry,
+     While mine is sorrow's prey.
+                  Long is it, &c.
+
+  VI.
+
+   For I have lost my mistress,
+     Whom I did true obey,
+   All for a bunch of roses,
+    Whereof I said her nay.
+                 Long is it, &c.
+
+  VII.
+
+  I would those luckless roses,
+    Were on their bush to-day,
+  And that itself the rosebush
+    Were plunged in ocean's spray.
+                 Long is it I have loved thee,
+                 Thee shall I love alway,
+                         My dearest
+                 Long is it I have loved thee,
+                 Thee shall I love alway.
+
+The melody was of a quiet, haunting strangeness, and from the end of the
+words "Thou who hast heart so gay," the maiden perfected it by
+interweaving an exquisite contralto into the chorus,
+
+   Long is it I have loved thee,
+   Thee shall I love alway.
+
+In this fashion was Chrysler delivered at the Manoir, and when Chamilly
+asked him "Where have you been-this evening?" as he entered the grounds,
+he answered, "In Arcadia!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE.
+
+"Aië! cela ressemble un peu à certaine fable celèbre, dont la morale se
+résume ceçi ne comptez pas sans votre hôte."
+
+--BENJAMIN SULTE
+
+
+"St. Gregory the Great! Here comes the Small-pox!" exclaimed Zotique, as
+he and Chamilly, with their guest, were off behind the Manoir, and
+standing by the weather-worn Chapel in the hayfields, which served as
+the tomb of the first Haviland, "the Protestant Seigneur."
+
+The name "Picault" offered itself so readily to the pun of
+"Picotte,"--Small-pox,--that the jest had become almost a usage.
+
+Startled by Zotique's exclamation, Mr Chrysler looked from the
+commemorative table on the Chapel's side (whose rivulet of eulogies he
+was reading line by line), towards the pine-walk round the Manoir,
+whence a distant figure was sauntering towards them along the path,
+meditatively smoking a cigar.
+
+"That's a fact," exclaimed Chamilly, straining his eyes towards the
+figure; and the three looked at each other in astonishment. "Has he
+actually the enterprise to try me again? Or what can he want?"
+
+"I can answer you," the veracious Zotique undertook, "my eyes are
+good.--He is smiling fully a second hundred thousand."
+
+"That is courage after what I gave him for the first."
+
+"It is doubtless, then, glory:--say Member of the Council."
+
+"Did I ever tell you of the last time he came to me, and offered not
+only that Membership, but finally advanced to the Presidency of it.
+Imagine the recklessness of the Province's interests--A President of the
+Council at twenty-four years! More than that, if I wished for active
+glory, he would give either the local Premiership, or undertake to
+combine the French parties at Ottawa, and put me at their head, with a
+surety of being Premier of the whole country. And this again for a youth
+of twenty-four years!--He tried to flatter me that I was a Pitt or a
+Napoleon. And I answered, that no man guilty of such a compact could be
+either."
+
+"You will do it without him," replied Zotique, confidently.
+
+Chrysler looked closely at the approaching figure, growing larger and
+clearer.
+
+"Where is he Member for?" he asked.
+
+"Member for Hoang-ho _in partibus infidelium_," replied Zotique,
+sarcastically.
+
+Picault sauntered up with a smile of unfaltering genial sang-froid,
+bowed, removed his cigar, and addressed them.
+
+"Salut, my dear Haviland, salut Messieurs. Oh! my dear Genest, how goes
+it?" offering his hand, which Zotique took with a caricature of
+extravagant joy and imitation of the other's style:
+
+"My dear Small-pox--pardon me--my dear friend, I am charmed to meet
+again a man of so much sense and honor."
+
+"Ah yes, we have fought on many a field, but we respect each other
+'Honneur au plus vaillant.' But why, my dear Haviland," turning, "why
+should the valiant oppose each other, and half of them lose at each
+battle? Is it not because they are divided? Union makes strength!"
+
+"Yes, it is because they are divided by impassable gulfs," said
+Chamilly, coldly. "Did you come to see me, Monsieur?"
+
+"My dear fellow, can't we have a little private conversation together?
+I am, of course, in the country to oppose your politics, but being in
+Dormillière, I cannot forget our social acquaintanceship."
+
+"Do me the honor of saying here what you desire to say, Monsieur. I have
+no political secrets from these friends."
+
+"Pardon me, what I have to tell you, is strictly private."
+
+"If it is in political matters, I do not wish it to be so."
+
+"It is personal, I assure you."
+
+"Then you will humor me, sir, by writing it."
+
+"My friend, do not let party differences put grimaces at each other on
+our real faces:--I would say rather party names; for I am in reality as
+much a Red as yourself. If you were willing we would prove that to you
+by changing the title, of our side to yours."
+
+"At that moment, sir, there would be what I live for in the name
+'Blue.'"
+
+Picault drew a deliberative puff at his cigar, and lowered it again.
+
+"You will not, then, do me the honor of a personal interview?" he asked,
+smiling unprovokably still.
+
+"Cease, cease!" replied Haviland, "It will soon be the noon of plain
+words!"
+
+The tempter with nice discernment, perceiving that this short and bold
+interview was useless, and that he ought to withdraw, put his cigar
+between his lips, puffed a "Good-day, gentlemen," and turned back
+meditatively, along the path towards the pines of the Manoir.
+
+"Au plaisir!" returned Zotique to him with facetious exactitude.
+
+Haviland was furious.
+
+"Shall the children of these men, enriched perhaps and elevated through
+their crimes," he exclaimed, "pretend in time to come that they obtained
+their 'Honorables,' and Knighthoods, and seats on the Bench of Justice,
+and of Cabinets fairly from their country, and were the world's great
+and true? Forbid it, and forbid that their names should live except in
+memory of their paltriness!"
+
+"But dear Mr. Chrysler," he added in a moment, "you must not take us for
+party bigots. The masses of the Bleus are honest, and any day our own
+name may be desecrated by a clique of knaves, our principles represented
+by the other name."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS.
+
+
+Haviland's approaching election kept him very busy from this time
+forward, and deluged him with interviews, canvasses, meetings, great and
+little, and perpetual calls on his attention. His conscientiousness made
+him work almost unremittingly, for he determined his part in the
+struggle to be far more than a matter of mere verbiage and smiles. Mr.
+Chrysler, like a sensible fellow-Member, quite comprehended the
+situation, and was content to note the admirable way in which his friend
+did everything; to receive a smile or friendly direction here and there,
+and to fall back on the attentions of l'Honorable, and the over-zealous
+Zotique. He felt his entry free, however, to the office where Haviland
+was principally employed, and which was not uninteresting of itself.
+There the young man had gathered a library of statistical volumes and
+other statesman's lore, with busts of Thiers and Cæsar and strangely
+ideal and unlike the rest,--a pure white classic mask of Minerva on the
+wall opposite his chair, as if to strike the note of a higher life;
+while Breboeuf, curious little object, devoured some blue-book in a
+corner.
+
+Now what were those great aims of Haviland's? NATION-MAKING, we know in
+general. But what was the work upon which he was employed as the means?
+
+On the occasion of one of Chrysler's quiet entries, Haviland rose from
+his table as the light began to fall, threw off his toils with a breath
+of relief, and turning towards the older gentleman, called his
+attention to a large green tin case of pigeon-holes and drawers of
+different sizes, labelled.
+
+"Here," he said, "is my manufactory of reflections."
+
+One compartment was marked "FINANCES," another "LABOUR," a small one
+"DEFENCE," and a drawer lying open for use was titled "THE UNITY OF
+RACES."
+
+"Take out a paper, Mr. Chrysler."
+
+Chrysler put forth his hand willingly, and withdrawing one, held it to
+the window and read as follows:
+
+"A great thought can be thought in any place. A great Empire may be
+planned in any corner."
+
+The second was a note from "GENERAL NEEDS."
+
+"What the country most requires is Devoted Men."
+
+Others read similarly, some long, some short.
+
+"I can show you what will strike you more," exclaimed Chamilly, in a
+moment. "I have been planning your visit a little."
+
+"Have you a geyser or a catacomb?"
+
+"No sir,--a fountain of life," replied he, jocosely. "Let us get our
+hats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE STATESMAN'S DREAM.
+
+
+As they went down the village, he continued to banter.
+
+"You great Ontarians believe too firmly that there is no progress here.
+According to you there is no being to be met in these forsaken wastes,
+except a superstitious peasant, clothed all the year in 'beefs' and
+homespun, capped with the tuque, girded with the sash, and carrying the
+capuchin hood on his shoulders, like the figure on some of our old
+copper _sous_;--who sows, after the manner of his fathers, a strip of
+the field of his grandfathers, and cherishes to his heart every
+prejudice of his several great, great-grandfathers."
+
+"I do not think so," interrupted Chrysler laughing, "I might put you
+fifty years behind the age, but no further."
+
+"Yes, but you, sir, have seen us. Why do not more of you come and see?"
+
+"For some of the same reasons perhaps why you do not know us."
+
+Some distance past the Church northward, the village, obscured by the
+great, irregularly-occurring pines, takes a turn and a sudden dip. The
+dip and the pines, which are thick at that end, obscure a section of the
+village known locally as La Reveillière.
+
+As they came to the high ground where the dip occurs, the vista appeared
+below of a spacious avenue, down whose centre ran a straight and smooth
+road-bed, and on either side twice its breadth of lawn, rolled and cut,
+forming a sort of common, ornamented by a sparing group or two of the
+ubiquitous pines of the neighbourhood. Along the edges of this avenue or
+common, lay what could only be called a sort of _transfigured
+French-Canadian village_, looking, in the quiet light of evening, as if
+pictured by some artist out of studies of the places in the country
+about. The dwellings were larger, better drawn, their windows, attics
+and wings more varied in design, but amid their picturesque variety
+could be discerned in several, a suggestion of the chimney of a certain
+wild little cot in a dell near the Manoir; in others, of the solid stone
+home of Jean Benoit; in many the châlet-eaved pattern of the ordinary
+cottage. Perhaps the latter were made prettiest of all--they were at
+least the airiest looking. It was in the colors and stainings applied to
+the gables and other parts that the greatest care had been taken. These
+were selected out of the ordinary red, yellow, white, and sage-green
+washes in common use, with such taste as to effect a deeply harmonious
+and ideal issue. Again, the plan of the village was peculiar. It was
+simply an improvement on that of the local villages in general, the
+dwellings being upon the border of the street and not far apart, with
+their little, foot-wide flower-gardens close against the front. The
+circular fan of a patent windmill lifted itself lightly, the most
+prominent object in the settlement, and a charming Gothic schoolhouse
+crouched farther down on the opposite side. Behind the houses, growths
+of trees formed an enclosing background, according to the tastes of the
+owners, but guided by some harmonizing supervision like the colors. And
+at a short distance the avenue was crossed by a white poplar grove,
+which brought the scene to a limit, and separated this dream of a rural
+statesman from the common world.
+
+"V'là, monsieur," said Zotique, who had joined them, stretching his
+hand, "Behold the cherished work of our young seigneur."
+
+Upon the galleries, the verandahs, the green lawn, the picture moved
+with life. A half-haze, precursive of the twilight, lent scenic softness
+to the forms of old men puffing their pipes before the doors, a maiden
+listlessly strolling on the sward, a swarm of children playing near the
+road, a distant toiler making his way home, bearing his scythe. The
+visitors went down into the place and Chrysler saw that the artistic
+shapes and ideal colors were worn with daily use, the men and women,
+serene-looking, were still the every day mortals of the region.
+
+"I think I have gained a great step in the houses and street," said
+Haviland.
+
+"And the Reveillière is proud of its founder," added l'Honorable.
+
+"We have a little newspaper--_Le Coup d'Oeil_,"--cried Zotique.
+
+Chrysler congratulated Chamilly on his felicity of design in the
+dwellings.
+
+The greater size of the houses was chiefly for better ventilation. The
+windmill was part of a simple water-works system, which supplied the
+village with draughts from the bottom of the river. The school was a
+gift of Chamilly's.
+
+"If we had some great architect among us," replied he, "he would
+transmute for our country a national architecture."
+
+A little house, conspicuous for the delicacy of its architecture, stood
+near them, and a young man--the schoolmaster--who was on the verandah,
+reading, in his shirtsleeves, threw down his newspaper at the call of
+Zotique, came forward and entered eloquently into the work of
+information about the Reveillière, flinging his cotton-clad arms
+recklessly towards the winds of heaven.
+
+"The Institute--the fountain of all--the gentleman has not seen the
+Institute?" inquired he, looking to the two Frenchmen.
+
+"I believe not," Zotique said. "Have you seen it, sir?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Monsieur, you must see the Institute."
+
+"What is this Institute?"
+
+"The _enfant perdu_ of Liberalism, the mainspring of Dormillière, the
+hope of French America!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE INSTITUTE.
+
+   "The battle for the sway,
+         Of liberty,
+         Fraternity,
+   And light of the new day"
+
+   --MARY MORGAN.
+
+
+"About eighteen hundred and fifty," explained the Honorable, "L'Institut
+Canadien was our national thinking Society, and the spark of an
+awakening of great promise."
+
+"Under the French regime, our people received no education. They knew
+the forests, the rapids, the science of trapping beaver, and when to
+expect the Iroquois, and sow grain. The English, conquest came next and
+cut us off from the new birth, of modern France, and the Church, our
+only institution, was very willing to ignore that stimulation of ideas.
+We lived on; we read little; we labored much.--But, monsieur," said
+l'Honorable, with his quiet dignity, "we were of the race of Descartes."
+
+"We slept. At last the awakening! Our griefs and our grievances forced
+the Rebellion; they brought our thoughts together and made us reason in
+common; we demanded a new Canada, relieved of bureaucracy, of political
+disabilty, of seignioral oppression, some said even of abuses of the
+Church--a Canada of the People, in which every citizen should stand up
+equal and free."
+
+"The first result demanded--and obtained--was responsible government.
+Among others came preparations for the abolition of feudal tenure,
+making a vassal population freeholders!"
+
+"The next cry was Education! The French-Canadians were delighted with
+the opening world of knowledge and ideas, and there is no race which
+ever rose with greater enthusiasm to pursue progress and science. A few
+young men of Montreal were banded into a Society for mutual advancement,
+to hold debates at which all races were to be free to contribute
+opinions, to open a library of useful books, and to seek truth without
+any conditions. That was the Institut Canadien!"
+
+"These noble young enthusiasts soon attracted chosen spirits, a precious
+essence of the race. They sprang into fame;--fourteen were returned to
+Parliament in one year. They called all the world freely to their
+discussions, and created eclat by the brillancy of their programme. The
+province kindled--every village had its Institute!" "But 'sa-a-a-cr!'"
+savagely ejaculated Zotique, and his eyes grew intense in their
+fierceness."
+
+"The Institut Canadien gradually excited the jealousy of certain
+ecclesiastics by its free admissions and the liberality of its
+researches. What is known as the "Struggle" commenced. A series of
+combined assaults by episcopal summons, a pulpit crusade,
+excommunication, refusal of burial, encouragement of dissensions, and
+the establishment of rival Institutes bearing names such as "Institut
+Canadien Français," most of which existed only on paper, finally
+succeeded in crushing the movement."
+
+"Ac"--ejaculated Zotique.
+
+"The Institute at Dormillière is the insignificant sole survivor."
+
+"I understand now your Reveillière," Chrysler said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE CAMPAIGN PLAN.
+
+
+On Saturday evening of Chrysler's first week at the Manoir, they went to
+the Institute. It was a house down the Dormillière Street, that held its
+head somewhat higher, and tipped it back a little more proudly than the
+rest,--a long old fashioned wooden cottage, of many windows, and some
+faded pretensions to the ornamental: still elegant in the light curve of
+its capacious grey roof, the slender turned pillars of its gallery,
+separated by horizontal oval arches, its row of peaked and moulded
+dormer windows, its ornaments, its broad staircase climbing up to the
+doorway, and the provincial-aristocratic look of its high set-back
+position in its garden. The name of a rich money-lender, who had been
+feared in days gone by--"Cletus the Ingrate,"--was mentioned under
+breath in the stories about it. But ever since his death, many years
+before, it had been the faded outer shell into which the intellectual
+kernel of Dormillière life withdrew itself, and in the passage as one
+entered, the sign "INSTITUT CANADIEN," which had once had its place on
+the front, might be seen resting on the floor,--a beehive and the motto
+"Altius Tendimus," occupying the space between the two words.
+
+The interior was a very great contrast to the outside. Its fittings were
+in the pleasantest of light-hued paints and varnished pine: maps, casts,
+and pictures enlivened the walls and corners; a handsome library and
+nucleus of a museum, with reading tables, opened to the left, and a
+large debating hall to the right--together occupying the whole of the
+principal floor.
+
+That evening the row of front windows shone with particular
+illumination for a meeting of Chamilly's supporters, and as Chrysler
+entered with Haviland and Zotique, they caught from De La Lande the
+fragmentary assertion, "It is France that must be preached!"
+
+"Aux armes, citoyens!" roared Zotique, entering like a captain on the
+stage. "Give me my battalion! Write me my letters of marque:" Then
+throwing one hand in air: "Allons! what has been done?"
+
+The audience sitting around on tables and windowsills, as well as on
+groups of chairs, laughed boisterously and thumped the floor, and
+recalled to the proper work of the meeting, commenced a cry of
+"l'Honorable!"
+
+"The Honorable presides!" intoned Benoit, like a crier; and Genest,
+accustomed to understand their wishes, seated himself in the chair,
+while a momentary lull fell over the noisiness.
+
+"A Secretary!"
+
+"De La Lande!"
+
+"Calixte Lefebvre!"
+
+"Le Brun, Le Brun, Le Brun, Le Brun!"
+
+"I nominate our good friend Descarries," smilingly spoke the Chairman.
+"Does the meeting agree?"
+
+"Yes!" "Yes!" "Maitre Descarries for Secretary!" "Maitre Descarries!"
+"Carried!" were the responses shouted together from all sides.
+
+"We have to consider this evening," continued the Chairman, after the
+white-wigged official had seated himself in his place as Secretary, "our
+general organization and appointment of districts. The aim is to work
+hard for Monsieur during the times coming. The people's meeting to take
+place to-morrow, is to be addressed for Libergent by Grandmoulin
+himself, and Picault will be in the county with them till the election.
+So you see our task is not less than to defeat the whole strength of
+the Cave. As we fight with men of stature, there is need of valor and
+address."
+
+"We'll have to pull the devil by the tail!" cried one. The words were
+those of a common proverb referring to "close shaving."
+
+The Chairman added: "Mr. De La Lande, the floor seems to be already
+yours."
+
+"I have heard," began De La Lande, "that Grandmoulin has commenced to
+raise the issue of French patriotism."
+
+"You are right," said Zotique.
+
+"Well, then, why can we not use a like word, that shall go to the heart
+of the people? Give us a national cry! Let the struggle rest on our
+fundamental emotions of race! Why can we not"--The face of the impetuous
+schoolmaster began to flame into eagerness and fire.
+
+"Because," interrupted Haviland, firmly, "we are in this particular
+country. Would you have us enter upon a campaign of injustice and
+ill-will? Leave that, and the glory of it, to Grandmoulin and to
+Picault!"
+
+"But, my chief, the positions of the French and the English!--We who
+were first, are becoming last!"
+
+"Come here if you please, sir," Haviland said, turning to Chrysler, who
+rose and advanced to him surprised. Haviland took him, and passing over
+to De La Lande, placed the hand of the Ontario gentleman in that of the
+high-spirited schoolmaster, who accepted it, puzzled. "There!" cried
+Haviland, raising his voice to a pitch of solemnity. "Say whatever you
+can in that position. _That is the position of the Canadian races_?"
+
+A shout rose in the hall, and every man sprang to his feet. Cheer rose
+upon cheer, while De La Lande shook the hand in his with feeling; and
+the cheering, smiling, and hand shaking, lasted nearly a minute.
+
+It ended at a story by Zotique.
+
+"When I was a boy,"--he began, in a deep, exaggerated voice, and
+whirling his two arms so as to include the whole of those present in the
+circle of his address. The cheers and confusion broke into a roar of
+laughter for a moment, that stifled itself almost as quickly, as they
+listened.
+
+"We lived for a year in the Village Ste. Aldegonde, near to Montreal. In
+the Village Ste. Aldegonde there was a nation of boys. All these boys
+marched in daily to town to the great School of the Blessed Brothers.
+Along the way to the School of the Blessed Brothers, many English boys
+lay in wait between us and learning, and we passed certain streets like
+Hurons passing through the forests of Iroquois. Often we went in large
+war parties, and repeated the charges of Waterloo for hours up and down
+streets."
+
+"One afternoon I passed there alone--accompanied by a great boaster. We
+behold three big English boys. We cross the street. They come
+after:--get before us:--command us to stop!"
+
+The audience were worked up into suppressed fits, for Zotique's gestures
+were inimitable.
+
+"My friend the boaster steps forward with the air Napoleonic! He sticks
+out his breast like this; he shortens his neck, like this; he frowns his
+brows; he glares at them a terrible look; he cries: 'I am of the
+Canadian blood!'"
+
+"And what does he do next, gentlemen?" Zotique paused a moment.
+
+--"Runs for his life!"
+
+The roar that followed shook the apartment. Zotique stopped it.
+
+"But what did _I_ do, gentlemen?"
+
+No one ventured to guess.
+
+"I--perhaps because I was of the Dormillière blood--did not run, but
+looked at the English.--We laughed all together.--And I passed along
+unmolested."
+
+"Messieurs,--with the exception of our excellent De La Lande, I am
+afraid it is too often those who lack the virtues of their race who make
+most cry of it."
+
+The meeting now resumed its discussions.
+
+"We require strategy!" asserted a burly, red-haired lawyer from the
+City.
+
+"I confess myself in favor of strategy," admitted Zotique also;
+
+"I am always in favor," said Chamilly, "of the strategy of organized
+tactics, of the avoidance of useless by-questions, and of spirit and
+intelligence in attack and defence."
+
+"But you will not let us lie a little in protection of you," retorted
+Zotique. "To me the moral law is to beat Picault."
+
+"Assuredly!" the red-haired lawyer said indignantly, looking a half air
+of patronage towards Chamilly, and breathing in for a steady blast of
+eloquence: "It is time these ridiculous ideas which forbid us so many
+successes were sent back to Paradise, and that such elections as the
+present were governed upon rational principles. We cannot offer the
+people directly what is good for them; because it is not what they want.
+What they want, is what we must first of all assume to provide. Once in
+power we can persuade them afterwards. Gentlemen, _to get into power_ is
+the first absolute necessity. We cannot defeat the enemy except by
+opposing to them some of their own methods. Revive the courage of the
+young men by offering what they deserve--good places in case of success!
+Replenish the coffers by having our army of contractors to oppose to the
+ranks of theirs. If they lie, we have a right to lie. If they spend
+money, we must spend it. If they cajole with figures, surely our
+advantage as to the facts would enable us to produce others still more
+astonishing. Human nature is not angelic--and you can never make it
+otherwise."
+
+"My friend," answered Chamilly, raising his strong frame deliberately,
+"these are the very principles that I am resolutely determined to battle
+with all my forces, I care not whether among my foes or my friends. Must
+our young Liberals learn over again what Liberalism is? The true way to
+enter polities is none other at any time than to deliberately choose a
+higher stand and methods. Trickeries are easier and sometimes lead to a
+kind of success: if our objects were sordid, we might descend to
+demeaning hypocrisies, we might cheat, we might thieve, perjure, and be
+puppets, and perhaps so win our way to power; we might think we could
+use these to better ends, though that doctrine succeeds but rarely;--and
+perhaps what we might achieve may appear to you of some value, even of
+great value to you."
+
+"Yet, no, my friends of Dormillière, your very work is to lay the
+foundations of sincerity deep in this sphere, and to withstand and
+eradicate the existing political evils. 'One must determine,' said a
+very great man, 'to serve the people and not to please them.' If some
+youth replies, 'This is a laborious, troublesome, hopeless occupation,
+in which there is not reward enough to make it worth my while,' I tell
+him but 'Attack it: rejoice to see something so near to challenge your
+mettle, and if you meet the battle boldly so, and ennoble yourself, you
+will immediately understand how to think of the ennoblement of your
+people and your country as glorious.' '_Altius tendimus_! We move
+towards a higher!'--The country reads our motto, and is watching what we
+practise. Give it an answer in all your acts!"
+
+Chamilly's manner of uttering these words produced the only perfect
+stillness the meeting observed during the evening, for the
+French-Canadians have a custom of talking among themselves throughout
+any ordinary debate. Their respect for Chamilly was striking.
+L'Honorable listened with a smile of pleasure; Zotique looked all
+loyalty: and the young men beamed their over-flowing flowing
+endorsation of sentiments worthy of the Vigers, Dorions, and Papineaus,
+those grand men whose portraits hung upon their walls.
+
+As he stopped, there was a sudden movement all about. A spirit of energy
+took hold on all. Zotique, posing at the head of a large table in front
+of the Chair, almost at once had installed De La Lande assistant-secretary,
+to do the real work of which punctilious old Maître Descarries could only
+make a courageous show; had swept towards him an inkstand, shaken open a
+drawer and whipped out some foolscap, and darting his cadaverous eyes from
+one to another around, despotically appointed them to places of various
+service, now sharply answering, now ignoring a question by the appointee,
+while De La Lande scribbled his directions; and everyone was so anxious to
+find some post that there was no grumbling at his heedless good
+generalship. In a trice they were all being called for at various tables
+and corners, which he fixed for the operations of the Committees.
+
+The most zealous and loquacious of those who pressed forward to be given
+positions of trust was Jean Benoit.
+
+"What pig will you shear?" demanded Zotique, (looking for an instant, as
+he turned to shout towards another quarter, "En'oyez done; en'oyez!")
+
+"I take the Reveillière."
+
+"The Reveillère is parted among three."--("Be quiet there!")
+
+"Well then,"--grandiloquently,--"I take from St. Jean de Dieu to the
+parish Church of Dormillière."
+
+"Too much for four?" pronounced Zotique.
+
+Spoon pressed heavily behind Benoit, and whispered something.
+
+"La Misericoide then," said Benoit, hastily.
+
+Zotique shouted to the Secretary: "Jean Benoit the countryside of La
+Misericorde!" And to Benoit again:
+
+"There is your committee."
+
+But Jean would have a hand in shoving forward his admired bar-tender:
+"Give monsieur something near my own."
+
+"Cuiller--the village of La Misericorde," directed Zotique. "Now, both
+of you, the chief thing you have to do is to report to us if the Bleus
+commence to work there. Go; go!"
+
+"Salut, Benoit; how goes it; how is the wife? and the father?--the
+children also? I hope you are well. Comment ça-va-t-il Cuiller?"--asked
+Chamilly.
+
+Spoon took the proffered hand with his sleepy grin. Benoit responded by
+an obsequiously graceful shaking and deliberative loquacity:
+
+"Well; well, Monsieur the Seigneur,--We are very well. The wife is well,
+the father, the children also. And how is Madame the Seigneuresse? and
+yourself? The crisis approaches, does it not? Eh bien, at that point you
+will find Jean Benoit strong enough. I have a good heart, Monseigneur.
+Once Xiste Brin said to me, 'Monsieur the Director, you have a good
+heart.' Deign to accept my professions, monseigneur, of a loyalty the
+most solemn, of a breast for ever faithful."
+
+"I have always accepted your friendship, Benoit, and trusted you,"
+smiled generous Haviland. "See here, Zotique, give Benoit a responsible
+post.--How different must be our feelings at this priceless service of
+personal affection from those of our opponents, served only for money."
+
+"No money!" blurted Spoon. "Taurieu! An election without money?"
+
+Chamilly, with one quiet glance, turned away to L'Honorable. "Without
+'tin,'--St. Christophe, I say!--St. Laurent!"
+
+"Keep quiet--silence, I pray thee," returned Benoit, and drew his
+companion aside.
+
+"Why did Benoit call himself Director?" Chrysler asked.
+
+Haviland and the Honorable smiled. Chamilly answered:
+
+"It is a weakness of his ever since he was put on the Board of our
+Agricultural Society. Do not laugh, unless at the common vanity of
+mankind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE LOW-COUNTRY SUNRISE.
+
+"Chacun son goût. Moi, j'aime mieux la nature primitive qui n'est pas à
+la mode du jour mais que l'on ne pourra jamais démoder ... J'aime ce que
+j'aime, et vous, vous aimez autre chose. Grand bien vous fasse--je vous
+admire, Monsieur Tout-le-Monde."
+
+--Ben Sulte
+
+
+"I am going to rise before the sun to-morrow. Would you like to come out
+fishing?" remarked Haviland, cheerfully, on the way home. Chrysler
+signified assent.
+
+At grey dawn, before it was yet quite daybreak, they were on the road.
+All the houses in the neighbourhood looked asleep. Heavy dews lay upon
+the grass. The scene was chilly, and a little comfortless and suggestive
+of turning back to bed.
+
+"Where are we going?" the visitor asked, trying to collect his spirits.
+
+"To find Bonhomme Le Brun, who superintends the boating
+interest.--'Bonhomme'--'Good Man'--is a kind of jocular name we give to
+every simple old fellow. 'Le Brun' is not quite correct either. His real
+name--or rather the only one extant among the _noms-de-guerre_ of his
+predecessors, is Vadeboncoeur--'Go willingly,' which the Notaries I
+suppose would write 'Vadeboncoeur _dit_ Le Brun.'"
+
+Notwithstanding the early hour they were not alone on the road. A
+wrinkled woman, bent almost double, was toiling slowly along with heavy
+sighs, under a sack of firewood.
+
+"See here, madame," Charnilly called out, stepping forward to her,
+"give me the sack;" which he unloaded from her back and threw over his
+shoulder.
+
+"You are always so good, monseigneur Chamilly," the old woman groaned in
+a plaintive, palsied voice, without straightening her doubled frame.
+
+"Is the Bonhomme at the house?" he enquired.
+
+"I think not, sir; he was preparing to go to Isle of Ducks."
+
+"Just where I thought," exclaimed Haviland in English. "This Le Brun is
+of the oddest class--a secular hermit on the solitudes of the river--a
+species of mystery to the others. Sometimes he is seen paddling among
+the islands far down; sometimes seining a little, by methods invented by
+himself; sometimes carrying home an old gun and more or less loaded with
+ducks; sometimes his torch is seen far out in the dark, night-fishing;
+but few meet him face to face besides myself. When a boy I used to think
+he lived on the water because his legs were crooked, though more
+probably his legs are crooked because he avoids the land. He keeps my
+sail-boat for me and I let him use the old windmill we shall come to by
+those trees."
+
+The windmill and the cot of Le Brun stood in a birch-grown hollow, not
+far off, where a stream cascaded into the St. Lawrence, and had worn
+down the precipitous bank of earth. It was a wild picture. The gable of
+the cot was stained Indian red down to the eaves, and a stone chimney
+was embedded irregularly in its log side. The windmill, towering its
+conical roof and rusty weather-vane a little distance off, and
+stretching out its gray skeleton arms as if to creak more freely in the
+sweep of gales from the river, was one of those rembrandtesque relics
+which prove so picturesquely that Time is an artist inimitable by man. A
+clay oven near the cot completed this group of erections, around and
+behind which the silver birches and young elms grew up and closed.
+
+No, Messieurs, Le Brun was not at home; he had gone to Isle of Ducks;
+and all the blessings of the saints upon Monseigneur for his kindness to
+a poor old woman.--"Ah, Seigneur!"
+
+Chamilly took his skiff from the boathouse himself, and was soon pulling
+swiftly from the shore, while as they got out upon it the vastness and
+power of the stream became apparent.
+
+From its broad surface the mists began to rise gracefully in long
+drifts, moved by the early winds and partly obscuring the distant
+shores, whose fringe of little shut up houses still suggested slumber.
+The dews had freshened the pines of Dormilliere, and the old Church
+stood majestically forward among them, throwing back its head and
+keeping sleepless watch towards the opposite side. Gradually receding,
+too, the Manoir showed less and less gable among its mass of foliage.
+
+If the Church is one great institution of that country, the St. Lawrence
+is no less another,--displaying thirty miles unbroken blue on a clear
+day in the direction of the distant hill of Montreal, and on the other
+hand, towards Lake St. Peter, a vista oceanlike and unhorizoned. In
+certain regions numerous flat islands, covered by long grasses and
+rushes intersected by labyrinthine passages, hide the boatman from the
+sight of the world and form innumerable nooks of quiet which have a
+class of scenery and inhabitants altogether their own. As the chaloupe
+glides around some unsuspected corner, the crane rises heavily at the
+splash of a paddle, wild duck fly off low and swiftly, the plover circle
+away in bright handsome flocks, the gorgeous kingfisher leaves his
+little tree. In the water different spots have their special finny
+denizens. In one place a broad deep arm of the river--which throws off a
+dozen such arms, each as large as London's Thames, without the main
+stream appearing a whit less broad--shelters among its weeds exhaustless
+tribes of perch and pickerel; in another place a swifter and profounder
+current conceals the great sturgeon and lion-like maskinongé; while
+among certain shallower, less active corners, the bottom is clothed with
+muddy cat fish.
+
+They approached a region of this kind, skimmed along by spirited
+athletic strokes, and had arrived at the head of the low-lying
+archipelago just described, where they came upon a motionless figure
+sitting fishing in a punt, some distance along a broad passage to the
+left.
+
+Short blue blouse, little cap and flat-bottomed boat, the appearance of
+the figure at that hour made one with the drifting mists and rural
+strangeness of the landscape, and Chrysler knew it was Le Brun, and
+remarked so to Haviland.
+
+"Without doubt, Bonhomme is part of nature and unmistakable--Hola
+Bonhomme!"
+
+"Mo-o-o-o-nseigneur," he sung in reply, without looking up or taking
+further notice of them.
+
+Haviland gave a few more vigorous strokes.
+
+"How does it bite, Bonhomme?"
+
+"A little badly, monseigneur; all perch here; one pickerel. Shall we
+enter the little channels?"
+
+"I do not wish to enter the little channels: I remain here."
+
+They were soon fishing beside him, Chamilly at one end of the skiff
+intent upon his sport. The old man's flat punt was littered with perch.
+How early he must have risen! He was small of figure, weathered of face,
+simple and impassive of manner.
+
+"Good day," Chrysler opened; "the weather is wettish."
+
+"It is morningy, Monsieur."--
+
+"My son knows you, Monsieur," he said again humbly, after a pause.
+
+As Chrysler could not recall his son, as such, he waited before
+replying.
+
+"He saw you at Benoit's."
+
+Still Chrysler paused.
+
+"On Sunday."
+
+"A--ha, now I remember. That fine young man is your son?"
+
+"That fine young man, sir," he assented with perfect faith.
+
+After adjusting a line for Chrysler, he continued.
+
+"Do you not think, monsieur, that my son is fine enough for Josephte
+Benoit?"
+
+"Assuredly. Does he like her?"
+
+"They are devoted to each other."
+
+"If she accepts him then, why not? You do not doubt your son?"
+
+"Never, Monsieur! what is different is Jean. He thinks my Francois too
+poor for his Josephte, and he is for ever planning to discourage their
+love. Grand Dieu, he is proud! Yet his father and I were good friends
+when we were both boys. He wants Mlle. Josephte to take the American."
+
+"Reassure yourself; that will never be. No, Bonhomme, trust to me; that
+shall never he," exclaimed Chamilly.
+
+"How did you come to know these parties, sir," he put in English. But
+without awaiting an answer he continued: "Benoit is crazy to marry his
+daughter to that rowdy. Benoit was always rather off on the surface, but
+he has usually been shrewder at bottom. Cuiller infatuates him. He
+hasn't a single antecedent, but has been treating Benoit so much to
+liquor and boasting, that the foolish man follows him like a dog."
+
+"My son has been to Montreal,--he has done business," said the Bonhomme
+with pride--"he is a good young man--and he had plenty of money before
+he lost it on the journey."
+
+"How did he lose his money?"
+
+"Some one stole it. He was coming down to marry Josephte. If he had had
+his money Jean would have let her take him.--But he can earn more."
+
+"There was a mysterious robbery of François' money on the steam boat a
+couple of weeks ago," said Chamilly in English again, "I shall have to
+lend him some to set him up in business here, but mustn't do it till
+after my election."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE IDEAL STATE.
+
+
+The air, meanwhile, had been losing its dampness and the mist
+disappearing, when Haviland drew up his rod and threw it into the boat,
+and called upon his friend to turn and look at the sunrise.
+
+American sunsets and sunrises, owing to the atmosphere, are famous for
+their gorgeousness; but some varieties are especially noble. Mountain
+ones charm by floods of lights and coloring over the heights and
+ravines, to whose character indeed the sky effects make but a clothing
+robe, and it is the mountains, or the combination, that speaks. But
+looking along this glassy avenue of water, flushed with the reflection,
+it was the great sunrise itself, in its own unobstructed fullness,
+spreading higher and broader than ever less level country had permitted
+the Ontarian to behold it, that towered above them over the reedy
+landscape, in grand suffusions and surges of color.
+
+"It is in Nature," said Chamilly, comprehending that Chrysler felt the
+scene, "that I can love Canada most, and become renewed into efforts for
+the good of her human sons. I feel in the presence of this,"--he waved
+his hand upward, "that I could speak of my ideas."
+
+"You would please me. You said a nation must have a reason for existing
+and that Canada should have a clear ideal of hers. What is the raison
+d'être of Canada?"
+
+"_To do pre-eminently well a part of the highest work of all the world!
+If by being a nation we can advance mankind; if by being a nation we
+can make a better community for ourselves; our aims are founded on the
+highest raison d'être,--the ethical spirit._ We must deliberately mark
+out our work on this principle; and if we do not work upon it we had
+better not exist."
+
+Then Haviland related to Chrysler freely and fully the comprehensive
+plan which he had worked out for the building of the nation.
+
+"First of all," he said, "as to ourselves, there are certain things we
+must clearly take to mind before we begin:"
+
+"That we cannot do good work without making ourselves a good people;"
+
+"That we cannot do the best work without being also a strong and
+intellectual people;"
+
+"And that we cannot attain to anything of value at haphazard; but must
+deliberately choose and train for it."
+
+"Labors worthy of Hercules!" ejaculated the old gentleman.
+
+"Worthy of God," the young one replied. The difference of age between
+himself and the Ontarian seemed to disappear, and he proceeded
+confidently:
+
+"The foundation must be the Ideal Physical Man. We must never stop short
+of working until,--now, do not doubt me, sir,--every Canadian is the
+strongest and most beautiful man that can be thought. No matter how
+utterly chimerical this seems to the parlor skeptic who insists on our
+seeing only the common-place, it cannot be so to the true thinker who
+knows the promises of science and reflects that a nation can turn its
+face to endeavours which are impossible for a person. Physical culture
+must be placed on a more reasonable basis, and made a requisite of all
+education. We need a Physical Inspector in every School. We need to
+regularly encourage the sports of the country. We require a military
+term of training, compulsory on all young men, for its effect in
+straightening the person and strengthening the will. We must have a
+nation of stern, strong men--a careless people can never rise; no deep
+impression, no fixed resolve, will ever originate from easy-going
+natures."
+
+"Next, the most crying requirement is True Education. The source of all
+our political errors and sufferings is an ignorant electorate, who do
+not know how to measure either the men or the doctrines that come before
+them. There is necessity in the doctrine of the State's right over
+secular education. Democracy, gives you and me an inalienable interest,
+social and political, in the education of each voter, because its very
+principle is the right to choose our rulers. As to religious education,
+that of course is sacred, where it does not encroach on the State's
+right, and the arrangement I favor is that secular studies be enforced
+during certain hours, and the use of the school buildings granted to
+religious instructors at others."
+
+"I notice you say true education."
+
+"A man is being truly educated when his training is exactly levelled at
+what he ought to be:--first of all a high type of man in general, and
+next, a good performer of his calling. Let him have a scheme of facts
+that will give him an idea of the ALL: then show him his part in it."
+
+"Let him be taught in a simple way the logic of facts."
+
+"Let him be taught to seek the best sources only of information."
+
+"Let him be taught in school the falsity of the chief political
+sophisms."
+
+"Let him be branded with a few business principles of life in general:
+such as how much to save, and where to put it, and the wisdom of
+insurance."
+
+"Let him learn these three maxims of experience:"
+
+"Gain experience."
+
+"Gain experience at the lowest possible price."
+
+"Never risk gaining the same experience twice."
+
+"Seek for him, in fine, not learning so much as wisdom, the essence of
+learning."
+
+"But especially, let every Canadian be educated to see The National
+Work, and how to do it."
+
+"In short, educate for what you require and educate most for the
+greatest things you require, and in manner such that everyone may be
+equipped to stand anywhere without help, and fight a good battle."
+
+"It is an Ideal Character, however, a character perfectly harmonized
+with his destinies as a soul, and his condition as a citizen, that is
+the most important armour in the panoply of the Canadian. Purity and
+elevation of the national character must be held sacred as the snowy
+peaks of Olympus to the Greek. And as those celestial summits could
+never have risen to their majesty without foundations of more humble
+rocks and earth; so we must lay foundations for our finer aspirations by
+the acquirement of certain basal habits:"
+
+"The Habit of Industry."
+
+"The Habit of Economy."
+
+"The Habit of Progress."
+
+"The Habit of Seriousness."
+
+"In other words the habits of honestly acquiring, keeping and improving,
+all good things, material, intellectual and moral, and of dealing with
+the realities of things."
+
+"The Habit of Seriousness may seem strange to insist upon, but one has
+only to mark the injury to everything noble, of an atmosphere of
+flippancy and constant strain after smart language. There is nothing in
+flippancy to have awe of--any one can learn the knack of it--but it is
+foolish and degrading, while seriousness is the color of truth itself."
+
+"As to the Habit of Industry, there is no other way that can be depended
+upon for becoming wealthy in goods, or learning, or in good deeds.
+Materially, if we can learn to employ all our available time at
+something, we shall be the richest of nations. Why have we so many men
+idling about the villages? Why do so many women simply live on a
+relative? How different the country would look if the man spent his
+waste moments in building a gallery, an oriel window, or an awning, to
+his house, and the idle girl practised some home manufacture. The
+prosperity of certain Annapolis valley farmers once struck me. 'Do you
+know why it is?' said a gentleman who was born there. 'The forefathers
+of these people were a colony of weavers, _and there is a loom in every
+house_.'"
+
+"The Habit of Economy is simply making the best use of our possessions
+and powers."
+
+"The Habit of Progress, or of constantly seeking to improve, is to be
+deeply impressed. It alone will bring us everything. It is never time to
+say, 'Let us remain as we are.'"
+
+"We could attend to some minor habits with benefit. How the popular
+intelligence would be improved, for instance, by:--"
+
+"A habit of asking for the facts."
+
+"A habit of thinking before asserting."
+
+"A mean between liberality and tenacity of conviction."
+
+"Now one more piece of equipment, but it is the highest: The Canadian,
+if he is to live a life thoroughly scaled on the scale of the
+reasonable, must place the greatest importance on those interests which
+transcend all his others, his future fare beyond this make-shift
+existence; his relations to the unseen world; and how to lay hold on
+purity and righteousness. Think what he may of them, life should at any
+rate think. Let him set apart times to ponder over these matters: and
+for this, I say that to be a lofty and noble nation, we must all borrow
+the rational observance of the Sabbath, not as a day merely of rest and
+still less of flighty recreation, but a necessary period devoted to
+man's thought upon his more tremendous affairs."
+
+After the equipment of the ideal Canadians, Chamilly proceeded to
+describe their work. They were to see its pattern above them in the
+skies--The Perfect Nation.
+
+Among themselves a few great ideas were to be striven for: "We must be
+One People," "Canada must be Perfectly Independent:" "There must be No
+Proletariat"
+
+The principle of government was to be "Government by the Best
+Intelligence."
+
+"We must try to amend unfair distributions of wealth. Yet not to take
+from the rich, but give to the poor. Fortunes should be looked upon as
+national, and we should seek means to bring the wealthy to apply their
+fortunes to patriotic uses. The surroundings of the poor should be made
+beautiful. No labour should be wasted. Men should learn several
+occupations, and Government find means of instant communication between
+those who would work and those who would employ. The lot of the poor
+must not be made hopeless from generation to generation!"
+
+The next demand of the Ideal was, "There must be No Vice."
+
+"The difficulties!" sighed Chrysler.
+
+"We ought to be ashamed to complain till we have done as well as
+Sweden."
+
+"Again, we must stamp our action with the Spirit of Organization. The
+nation must work all together as a whole. The public plan must be
+clearly disseminated, and especially the aim 'To do pre-eminently well
+our portion of the improvement of the world.' Consecrated by our ideal
+also we must seek to draw together, and foster a national
+distinctiveness. Canada must mean to us the Sacred Country, and our
+young men learn to weigh truly the value of such living against foreign
+advantages. For there is no surety of any excellence equal to a national
+atmosphere of it. They have always been artists in Italy; they have
+always been sternly free in Scotland: for a word of glory the French
+rush into the smoke of battle: the Englishman is a success in courage
+and practicality; the German has not given his existence in vain to
+thoroughness; nor the American to business. Let us make to ourselves
+proper customs and peculiarities, like the good old New Year's call, the
+Winter Carnival, the snow-shoe costume, and a secular procession of St.
+Jean Baptiste. Tradition too! Why should we forget the virtues of our
+fathers; or perhaps still better their faults? Let the man who was a
+hero--Daulac; Brock; the twelve who sortied at Lacolle Mill; our
+deathless three hundred of Chateauguay,--never to be forgotten. Have
+them in our books, our school books, our buildings. Make a Fund for
+Tablets; so that the people may read everywhere: 'Here died McGee, who
+loved this nation.' 'Papineau spoke here.' 'In this house dwelt
+Heavysege.' So might all Canada be a Quebec of memories."
+
+He held that the office of our literature and art was to express the
+spirit of our work. "Nor let the poet," he said, "find the keystone of
+our spirits dull; let him not fear he sings a vain song when he leaves
+that voice lingering in some vale of ours that conjures about it forever
+its moment of richest beauty and romance."
+
+In dress, in manners, we should be common-sense, tasteful and fearless,
+and in the development of our territory energetic and full of hope.
+"Believe me, sir, we shall yet learn how to have bright fire-sides on
+the shores of the Arctic."
+
+"And where is our world-work?" Chrysler asked, like one awakening.
+
+"Wherever there is world-work undone that we can reach to do."
+
+"Think," cried he, finally, "of a country that lives, as I am
+suggesting, on the deepest and highest principle of the seen and the
+unseen--what has been the aspiration of the lonely great of other
+nations, the clear purpose of all is this: what have been the virtues of
+a few in the past, determined here to be those of the whole; and every
+citizen ennobled by the consciousness that he is equally possessed of
+the common glory!"
+
+"It can be done! Heaven and earth tell us that all is under laws of
+cause and effect, and that this, which has been once, can be made
+universal. I hear the voice of Science, 'It can be done. It can be
+done!' I hear the voice of Duty, 'It must be done!' Inextinguishable
+voices!!"
+
+"It comes to me so vividly that I almost point you to that sunrise and
+say, 'See yon beautiful city whose palaces and churches tower with the
+grace and splendors of all known architecture; those rural plains and
+vales of park and garden, where every home nestles so as one could not
+conceive it more lovely; that race of heroes and goddesses in strength
+and thought; those proud tablets and monuments of national and
+international honor and achievement and blessing.' And if any say, 'How
+can we attain to that greatness?' I would write him this amulet: 'Begin
+at the POSSIBLE!'"
+
+The patriot ended, and when he had finished, Chrysler exclaimed:
+
+"Work it out, Haviland! If a convert is any use to you, take me over and
+send me forth. It's a noble scheme. But, for Heaven's sake, fortify
+yourself. How many proselytes do you expect in the first hundred years?"
+
+"You forget," replied Haviland. "I have always this faithful little
+legion of Dormillière. Has not Lareau said," and he smiled half in joke,
+half seriously, "that we are a people of ideals."
+
+They returned to their fishing in silence, broken by a meditative query
+now and then from Chrysler, but no movement of curiosity from the
+Bonhomme.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+JOSEPHTE.
+
+
+"Sister Elisâ," lisped Rudolphe, the tiny boy. (In the garden the
+children of the farmer of the domain, and of Pierre, were playing
+together.) "Mr. Ch'ysl' has told me he was a Canadian."
+
+"Did he say so, _mon fin_?" asked motherly ten-year-old Elisâ, picking a
+"belle p'tite" flower for the little fellow, whom she held by the hand.
+
+"He's not Canadian," put in the large boy, Henri, with contempt
+befitting his twelve years of experience. "Because he doesn't speak
+French. He's an English."
+
+"Speaking French don't make a Canadian," answered Elisâ. "The Honorable
+says every one who is native in Canada is a Canadian, speak he French,
+speak he English."
+
+"O, well--the Honorable--the Honorable--" retorted Henri, testily.
+
+While this went on, the voice of Josephte could be heard singing low and
+happy, in a corner of the walk of pines which surrounded the garden and
+the back of the grounds:
+
+   "Eglantine est la fleur que j'aime
+   La violette est ma couleur...."[H]
+
+Next, lower, but as if stirred softly by the lingering strain rather
+than feeling its sadness:
+
+[Footnote H:  "Eglantine is the flower I love,
+              My color is the violet"]
+
+     "....Dans le souci tu vois l'emblème
+      Des chagrins de mon triste coeur."[I]
+
+[Footnote I:
+
+   "....The symbol shall the emblem prove
+   Of my sad heart and eyelids wet"]
+
+When she got thus far, she stopped and called out, cheerfully:--"Come
+along, my little ones; come along; come along and recite your duties!"
+And in a trice they all raced in and were panting in a row about her.
+
+Thus one sultry afternoon, Mr. Chrysler found her sitting, book and
+sewing on her lap and only a rosary about her neck to relieve the modest
+black dress, whose folds,
+
+   "Plain in their neatness,"
+accorded well with her indefinably gentle bearing. Seeing him, she
+stopped and dropped her head, like a good convent maiden.
+
+"Procedez, ma'amselle," he said, nodding benevolently. "Do not disturb
+yourself."
+
+"But, monsieur," she said, and blushed in confusion.
+
+"Go on. I shall be interested in these young people's lessons."
+
+"As monsieur wishes," she replied. "Now, my little ones, your
+catechism."
+
+They ranged themselves in a line.
+
+"Elisâ, thee first; repeat the Commandments of God."
+
+Elisâ commenced a rhyming paraphrase of the Ten Commandments.
+
+"Ah, no, cherie,--more reverence. Say it as to the Holy Virgin."
+
+Elisâ went through it in a soft manner to the end.
+
+"Rudolphe; the Seven Commandments of the Church."
+
+The childish accents of the little one repeated them:--
+
+   1. Mass on Sundays them shalt hear
+        And on feasts commanded thee.
+
+   2. Once at least in every year,
+        Must thy sins confessed be.
+
+   3. Thy Creator take at least
+        At Easter with humility.
+
+   4. And keep holy every feast,
+        Whereof thou shalt have decree.
+
+   5. Quatre-temps, Vigils, fasts are met,
+        And in Lent entirely.
+
+   6. Fridays flesh thou shalt not eat;
+        Saturdays the same shall be.
+
+   7. Church's every tithe and fee
+        Thou shalt pay her faithfully.
+
+"Henri, what is the Church which Jesus Christ has established?"
+
+"The Church which Jesus Christ has established," said he stoutly, "is
+the Church Catholic, Apostolic and Roman."
+
+The next was Henri's eight year old sister.
+
+"Can anyone be saved outside of the Church Catholic, Apostolic and
+Roman?"
+
+"No," (solemnly,) "out of the Church there is no salvation."
+
+"Say now the Act of Faith all together."
+
+"My God," said the children in unison, "I believe firmly all that the
+Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches, because it is you who have
+said it and you are Truth Itself."
+
+"You may rest yourselves."
+
+Chrysler was most curious regarding what he heard thus instilled. The
+thought struck him: "There's something like that, in our Calvinism too."
+
+"My dear demoiselle," he said aloud, "as I am a Protestant--"
+
+"A Protestant, sir!" She regarded him with visibly extraordinary
+emotions, and involuntarily crossed herself.
+
+"It is impossible!"
+
+It was the first time a Protestant and she had ever been face to face.
+"Monsieur," she appealed in agitation "why do you not enter the bosom of
+the true Church?"
+
+"Must one not act as he believes?"
+
+"But, sir," said the dear girl, painfully, still regarding him with
+great wonder, "on studying true doctrine, the saints will make you
+believe; the priest can baptize you. He will be delighted, I am certain,
+to save a soul from destruction." She could not restrain the flow of a
+tear.
+
+"My child," Chrysler said, for he saw that curiosity had led him too
+far: "Leave this to God, who is greater than you or I and knows every
+heart."
+
+"Monsieur, then, believes in God!" Her present astonishment was equal to
+that before.
+
+The rising voices of the children relieved him. That of Elisâ, who sat
+in a ring of the rest, nodding her head decidedly and rhythmically, was
+conspicuous:
+
+"I am going to join the Sisterhood of the Holy Rosary and go to church
+early, early, often, often, four times a day, and pray, pray, and say my
+paters and my aves, and gain my indulgences, and be more devout than
+Sister Jesus of God; and then I am going to take the novitiate and wear
+a beautiful white veil and fast every day, and at last--at last--I am
+going to be a Religieuse."
+
+"What name will you take, Elisâ?"
+
+"I have decided," the little convent girl responded, "to take the name
+of 'Sister St. Joseph of the Cradle.'"
+
+"Mais, that is pretty, that! But I prefer 'St. Mary of the Saviour.'"
+
+"What are you going to be?" Elisâ asked of the smaller girl.
+
+"I will be--I will be--I will take my first communion."
+
+"I have taken it already," replied Elisâ, with superiority.
+
+"Henri! Henri! it is your turn."
+
+"I am going to be an advocate."
+
+"And I am going to be a Rouge," replied little Rudolphe.
+
+"Hah,--we are all Rouges," replied Henri.
+
+"O, well--I will be, then--Monseigneur, like Monsieur Chamilly."
+
+The garden stretched behind the manor-house. Along its paths these
+children delighted to explore the motherly currant-bushes. Old-fashioned
+flowers stocked it, and, as Chrysler walked away among them, they
+reminded him of the simple gardens of his childhood before the showy
+house-plant era had modernized our grounds. There were erect groups and
+rows of hollyhocks; monkshood offered its clusters of blue caps; striped
+tulips and crimson poppies flourished in beds of generous shapes;
+delicate astors, rich dahlias, and neat little bachelors' buttons peeped
+in crowds from green freshnesses. This was one of Madame's domains,
+where she walked, weeded and superintended every morning in broad straw
+hat and apron; and it was to Chrysler one of the attractions of the
+Manoir.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+GRANDMOULIN.
+
+   "Que Demosthènes,
+     En haranguant,
+   Entraine Athènes,
+     Come un torrent!"
+
+   --JACQUES VIORR--LE JARGON DU BEL-ESPRIT.
+
+
+The events to which all others were leading now began to happen.
+
+The great nomination day,--Sunday--is here. Mass is over, the whole
+parish, aye and crowds from far and near behind, surge all over the
+square, where the Church looks down upon them in serenity and silence.
+
+When Chrysler came up, the Cure and his vicar were sitting on their
+gallery, and a man of strong frame stood upon the crier's rostrum
+looking round with the assertive consciousness that he was a recognized
+figure. His face wore a beard of strong but thin black wisps, which
+would have been Vandyke in form had it been heavier, but allowed the
+forcible outlines of his chin and cheek to be visible; and his locks,
+imitated by many a follower throughout the Province, were worn like
+Gainbetta's in a long and swelling black mass behind. His countenance,
+evidently from long experience, was so controlled that no trace of
+natural expression could be discerned upon it beyond an appearance of
+caution and diplomacy; but whatever its specific character, it bore
+without gainsay the stamp of power.
+
+The man was Grandmoulin.
+
+After looking this way and that way for several moments allowing the
+assemblage to hush, he began in a quiet tone.
+
+"My friends!"
+
+He paused deliberately some moments to permit the people's curiosity to
+concentrate upon him.
+
+"My brothers!"
+
+This with a rising, powerful voice.--Then higher:
+
+"French--Canadians!!" separating the two words.
+
+The audience strained with attention to hear him. What he had to say
+next became a matter of suspense.
+
+Then with inflection of passionate enthusiasm:
+
+"Canadian FRENCHMEN!!!" he cried, hurling out all his force. And the
+people could no longer restrain themselves; the rhetorical artifice took
+them by storm, and they shouted and cheered with one loud, far-echoing,
+unanimous voice.
+
+Grandmoulin kept his attitude erect and immovable.
+
+"My friends," he proceeded, when the applause began to subside, "I
+address you as heritors and representatives of a glorious national
+title. To wear it--to be called 'Frenchman' is to stand in the ranks of
+the nobility of the human race. I address you as a generous, a great, a
+devoted people, a people brave of heart and unequalled in intellectual
+ability, a people proud of themselves, their deeds and the deeds of
+their fathers in New France and in the fair France of the past, a people
+above all intensely national, patriotic, jealous for the advancement of
+their tongue and their race. I address you as faithful of the ancient
+Church which was founded on the Petrine Rock, and names itself Catholic,
+Apostolic, Roman; whose altars God has preserved unshaken through the
+centuries amid terrible hosts of enemies, bitter oppressions, diabolical
+persecutions; of whose faith your hearts, your bodies, your race itself,
+are the consecrated depositories set apart and blessed of Heaven."
+
+"I address you further, Frenchmen of Canada, as an oppressed remnant,
+long crushed and evil treated under alien conquerors; who despoiled you
+of your dominion, your freedom and your future, and whose military
+despotism, history records, spurned your cry during eighty years with
+unspeakable arrogance; till you rose like men in the despair of the '37,
+for the simplest rights, brandishing in your hands poor scythes and
+knives against armies with cannon, O my compatriots!--and compelled them
+to dole you a little justice!"
+
+"The brave and generous who still remain of the generation before,
+recount to you those living scenes, and your hearts take part with the
+wronged and valiant of your blood!"
+
+"In this secluded countryside you see too little how they still insult
+you. Ask yourselves frankly whether that for which our nation strove has
+ever yet been had. What have we gained? Is not the battle still to be
+fought? There are no facts more patent than that the English are our
+conquerors, that they rule our country, that they are aliens, heretics,
+enemies of our Holy Religion, and that they are heaping up unrighteous
+riches, while we are becoming despised and poor."
+
+"Think not that I speak without emotions in my breast. There was a day,
+my poor French-Canadian brothers,--a solemn day, when I bound myself by
+a great oath to the cause of my people. It was when my father told me,
+his voice choking with, tears, of the murder of my grandfather,
+ignominiously thrown from the gallows for the felony of patriotism! Was
+I wrong to rise in grief and wrath, and swear with tears and prayers
+before our good Ste. Anne that I would never rest or taste a pleasure
+until I free the French-Canadians?"
+
+"'It is I who will defend my race and my religion!' cried I then, and I
+have ever striven to do this, and still so strive."
+
+Having thus played along each different key of his hearer's prejudices,
+he turned them towards his end.
+
+"It is possible you may think I have, been speaking of everything but
+politics, and that you are asking yourselves what I really mean. Do you
+know what this election signifies? _It is a contest of the French with
+the English._ It is a question whether that arrogant minority shall
+continue to impose their ideas, their leaders, their execrable heresies,
+their taxes and restrictions upon this great French-Canadian
+Province--the only country which you have been able to hold for your
+own. You are here, at least, the majority! If their artifices have
+succeeded in excluding you from a part in governing the Dominion, there
+is one thing left; _you can govern this Province if you stand by me!_ If
+you stand by my me you can make our country purely and powerfully
+French! The ballot gives us the government: we will legislate the
+English. We will repay their oppressions with taxes and leave the
+Frenchman free; we will overvalue their properties, and undervalue our
+own; we will divide their constituencies; we will proclaim parishes out
+of townships; we will deprive them of offices, harass their commerce,
+vex their heretical altars; we will force new privileges from the
+Federal power; we will colonize the public lands with our own people
+exclusively, and repatriate our children lost; we will possess ourselves
+of those palaces and that vast wealth they wring from our labor, and
+finally, free as these great stretches of the valley, we shall live at
+peace in our own land."
+
+A sullen murmur passed about. The passions were being roused. "The
+English eat the French-Canadians," repeated several.
+
+"Messieurs of Dormillière, you can judge of me! They have said of me all
+sorts of calumnies, all kinds of insinuations. I have been painted as
+black as the evil spirits. Men are here who will tell you 'Grandmoulin
+is a hypocrite; Grandmoulin is a robber, a liar, a libertine,'--that I
+have ruined my Province and sold my people and committed all the list of
+mortal sins. But, my brothers, I turn from those who assert these wicked
+falsehoods and I justify myself to you."
+
+"Because I have not sought peace with the strong--because I have not
+acted a vanquished to the victors--because I have suffered--but that is
+nothing--because I have freely poured out every energy, as I do to-day,"
+(and there was certainly vast physical effort in the output he was then
+making of himself) "they have branded me that disturber, that robber,
+that murderer, that liar and that villain."
+
+"Messieurs, let me tell you a secret that will explain! Scan close and
+you will find that there is no man who says these things of me who is
+not either a friend of the English, and traitor to you, or else has been
+rejected by my associates as unworthy to represent our patriotic
+ambitions. I must speak even of the agreeable young man of intellect and
+eloquence who opposes me. I do not blame him: I forgive him. He is young
+and inexperienced, and he sees things from certain aspects only. Have
+you never considered that it was natural for one whose father was an
+Englishman, and whose Protestant grandfather came across the seas among
+the army that conquered us, to look from a standpoint different from
+ours. If his birth and sympathies lead him in another direction from me,
+and my enemies have succeeded in prejudicing his mind, make allowance
+for him as I myself do, _and trust me_. I adjure you by the holy names
+of Mary and Joseph, I am your friend: understand only that Grandmoulin
+is your friend! Let the confidence be complete, and the triumph of your
+race in the Province of Quebec is secure!"
+
+To Chrysler's utter surprise, the orator, pausing a moment, singled him
+out; pointed his finger towards him, and, turning to the people, cried:
+"Have I not said Mr. Haviland was a friend of your conquerors? Let me
+show you his adviser at this crisis of his plans!"
+
+Grandmoulin knew he was in a community saturated with the Rouge
+tradition. He knew that even with all the weak and corruptible elements
+of the "back parishes" his chances were inferior on their face to
+Chamilly's, and he felt that he must at least retain his adherents here
+or lose the county. It was only after a final, truly magnificent effort
+of eloquence that he withdrew, and cheers upon cheers followed him,
+especially from a party among whom Cuiller, in a state of intoxication,
+was prominent. It was the first time that Grandmoulin had appeared in
+the neighborhood, and he had evidently created a great impression.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+CHAMILLY.
+
+   "Mais, n'avons-nous pas, je vous prie,
+     Encore de plus puissants liens?
+   A tout preferons la patrie:
+     Avant tout soyons Canadiens."
+
+   --POPULAR SONG.
+
+
+Chamilly rose upon the rostrum when Grandmoulin went down. He opened
+quietly, after the exciting peroration of his opponent, and in a manner
+which lulled and calmed the assembly.
+
+"People of Dormillière, I have had a cause for wonder during Mr.
+Grandmoulin's discourse. I have been wondering at the perfect courage
+with which he invents a fact, a reason, a principle, an emotion, in
+cases where almost the whole world knows that none of these exist."
+
+"I am accounted a person informed in the events of '37. I have studied
+all the accounts and documents that are accessible, and have made a
+point of conversing with the survivors of that time. I state with the
+fullest knowledge, and you have long known the value of my word, that it
+is a falsehood that Mr. Grandmoulin's grandfather died a martyr as he
+has alleged, nor is he known to have been concerned in the rebellion in
+any way."
+
+This statement created a visible sensation over the audience.
+
+"Zotique called out: 'The National Liar!'"
+
+Grandmoulin remained immovable.
+
+"His assertion that I am an Englishman," went on Chamilly, "is as
+absurd as it is futile here. Friends of mine through my youth, and
+children of the friends of my forefathers, whose lives arose and
+declined in this place like ours, am I not bound to you by ties which
+forbid that I should be named a stranger!"
+
+(Cries of "Oui, Oui," "Nôtre frère!" and "Nôtre Chamilly!")
+
+"Mr. Grandmoulin speaks a falsehood of perhaps not less importance in
+his assertion that the English are oppressing us. Where is the
+oppression of which he makes cry? The very existence of each of you in
+his full liberty and speaking French ought to be a sufficient argument.
+Speak, act, worship, buy, sell,--who hinders us so long as we obey the
+laws? Would you like a stronger evidence of our freedom? Grandmoulin
+himself presents it when he proclaims his violent incitations! Of
+oppression by our good fellow-citizens, let then no more be said.--"
+
+"The object of Mr. Grandmoulin in these bold falsifications is I think
+sufficiently suspected by you, when you have it on the evidence of your
+senses that they are invented. Let us leave both them and him aside and
+keep ourselves free to examine that theme of far transcending
+importance, _the true position of the French-Canadians_."
+
+"What is our true position? Is it to be a people of Ishmaelites, who see
+in every stranger an enemy, who, having rejected good-will, shall have
+chosen to be those whose existence is an intrigue--a people accepting no
+ideas, and receiving no benefits? Will they be happy in their hatred?
+Will they progress? Will they be permitted to exist?"
+
+"Or shall their ideas be different? Tell me, ye who are of them; is it
+more natural or not that they shall open their generous hearts to
+everyone who will be their friend, their minds to every idea, their
+conceptions to the noon-day conception of the fraternity of mankind,
+liberty, equality, good-will? Is it more natural or not that we should
+find pride in a country and a nation which have accepted our name and
+history, and are constantly seeking our citizen-like affection to make
+the union with us complete? French-Canadians, the honor of this
+Dominion, which promises to be one of the greatest nations of the earth,
+is peculiarly yours. You are of the race which were the first to call
+themselves Canadians! The interests of your children are bound up in its
+being; your honor in its conduct; your glory in its success. Work for
+it, think on it, pray for it; let no illusion render you untrue to it:
+beware of the enemy who would demolish the foundation of one patriotism
+under pretext of laying the stones of another."
+
+"Canadians!"--He lingered on the sound with tones of striking richness
+which sank into the hearts of his hearers. "Canadians!--Great title of
+the future, syllable of music, who is it that shall hear it in these
+plains in centuries to come, and shall forget the race who chose it, and
+gave it to the hundred peoples who arrive to blend in our land? To
+_your_ stock the historic part and the gesture of respect is assigned,
+from the companies of the incoming stream. My brothers, let us be
+benign, and accept our place of honor. Identify yourselves with a nation
+vaster than your race, and cultivate your talents to put you at its
+head."
+
+He said he had no condemnation, however, for those who were rightly
+proud of the deeds of the French race and its old heroes.
+
+"I have nothing but the enthusiasm of a comrade for any true to the
+noble feelings which it would be a shame to let die! I entreat that they
+be cherished, and let them incite us to new assurance of our
+capabilities for enterprises fitting to our age. Let the virtues of old
+take new forms, and courage will still be courage, hospitality
+hospitality, and patriotism patriotism! Away with dragging for
+inglorious purposes the banner of the past through the dust of the
+present! Let the present be made glorious, and not inglorious, in its
+own kind, and the past shine on at its enchanted distance of beauty!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What shall that greatness be--that splendor of our Canada to come?" He
+pictured its possibilities in grand vistas. The people were spell-bound
+by noble hopes and emotions which carried them upward. Involuntarily, as
+Chrysler looked at his face and bearing, he was reminded of the
+prophets, and the old white church behind seemed to be rising and
+throwing back its head, and withdrawing its thoughts into some proud
+region of the great and supernatural. The old man forgot the crowd and
+the crowd totally forgot Chrysler:
+
+"Canadians!" Chamilly closed, his figure drawn up like a hero's and his
+rich voice sounding the name again with that wonderful utterance, "the
+memories of our race are compatible only with the good of the world and
+our country. If you are unwilling to accept me on this basis, do not
+elect me, for I will only express my convictions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
+
+   "On high in yonder old church tower,
+          *       *       *       *       *
+   The ancient bell rings out the hour,
+   Sometimes with voice of wondrous power."
+
+   --JOHN BREAKENRIDGE.
+
+
+Monsieur Editor Quinet mounted the platform and stood there, cool and
+masterful.
+
+At the same moment the Curé in his black gown, bolted up from his chair
+beside his young vicar, on the gallery of the parsonage, and regarding
+the orator with indignation, raised his breviary towards the church with
+outstretched arm.
+
+"Messieurs, what ruins us".... Quinet commenced.
+
+His sentence was shattered to pieces!
+
+"KLING-KLANG-G-G-G!" a loud church bell resounded from one of the
+towers, sending a visible shock over the assembly and drowning the
+succeeding words.
+
+"What ruins us".... Quinet, with imperturbable composure, commenced
+again in a louder voice.
+
+A cashing peal from the opposite belfry replied to the first and
+compelled him to stop.
+
+The Curé, swelling with triumph, marched up and down his gallery,
+turning quickly at each end; while the bells of both the towers,
+swinging confusedly in their belfries, sent forth one horrible continued
+torrent of clangor over the amazed crowd.
+
+The speaker was soon convinced that no amount of cool waiting would
+prevail. He did, therefore, what was a more keenly effective
+continuation of his sentence than any words,--raised his finger and
+pointed it steadily for a few moments at the Curé, and then withdrew.
+
+For many a day the story of Quinet and the bells was told in
+Dormillière.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+LIBERGENT.
+
+
+During the addresses, Libergent, Chamilly's nominal opponent, seemed to
+do nothing more than stand behind the rostrum and let things proceed.
+Libergent, lawyer, was a man of a shrewd low order of ability. About
+forty years of age and medium height, his compact, athletic physique,
+partly bald head, small but well rounded skull, close iron-grey hair and
+moustache would have made him a perfect type of the French military man,
+were it not for a sort of stoop of determination, which, however, added
+to his appearance of athletic alertness, while it took away much
+dignity. The expression of his face was not bad. The decided droop of
+the corners of the mouth, and hardness of his grey-brown eyes indicated,
+it is true, a measure of irritability, but on the whole, the
+objectionable element of the expression was only that of a man who was
+accustomed to measure all things on the scale of common-place personal
+advantage. His life was not belied by his appearance. He found his chief
+pleasures in fishing, and shooting, and kept a trotter of rapid pace.
+His quarters were comfortable in the sense of the smoker and sportsman.
+When he did not wear an easier costume for convenience, his shining hat
+and broad-cloth coat would have been the envy of many a city confrère.
+He lived a very moderate, regular life: now and then took a little
+liquor with a friend, but always with some sage remark against excess;
+made himself for the most part a reasonable and sufficiently agreeable
+companion; and had no higher tastes, unless a collection of coins, well
+mounted and arranged and at times added to, may claim that title. He
+therefore considered Haviland stark mad in spending so much money and
+brains upon nonsense; and the subject made him testy when he reviewed
+his refusal to accept some arrangement by which they could share the
+local political advantages between them.
+
+"Politics is a sphere of business like any other," he said. "Haviland is
+doing the injury to himself and me that a theorist in business always
+does. He makes himself a cursed nuisance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+MISÉRICORDE.
+
+
+Fiercely the election stirred the energies of Dormillière. For more than
+a generation, enthusiasm for political contest had been a local
+characteristic; but now the feelings of the village,--as pronounced and
+hereditary a "Red" stronghold, as Vincennes across the river was
+hereditarily "Blue,"--may be likened only to the feeling of the Trojans
+at the famous siege of Troy. Their Seigneur was the Hector, and their
+strand beheld debarking against it the boldest pirates of the
+French-Canadian Hellas.
+
+In Chrysler's walks he met signs of the excitement even where a long
+stroll brought him far back into the country.
+
+The one of such corners named Miséricorde from its wretchedness, was a
+hamlet of thirty or forty cabins crowded together among some scrub trees
+in the midst of a stony moor. The inhabitants, of whom a good share were
+broken-down beggars and nondescript fishermen, varied their discouraged
+existences by drinking, wood sawing and doing odd jobs for the
+surrounding farmers, while their slatternly women idled at the doors and
+the children grew up wild, trooping over the surrounding waste.
+Politically, the place was noted for its unreliability. It was well
+known that every suffrage in it was open to corruption. In ordinary
+times the Rouges troubled themselves little about this, but the strong
+combination they had now to fight might make the vote of La Miséricorde
+of considerable importance; hence, there was some value in the trust
+which had been placed, at the meeting, in Benoit and Spoon.
+
+Here the latter, even more than at Dormillière, was in his element.
+
+A drinking house, misnamed "hôtel," was the most prominent building in
+Miséricorde. It would not have ornamented a more respectable locality
+but, on the whole, possessed a certain picturesqueness, among these
+hovels, and arrested the Ontarian's steps. Stained a dark grey by at
+least fifty years of exposure, yet slightly tinted with the traces of a
+by-gone coat of green, it lifted a high peaked roof in air, which in
+descent, suddenly curving, was carried far out over a high-set front
+gallery reached by very steep steps. On the stuck-out sign, which was in
+the same faded condition as the rest of the building, were with
+difficulty to be distinguished in a suggestion of yellow color the
+shapes of a large and small French loaf, and the inscription "BOULONGÉ,"
+but the baking had apparently passed away with the paint. While he was
+curiously surveying this antique bit, a loud voice sounded through the
+open door, and the heavy form of the "Yankee from Longueuil"
+precipitated itself proudly, though a trifle unsteadily, forward down
+the steps and along the middle of the street, swearing, boasting and
+heading a swarm of men and boys, and loudly drawling a line of
+Connecticut notions in blasphemy.
+
+It could be seen that Spoon was some kind of a hero in the eyes of
+Miséricorde. Rich,--for he had paid the drinks; travelled,--they had his
+assertion for it; courageous,--he could anathematize the Archbishop;
+Miséricorde had seldom such a novelty all to itself.
+
+"Sacré! To blazes wit' you; set 'em up all roun', you blas' Canaydjin
+nigger! Du gin, vite done! John Collins' pour le crowd! I'm a white man,
+j'sht un homme blanc, j'sht Americain; I'm from the Unyted States, I am!
+Sacré bleu! Health to all!"
+
+"Health, monsieur!"
+
+"Health, monsieur!"
+
+"A thousand thanks."
+
+"Set 'em up again, baptème, you blas' Canayjin nigger!"
+
+"What does he say!" inquired the landlord, on the verge of being
+offended.
+
+"Shut up, Potdevin!" said the only man who understood English, fearful
+lest the second treat should go astray.
+
+"Take!" cried Spoon, in a at of reconciliation, throwing down a five
+dollar bill; and at the sight of the money, Potdevin, true landlord,
+proceeded with the pouring out of the beverages into very small glasses
+with very thick bottoms.
+
+It was funny, when he had precipitated himself from the door, as above
+said, to contemplate the fellow with his low hat on one side and far
+down on his nose, his swelling shirt-front, striped breeches, and mighty
+brass chain, leading the trooping crowd like some travelling juggler.
+
+All this, however, was election work.
+
+Was it the kind of method Chamilly would approve? There was a short and
+certain answer.
+
+Which then of Haviland's friends supplied Spoon with money for these
+only too obvious processes of vote-obtaining. It was not the Honorable,
+it was not De La Lande, it would not be penurious Benoit?
+
+"Ah, well," Chrysler thought, "I am here but to observe. Am I not under
+obligations to Zotique, if it be he, which prevent my interfering?"
+
+Another of Chrysler's theories too was exploded. He had long revolved a
+suspicion that it was Cuiller who had stolen Francois' $750. "Where
+else," thought he, "does he get these liberal sums to spend?" Once he had
+ventured to ask Spoon himself about Le Brun's loss but was plumply faced
+with the growl, "Do you suppose _I_ stole it?" and, ashamed of himself,
+withdrew the theory almost from his own mind. How he could explain even
+the American's expenditure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+BLEUS.
+
+
+The Haviland party were not the only people alive to the necessities of
+the contest. It was not seldom that in the Ontarian's walks during those
+few days, the steady, inscrutable bust of Grandmoulin passed him, driven
+in one direction or another by Libergent; and sometimes Picault
+accompanied.
+
+Grandmoulin, indeed, made herculean efforts. His grand _chefs d'oeuvre_
+of oratory--soul stirring appeals, in the name of all that was sacred in
+honor and religion, for his hypocritical and corrupt purposes, were
+lifted in noble structures of eloquence before the people, till it
+seemed as if the lavishness of his genius and labor could only be
+explained by the desire of challenging the other great orator of the
+race. The young energies of Haviland responded readily. Their speeches
+were reported in full for the journals of the cities and watched for
+everywhere. It was the battle of Cataline and Cicero.
+
+The back parishes were not so soundly "Red" as Dormillière: they usually
+polled a considerable Blue vote, and were very unstable. Here were
+concentrated the efforts of Grandmoulin to cajole and Picault to buy.
+
+Once thus Chrysler met Libergent driving Grandmoulin in a "buck-board,"
+while another person sat in the back seat.
+
+"Chrysler! Chrysler!--Listen!" exclaimed the person in the back seat.
+
+Chrysler recognized an Ottawa acquaintance.
+
+"De Bleury! how do you do!"
+
+De Bleury put his hand on the reins to stop the vehicle:
+
+"Come up here, Chrysler, we go past the Manoir."
+
+"Thank you, I enjoy walking."
+
+"Come along, come along; we don't hear excuses in the country. Come,
+Chrysler, the road is long."
+
+In order not to offend, Chrysler, in spite of his objection to the
+company, took the unoccupied place behind Grandmoulin.
+
+With Libergent, Chrysler did not reap much in conversation. He was
+conciliatory in his solitary-like way, and had indulged for once in too
+much liquor.
+
+"Right Hon'ble Premier,--Sec' State.--Hon'ble Mr. Grandm'lin--all my
+fren's. You know dose gen'lmen? All my fren's. Da's all. My fren's goin'
+make it all right, eh? I re'spect'ble 'nough." The half-seas-confidential
+style.
+
+Grandmoulin acknowledged the stranger but gravely, and was at once
+immutable--oppressed with thought for the country's welfare! As he sat
+before Chrysler, and the latter felt the nearness of his broad shoulders
+and coarse black mass of hair, he could not but picture the man within
+sinking into littleness and self-contempt at the debased uses of his
+great talent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE FREEMASON.
+
+
+Ross de Bleury, the hospitable passenger, was a character. A man of
+immense physical strength and abounding spirits, soundly and stoutly
+built, of medium height, brown hair, full eyes and large nostrils, and
+strong merry lips, always devising some ingenious adventure.
+
+One of his schemes, a quarter joke, three-quarters half-serious, was to
+band together all persons in the Dominion bearing the Ross name into one
+Canadian clan, he to be chief! His own surname had first of all been
+simply Bleury, but energetic genealogical researches having discovered
+to him that the founder of his line in France was a Scotch adventurer,
+he made bold to resurrect the original name, and add to it what was
+already a "Charles Réné Marie-Auguste-Raoul-St. Cyr-de Bleury."
+
+Jest, quip and lively saying shortened his route to the doorway of the
+Circuit Court, and he insisted on Chrysler's passing to his quarters
+upstairs. The court-room was stocked with dusty benches and tables, on
+and about which a small but noisy company were postured. One reckless
+fellow swinging an ale-mug was singing:--
+
+   "Tant qu'on le pourra, larirette,
+   On se damnera, larirà!"
+
+Two girls stood together near the door laughing brazen giggles.
+
+They were the Jalberts, daughters of the innkeeper, who himself with
+two young politicians from Montreal were impressing on a _habitant_: "If
+you don't vote for Libergent, you can't go to heaven;" Jalbert being an
+adherent of the Blues in the hope of "running" Dormillière, if they
+succeeded, for his license had been taken away by the new movement. The
+bailiff, a wolfish-looking creature, who was always to be had for drink,
+also sat there trailing his vast loose moustache over a table. When
+Grandmoulin entered, a little crowd, like the tail of a comet, followed
+him into the room. As he passed through he said no word, but drew his
+cloak about him and moved forward sphinx-like to the bar of the court,
+where he sat down and commenced to converse with Libergent.
+
+Chrysler mounted the stairs with his entertainer and came upon an
+entirely different scene. De Bleury's spacious attic was appropriated to
+the rough and ready convenience of himself alone, and there was
+something quizzical about its expanses of brown dimnesses and
+darknesses, the cobwebby light that struggled in through the one high
+dormer window, the closet-like partition in the middle with a
+ticket-selling orifice, and the three or four rough chairs, which, with
+table, newspaper, and a basket of bottles, formed the furniture of this
+apartment. What work was done here, and how any one could choose such a
+spot to do work in were questions asked you mysteriously by every object
+about. As soon as he had waved Chrysler to one of the chairs and sank
+back upon another into a shadow, he stretched out his hand and pulled
+the basket of bottles towards him.
+
+"Now, sir, the question of fortune to every good man as he enters the
+world: 'What will you have.' I don't believe in fate: I believe in
+fortune: good things for everybody; let him choose. It's the man who
+won't accept good mouthfuls who is miserable. My Lord, what will you
+have?"
+
+"I never take anything, thank you!"
+
+"Eh, Mon Dieu! You wouldn't have me drink alone! You grieve my soul,
+Chrysler! _Bois, done_, my dear friend, we will be merry together. In
+this cursed country, among these oxen of the farms, we don't often meet
+a civilized friend." In saying this, he was dexterously pulling the cork
+from a bottle of champagne, which his right hand now poured into two
+wine glasses, as skilfully as his left had whisked them out of a corner
+of the basket.
+
+"Drink quickly,--Eh bien, you do not wish to? Your health then!--May you
+long survive your principles, and experience a blessed death of gout!"
+
+He quaffed off the glass and poured out another, laughing and chatting
+on with such bounding, irresistible spirits that his guest caught a kind
+of sympathetic infection. Glass after glass interminable disappeared
+down his throat in a kind of intermittent cascade. The Ontarian laughed
+more than he had done for many a year.
+
+"But, De Bleury," he got breath to say, "what is your important capacity
+here, that they give you such sumptuous quarters?"
+
+"Commercial traveller in the only commerce of the country. We have no
+business here, you know, except statesmanship, the trade in voters, _le
+métier de ministre_. You see a man;--tell me how much he owns:--I can
+tell you his election price. The schedule is simply: How much taxes does
+he pay?--Pay my taxes; I vote your side. There lies the only shame of my
+Scotch blood that they have never devised a commerce so obvious. It's
+like a bailiff we used to tease; he had no money, poor devil, so when he
+came into the bar he used to say to us, 'Make me drunk and have some fun
+with me.' 'Pay my taxes and have some fun with me:' the same thing, you
+see. All men are merchandise. Ross de Bleury alone has no price--but for
+a regular good guzzler, I could embezzle a Returning Officer."
+
+A rap sounded on the door of the stairs.
+
+"I resemble my ancestor, the Chevalier Jean Ross, who, when he was
+storming a castle in Flanders, exclaimed: 'Victory, companions! we
+command the door of the wine cellar!'"
+
+The words of a Persian proverb: "You are a liar, but you delight me,"
+passed through Chrysler's mind.
+
+The rap sounded again, and louder, on the door below.
+
+De Bleury's manner changed. He looked at his companion as if revolving
+some plan; then moving rapidly to the ticket-office-like-closet, he
+opened a door, and beckoned him in, signing to sit down and keep quiet.
+The closet was darker than the darkest part of the surrounding garret,
+for the dormer window in it, similar to the one near the table, was
+boarded up, all but a single irregular aperture, admitting light enough
+only to reveal the surroundings after lapse of some time.
+
+De Bleury, however, by holding his purse up to the chink of light,
+managed to assure himself of the denomination of a bank-note, and then,
+turning hastily, lifted the sliding door of the ticket-hole a trifle and
+pushing out the money, left it partly under the slide, letting in a grey
+beam on their darkness. He then silently applied his eye to an
+augur-hole above the slide, and waited. Meantime the knock sounded once
+more and pair of heavy steps came up the stairs, and tramped towards
+them; and some indefinable recognition of the heavy tread came vaguely
+to Chrysler. The steps stopped, the note was withdrawn, the tread sank
+away down the stairs, and De Bleury, rollicking with suppressed
+laughter, opened the door.
+
+"You have overseen a ceremony of the Freemasons," he said. "Truly. You
+don't believe it? I am a Freemason, I _am_, Chrysler," he said,
+sententiously, with a trace of the champagne, "I have observed a square
+and compass among the charms at your watch-chain. You know, therefore,
+your duties towards a brother, not, perhaps, not to see; but having
+seen, not to divulge. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, my dear De Bleury. Excuse me, I have an engagement at the
+Manoir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.
+
+"Prôneurs de l'ancien régime, dîtes-moi ce que vous faites de ces belles
+et riches natures de femmes, qui sortent du sang genereux du peuple?"
+
+--ETIENNE PARENT.
+
+
+During the excitement and bustle, Mr. Chrysler also sometimes fell into
+the modest society of Josephte. The girl seemed sad at these times, and
+to be losing the serene peace which at first seemed her characteristic.
+He remarked this to Madame Bois-Hébert one day as he met her sitting in
+the shades of the pine-walk reading a devotional work.
+
+Madame was a figure still able to command as well as to attract respect.
+Dignity and ability had not yet departed from her face and bearing, and
+quietude was the only effect of age upon her, beyond falling cheeks and
+increasing absorption in exercises of religion.
+
+"Does it not appear to you that your demoiselle is sad?" he asked.
+
+"It is true, monsieur; her mind is troubled at present."
+
+"The cause is some cavalier."
+
+"You judge correctly. Benoit does not wish her to marry as she desires.
+And though he wishes her to unite herself to a brute compared with her
+cavalier, yet the latter is himself an individual of no consequence, and
+she has been well advised to relinquish him."
+
+"Who is it advises that?"
+
+"Her friends, who see in her a more lovely destiny. The dear child will
+make perhaps a Saint. You do not know the expiations and indulgences she
+has earned these several years by prayers and devotions, her pure
+nature, her admirable conduct. She is not for the world, but for God."
+
+"What did Josepthe herself think?"
+
+That which Madame had said of her nature was correct enough. She was a
+delight to the sisters in their sad, austere lives. "She is like an
+angel, and has the movements of one," they said. Very unlike to, for
+instance, the daughters Jalbert, those bold and idle girls, whose steady
+occupation was tom-boying scandalously with chance young men, and
+jeering impudent jeers at everybody.
+
+Her haunts were in removed and shady nooks, such as the little dell
+behind the log cabin of the Le Bruns. There, one hot afternoon he found
+her sitting under the shade of the windmill, dressed as usual in neat
+black, and as usual lately, pale. The little ones ran, sat and played
+around her; Henri, Rudolphe and Elisâ in the pride of their enterprise
+tugging the long beam by which horse or man in the preceding century had
+turned the conical cap of the mill; their efforts cracking and shaking
+the crazy roof, but availing nothing except to disturb a crow or two
+near by, among the white birches through whose clusters gleamed the
+River in the sun.
+
+What brought Josephte to the Le Brun dell?
+
+_Et quoi!_ She was weeping.
+
+Those little children saw not her silent tears. Chrysler beheld
+them--crystalline drops on pale, soft cheek, emblems of pure heart and
+secret sorrow; but she checked them when he drew near and sat up
+composed.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said, "What is it troubles thee so profoundly? Tell
+me; I am an old man and thy friend."
+
+"Monsieur, Monsieur, I ask your pardon,"--she broke again into tears.
+Fortunately, all the children were running off among the trees.--"My sin
+is great:"
+
+"And what is the offence, my child?"
+
+Josephte was silent, and the blood rushed over her face.
+
+"I mean thee no ill, Mlle. Josephte. Perhaps I can assist or advise
+thee."
+
+"They have promised me to the good God: alas! and my heart thinks of a
+mortal! I never could be like the others.--I cannot forget," and she
+broke completely down, sobbing again and again. In a little while he
+spoke, hoping to soothe her.
+
+"This may be no more than natural, my dear."
+
+"The natural heart, monsieur, is full of sin; and that is ten times
+worse for a woman. O if I could love God alone!" and again she sobbed
+convulsively.
+
+Trained as the highest type of Catholic mind, her imagination habitually
+pictured two worlds--the one of exquisite spiritual light and purity,
+and spotless with the presence of saints, of the Virgin; of God the
+Father: the other the world of mankind,--the "world," shadowed with
+wickedness and mourning, and whose pleasure is itself a sin. She yearned
+towards the first; she sank back with acute sensitiveness from the
+second. For her, to enter a church was to be overpowered with the
+communion of spirits; to think a single thought leading away from God
+was to commit a crime. To know such a girl is to respect for ever the
+nun's orders in which natures like hers take refuge.
+
+"Josephte, ma'amselle," said Chrysler very quietly and pleadingly, "do
+you not love François?"
+
+The blood swept over her forehead again, and changed it once more from
+white to red. The tears stopped in her eyes and she regarded him for a
+moment with an intense look.
+
+"François loves you," he proceeded.
+
+He went on: "Where is the difficulty? Is it not very cruel to deny
+François your love? Who made you promise that?"
+
+"O sir, they willed that I should marry another."
+
+"It is only your father who wished you to marry Cuiller."
+
+"Madame la Seigneuresse wished me to enter the convent." Again she burst
+into bitter tears. Rocking to and fro she continued with breaking heart,
+"I promised it to God himself."
+
+Chrysler had no wish to meddle with the belief of his new friends. Here,
+however, it was a matter of humanity and common sense. He could not let
+the young girl's life be ruined. He said: "My child, _le bon Dieu_ never
+asks the unreasonable. Is not God kinder than you; and will he demand of
+you and François what you would not of another?"
+
+"Monsieur, is it possible that that is true?" sobbed she, weeping freer.
+
+"Does not your heart say so?" said he.
+
+"I know not. It must be so. You speak like a priest."
+
+"Think," he said, "and pray to Him about it, and hope a little for
+François. He loves you. It would be so cruel to him to lose you."
+
+Henri's voice broke joyously out of the shrubbery:--
+
+   "Good at all times
+     Is sweet bread,
+   But specially when
+     With sugar spread."
+
+Chrysler moved away, and passing through the trees stood on the bank,
+looking down on the beach and the sunny surface of the River. He had
+helped to right one little matter anyway, in Dormillière.
+
+A guttural call in a low voice startled him,--a subdued longdrawn
+"Hoioch!--hoioch!--hoioch!" followed by a few words of instructions
+rapidly uttered in what seemed a kind of patois--and on turning he saw
+below, along the shore at the left, the little figure of the Bonhomme
+rapidly pulling in one end of a net through the water, while the other
+end was managed by a younger fisherman attired as rudely and queerly. It
+needed a close glance to see that the second man was François, assisting
+his father. Together they suggested that strange caste--the fishers of
+the great river--a caste living in the midst of a civilization, yet as
+little of it as the gipsies--families handing down apart among
+themselves from generation to generation manners, customs, haunts,
+unique secrets of localities, and sometimes apparently a marvellous
+skill. These are the true geographers and unboasting Nimrods. You who
+have ever seen the strange sight of the spearing under the flame of
+immense torches in the rapids of the Buisson, where no straining of your
+own eyes could ever discern the trace of a fish; and you with whom it
+was an article of faith that certain death waited in every channel,
+swirl and white horse of the thundering Lachine Rapids, until one day
+some one speculated how the market boats of the lake above could turn up
+every morning safe and regular at the Bonsecours Market,--will be ready
+to understand.
+
+However, it was not long before the net was drawn up and Chrysler stood
+beside them, the greetings were over and all three were duly seated,
+each on his chosen boulder under the green poplar saplings, talking:
+
+"François," said the Bonhomme to his son, "Monsieur does not think it
+probable that Cuiller will marry Josephte."
+
+The young man's unconquerable cheerfulness faded for a moment. He was
+silent.
+
+"Why is it Mr. Benoit will not accept you?"--Chrysler asked, very
+interested.
+
+"Solely because I lost my money, air. I was coming to receive his
+blessing on our wishes."
+
+"How was the money lost? That was a singular circumstance."
+
+"I had seven hundred and fifty dollars in my pocket. It was on the
+steamboat down from Montreal, at night time, in the lower cabin. I got a
+corner with Cuiller between two barrels and a bale of blankets and went
+to sleep from time to time. The lamps did not burn well. There was a
+crowd of people. A pedlar was next me whose features I have forgotten.
+Cuiller says it was that pedlar who took my money. I will not blame a
+man without knowing something about him; but the truth is that when I
+got up and searched my pockets, my purse, my money, my pleasure, my
+life's profit,--all were lost, and I had nothing for it but to sit down
+and cry tears, after enquiring of all the people."
+
+"In what pieces was your money?"
+
+"Six bills of a hundred, ten tens and ten fives, sir!"
+
+"Don't you recollect anything about the pedlar?"
+
+"I was certain I recollected him getting off, but Cuiller saw him
+later."
+
+"If Cuiller knew he took your purse why didn't he wake you or stop him?"
+
+"I don't know, sir."
+
+"Cuiller is as much to blame as the pedlar."
+
+"You think so?" said the simple Bonhomme.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+ZOTIQUE'S MISGIVING.
+
+
+At sunset of the day before the Election, Chamilly came over very tired
+from the Institution and ordered tea to be brought out on the lawn.
+Little Breboeuf sat with them; the visiting politicians also; and last,
+least, and highly delighted at the honor, Francois Vadeboncoeur _dit_ Le
+Brun. To-morrow is the election day.
+
+"How do we stand, Zotique?" Chamilly asked, with some air of fatigue.
+Zotique's duty of directing the actual carrying out of the campaign made
+him an authority on the "feel" of the constituency.
+
+"Breboeuf will give you figures," replied he, reticently, for the
+struggle had proved grave. The Curé had almost succeeded, so far, in
+keeping his vow.
+
+"Eh bien, ma brebis?"
+
+"From the lists as Zotique has marked them I compute a majority of 28."
+
+"Morbleu,--that's not comfortable!" exclaimed a young editor, fond of
+old oaths.
+
+"But these estimations of Mr. Genest's prove surprisingly accurate,"
+explained Chamilly.
+
+"A majority of 28, composed as follows:" Breboeuf continued;
+"Donnillière, 83 to 44--majority 39; Petite Argentenaye, 96 to
+47;--majority 49; St. Dominique, 11 to 19--majority 8; Miséricorde,
+majority 47. _Esneval_.--"
+
+"Wait!"
+
+Zotique spoke, and his eyes darkened energetically.
+
+"I cannot guarantee you, Miséricorde."
+
+All looked at each other. There was consternation.
+
+"But surely Benoit has reported on that place," said Chamilly.
+
+"In my absence. He has met me as little as possible. But Cuiller was
+seen an hour ago _entering the Circuit Court_."
+
+"Traitors!" breathed de la Lande.
+
+"I do not trust this American. Unless I was ever mistaken, he and Benoit
+are goods and effects of Libergent, and we must save Miséricorde without
+letting those know, of perish. Let one go over; you cannot, and I
+cannot, nor any of the prominent, but let us send our François here, let
+him discover how it stands, and be back within two hours, so that we can
+work there, if needful, the rest of the night. This is the only
+salvation."
+
+"I will go," cried François cheerfully, and picking up his hat, started
+rapidly away. Josephte came in at the gates as he was passing out; she
+bowed to him, and moved by us into the house, wrapped in the composure
+of one mourning at heart.
+
+On hurried François, blithely unconscious of any dark prospect on his
+hopes of Josephte, but in visions, as he walked, of a little snow-white
+cottage known to him, with only one window in front, green-shuttered,
+but a dear little opening in the attic gable, and a leafy honey suckle
+creeping over the door way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A CRIME!
+
+   "The veil of mist that held her eyes was rent
+   As by a lightning flash...."
+
+   --W. KIRBY
+
+
+An hour passes. The shades draw on and begin to blend hues and forms.
+Chrysler moves his deliberative survey over the neat-clipped grass and
+the tall hedge, the poplars looking over it from the other side of the
+highway, the boughs and trunks of the great triple tree--and the little
+pinnacles along the Manor-house. A couple of the visitors along the
+paths are discussing the situation with dapper Parisian steps and
+gestures.
+
+Suddenly the shades creep perceptibly deeper. The gate rattles. A wild
+acting man--it is Benoit in his sky-blue clothes--rushes panting in,
+throwing out his arms before him, stumbling and gasping inarticulately
+lamentations of anguish. "He is dead; my God, the poor young man! Poor
+François! My God! my God!"
+
+Yes, it is Benoit Iscariotes.
+
+Everyone springs to him. A great tragedy has occurred--for Dormillière;
+perhaps little for a more experienced world. In Benoit's mind quivers a
+scene that has set shouting all the wild voices of his conscience.
+Ever-cheerful François, so full of life, so faithful, well named
+"Vadeboncoeur," lies motionless upon the highway, deadly white, with
+glazed, half-closed eyes. Blood trickles from his open mouth, scatters
+from a frightful gash over his forehead, and bathes the ground in a
+dark pool; and a heavy stone lies near and relates its murderous tale.
+This is what guilty Jean-Benoit saw at his feet, as, having finished his
+"labors" to his own satisfaction he was returning from Miséricorde in
+the footsteps of his coadjutor Cuiller. O, as the poor body lay in the
+blood like a judgment before him, and those half-closed eyes seemed to
+gleam at him from their lids, what a fearful blow did Conscience strike
+that hypocrite, leaping from the lair in which it had long lain in wait!
+
+He cannot stir. A mighty thunder cloud rises up from behind high above
+him, and darkens the earth. A silence lies on the trees, the road, the
+moor, and all around to the horizon--a silence accusing him.
+
+Not a leaf moved. The sun went down. The bright little narrow gleam
+under the eyelids of the dead stared slily up to him with an awful
+triumph. His heart was caught by the grip of a skeleton hand. He could
+feel its several sinews as they tightened their grasp. It was impossible
+to break away--the grip of the hand was on the heart in, his breast, and
+he was in the power of the triumphant _corpse_!
+
+What made him reel, what made him leap at length with such an insane
+cry, over the ghastly obstacle? He will go mad. This not quite balanced
+brain might coldly enough commit even some kinds of murder, but fright
+can unhinge it. Is he not mad, to flee so wildly? He runs--he runs--he
+gropes, under his black thundercloud and load of fright and agony,
+towards the glimmer that he must fly to those he has wronged. To her
+first--to Josephte, his cruelly-treated daughter--the hour tells him
+where she is! Flying, stumbling, pained, groaning, out of breath,
+fearing the lone hedges of the road, in wild struggle throwing his vain
+lust of appearances for once to the winds, and having behind and above
+him as he fled, the sky filled with vast pursuing shapes, with shrieks
+and curses, and before all the pursuers the CORPSE, he reaches at last
+the Manoir, and stops before it crying out. It seems as if the instinct
+failed him here, and the Mansion's imposing front forbade.
+
+She hears though. The maiden's heart, and the world's indefinite voices,
+beats sharply at certain sounds before the ear has caught them, for they
+strike the inner strings of its being. First a pang of great alarm,--and
+then she heard. Rushing forth, she clasps the sobbing wretch in her arms
+and cries, "My father, what say'st thou! My God, what is it?--what has
+befallen François?--O my dear father!"
+
+"He is dead, he is dead!--thy loved one,--at La Miséricorde."
+
+"O Holy Virgin!"
+
+Josephte did not fall in a swoon: she darted towards the gate.
+
+Chrysler took the man and made him sit down on a bench,--a wild
+spectacle of reason in the course of dethronement. The household stood
+about: the two visitors looked on curiously and made useless
+suggestions. Haviland and Zotique, driving past to make sure of
+Miséricorde, heard a commotion and turned their horses in. Benoit threw
+himself on his knees to Chamilly, violently begging his forgiveness, and
+incoherently confessing the evil work of himself and Spoon, whereat
+Zotique attacked him with maledictions.
+
+Chamilly restrained his companion. Soul of man was never seen to soar
+more easily over injury.
+
+"My dear friend, calm yourself. If there has been bad work, what should
+be done now is to try and rectify it. Repeat what you were saying of
+François."
+
+"The poor young man! The poor young man! I have seen him dead on the
+road."
+
+The impulse to act was that which came naturally to Haviland. "Not a
+moment, Zotique!" and almost immediately the rattle of the wheels was
+dying into the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE PASSING OF THE HOST.
+
+
+They found François, Chamilly said, with Josephte kneeling over him
+loosening his collar, and tenderly binding her neckerchief over his head
+with neatness and gentleness quite enough indeed for any Heaven-selected
+Sister of Charity.
+
+Running home breathless, dishevelled and desperate, she had frightened
+her brother and grandfather into speechless activity by a terrible
+command to harness a horse! Dragging out a light vehicle herself she
+speedily completed the arrangements, and whipping the animal pitiless
+lashes, dashed out of the presence of her relatives and was soon at the
+side of her injured lover, on the moorland road.
+
+It must not tell against Zotique's humanity that he had all this time
+such a mastering sense of the necessity of getting on to Miséricorde
+that, after barely aiding to place the body on Chamilly's vehicle, he
+took possession of the lighter one of Josephte, and sped on for his
+destination. The young girl and Haviland, however, conveyed their charge
+carefully and safely to the farm-house, had him laid upon her own
+prettily-belaced bed, and Haviland insisted--was it not a sacrifice in
+him on that critical evening of his election!--in watching with her the
+whole night by the bedside of François. As the silent hours were broken
+by the occasional sobs of Josephte, the young seigneur often gazed
+anxiously into the face of his faithful friend, wiping the bruised
+forehead and hoping that he might not die.
+
+Chrysler hurried down into the village in the dusk for medicine. By the
+occasional lights of houses he discerned the people, up and out
+discussing the exciting topic. Shadowy young men were standing on the
+path, straining their eyes to make out who passed by; shadowy fathers of
+families sat together at their doorways; half discernible women
+conversed from window to window.
+
+A hand-bell rings somewhere in the dark. It slowly swings and rings a
+thin, melancholy warning tone, comes nearer, a lantern appears, the
+young men, the fathers, the women, the miscellaneous groups, seem, for
+half-a-second, to disappear like lights put out, they drop on their
+knees so instantly wherever they happen to be. A white-robed figure--an
+acolyte--passes; feebly shone upon by a lantern; the "young curé"
+follows, bearing the holy wafer,--a ghostly procession; and Chrysler
+takes off his hat, for he recognizes it as the passing of the Host.
+
+When they are fairly past, and have disappeared into the gloom, the
+shadowy shapes all rise from their knees, and follow the direction with
+eyes and ears, and a distinct, ominous murmur passes through the whole
+village, for clearly François Le Brun is in _articulo mortis_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+THE ELECTION.
+
+
+Election day at Dormillière was as election days in country places
+always--that is, a great peal of driving to and fro, and a great deal of
+crowding about the doors of the poll, and a dense atmosphere of smoke
+and had jokes among the few to whom the polling-room was reserved, and
+now and then a flying visit from Haviland, Libergent, or Grandmoulin,
+for either of whom the people immediately made way by stumbling back on
+each other's toes; and intermittent activity at head-quarters; and
+ominous quiet at the parsonage.
+
+Zotique was mysterious, and in better humor. He supervised with
+determination, and seemed to know how to calculate the exact effect of
+everything. Breboeuf was marvellously transformed into a little flying
+spider, running backwards and forwards strengthening Haviland's web. The
+Honorable seemed to act slowly, but really with deliberation and effect,
+remarking neglected points, and himself seeing that certain "weak ones"
+were brought to the right side of the poll. The schoolmaster was away
+haranguing the back parishes. For the Blue side, Picault and Grandmoulin
+appeared but once on the scene, but the energy of Ross de Bleury was
+astonishing. Cajoling, ordering, opening bottles aside and treating,
+volubly greeting everybody in his strong voice all day, he seemed to
+have raised supporters for his party of whom no one would have dreamt
+except Zotique; but the little closet up in the attic satisfied the
+requirements of strict logic.
+
+Haviland had added the fatigues of the last night to weeks of wearing
+labor, with consequences at length upon his fund of spirits, and also
+plainly on his face. He felt, like Grandmoulin, that his battle was
+principally with De la Lande in the back of the county, cheering up his
+ranks.
+
+About two o'clock Zotique drove over to Miséricorde alone. He did not
+return for an hour and a half, and when he did, his expression had
+altered to one of decided triumph, though still mysterious and silent
+Zotique, in fact, the evening before, when he drove to Miséricorde in
+Josephte's little gig, found what he had suspected to be the truth, that
+Benoit and Spoon had bought every vote of the hamlet; and paid for them,
+in the interest of Libergent; but he still believed it possible,--Benoit
+being incapacitated, and Spoon, he felt sure, not likely to turn up--to
+bend this plastic material the other way with the same tool, and
+casting, therefore, aside all delicate distinctions, he succeeded, by a
+reasonable hour in the evening, in obtaining once more the adhesion of
+the _hotellier_ and most of the population, giving--for he had no
+Government funds like his opponents--his own personal notes for the
+amounts, and enjoining on the tavern-keeper to have the whole of the
+suffrages polled early. This was all he could do, as it was impossible
+for him to be present on the morrow, or to delegate any other person of
+Haviland's circle. His remaining anxiety was removed, when, on driving
+over, his investigations proved that the arrangement had been fully
+completed.
+
+De Bleury only got the news in the morning, and Picault, who immediately
+hurried over at his suggestion, found himself too late, and his
+carefully prepared representation that "promissory notes representing an
+immoral compact were invalid" was of no use, while his invitation of
+the crowd to 'whiskeyblanc' only produced useless condolences. "_C'est
+dommage, monsieur_. If we could have known." He was not altogether
+displeased, however, to find what he considered the inevitable hole in
+Chamilly's professions of purity, and meeting the latter driving just
+outside the place, he wheeled his horse across the road and compelled an
+interview.
+
+"You think you can do without Picault!" he laughed frankly.
+
+"Let me pass, sir!" said Haviland, unwilling to put up with any
+nonsense.
+
+"To take up the promissory notes of your friend?"
+
+"Do you think sir, that I use your inventions? Let me pass, I tell you,"
+and he rose with his whip.
+
+"I have seen the cards, Haviland; take the game; let us be partners;
+what is the use of dissembling in this extraordinary manner?"
+
+A flash of the whip,--a leap of the two animals,--Picault careening into
+the ditch, and Chamilly flying into Miséricorde.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+HAVILAND REFUSES
+
+"Nobleness still makes us proud"
+
+--FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT
+
+
+The election was Haviland's.
+
+A great crowd gathered into Dormillière at the close of that long day,
+thickening and pouring in from the country around, and arriving by boats
+across the river, to hear the returns: and as Zotique read them in
+triumph from a chair at the door of the Circuit Court, and the issue, at
+first breathlessly uncertain, finally appeared, the cheering became
+frantic. Chamilly himself came out to them, an incomprehensible,
+determined aspect on his face, and amid deafening hurrahs, was seized
+and hurried on their shoulders across the square to the crier's rostrum,
+where he stood up before them.
+
+And then and there took place the most unheard of incident, the most
+remarkable outcome of Haviland's lofty character, of which there as yet
+was record.
+
+His voice can be heard distinct and clear over a perfect hush. What does
+he say? tell me,--have we really caught it correctly? Fact unique in
+political history; _he was refusing the election on account of the
+frauds_!
+
+"Grandmoulin,"--was Picault's subsequent remark, "The young fool has
+courage. What a deep game he is playing. I tell you he has more talent
+than the whole of our side together except yourself--curse him."
+
+"It demonstrates the unpractically of his methods!" said the burly
+Montreal politician to Zotique, with self-satisfied disgust.
+
+"No," returned Zotique, firmly, "If we had followed his methods it would
+have been far better. But nothing can make up for lack of intelligence:
+_Sacré bleu_. I ought to have had a better head than to leave these
+people to such as Cuiller and Benoit!"
+
+Chamilly addressed firm words to the disappointed electorate: "I seek
+not my own cause, friends. It is yours in which I do this thing and do
+you, too, give all for country's honor. Lose not heart. Work on, like
+iron figures, receiving blows without feeling them. Be we young in our
+strength and hope, as Truth our mistress is perennial. Accept from me
+who according to the rule of faint hearts ought to be most crushed by
+our failure, the motto, "_Encouraged_ by disaster!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+FIAT JUSTITIA
+
+
+"I wonder at you!--I wonder at you!" exclaimed Chrysler, pacing the
+drawing-room of the Manor-house, to his friend, "What will be the result
+of it?"
+
+"Cher Monsieur," Haviland replied. "I have done my duty and what have I
+to do with events? What is Dormillière county and a year or two of the
+consequences of this election? I do not live in them or of them."
+
+The face of the far-seeing god himself, whose statue stood once more
+near, could scarcely show less regret than the easy, indomitable
+countenance of Chamilly; yet that his nerves had been strained to a
+severe pitch, lines of exhaustion upon it clearly told, and his
+restless, reckless movements from one spot and position to another made
+his friend anxious. A raw wind storm had risen quickly from the east and
+whistled without. He advanced to the window and threw both its curtains
+wide apart, revealing under an obscured snatch of struggling moonlight,
+the heavens covered with rapid-moving clouds, and the poplars opposite
+bending their vague shapes beneath the wind,--the beginning of one of
+those storms which come up from the Gulf, and overrun the whole region
+for days.
+
+"I should like to be on the River now," he remarked exultingly. Madame
+entered at the moment and heard him.
+
+"Be quiet, Chamilly," chided the Seigneuresse.
+
+"Alors, Alors," he said impatiently, as if casting about for something
+active to do, and left the room.
+
+"Madame de Bois-Hebert," Chrysler said, "have you news from Mademoiselle
+Josephte?"
+
+"That young person," replied she, "has descended to the plane of her
+condition: I have no further interest in her."
+
+But the devout lady sighed.
+
+The Gulf storm lowered steadily and disagreeably all next day and the
+visitor saw nothing of Chamilly, who kept in his room until the evening.
+But there was one excitement which occupied everyone else's attention:
+
+"Who do you think struck François?" Chrysler said to Zotique at the
+Circuit Court House.
+
+"The Bonhomme has tracked Spoon through every bush and bay on the coast,
+and has caught him getting aboard the steamboat at Petite Argentenaye,"
+the Registrar replied.
+
+A crowd came down the road. All the crowd were excited. They ran about a
+long waggon in which were on the first seat, the Honorable and Bonhomme;
+on the second a constable and prisoner handcuffed. Spoon, who cowered
+like a captured wild beast ready to whine with fright, was clapped into
+a private room and a stray Bleu flew off for Libergent to act as
+advocate. The crowd, soon uncomfortably larger, diverted itself by
+taking oratorical views of his guilt or innocence: but the prevailing
+opinion of the prisoner personally was expressed by one in an
+unfastidious proverb: "Grosse crache, grosse canaille."
+
+Libergent, accompanied by De Bleury, came over at once, for he had a
+good deal at stake in seeing that Spoon's trial should lead to no
+unpleasant revelations or consequences to the party. Closeted not more
+than half an hour he came out and said publicly to l'Honorable, who took
+seat as Magistrate upon the Bench under the great lion-and-unicorn
+painting. "My client makes option of opening the investigation at once.
+He is not guilty of the charge and can clear himself."
+
+The Bonhomme cried excitedly,--"It's false!" His wife joined him with a
+wild scream of disappointment. A murmuring ran about. "Silence!" shouted
+the constable.
+
+Every one involuntarily obeyed; and Chrysler absorbed himself examining
+the articles taken from the prisoner's person.
+
+The evidence was as soon disposed of as Libergent could have wished.
+Josephte gave her testimony to the appearance and surroundings of the
+injured man as she had found him. She could relate no circumstances that
+pointed to Spoon. The Bonhomme eagerly proffered his evidence. It was
+torn to tatters by the advocate: he had nothing to tell but rambling
+suspicions, and was told to stand down. It was discovered that none in
+fact had anything pertinent to say. Benoit was mad; François,
+unconscious; and Libergent triumphantly asked for the prisoner's
+immediate discharge.
+
+The great doubt on the part of justice was, clearly, why did the
+prisoner disappear? But this was quickly resolved by witnesses who swore
+that Cuiller was entrusted with secret political business which
+necessitated absences and journeys in different parts of the country,
+and this, in the state of political affairs, was an obvious enough
+excuse.
+
+Libergent pressed once again for the discharge.
+
+"I must grant it," simply pronounced Mr. Genest.
+
+Another scream pierced their ears. "Justice, oh God;" the old wife of Le
+Brun shrieked in trembling syllables. "They kill without hanging. I
+demand JUSTICE! Hear me, great God!" and her bent frame and wrinkled
+face writhed pitiably.
+
+But it was done. Spoon descended with a sudden, wild grin and found
+himself free. "In a few hours," he probably thought obscurely, "I can be
+far on my road."
+
+"Pardon me," said Chrysler, however, standing up, to the surprise of
+everybody. "Your Honor, I have another charge to bring against the
+prisoner, and I ask his re-arrest."
+
+The Honorable made a sign to the constable to stay Cuiller.
+
+"These bills," Chrysler said, holding out the bank notes which were
+found in the purse of Spoon, "are marked with the initials of François
+Le Brun's name. I am ready to charge the prisoner with having committed
+a larceny of money from François Le Brun on his journey from Montreal. I
+sustain it by these initials at the corners of bills just found on the
+prisoner's person. I am informed--"
+
+"I object, your Honor," fairly shouted Libergent--"I object to any
+hearsay."
+
+"What can you swear to of your own knowledge?" asked l'Honorable of
+Chrysler, gently.
+
+"To seeing these marks--"
+
+"Which might be anything!" snapped Libergent.
+
+"To hearing--"
+
+"No hearsay, sir!"
+
+"To having a conviction--"
+
+"Upon no grounds whatever!--Your Honor, I press my just application for
+an immediate discharge."
+
+"I cannot see that there is yet evidence enough," l'Honorable said
+courteously. "There are two charges, but both of them seem founded on
+vague suspicions which I cannot consider sufficient to detain the
+prisoner."
+
+Libergent triumphantly glanced from Spoon to the audience.
+
+At that moment, however, the man at his side rose up:--Ross de Bleury!
+
+"If what Monsieur says is true," he exclaimed to the Honorable, throwing
+out his clenched hand,--"if these letters are found upon those notes,
+then I understand it. I can prove that this infernal, greasy,
+treacherous devil,--be he friend or traitor, or whatever he chooses to
+be, to the Bleu party or myself,--committed that despicable larceny and
+has wronged that poor young man. I was on the steamboat. I saw it. I saw
+him do it to his friend. Talking to the purser, I saw the act, but could
+not believe it a reality. On the parole of all my ancestors, I would
+never go back on a common thief, I would keep faith inviolate with a
+parricide, I have a secret sympathy with every brigand, but I have no
+place out of _l'enfer_ itself for a traitor, _Dieu merci_."
+
+"Swear the informant," said the Magistrate.
+
+The picture at this instant of the frightened face of Spoon who
+collapsed into a seat by the Bar, of the excitement of the crowd, which
+had been gradually brought to a climax, the disgust of Libergent, relief
+of Chrysler, satisfaction of the little Bonhomme and his wife, the
+cynical roll of Zotique's eyes round the room, and serene, judicial face
+of the Honorable on the bench above, would have made the reputation of
+the greatest painter in Paris.
+
+After all, Spoon was remanded for trial, and in due time, the Queen's
+Bench Court condemned him to the fullest penalty of the law for his
+murderous assault and larceny.
+
+François meanwhile recovered, and was taken, pale and weak, but
+indescribably happy, in a carriage one morning beside Josephte to
+church, where the young Curé made her his faithful bride.
+
+As for Benoit, "_il est tout en campagne_," they said. In less
+expressive terms, "his mind was hopelessly wandering."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To return to our current day however; in the evening Chamilly came into
+the drawing room with some more manuscript, which he handed to Chrysler.
+
+"Here is the rest of the story I have been writing," said he, "take it
+sir and may it amuse you a little; it is the key to the rest. I am going
+out on the River." And he went-out of the Manoir door into the storm.
+
+The manuscript proceeded as follows:
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS (CONTINUED.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+QUINET'S CONTRIBUTION
+
+   "O, skyward-looking, fleet-winged soul,
+   Earth hath no name for thine ideal flower!"
+
+   --MARY MORGAN.
+
+
+For a night and a day after my talk with my father; I was a fool.
+Swelling names of ancestors rang proudly in my ears, and I shudder to
+think how easily I might have ended in a genealogist.
+
+"Salut, Milord de Quinet."
+
+"Bon soir, Chamilly," replied he, soberly.
+
+"Aha, thou melancholy friend, the liver again, eh?".
+
+We were strolling along the half illuminated Grosvenor street under the
+elms. The dim, substantial mansions in their grounds and trees, pleased
+my foreign eyes and I was glad to find the city of Alexandra able to vie
+with the great cities of the world, and I thought of her as near, and
+for, the moment, could not understand the humor of Quinet.
+
+"You don't seem to know," said he, "at least, I thought I would tell
+you--that Miss Grant has gone away,"--he stopped and looked at me
+earnestly.--"I sympathise with you."
+
+"Away!" I caught my breath. My spirits sank with disappointment. Alas!
+Heaven seemed to ordain that my passion for her should never become, a
+close communion, but only keep this light, ethereal touch upon me.
+
+And so Quinet knew. "I do not ask you how: evidently you have known it
+all along?" (It was the first time I had been spoken to about my love
+for her, and it made me feel peculiarly.) "Mon ami, Quinet, tu es
+heureux ne pas aimer. Que penses tu de ma chère?"
+
+"Go on, my friend Chamilly; be steadfast, for thou could'st not have
+chosen a sweeter, lovelier, holier divinity. O my friend, be steadfast
+and be happy. Yes, as thou hast said, I have known this."
+
+Quinet was diverting our steps along up leading streets which tended
+towards the Mountain, and soon we reached the head of one, where a wall
+met us.
+
+"This way," he said, striking aside into a field which formed part of
+the Park. "Adieu, civilization of street lights!" and he pressed up into
+a dark grove where I stumbled after, and next, under the twilight of a
+sky full of stars, could descry dim outlines of the surroundings of our
+path and even of the Mountain, silent above us like a huge black ghost.
+We toiled up the steep stair, guiding ourselves by feeling, and in a few
+minutes Were at Prospect Point, that jutting bit of turf on the
+precipice's edge where the trees draw back and allow in daytime a wide
+view of the city and surrounding country, and we both stood breathless
+there in the dimness, in front of a sight bewilderingly grand enough to
+of itself take one's breath away.
+
+Above were the radiant constellations. Below, between a belt of weird
+horizon and the dark abyss at our feet, the city shone, its dense
+blackness mapped out in stars as brilliant and myriad-seeming as those
+overhead,--a Night above, a Night below! Once before had I looked from
+that crag upon Montreal, in a memorable sunset hour, and remembered my
+impression of its beauty. Below, the scarped rock fell: the tops of
+trees which grew up the steep face lost themselves, lower, in a mass of
+grove that flourished far out, and besieged the town in swollen
+battalions and columns of foliage. Half overwhelmed by this friendly
+assault, the City sat in her robes of grey and red, proud mistress of
+half-a continent, noble in situation as in destiny. A hundred spires
+and domes pointed up, from streets full of quaint names of saints and
+deeds of heroes. The pinnacled towers of Notre Dame rose impressively in
+the distance. Past ran the glorious St. Lawrence, with its lovely
+islands of St. Helen's and the Nuns'.
+
+Now, however, it seemed no longer a place upon earth at all. It was a
+living spirit. Quiet as the sky itself, its bright eyes looked far
+upward, and it was communing, in the lowliness of Nature, with the
+constellations.
+
+"This is Life!" cried Quinet, who had hitherto been excited with
+suppressed feeling. "The vast winds come in to us from Ether. Night
+hides all that is common, and sprinkles the dark-blue vault with
+gold-dust; the planets gleam far and pure amidst it, and Space sings his
+awful solo."
+
+"All is one mighty Being. There he moves, the Great Creature, his
+crystal boundlessness encompassing his countless shapes. He faces us
+from every point. His God-soul looks through to us. He rises at our
+feet. He surrounds us in ourselves; speaks and lives in us. Is he not
+resplendent, wondrous?"
+
+"We are out of the world of vain phantoms, Chamilly! We are above the
+chatter of a wretched spot, a narrow life. Down there, nothing is not
+ridiculed that is not some phase of a provinciality. The dances in
+certain houses, the faces of some conceited club, long-spun names,
+business or gossip, or to drive a double carriage, are the gaslight
+boundaries of existence! Pah! it is a courtyard, bounded by four square
+walls, a path or two to walk in, and the eyes of busybodies to order our
+doings and sneer us out of our souls. How they deny us that the centre
+of the systems is immeasurably off there in Pleiades! What fools we are.
+We follow trifles we value at the valuation of idiots; we cherish mean
+ideas; we believe contracted doctrines; we do things we are ashamed of;
+dropping at last like the animals, with alarm that we die."
+
+"Look, off into the heart of It! the heart of It! beyond there!" he
+exclaimed, stretching his arm. "Forget our courtyard! Nay, returning
+there, let us remember that this infinite ocean is above it--a boundless
+sea beneath and around, an unknown universe within. Take in this scene
+and feel the rich thrills of its majesty stir you. You are of it; you
+came out of it; it is your mother, father, lover; it will never let you
+die; that heart of it to which your utmost straining cannot pierce, was
+once and will again be known to you. Its beauty caresses your soul from
+another world, and it is Love Divine which moves those stars.[J] Your
+own sweet passion, Chamilly, is the child of that divine Love, and in it
+you mount towards the heavens, and yearn as by inspiration, for a
+mysterious ideal existence? The poets and romancers lightly say of it "a
+divine power:" they think they say a metaphor--a lie; but I tell you it
+is true! May it assist you to live the life of the universe."
+
+[Footnote J: Dante--Divina Commedia.]
+
+"Each man," he cried, "who pursues his highest is a prophet! Ever there
+is an inward compulsion in our race to press on, and we hear the heroes
+of the front as they fall, crying 'Forward, forward, forward, forward,
+forward!'"
+
+While he spoke, for he said much besides, many of the lights were
+disappearing, we seemed to be being left alone, and the church-towers of
+the city chorussed the hour of ten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+HAVILAND'S PRINCIPLE
+
+
+The final step in the progression of influences was, strange to say, a
+dream. Our residence was then on Grosvenor street,--a Florid Gothic one
+after the model of Desdemona's House in Venice. My own little room was
+fitted up in a Moorish fashion.
+
+After the scene with Quinet on Prospect Point, I sat up till a late
+hour, for I found a letter from Grace, telling jocularly of their
+journey just commenced in the delightful Old World, and seriously of
+Alexandra's ambitions. I sat thinking with my arms folded on the table
+till I fell asleep. Then I felt at first that I was lifted up on the
+Mountain again, and leaving that presently, was carried out into space
+far away among the stars. Phosphorescent mists and cloud masses passed
+over the region, and among these appeared various figures, the last of
+which was, that of a certain old Professor of ours.
+
+The most apparently dissimilar things come to us in dreams. A lecture of
+the Professor's had once greatly impressed me: "Conscience is Reason,"
+he said. "To do a right thing is to do simply the reasonable thing; to
+do wrong is to do what is unreasonable.--
+
+"Now think," he said, "what this means."
+
+What could such words have to do with a dream?
+
+"What is Duty?" he proceeded, "Whence the conviction, the mysterious
+fact, that whatever my inclination may be, I _ought_ to do some
+act--ought to do it though the cup of pleasure be dashed from the
+lifting hand, though a loved face most pale, though the stars in their
+high courses reel, and the gulfs of perdition smoke,--why is it that the
+grave, unalterable 'Ought' must still demand reverence?"
+
+His voice rose.
+
+"Immanuel Kant!"
+
+The familiar name caught my ear, and I attended.
+
+"To him Heaven gave it to solve the problem. Think what Reason is! Be
+men for once and attend to one deep matter! Think what Reason is!--the
+divinest part of us, and common with the Divine, as with every
+Intelligence; speaking not of the voice of the individual, but one sound
+everywhere to all. It is more truth than metaphor to name it the VOICE
+OF GOD."
+
+In my dream, the Professor repeated, as if with mystic significance, the
+cry: "Conscience is Reason!" and as these words vaguely reached me, his
+figure dissolved into a rolling cloud, which grew at once into a shape
+of giant form, and addressed me in echoing tones: "The unalterable
+Ought! the unalterable Ought!" reverberating from the depths and
+heights.
+
+I awoke at the sound, and collecting my energies--for I had been
+half-asleep,--stretched out my hand to my note-book, looked up the
+lecture, and with the words swaying before me, read sleepily:--
+
+"Leave us Reason in any existence;--strip us of sight, sound, touch, and
+all the external constitution of nature, clothe us with whatever
+feelings and powers, place us in whatever scenes may come--but gift us
+with this universal faculty, our power of knowing truth. Otherwise, with
+rudder lost, we are dreamers on a drifting wreck, and where were the
+Divine One, and this harmonious architecture of the universe, and all
+things trustworthy, proportioned, eternal, exalting?"
+
+"Leave us Reason, and, children of God, we may from any point start out
+to see Our Father, His voice indicating from within the paths to Him
+which somewhere surely lie near to everywhere. Leave us Reason, and,
+brothers of men, we recognize that each Intelligence is of value equal
+to ourselves, and more precious than aught else can be, and we perceive
+the due relations of an orderly world."
+
+"The voice within in simple dignity commands"--
+
+But the lines swam before me: I could not hold my head up: the Moorish
+room expanded to the height and magnificence of a Hall of Magic, the
+dream of starry space returned and the pure lights circled in it singing
+to me in chorus. Space itself seemed to become the veiled countenance of
+a Mysterious Power, which "half-revealed and half-concealed" itself on
+every hand, and out of the midst of a dark-blue sky, appeared the form
+and face of Alexandra, like a Princess-Madonna, smiling, O so earnestly
+and kindly.
+
+I started, and woke again. The Professor's notes were still under my
+eyes, and I read the words, "Lose yourself and live as if you were one
+of the others. Exalted on this pinnacle you are prepared for any
+existence; you have learnt your path through eternity, and the world and
+its vicissitudes may sweep by you like winds past a statue."
+
+As I slowly thought over all the dream, and comprehended its remarkable
+character, I conceived it as a revelation.
+
+"The highest things,--I have found them at last!" I exultantly cried, in
+a final enthusiasm--"the total subjection of self and obedience of the
+whole life to Reason! What shall I care more for events and opinions, or
+any matter that but concerns myself and a fleeting world! I will seek in
+my actions ever the greater, finer, nobler thing for all, and the rule
+will be aim sufficient!"
+
+"I saw that DUTY is the Secret of the World."
+
+It was only a question to choose my largest, finest, noblest field of
+work for all. Difficulties disappeared, and the great aim soon appeared
+before me of the cultivation of the national spirit.
+
+The nation must found and shape its own work on the same deep idea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+DAUGHTER OF THE GODS.
+
+   "Soft was the breath of balmy spring
+   In that fair month of May"
+
+   --GEO MURRAY.
+
+
+Time flew brightly for some days, as an early spring, having poured its
+thousand rivulets out of the melting snows, began to dry the soil and
+instil into the willows and birches the essences that soon cover them
+with refreshing green, and earth suddenly teems with leafing and flying
+life, with odor of buds and laughing variety of shade and sun.
+
+I, as is my nature, was deeply under the spell.
+
+   "Rossignolet du bois joli,
+   Emporte-moi-t-une lettre!"
+
+Alexandra was coming home!
+
+St. Helen's Island, named affectionately by Champlain after his fair
+young wife, Hélène, stretches its half-mile of park along the middle of
+the River opposite the city of Montreal. It is at all times a graceful
+sight; in summer by the refreshing shade of its deep groves beheld from
+the dusty city; in winter by the contrast of its flowing purple crest of
+trees with the flat white expanse of ice-covered river. The lower end,
+towards which the outlines of its double hill tend, is varied by the
+walls and flagstaffs of a military establishment, comprising some grey
+barracks, a row of officers' quarters, and a block-house, higher on the
+hill. In former times, when British redcoats were stationed here, and
+military society made the dashing feature in fashionable life, when gay
+and high-born parties scattered their laughter through the trim groves,
+improved and kept in shape by labor of the rank and file, and "the
+Fusileers and the Grenadiers" marched in or out with band and famous
+colors flying, and the regimental goat or dog, and shooting practice,
+officers' cricket and football matches, and mess dinners, kept the
+island lively and picturesque, St. Helen's was a theatre of unceasing
+charm to the citizens.
+
+"Is she here yet?" I asked, eagerly grasping the hand of Grace, who,
+more exceedingly pretty than ever, had invited all their friends to meet
+them on the island, in the grove, "I am delighted to see you back. It is
+almost worth the absence."
+
+"And I welcome you as Noah the dove, after the waste of waters,"
+exclaimed she, laughing. "But I must answer your first question before
+it is repeated. No, _mon frère_, I am afraid she is not to be here to
+day. She is a little ill with fatigue."
+
+"O my poor friend!" I exclaimed, and led Grace down the avenue of
+leafing trees in which we were; for this grove had been planted in
+regular walks by the garrison forty years before, and the turf had been
+sown with grass that sprang up at that season a vivid green. The dell
+had been a theatre of the gaieties of days past. To me it was deserted
+loveliness--a scene prepared and not occupied.
+
+"Is she very ill?"
+
+"No; merely tired. You see she is a thousand times more industrious than
+I. Nothing could content her over there unless she was putting out her
+utmost. She said it was her ambition to improve, like the great men and
+women; that she was strong and ought to make up for some of her
+imperfections by greater diligence. I never saw anyone so anxious to do
+a thing perfectly. The great Bertini in Florence said of her--'She will
+certainly be greater than Angelica Kauffman.' ... 'Alexandra,' he said,
+'will rank with men.' The egotism of the creature! You see there are
+others who admire her besides yourself."
+
+"None more passionately."
+
+"I thought so.--But look this way, Tityrus," said she, wheeling quickly
+and stepping forward. "How do you do, Alexandra!"
+
+There she stood, pale and ill, but proud of carriage as ever.
+
+"So you came after all? Here is Mr. Haviland, gladder even than I to see
+you!"
+
+I saw Grace, in a moment, the duties of hostess being temporarily
+undertaken by Annie, walking down a path with soldierly Lockhart
+Mackenzie, who had come over from the "quarters" in his uniform.
+
+Alexandra and I found ourselves wandering into the wood and climbing the
+hillside at the loftiest point of the Island, where, on the summit, the
+trees permitted us a wide view of the St. Lawrence, its islands and
+ships and the open country; while the afternoon sunlight fell brokenly
+upon the faint colors of her face and her golden hair.
+
+"Do you admire distant landscapes?" I asked constrainedly.
+
+"They remind me of high aims and the broad views of great minds,"
+returned she, looking outward.
+
+"You favor aiming high," I said, "I always thought so of you."
+
+She turned her glance for a moment to me, and asked seriously: "How can
+people aim low? Do you know the lines of Goëthe:"
+
+   "Thou must either strive and rise,
+   Or thou must sink and die."
+
+Daughter of the immortals!
+
+"I wonder what you will say of _my_ aims," I stammered.
+
+"May you tell them? I should like very much to hear." And as she seemed
+to bend from a queen into a womanly companion, I noticed my gift, the
+brooch of Roman mosaic, on her breast.
+
+While she listened, for I told her fully the story of my quest for the
+highest things, its strange solution, and my present purposes, I was
+surprised to discover that her intelligence was master of the whole
+without effort. "O, I have often talked philosophy with Mr. Quinet," she
+explained. Her spiritual eyes glistened with profound beautiful depths
+as she looked down into the forest-shades before us. A color had
+suffused itself over her face so lovely that the glorified creature
+beside me seemed to surpass my intensest ideal.
+
+"It _is_ the Voice of the Universe," she said, and her cheeks flushed,
+"I once heard the Spirit of All, called, 'Heart of Heaven, Heart of
+Earth,' and I added 'Heart of Man.' Obey it, obey your best thoughts."
+She looked at me with such a glance of sacred sympathy, that--O joy, the
+first words filling life with fragrance have been spoken!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was short, our sweet bridal and few days of united life, and of bliss
+at the old château d'Esneval. Gravely ill,--worse,--recovering,--then
+DEAD. O God, was it possible?
+
+Yes; I saw her lying amid garlands of evergreens and white robes, in a
+low-lighted chamber of the château, still and transfigured into a
+changed, unearthly beauty, the alas! so thin lips lightly parted in a
+smile, the abundant golden hair I used to admire brushed neatly away
+from her forehead, the darkened eyelids that told of long exhaustion
+peacefully closed as if on visions of heaven--as if she saw God, being
+pure in heart. Supernaturally lovely as her soul had been through life
+the wearied sufferer lay in death, white tuberoses pressing her poor
+thin cheek--one purity affectionate to another. Ah, it was a vision. I
+never saw one on whom Heaven loved so constantly to breathe sweetness.
+Neither health could roughen her beauty nor sickness drive it away: for
+the soul, after all, will shine through the body, will lift it up, and
+if glorious will leave it worthy of itself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Alas, ungovernable, passionate grief! Alas the sight of heart-broken
+friends and painful rites of burial, the anguish of bereavement, the
+irresistible longing to die and be with her;--and Quinet's grief also;
+for then he had confessed that he had loved her too.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now we who knew her recognise that she was sent into this world for
+a season, and tenderly watched and favored of heaven for high
+purposes--for the stirring example and strong influence of a short but
+lofty life.
+
+In moments of weakness the irresistible longing to go to her returns
+upon me, but it is she whose Athênê vision impels to throw it off, to
+stand ground firmly and push forward with determination towards the
+years which must be endured, and the glorious work which calk to be
+achieved. Canada, beloved, thy cause is led by an angel!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What of Quinet? Noble friend, when I gave way unlike a man (though that
+is with God, who knows how much hearts can bear); he it was who held his
+own despair sternly back and put out efforts to solace and quiet mine.
+In these years he has grown stronger, but become ascetic towards the
+outer world--an Ishmaelite who cares not to own himself a son of
+Abraham, but lives wild in the deserts of philosophy on locusts and wild
+honey. He will never marry, but has devoted himself to the problems of
+the Secret of the World, in which he too believes, though his studies
+have led him far more scientifically than me; and yet in his hours of
+thought, I know that a vision of beauty and a sweet voice will often
+startle him, and he rises then into scenes of his loftiest, grandest
+life. O, Alexandra! Alexandra!
+
+
+CONCLUSION OF CHAMILLY HAVILAND'S NARRATIVE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+_NOT_ THE END.
+
+"Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis."
+
+--PS. CXIV.
+
+
+When Chrysler came to this sad close of the story, he woke from his
+absorption in the manuscript and became conscious of, the surroundings.
+The late hour, the strange place, even the silent-burning candles, and
+above all the shock of grief for Chamilly at his great bereavement,
+oppressed him into deep loneliness. The wind dashed gusts of rain
+against the casement and shook it savagely. He thought of the storm and
+blackness without--how the tempest must be hounding the black waves--the
+wolfish ferocity of their onward rushes--the dread battle any mortal
+would fight who found himself among them on a night like this.
+
+Is Chamilly safe at home again?
+
+Of course, at this hour.
+
+What an unusual fellow. How strange to enjoy such beating rain, such
+blinding darkness and fierce contest of strength with nature! How
+fearless! How few like him in this or any virtue! Did there in fact
+exist another his equal!
+
+No; Haviland stood alone--the climax of a race.
+
+As Chrysler pondered, dull sounds reached him, breaking in on these
+meditations. A door opened below, and heavy feet tramped in. Voices, and
+then cries of alarm, and then lamentations of all the household startled
+him. Steps sounded coming up the stairs, and a man's sob, and then a
+gentle knock.
+
+"Open!" Chrysler responded.
+
+Pierre entered, the picture of woe, and broke down: "O monseigneur
+Monseigneur Chamilly is dead."
+
+They had found his boat and his body, washed ashore.
+
+The windows of the Parish Church were darkened with thick black
+curtains, the altar was heavily draped, the strains of the mournful Mass
+of the Dead swayed to the responses of a sorrowing people. In the midst,
+raised upon a lofty catafalque whose sable drapery was surrounded with a
+starry maze of candle-lights, lay the silent remains of Chamilly
+Haviland, who loved Canada. Pure and earnest in life, he receives his
+reward in the world of her he loved, who went before him.
+
+A tablet among those of his fathers, facing the Seigniorial pew,
+recorded, for a little, the name of the last d'Argentenaye; but now the
+proud Curé at length has had his will, and instead of its venerable
+house of God, Dormillière wears in its centre a pretentious nondescript
+structure of cut-stone.
+
+Chrysler has done what he could to repair the country's loss by raising
+his voice with rejuvenated energy in support of good will and progress,
+in the Legislative halls.
+
+"L'ideé Canadienne too," Quinet asserts with hope and fire, in his
+seer-like editorials, "is not lost; it is founded on the deepest basis
+of existence: on the simplicity of common sense; on the true affections,
+the true aspirations of the people, on righteousness, on love of God, on
+DESTINY!"
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Young Seigneur, by Wilfrid Châteauclair
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Young Seigneur, by Wilfrid Chateauclair
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Young Seigneur
+       Or, Nation-Making
+
+Author: Wilfrid Chateauclair
+
+Release Date: March 4, 2005 [EBook #15256]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Wallace McLean, Graeme Mackreth and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team. Page images were kindly provided by
+www.canadiana.org
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR;
+
+OR,
+
+NATION-MAKING.
+
+BY
+
+WILFRID CHATEAUCLAIR
+[hand written: i.e. William Douw Lighthall]
+
+
+MONTREAL:
+
+WM. DRYSDALE & CO., PUBLISHERS, 232 ST. JAMES STREET, 1888.
+
+Entered according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the year one
+thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight, by WM. DRYSDALE & CO. in the
+Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The chief aim of this book is the perhaps too bold one--_to map out a
+future for the Canadian nation_, which has been hitherto drifting
+without any plan.
+
+A lesser purpose of it is to make some of the atmosphere of French
+Canada understood by those who speak English. The writer hopes to have
+done some service to these brothers of ours in using as his hero one of
+those lofty characters which their circle has produced more than once.
+
+The book is not a political work. It must by no means be taken for a
+Grit diatribe. The writer is an old-fashioned Tory and an old-fashioned
+Liberal: all his parties are dead, and he is at present in a universal
+Opposition. The party names he uses are, therefore, in any present-day
+application, simply typical, and the work is not a political one in any
+current sense.
+
+There are those who will say his characters are untrue and impossible.
+To these he would answer: Everything here, apart from a few little
+inaccuracies, is studied from the life, and you can find item, man and
+date for the essential particulars.
+
+A charge of Metaphysics will be advanced also, by a generation not too
+willing to think. _Mon ami_, what we give you of that is not very hard.
+If you cannot understand it, leave it out or study Emerson. The main
+subject of the book cannot be treated otherwise than with an attempt to
+ground it deeply.
+
+If Bigotry may not impossibly be laid to the author by some, because he
+has drawn two or three of the characters from unusual quarters and
+described them freely; the many who know him will limit any phrases to
+the several characters as individuals.
+
+Lastly, the book is not a novel. It consequently escapes the awful
+charge of being 'a novel with a purpose.' None can feel more conscious
+of its imperfections than the writer, or will regret more if it treads
+on any sensitive toes.
+
+WILFRID CHATEAUCLAIR. _Dormilliere, March, 1888._
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+   BOOK I.
+
+   CHAPTER                                        PAGE
+
+   I. THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIERE                      1
+   II. THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR                            4
+   III. HAVILAND'S IDEA                              7
+   IV. THE MANUSCRIPT                               13
+   V. CONFRERIE                                     16
+   VI. ALEXANDRA                                    20
+   VII. QUINET                                      22
+   VIII. THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE                         25
+   IX. ASSORTED ENTHUSIASMS                         29
+   X. THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE             33
+   XI. THE CAVE                                     43
+   XII. LA MERE PATRIE                              48
+   XIII. SOMETHING MORE OF QUINET                   52
+   XIV. THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP                54
+   XV. THE LIFE OF LEADERSHIP                       57
+
+   BOOK II.
+
+   XVI. A POLITICAL SERMON                          67
+   XVII. ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION                        72
+   XVIII. THE AMERICAN FRANCE                       79
+   XVIII. A DISAPPEARING ORDER                      86
+   XIX. HUMAN NATURE                                88
+   XX. CHEZ-NOUS                                    91
+   XXI. DELIVER US FROM THE-EVIL ONE               100
+   XXII. THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS            104
+   XXIII. THE STATESMAN'S DREAM                    106
+   XXIV. THE INSTITUTE                             109
+   XXV. THE CAMPAIGN PLAN                          111
+   XXV. THE LOW-COUNTRY SUNRISE                    120
+   XXVI. THE IDEAL STATE                           126
+   XXVII. JOSEPHTE                                 134
+   XXVIII. GRANDMOULIN                             139
+   XXIX. CHAMILLY                                  145
+   XXX. AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES              149
+   XXXI. LIBERGENT                                 151
+   XXXII. MISERICORDE                              153
+   XXXIII. BLEUS                                   156
+   XXXIV. THE FREEMASON                            158
+   XXXV. THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE                   162
+   XXXVI. ZOTIQUE'S MISGIVINGS                     168
+   XXXVII. A CRIME!                                170
+   XXXVIII. THE PASSING OF THE HOST                173
+   XXXIX. THE ELECTION                             175
+   XL. HAVILAND REFUSES                            178
+   XLI. FIAT JUSTITIA                              180
+
+   BOOK III.
+
+   XLII. QUINET'S CONTRIBUTION                     187
+   XLIII. HAVILAND'S PRINCIPLE                     191
+   XLIV. DAUGHTER OF THE GODS                      194
+   XLV. NOT THE END                                199
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I.
+
+
+
+
+THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIERE.
+
+
+In the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy odd, about six years
+after the confederation of the Provinces into the Dominion of Canada, an
+Ontarian went down into Quebec,--an event then almost as rare as a
+Quebecker entering Ontario.
+
+"It's a queer old Province, and romantic to me," said the Montrealer
+with whom old Mr. Chrysler (the Ontarian) fell in on the steamer
+descending to Sorel, and who had been giving him the names of the
+villages they passed in the broad and verdant panorama of the shores of
+the St. Lawrence.
+
+In truth, it _is_ a queer, romantic Province, that ancient Province of
+Quebec,--ancient in store of heroic and picturesque memories, though the
+three centuries of its history would look foreshortened to people of
+Europe, and Canada herself is not yet alive to the far-reaching import
+of each deed and journey of the chevaliers of its early days.
+
+Here, a hundred and thirty years after the Conquest, a million and a
+half of Normans and Bretons, speaking the language of France and
+preserving her institutions, still people the shores of the River and
+the Gulf. Their white cottages dot the banks like an endless string of
+pearls, their willows shade the hamlets and lean over the courses of
+brooks, their tapering parish spires nestle in the landscape of their
+new-world _patrie_.
+
+"What is that?" exclaimed the Ontarian, suddenly, lifting his hand, his
+eyes brightening with an interest unwonted for a man beyond middle age.
+
+The steamer was passing close to the shore, making for a pier some
+distance ahead; and, surmounting the high bank, a majestic scene arose,
+facing them like an apparition. It was a grey Tudor mansion of
+weather-stained stone, with churchy pinnacles, a strange-looking bright
+tin roof, and, towering around the sides and back of its grounds a lofty
+walk of pine trees, marshalled in dark, square, overshadowing array, out
+of which, as if surrounded by a guard of powerful forest spirits, the
+mansion looked forth like a resuscitated Elizabethan reality. Its mien
+seemed to say: "I am not of yesterday, and shall pass tranquilly on into
+the centuries to come: old traditions cluster quietly about my gables;
+and rest is here."
+
+"That is the Manoir of Dormilliere," replied the Montrealer, as the
+steamer, whose paddles had stopped their roar, glided silently by.
+
+Impressive was the Manoir, with its cool shades and air of erect
+lordliness, its solemn grey walls and pinnacled gables, the beautiful
+depressed arch of its front door; and its dream-like foreground of river
+mirroring its majestic guard of pines.
+
+"I knew," said Chrysler, "that you had your seigniories in Quebec, and
+some sort of a feudal history, far back, but I never dreamed of such
+seats."
+
+"O, the Seigneurs[A] have not yet altogether disappeared," returned the
+Montrealer. "Twenty years ago their position was feudal enough to be
+considered oppressive; and here and there still, over the Province, in
+some grove of pines or elms, or at some picturesque bend of a river, or
+in the shelter of some wooded hill beside the sea, the old-fashioned
+residence is to be descried, seated in its broad _demesne_ with trees,
+gardens and capacious buildings about it, and at no great distance an
+old round windmill."
+
+[Footnote A: The old French gentry or _noblesse_]
+
+"Who lives in this one?"
+
+"The Havilands. An English name but considered French;--grandfather an
+officer, an English captain, who married the heiress of the old
+D'Argentenayes, of this place."
+
+"Mr. Haviland is the name of the person I am going to visit."
+
+"The M.P.?"
+
+"Yes, he is an M.P."
+
+"A fine young fellow, then. His first name is Chamilly. His father was a
+queer man--the Honorable Chateauguay--perhaps you've heard of _him_? He
+was of a sort of an antiquarian and genealogical turn, you know, and
+made a hobby of preserving old civilities and traditions, so that
+Dormilliere is said to be somewhat of a rum place."
+
+The Ontarian thanked his acquaintance and got ready for landing at the
+pier.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR.
+
+
+A young man stepped forward and greeted him heartily. It was the
+"Chamilly" Haviland of whom they had been speaking.
+
+Mr. Chrysler and he were members together of the Dominion Parliament and
+the present visit was the outcome of a special purpose. "It is a pity
+the rest of the country does not know my people more closely," Haviland
+wrote in his invitation:--"If you will do my house the honor of your
+presence, I am sure there is much of their life to which we could
+introduce you."
+
+"I am delighted you arrive at this time;" he exclaimed. "My election is
+coming." And he talked cheerfully and busied himself making the visitor
+comfortable in his drag.
+
+As luck will have it, the enactment of one of the old local customs
+occurs as they sit waiting for room to drive off the pier. The rustic
+gathering of Lower-Canadian _habitants_ who are crowding it with their
+native ponies and hay-carts and their stuff-coated, deliberate persons,
+is beginning to break apart as the steamer swings heavily away. The
+pedestrians are already stringing off along the road and each jaunty
+Telesphore and Jacques, the driver of a horse, leaps jovially into his
+cart; but all the carts are halting a moment by some curious common
+accord. Why is this?
+
+Suddenly a loud voice shouts:
+
+"MALBROUCK IS DEAD!"
+
+A pause follows.
+
+"_It is not true_" one forcibly contradicts.
+
+"Yes, he is dead!" reiterates the first.
+
+"It is not true!" insists the other.
+
+"He is dead and in his bier!"
+
+The second is incredulous:
+
+"You but tell me that to jeer?"
+
+But the crowd who have been smiling gleefully over the proceedings,
+affect to resign themselves to the bad news of Malbrouck's death, and
+all altogether groan in hoarse bass mockery:
+
+"CA VA MA-A-A-L!!"[B]
+
+Every one immediately dashes off in all haste, whips crack, wheels fly,
+and shouting, racing and singing along all the roads, the country-folk
+rattle away to their homes. Our two turn their wheels towards the
+Manor-house, gleefully amused.
+
+[Footnote B: That is bad!]
+
+"Who is Malbrouck?" Chrysler enquired.
+
+"Marlborough. That must have been originally enacted in the French camps
+that fought him in Flanders. I fancy the soldiers of Montcalm shouting
+it at night among their tents here as they held the country against the
+English."
+
+They drove along looking about the country and conversing. Chrysler
+breathed in the fresh draughts which swept across the wide stretches of
+river-view that lay open in bird-like perspective from the crest of the
+terraces on which the Dormilliere _cote_, or countryside, was perched,
+and along which the road ran.
+
+"Come up, my little buds!" the young man cried in French, to a pair of
+baby girls who, holding each others' hands, were crowding on the edge of
+the ditch-weeds, out of the wheels' way.
+
+"Houp-la!" he cried, helping the laughing little things up one after the
+other by their hands, and then whipping forward. "How much, are you
+going to give me for this? Do you think we drive people for nothing,
+eh?" The children nestled themselves down with beaming faces. "Tell me,
+_bidoux_,"[C] he laughed again, "What are you going to give me?"
+
+[Footnote C: Bidoux is a term of endearment for children.]
+
+Both hung their heads. One of them quickly threw her arms up around his
+neck and, kissing him, said, "I will pay you this way," and the other
+began to follow suit.
+
+"Stop, stop, my dears. You must not stifle your seigneur," he cried in
+the highest glee, returning their embraces.
+
+One of our poets claims that there is something of earthliness in the
+kisses of all but children:--
+
+   "But in a little child's warm kiss
+   Is naught but heaven above,
+   So sweet it is, so pure it is,
+   So full of faith and love."
+
+So it seemed to Chrysler as he saw this first of the relations between
+the young Seigneur and his people.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+HAVILAND'S IDEA.
+
+   "GRAND MASTER.--O, if you knew what our astrologers say of the coming
+   age and of our age, that has in it more history within a hundred years
+   than all the world had in four thousand years before."
+   --CAMPANELLA--_The City of the Sun_.
+
+
+When they arrived before the Manor House front, Mr. Chrysler could
+almost believe himself in some ancestral place in Europe, the pinnacles
+clustered with such a tranquil grace and the walk of pines surrounding
+the place seemed to frown with such cool, dark shades.
+
+Within, he found it a comfortable mingling of ancient family portraits
+and hanging swords strung around the walls, elaborate, ornate old mantel
+ornaments, an immense carved fireplace, and such modern conveniences as
+Eastlake Cabinets, student's lamps and electric bell. In a distant
+corner of the large united dining and drawing-room, the evidently
+favorite object was a full-size cast of the Apollo Belvedere.
+
+Chamilly introduced him respectfully to his grandmother, Madame
+Bois-Hebert, an aged, quiet lady, with dark eyes.
+
+In the expressive face of the young man could be traced a resemblance to
+hers, and the grace of form and movement which his firmer limbs and
+greater activity gave him, were evidently something like what the
+dignity of mien and carriage that were still left her by age had once
+been.
+
+He was tall and had a handsome make, and kindly, generous face. The
+features of his countenance were marked ones, denoting clear intelligent
+opinions; and his hair, moustache and young beard, of jet black,
+contrasted well with the color which enriched his brunet cheek. Whether
+it was due to a happy chance or to the surroundings of his life, or
+whether descent from superior races has something in it, existence had
+been generous to him in attractions.
+
+When Madame withdrew, after the tea, he gave Mr. Chrysler a chair by the
+fireplace in the drawing-room end of the apartment, for it was a cool
+evening, and saying:--"Do you mind this? It is a liking of mine,"
+stepped over to the lamps and turned them down, throwing the light of
+the burning wood upon the pictures and _objets d'art_ which adorned the
+apartment.
+
+The great cast of Apollo, though in shadow, stood out against a
+background of deep red hangings in its corner and attracted the older
+gentleman's remarks.
+
+"I have arranged the surroundings to recall my first impression of him
+in the Vatican Galleries," said the other. "I was wandering among that
+riches of fine statues and had begun to feel it an _embarras_, as our
+own phrase goes, when I came into a chamber and saw in the midst of it
+this most beautiful of the deities rising lightly before me, looking
+ahead after the arrow he has shot."
+
+"You have been in Italy, then?"
+
+"I have, Sir," he answered, "I have had my Italian days like
+Longfellow;" and, looking into the fire, he continued low, almost to
+himself:--
+
+     "... Land of the Madonna:
+   How beautiful it is! It seems a garden
+   Of Paradise ... Long years ago
+   I wandered as a youth among its bowers
+   And never from my heart has faded quite
+   Its memory, that like a summer sunset,
+   Encircles with a ring of purple light
+   All the horizon of my youth."
+
+As Chrysler regarded him then and heard this free expression of feeling
+he could not but feel that Haviland was a foreigner, different from the
+British peoples.
+
+"And yet," mused Haviland, in a moment again, "Have we not a more than
+Italy in this beautiful country of our own?"
+
+After weighing his companion in thought for a few moments longer,
+according to a habit of his, the elder man recollected another matter:--
+
+"You have resigned your seat in the Dominion House to enter the
+Provincial. Why is that?"
+
+"A new turn has arrived in affairs, sir. The Honorable Genest's fever
+has broken him down. He cannot fill a place where activity is needed.
+Until the fever, he was an influence, you know, in the Dominion House,
+while I was in the Local. After it, he arranged that we should exchange
+seats, as the Legislature has latterly been so quiet. Lately, however,
+Picault's corruptionists, whom we thought crushed, have made another
+assault for the moneys, bullied, lied, and bribed, weighed their silver
+to the Iscariots, and edged Genest out of his seat."
+
+"Who is their man here?"
+
+"Libergent, lawyer. The election was annulled for frauds, but by moving
+the heavens and earth of the Courts they saved Libergent from
+disqualification, and now he appears again against us. Our cause calls
+for energetic action, in the Legislature, so Genest and I are changing
+places back again."
+
+"I hope you will not be lost to us long?"
+
+"No longer than I can help. The national work will never cease to
+attract me. _Is it not sublime this nation-making?_--that this
+generation, and particularly a few individuals like you, sir, and myself
+should be honored by Heaven with the task of founding a people! It is as
+grand as the nebulous making of stars!"
+
+The seigneur's manner was full of enthusiasm.
+
+"I can't see it as you young men do," Chrysler said, in an inflection
+suggestive of regret. "What may we effect beyond trying to keep
+Government pure and prudent, and we are often powerless to do even that?
+Nor can we form the future character of the people much, but must leave
+that to themselves, don't you think?"
+
+"A partial truth," he returned, meditatively,--"a great one too. When I
+go into the country among the farmers, I often think: 'The people are
+the true nation-makers.'"--
+
+"And Providence has apparently designed it," the old man proceeded in
+his gentle strain, "to be our modest lot to follow the lead of other
+lands more developed and better situated. Where do you discover anything
+striking in the outlook?"
+
+"I do not care for a thing because it is striking; but I care for a
+great thing if it is really great. Do not think me too daring if I
+suggest for a moment that Canada should aim to lead the nations instead
+of being led. I believe that she can do it, if she only has enough
+persistence. A people should plain for a thousand years and be willing
+to wait centuries. Still, merely to lead is very subordinate in my view:
+a nation should only exist, and will only exist permanently, if it has a
+_reason of existence_. France has hers in the needs of the inhabitants
+of a vast plain; local Britain in those of an island; with Israel it was
+religion; with Imperial Rome, organised civilization; Panhellenism had
+the mission of intellect; Canada too, to exist, must have a good reason
+why her people shall live and act together."
+
+"What then is our 'reason of existence?'"
+
+"It must be an _aim_, a _work_," he said soberly.
+
+The elder man was surprised. "My dear Haviland," he exclaimed, "Are you
+sure you are practical?"
+
+"I think I am practical, Mr. Chrysler," Haviland replied firmly. "I have
+that objection so thoroughly in mind, that I would not expose my news to
+an ordinary man. It is because you are broad, liberal and willing
+to-examine matters in a large aspect, and that I think that in a large
+aspect I shall be justified, as at least not unreasonable, that I open
+my heart to you. Believe me, I am not unpractical, but only seeking a
+higher plane of practicality."
+
+"But how do you propose to get the people to follow this aim?"
+
+"If they were shown a sensible reason why they _ought_ to be a nation,"
+said he with calm distinctness,--"a reason more simple and great than
+any that could be advanced against it--it is all they would require. I
+propose a clear ideal for them--a vision of what Canada ought to be and
+do; towards which they can look, and feel that every move of progress
+adds a definite stage to a definite and really worthy edifice."
+
+"The-oretical" Chrysler murmured slowly, shaking his head.
+
+"For a man, but not for a People!" the young Member cried.
+
+Both were silent some moments. The elder looked up at last "What sort of
+Ideal would you offer them?"
+
+"Simply Ideal Canada, and the vista of her proper national work, the
+highest she might be, and the best she might perform, situated as she
+is, all time being given and the utmost stretch of aims. As Plato's
+mind's eye saw his Republic, Bacon his New Atlantis, More his Utopia; so
+let us see before and above us the Ideal Canada, and boldly aim at the
+programme of doing something in the world."
+
+"Can you show me anything special that we can do in the world?" the old
+man asked. His caution was wavering a little. "It is not impossible I
+may be with you," he added.
+
+The Ontarian, in fact, did not object in a spirit of cavil. He did so
+apparently neither to doubt nor to believe, but simply to enquire, for
+in life he was a business man. His father had left him large lumber
+interests to preserve, and the responsibility had framed his prudence.
+He took the same kind of care in examining the joints of Haviland's
+scheme as he would have exacted about the pegging or chains of a timber
+crib which was going to run a rapid.
+
+"Why, here for instance," answered Haviland, "are great problems at our
+threshold:--Independence, Imperial Federation, both of them bearing on
+all advance in civilized organizations,--Unification of
+Races--development of our vast and peculiar areas. Education, too,
+Foreign Trade, Land, the Classes--press upon our attention."
+
+"You would have us awake to some such new sense of our situation as
+Germany did in Goethe's day?"
+
+"I pray for no long-haired enthusiasts. We have business different from
+altering the names of the Latin divinities into Teutonic gutturals."
+
+"The country itself will see to that. We have the fear of the nations
+round about in our eyes," grimly said Chrysler; then he added: "I have
+never known you as well as I wish, Haviland. You speak of this work as
+if you had some definite system of it, while all the notions I have ever
+met or formed of such a thing have been partial or vague."
+
+Chamilly stood up and the firelight shone brightly and softly upon his
+flushed cheek; the dark portraits on the walls seemed to look out upon
+him as if they lived, and the statue of Apollo to rise and associate its
+dignity with his.
+
+"I _have_ a system," he said. "I almost feel like saying a commission of
+revelation. The reason, sir, why I asked you here was that you, my
+venerated friend, might understand my ideas and sympathize with them,
+and help me."
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"I will ask you to read a manuscript, of which you will find the first
+half in your room. The remainder is not written yet"
+
+Pierre, the butler, brought in coffee and they talked more quietly of
+other subjects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE MANUSCRIPT.
+
+   "When yellow-locked and crystal-eyed,
+    I dreamed green woods among
+          *       *       *       *       *
+    O, then the earth was young"
+
+               --ISABELLA VALANCEY CRAWFORD.
+
+
+When Chrysler went up to his bedchamber he found the following on a
+table between two candles:--
+
+BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS.
+
+_Narrative of Chamilly d'Argentenaye Haviland_.
+
+At the Friars' School at Dormilliere, racing with gleeful playmates
+around the shady playground, or glibly reciting frequent "Paters" and
+"Ave Marias," other ideas of life scarce ever entered my head; till one
+day my father spoke, out of his calm silence, to my grandmother; and
+with the last of his two or three sentences, "I don't destine him for a
+Thibetan prayer-mill," (she had fondly intended me for the priesthood)
+he sat down to a letter, the result of which was that I found myself in
+a week at the Royal Grammar School at Montreal. Here, where the great
+city appeared a wilderness of palaces and the large School an almost
+universe of youthful Crichtons whose superiorities seemed to me the
+greater because I knew little of their English tongue, the contrasts
+with my rural Dormilliere were so striking and continual that I was set
+thinking by almost every occurrence.
+
+A French boy is nothing if not imaginative. The time seemed to me a
+momentous epoch big with the question: "What path shall I follow?"
+
+I admired the prize boys who were so clever and famous. I took a prize
+myself, and felt heaven in the clapping.
+
+I admired those equally who were skilled at athletics. I saw a
+tournament of sports and envied the sparkling cups and medals.
+
+These,--to be a brilliant man of learning _and an athlete_--seemed to me
+the two great careers of existence!
+
+The first step, out of a number that were to come, towards a great
+discovery, was thus unconsciously by me taken. What is greater than
+Life? what discovery is more momentous than of its profound meaning?
+Anything I am or may do is the outcome of this one discovery I later
+made, which seems to me the very Secret of the World.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But hold:--there is a memory in my earlier recollection, more fixed than
+the trees--they were poplars--of the Friars' School playground. I leaped
+into a seat beside my father in the carriage one day, and we drove back
+far into the country. Green and pleasant all the landscape we passed. Or
+did it pass us, I was thinking in my weird little mind? We arrived at
+length at wide gates and drove up an avenue, lined by stately trees and
+running between broad grain fields, which led to a court shaded with
+leafy giants of elms and cobbled in an antique fashion; and under the
+woof of boughs and leaves overhead ran a very long old country-house,
+cottage-built. Surpassingly peaceful, and secluded was its air. It had
+oblique-angle-faced, shingled gables, and many windows with thin-ribbed
+blinds; and a high bit of gallery. On one hand near it, under the hugest
+of the trees was a cool, white, well-house of stone, like a little
+tower. I remember vividly the red-stained door of that. On the other
+hand, a short distance off, commenced the capacious pile of the barns.
+Close at the back of the house ran a long wooded hill.
+
+It was the ancient Manoir of Esneval--the Maison Blanche.--one of the
+relics of a feudal time. As we drove in and our wheels stopped, a little
+exquisite girl stood on the gallery, looking. Her child's face eyed us
+with wonder but courage for a few moments; then she ran within and, to
+the pang and regret of my heart, she appeared no more.
+
+The little, brave face of the Manoir d'Esneval haunted me, child as I
+was, for years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CONFRERIE.
+
+
+McGill University sits among her grounds upon the beginning of the slope
+of Mount Royal which lifts its foliage-foaming crest above it like an
+immense surge just about to break and bury the grey halls, the verdant
+Campus and the lovely secluded corner of brookside park. It owes its
+foundation to a public-spirited gentleman merchant of other days, the
+Honorable James McGill, whose portrait, in queue and ruffles, is brought
+forth in state at Founder's Festival, and who in the days of the
+Honorable Hudson's Bay Co.'s prime, stored his merchandize in the stout
+old blue warehouses[D] by the Place Jacques-Cartier, and thought out his
+far-sighted gifts to the country in the retirement of this pretty manor
+by the Mountain.
+
+[Footnote D: NOTE--Now turned into the restaurant called the "Chateau de
+Ramezay," and soon probably to be demolished.]
+
+To that little corner of brookside park it was often my custom to
+withdraw in the evenings. The trees, little and great, were my
+companions, and the sky looked down like a friend, between their leaves.
+One night, at summer's close, when the dark blue of the sky was
+unusually deep and luminous, and the moon only a tender crescent of
+light, I lay on the grass in the darkness, under my favorite tree, an
+oak, among whose boughs the almost imperceptible moonbeams rioted. I was
+hidden by the shadows of a little grove just in front of me. The path
+passed between, about a couple of yards away. Every stroller seemed to
+have gone, and I had, I thought, the peace of the surroundings to
+myself.
+
+All were not yet gone, however, it seemed. The peculiar echo of steps on
+the hard sandy path indicated someone approaching. A shadow of a form
+just appeared in the darkness along the path, and turning off,
+disappeared for a moment into the dark grove. A deep sigh of despair
+surprised me. I lay still, and in a moment the form came partly between
+me and a glimmering of the moonlight between the branches. It was
+apparently a man, at least. I strained my attention and kept perfectly
+still. There was something extraordinary about the movements of the
+shadow.
+
+Suddenly, it stepped forward a stride, I saw an arm go up to the head,
+both these became exposed in a open space of moonlight, and a glimmer
+reached me from something in the hand. Like a flash it came across me
+that I was in the presence of the extraordinary act of suicide. The
+glimmer was from the barrel and mountings of a revolver! Those glintings
+were unmistakable.
+
+I would have leaped up and sprung into the midst of the scene at once
+had not something else been plain at the same moment, which startled me
+and froze my blood.
+
+_The arm, the face, were those of my classmate Quinet!_ An involuntary
+start of mine rustled a fallen dry branch, and the snap of a dry twig of
+it seemed to dissolve his determination; the hand dropped, he sprang
+off--and rushed quickly away in the darkness.
+
+Quinet,--the life of this strange fellow always was extraordinary. There
+were several of our French-Canadians in college and they differed in
+some general respects from the English, but this striking-colored
+compatriot of mine, with his dark-red-brown hair, and dark-red-brown
+eyes set in his yellow complexion, was even from them a separated
+figure. He was fearfully clever: thought himself neglected: brooded upon
+it. His strange face and strange writings sometimes published, had often
+fastened themselves upon me. Now it was undoubtedly my duty to save
+him.
+
+I followed him to his home, went up to his room and confronted him with
+the whole story,--myself more agitated than he was. I remember his
+passionate state:--"Haviland, do not wonder at me. Mankind are the key
+to the universe; and I am sick of a world of turkey-cocks. To speak
+frankly is to be proscribed; to be kind to the unfortunate is to lose
+standing; to think deeply brings the reputation of a fool. No one
+understands me. They do not understand me, the imbeciles!--_Coglioni!_"
+cried he fiercely, grinding the Corsican cry in his teeth and rising to
+walk about. "As Napoleon the Great despised them so do I, Quinet. They
+never but made one wretched who had genius in him. And _I_ have it, and
+dare to say that in their faces. The weapon for neglect is contempt! If
+the wretched shallow world can make me miserable, they can never at
+least take away the delight of my superiority. I, who would have
+sympathized with and helped them and given my talents for them, shall
+look down with but scorn. Yes, I delight in these proud expressions, I
+am not ashamed of testifying, and one day I shall assert myself and make
+them bow to me, and shall hate them, and persecute them, and anatomize
+them for the derision of each other!"
+
+His conduct might have seemed completely lunatical to an Englishman. It
+was strange in any case. But to me it was his physique that was wrong,
+and I should see that all was put right. "Stick to me, Quinet," said I
+to him as soothingly as possible, "and I will always stick to you.
+Soyons amis, bon marin, 'Be we friends, good sailor;' and sail over
+every sea fearlessly. Neither of us is understood, perhaps because our
+critics do not understand themselves."
+
+"Be it so," he said, dejectedly resigning himself.
+
+His odd colour and eyes gave a kind of unearthly tone to the interview.
+I met him a few days later in almost as great a depression again.
+
+"It's these English. I hate them. It is necessary that I should kill
+one."
+
+"My dearest misanthrope," I replied, "what you need is some
+horse-riding."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ALEXANDRA.
+
+   Maintenant que la belle saison etale les splendeurs de sa robe.
+
+   --BENJ. SULTE.
+
+
+Listen! A note is struck which, with an old magic, transforms the world!
+In the dying beauty of an autumntide, Love Divine, last and most potent
+of the goddesses, came walking through the woods and diffused the
+mystery of heaven over the forest paths, the trees, the streets of the
+town; and she melted into a sweet and noble human face--a face I caught
+but for a moment clearly on one of our galloping rides, Quinet's and
+mine; yet it remained and still looks upon me in the holy of holies of
+my heart's inner chapel.
+
+"What a rare autumn! What perfect foliage! What cool weather!" Quinet
+had wakened up beyond my expectations, and soon we were racing along,
+laughing and shouting repartees at each other. We reined in at last to a
+walk.
+
+"Mehercle, be Charon propitious to thee when thy soul meets him at the
+river in Hades," he cried. "Be he propitious to thee, Chamilly, for
+making me a horseman!"
+
+Then the memorable picture;--we speeding along that bit of road in the
+Park, the Mountain-side towering precipitously above us on the left and
+sloping below us in groves on the right; our horses galloping faster and
+faster; our dash into a bold rocky cutting; our consternation!--a young
+maiden picking up autumn leaves within two yards before our galloping
+horses! Near by, I remember quite clearly now her companion, and not far
+off the carriage with golden-bay horses.
+
+"Stop!" I shouted.
+
+Even as I shouted, I was already past her, and the brush of Quinet's
+horse flying as near on the other side of her, snatched off her bouquet
+of autumn leaves and strewed them in a cloud. Thank God only that we had
+not gone over her! The peril was frightful. My horse had had his head
+down and I could not pull him up.
+
+But what excited me most was the courage of the girl. She started; but
+rose straight and firm, facing us as we charged. Even in that instant, I
+could see changes of pallor and color leap across her brow and
+cheek--could see them as if with supernatural vividness. Yet her eyes
+lighted proudly, her form held itself erect, and her clear features
+triumphed with the lines as if of a superior race. She could only be
+compared, standing there, to an angel guarding Paradise! How fair she
+was! And the face was the face of the little girl of the Manoir of
+Esneval!
+
+After the agitations of our apologies I retained just enough of my wits
+about me to enquire her name. "Alexandra Grant," she said gracefully
+enough. Ah yes, I recollected--the Grants, within a generation, had
+bought the Esneval Seigniory, and its Manor-house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+QUINET.
+
+
+Now a little more of Quinet. Small, gaunt and strange-looking, I pitied
+him because he was a victim of our stupid educational wrecking systems.
+His was too fine an organization to have been exposed to the blunders of
+the scholastic managers; for his course had exhibited signs of no less
+than the genius he had claimed. Most of his years of study had been
+spent as a precocious youth in that great Seminary of the Sulpician
+Fathers, the _College de Montreal_. The close system of the seminaries,
+however, being meant for developing priests, is apt to produce two
+opposite poles of young men--the Ultramontane and the Red Radical. Of
+the bravest and keenest of the latter Quinet was. If newspapers were
+forbidden to be brought into the College: he had a regular supply of the
+most liberal. If all books but those first submitted to approval were
+_tabu_: Quinet was thrice caught reading Voltaire. If criticism of any
+of the doctrines of Catholic piety was a sin to be expiated hardly even
+by months of penance: there was nothing sacred to his inquiries, from
+the authority of the Popes of Avignon to the stigma miracle of the
+Seraphic St. Francis. He was an _enfant terrible_; Revolutionist
+Rousseau had infected him; Victor Hugo the Excommunicate was his
+literary idol; hidden and forbidden sweets made their way by
+subterranean passages to his appetite; he was the leader of a group who
+might some day give trouble to the Reverend gentlemen who managed the
+"nation Canadienne." And yet, "What a declaimer of Cicero and Bossuet! I
+love him," exclaimed the professor of Rhetoric, in the black-robed
+consultations. "His meridians do me credit!" cried the astronomical
+Father.
+
+No--he was far too promising a youth to estrange by the expulsion
+without ceremony which any vulgar transgressor would have got for the
+little finger of his offences. The record ended at length with the
+student himself, towards the approach of his graduation, when an article
+appeared in that unpardonable sheet _La Lanterne du Progres_, acutely
+describing and discussing the defects of the system of Seminary
+education, making a flippant allusion to a circular of His Grace the
+Archbishop, who prided himself on his style; and signed openly with the
+boy's name at the bottom!
+
+Imagine the severe faces of the outraged gowned, the avoidance aghast by
+terrified playmates--the council with closed doors, his disappearance
+into the mysterious Office to confront the Directeur alone, and the
+interview with him at white-heat strain beginning mildly: "My son" and
+ending with icy distinctness: "Then, sir, Go!"
+
+He did go. He came to the Grammar School during my last session there,
+and at the end of it swept away the whole of the prizes, with the Dux
+Medal of the school, notwithstanding his imperfect knowledge of English,
+and was head in every subject, _except good conduct and punctuality_.
+
+At this he nearly killed himself. Proceeding, he carried off the highest
+scholarship among the Matriculants at the University, where his
+classical papers were said to be perfect. All through these two years
+and a half of College progress since, he had been astonishing us with
+similar terrible application and results. Professors encouraged, friends
+applauded, we wondered at and admired him. We did not envy him, however,
+for he became, as I commenced by saying, a pitiable wreck. Look at him
+as he stoops upon the horse!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Good old Father St. Esprit--oldest and humblest of the Order in the
+College--who was his friend, and whom everybody, and especially Quinet,
+venerated, took a private word with him before he departed from that
+institution.
+
+"My son," said he, "I see the quality of thy mind, and that the Church
+of God will not be able to contain thee. Thou mayst wander, poor child;
+yet carry thou at least in thy heart ever love of what thou seest to be
+good, and respect for what is venerated by another. Put this word away
+in thy soul in memory of thy friend the Pere St. Esprit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE.
+
+   "What is there in this blossom-hour should knit
+   An omen in with every simple word?"
+
+--ISABELLA VALANCEY CRAWFORD.
+
+
+During the next few days I could do nothing of interest to me but make
+prudent enquiries about Alexandra Grant. I remember an answer of Little
+Steele's "Ah--_That_ is a beautiful girl!"
+
+"You _were_ beautiful, Alexandra!"
+
+I caught glimpses of her on the street and in her carriage; memory marks
+the spots by a glow of light; they are my holy places. I saw her open
+her purse for a blind man begging on a church step. I watched her turn
+and speak politely to a ragged newsgirl. One day, when Quinet and I,
+coming down from College and seeing a little boy fall on the path, threw
+away our books and set him on his feet, it was _her_ face of approval
+that beamed out of a carriage window on the opposite side of the street.
+
+I was introduced to her at the Mackenzie's, at a toboggan party given
+for Lockhart, the son, my friend.
+
+Shall I ever forget our slide on the toboggan hill and my emotions in
+that simple question, "Will you slide with me?"
+
+I was already far into a _grande passion_,--foolish and desperate.
+
+She assented, stepped over to my toboggan kindly, sat down and placed
+her feet under its curled front. The crown of the hill about us was
+illumined by a circle of Chinese lanterns, and the moon, rising in the
+East, reflected a dim light on the fields of snow. I lifted the
+toboggan, gave the little run and leaped on at the end of the cushion,
+with my foot out behind to steer. Immediately we shot down the first
+descent, and as I straightened the course of the quick-flying leaf of
+maple wood, I felt it correspond as if intelligently. The second descent
+spurred our rate to an electric speed. As I bent forward, the snow
+flying against my face, the sound of sliding growing louder and
+shriller, and my foot demanding a sterner pressure to steer, a surge of
+exhilarating emotions suddenly rushed over me, and a thought cried "This
+is Alexandra! Alexandra whom you love."
+
+"Alexandra!" my heart returned, "I am so near you!" Her two thick golden
+plaits of hair fell just before my eyes. She was sitting calm and
+straight. The toboggan shot on like a flash, and the drift beat fiercely
+in my eyes. But why should I heed? Away! Away! Leave everything behind
+us and speed thou out with me, love, into some region where I can reveal
+to thee alone this earnest soul which thou has awakened into such
+devotion!
+
+Yet lo, our race slackening, the moment was even then over, and having
+carried us straight as an arrow, the toboggan undulated gracefully like
+a serpent over a little rising in the path and came to a stand. She
+rose. The light of the rising moon just enabled me to still catch the
+threaded yellow of her hair and the translucent complexion.
+
+One had been following us closely. "Permit me--this next is ours, Miss
+Grant," he said, hastening eagerly forward to her, and I saw it was
+Quinet.
+
+I marked the deference which every one, old and young, paid to her, and
+at the house afterwards I looked on while a boisterous knot were
+teaching her euchre.
+
+"Change your ace," whispered Annie Lockhart, that pretty gambler.
+
+"But," she replied aloud in her frank, innocent manner, "_Wouldn't that
+be wrong?_"
+
+The words came to me with the force of an oracle.
+
+"Let me bow my head," I thought, "My patron! My angel!" and as I looked
+upon her, passionate reverence overpowered me.
+
+"What am I that I dare to love you and raise my eyes towards your pure
+light? I am not worthy to love you!"
+
+"And you are so beautiful!"
+
+As my meditations were pouring along in this absorbed way, a friend of
+ours, Grace Carter, a girl of the light, subtly graceful English type
+and a gay confidence of leadership, came across the room.
+
+"O Mr. Haviland," she cried, "I've been watching your dolorous
+expression till I determined to learn how you do it!"
+
+I half smiled at her, helplessly.
+
+"It is thoroughly fifth-act. The young man looks that way when he
+marches around in the limelight moonlight contemplating the approach of
+the catastrophe. But what have you to do with catastrophes? Off the
+stage men only have that desperate look when they are in love. I trust
+you are safe, Mr. Haviland."
+
+She looked so arch that I could not help a laugh, though the effect
+jarred on my mood.
+
+"You will find me dull, I am afraid," I answered.
+
+"That's of no consequence. Self-education is my mission. Believe me, I
+thirst for this knack of lugubriousness."
+
+I would have resented the trifling at that moment from almost any person
+but Grace. She divined my discomfort, veered her questioning to College
+affairs, and detailed to me some amusing information on dances and
+engagements, to which I listened with what attention I could. But my
+eyes persisted in resting oftener and oftener on Alexandra, and some
+bread baked by her and Annie,--a triumph of amateur housekeeping--being
+passed by the latter in pieces among the cake, I imagined that it tasted
+like the sacrament, and utterly lost track of what the merry girl was
+saying. She left me to flood out her spirits on a friend who was rising
+to go; whereupon I recollected myself.
+
+Behold Quinet, poor fellow, Quinet is too earnest for Society. Some
+supercilious young creature has cut him to the quick for commencing a
+historical remark. Smarting under his rebuke he withdraws a step or two.
+A kind voice accosts him; it is Alexandra. "Come here and speak to me,
+Mr. Quinet. You always talk what is worth while." "To talk of what is
+worth while makes enemies," he answered bitterly: "I am thinking of
+giving it up." "You should not do that," she said. "If I were a man I
+would think of nothing but the highest things."
+
+The night's sleep was broken by visions of her, as I had just seen her,
+so near, so fair. I tried to force my imagination into snatches of
+remembrance of her face as colored and clear-outlined as the
+reality--bearing the noble expression it had worn when she said "Would
+not that be wrong?"
+
+How I sank into self-contempt by comparison!
+
+I wonder if Englishmen feel the passion of love as we French do.
+
+"I love her, I love her," was my burning ejaculation. "Yet how dare I
+love her! I am unworthy to stand in her presence! There is only left for
+me to purify and burn and subdue my heart until it is completely worthy
+of her holy sight. Worthy of her! And what is worthy of her?"
+
+Again her presence passed before me and a voice seemed to cry "The
+highest things!"
+
+Thenceforth "The highest things" should be my search, and nothing less.
+My ambitions had advanced a second step.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+   ASSORTED ENTHUSIASMS.
+
+   "Ici bas tous les lilas meurent;
+    Tous les chants des oiseaux sont courts;
+   Je cherche aux etes qui demeurent
+           Toujours."
+
+   --SULLY-PRUDHOMME.
+
+
+And now of the influences which shaped that quest of "the highest
+things." There were the conversations in our Secret Society, the
+"Centre-Seekers." Picture a winter's eve, a cosy fire, a weird hall, and
+a group whose initiation oath was simply "I promise to be sincere."
+
+"There is the solution of Epicurus," remarks Holyoake, our Agnostic;
+"Pleasure, at least, is real. Wrap yourself in it, for you can do no
+better. Contentment is but one pleasure, as Salvation is another, and
+even sensuality may be best to you."
+
+"How about the man who lives for his children?" asked young Fred. Lyle,
+whose ruddy face was made brighter by the fire glow.
+
+"He has his enjoyment reflected from theirs."
+
+"What do you think of the friend in 'Vanity Fair,' who helps his rival?"
+
+"One of the fools," replied Holyoake, with an air of settling the
+matter.
+
+Lyle reflected.
+
+"I can't believe it that way," he said thoughtfully.
+
+One member was Lome Riddle; a big bluff chap with a promising moustache,
+encouraged by private, tuition. "Come along there, Haviland," he
+exclaimed, "a nob like you should be one of the 'boys!'" These fellows
+don't know what life is--but to think of a man of muscle going back on
+us!
+
+"Kick not against the prigs, Riddle!" cried Little Steele in facetious
+delight.
+
+"Riddle, Riddle, thou art but a poor Philistine."
+
+"A man of Gath," contributed another.
+
+"The Philistine has his uses. He is the successful of Evolution,"
+pronounced Holyoake.
+
+"The future will see methods better than Evolution," answered Brether,
+our great firm Scotchman.
+
+"If so, they will be of it," retorted the Agnostic.
+
+"Now just kindly let up on that a little." Riddle continued, "you
+fellows are too confounded theoretical for me. What's the good of going
+round congesting your cerebrums about problems you can't settle? I say
+let a fellow go it while he's young--moderately you know--and when he is
+old he will not regret the same. You fellows swot, and I sit in the
+orchestra chairs. You read your digestions to rack and ruin--or else
+you've got to be so mighty careful,--while I put in a fine gourmand's
+dinner every day, attended with the comforts of civilization. I dance
+while you are working up unsuccessful essays. The world owes nothing to
+fellows who do that. If you're fools enough to want to benefit the
+world, turn your minds to steam engines and telegraphs, that cheapen
+dinners and save us running, and I'll give you my blessing in spare
+moments when I've nothing to do. I take a kind of melancholy interest in
+this institution, you know, but honestly upon my word, I hate your
+rational style, and I wouldn't for the world go round like a walking
+problem and have the fellows call me '_For_lorne Riddle.' The place
+where I enjoy myself most,--our private theatrical club,--is called the
+'Inconsistents' on that principle. We don't care about being correct. We
+know we have the prettiest girls and chummiest fellows in town, and
+we're all right."
+
+"Of course if a fellow's legs are so crooked that he can't dance or
+appear in a play, he has got to solace himself with billiards or eating,
+or some of the elegant accomplishments like playing the guitar. That's
+my system. There's philosophy in it too, by jove! I've done lots of
+philosophy by the smoke of a cigarette. It's philosophy properly tamed,
+in evening dress. It's philosophy made into a good Churchman, and Tory!"
+
+"La morale de la cigarette!" suggested Quinet.
+
+After all was not the highest thing simply to live the natural life of
+the time and place?
+
+"I refuse that," I cried to myself, "I ask a Permanent, an Eternal!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In speculative Philosophy I sought it, urged by the saying reported of
+Confucius:
+
+"The Master said: 'I seek an all-pervading Unity,'" and much useless
+labor did I spend upon the profound work of the monarch of modern
+thinkers--Immanuel Kant.
+
+In a depression at the end of this labor I finally threw my books aside.
+
+It was afternoon, dull and dusty: a thunderstorm was brewing. I walked
+to the Square. What is that carriage with golden-bay horses?--that fresh
+image of loveliness--so calm--serene in queenly peace--the spiritual
+eyes! "Alexandra, I am miserable; elevate and purify my hopes with a
+smile, when I need thy presence--ma belle Anglaise"--No, she looks
+coldly and drives on in her equipage without even a recognition.--Is
+anything wrong?--I am deeply dispirited.--Another street--she passes
+again without bowing--not even looking this time.
+
+Wretched Haviland!--Where is mercy and what is left for me in the
+world?--I will rebel about this.--I will give up trying to seek the
+best, and turn away from Alexandra.
+
+At dinner that night, my grandmother said "You must go to Picault's
+ball, my dear;" and my grave, oracular father added: "Yes, you shall go
+among our people now. I am about to send you to France."
+
+The prospect of that journey, to which it had been my joy at other times
+to look forward, affected me little in my disturbed condition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE.
+
+
+Grace Carter came over on the way to the ball, and when I descended I
+found her entertaining my grandmother, while a young man named Chinic,
+teaming with good nature and compliments, sat near her and rising with
+the rest grasped me by the hand as I entered. Grace too, smiling, held
+out her hand. As we went to the door my grandmother delivered me over to
+her, saying playfully: "Chamilly will be in your charge this evening. He
+is melancholy. C'est a toi de le guerir."
+
+"I will be his sister of Charity!" she cried merrily and pressed my arm.
+I laughed. It was not so undelightful to be taken into the companionship
+of a graceful girl.
+
+As we whirled along in the carriage, the half-moon in the dark blue sky,
+making heavy shadows on the trees and mansions, lit her cheek and
+Greek-knotted hair on the side next me with a glamour so that her head
+and shoulders shone softly in it like a bust of Venus.
+
+Picault's was an extensive family mansion of sandstone, built thirty
+years before for one of the wealthiest merchants of Montreal. It was on
+a corner.
+
+One end rose into a rococo tower, lit then with the curious kind of
+clearness produced by a half-moon's light. In the centre, before the
+hospital door, projected a pillared portico, under which our carriage
+drove, and at the other end lurked the shades of a massive gate-way with
+cobbled road leading through. The carriage-road past the front was
+bordered by lilacs in bloom--on the one side, as we went through, all
+shadows, on the other faintly colored, mingling their fragrance with
+that of huge rose-bushes.
+
+The doors were thrown open, and we saw a great staircase in a wide hall
+hung with colored lights, and entering passed into one of the most
+lavish of interiors. As I looked around the dressing-room to which
+Chinic and myself were shown and saw the windows stacked with tropical
+plants, the colored candles set about the walls in silver sconces; the
+bijou paintings and the graceful carving of the furniture; the deep
+blending of tints and shades in the carpets, curtains and ornaments, I
+felt another new experience--the sensation of luxury--and dropping back
+in an easy chair, asked my companion:
+
+"Chinic, what does Picault do?"
+
+"Ma foi, I do not pretend to say," replied the young Frenchman, half
+turning towards me from the mirror where he was brushing his hair."
+Suffice it he is a millionaire, and I get summoned to drink his wine.
+Some say he is in politics, others that he deals with stocks; for me it
+is enough that he deals with the dance and good table. Is it not
+magnificent to so live? I would sell my soul for fifteen years of it."
+
+The remark set me thinking a moment, but it only complicated the charm
+of delivering oneself over to sensations.
+
+We met Grace at the head of the staircase. She had never looked more
+Venus-like than in this fairy glow, with a plant-filled window behind
+her, opening out into the summer darkness. The music of a waltz of
+Strauss was rising from below, and I felt a wonderful thrill as she
+again took my arm.
+
+Our respects being paid to the hostess, Madame Picault, Grace gave me a
+couple of dances on her card, and introducing me to a slender young
+girl, with pretty eyes, and two very long, crisp plaits of hair, went
+off on the arm of some one else.
+
+As my father's plan of education had taken me hitherto wholly into
+English society, so far as into any, the unique feeling of being a
+stranger to my own race came with full force upon me for a moment and I
+stood silent beside the pretty eyes and looked at the scene. The walls
+were a perfect gallery of sublime landscapes, and small pictures heavily
+set; four royal chandeliers threw illumination over a maze of flowered
+trains and flushed complexions, moving through a stately "Lancers,"
+under a ceiling of dark paintings, divided as if framed, by heavy gilded
+mouldings, like the ceiling of a Venetian Palace.
+
+"Is it not gay--that scene there!" I exclaimed.
+
+"It is charming, Monsieur," said the pretty eyes. "Montreal is
+altogether charming."
+
+"Ah, you come from Quebec, Mademoiselle?"
+
+"No, Monsieur, from New Orleans," she replied confidingly.
+
+Now the Louisiana French are very interesting to us French of Canada.
+Once we formed parts of one continuous Empire, though now divided by
+many thousands of miles, and their fate is naturally a bond of strong
+sympathy to us.
+
+"We have there only the Carnival," she continued with the winning
+prettiness of a child. "That is in the spring, and the young men dress
+up for three or four days and throw bon-bons and flowers at us. When the
+carnival is over, they present the young ladies with the jewels they
+have worn?"
+
+"And the ladies return them smiles more prized than jewels?"
+
+She looked up at me in fresh-natured delight.
+
+"Monsieur, you must come to New Orleans sometime, during the season of
+the Carnival."
+
+"I shall most certainly if you will assure me the ladies of New Orleans
+are all of one kind."
+
+"You are pleased to jest, sir. But judge from my sister. Is she not
+handsome?"
+
+Her sister,--a Southern beauty, the sensation just then of
+Montreal,--was truly a noble type. The pretty one watched my rising
+admiration.
+
+"What do you think of her?"
+
+"She is wonderful.--And she is your sister?"
+
+"My married sister, Monsieur. She is on her way to France. I will tell
+you a little romance about her. Last year she came to Montreal with our
+father, and they were delighted with it. She used to say she would not
+marry a Frenchman; nor a blonde. Above all she detested Paris, and
+declared she would never live there. While she was here she left her
+portrait with Mde. De Rheims as a souvenir. Soon a young officer in the
+army of France comes out and visits Mde. De Rheims and sees the picture
+of my sister. He was struck with it, declared he would see the original,
+travelled straight to New Orleans, and has married my sister. See him
+there--_he is a blonde_ and _he is taking her to Paris_."
+
+"How strange that is! Montreal is a dangerous place for the ladies of
+your family."
+
+She glanced at me with sly pleasure.
+
+"But we are not dangerous to Montreal, sir."
+
+"Ah non, ma'm'selle."
+
+Then this was my first type to begin on, of our French society world.
+Were they all like her? I watched the ladies and gentlemen who stood and
+sat chatting about, and saw that everyone else too made an art of
+charming. Grace also. She frequently passed, and I could catch her
+silvery French sentences and cheerful laugh.
+
+As a partner now took away my little Southern friend, I caught Chinic on
+the wing, got introduced once more, and found myself careering in a
+galop down the room with a large-looking girl--Mlle. Sylphe--whose
+activity was out of proportion to her figure, though in more harmony
+with her name. Her build was commanding, she was of dark complexion and
+hair, in manner demure, alluring with great power by the instrumentality
+of lustrous eyes, though secretly, I felt, like the tigress itself in
+cruelty to her victims. She was a magnificent figure, and gave me a
+merry dance. After it, she set about explaining the meaning of her
+garland decorations and the language of flowers, the Convent school at
+Sault-au-Recollet, dinner parties, and the young men of her
+acquaintance.
+
+"You seem very fond of society?" I advanced.
+
+"I adore society--it is my dream. I waltz, you see. I know it is wrong,
+and the church forbids it; but--I do not dance in Lent. After all,"
+shrugging her shoulders, "we can confess, you know, and when we are old
+it will suffice to repent and be devout. I shall begin to be excessively
+devout," (toying with a jet cross on her necklace)--"the day I find my
+first grey hair."
+
+"You have then a number of years to waltz."
+
+Her dark eyes looked over my face as a possible conquest.
+
+"I tremble when I think it is not for ever. But look at my aunt's and
+that of Madame de Rheims!"
+
+These ladies were indeed distinguished by their hair; but I suspect that
+it was not the mere fact of its greyness to which she wished to draw my
+attention--rather it was to the manner in which they wore it, brushed up
+high and away from their foreheads, like dowagers of yore. Standing in a
+corner together very much each other's counterpart, both a trifle too
+dignified, they were obviously proud leaders of society. She watched my
+shades of expression, and cried:
+
+"There is my favorite quadrille--La la-la-la-la-la-a-la," softly humming
+and nodding her head, an action not common among the English.
+
+"Pardon me, sir, your name is Mr. 'Aviland, I believe," interrupted a
+young man with a close-cut, very thick, very black beard, and the waxed
+ends of his moustache fiercely turned up.
+
+I bowed.
+
+"Our Sovereign Lady De Rheims requests the pleasure of your
+conversation."
+
+On turning to Mlle. Sylphe to make my excuses, she smiled, saying with a
+regretful grimace: "Obeissez."
+
+Mde. De Rheims stood with Mde. Fee, the aunt of Mile. Sylphe, near the
+musicians, receiving and surveying her subjects,--a woman of majestic
+presence. Nodding dismissal to the fierce moustache, she acknowledged my
+deep bow with a slight but gracious inclination.
+
+"Madame Fee, permit me to introduce Monsieur Chamilly Haviland, a
+D'Argentenaye of Dormilliere,--and the last. My child, your attractions
+have been too exclusively of the 'West End.' You have lived among the
+English; enter now into _my_ society." Mde. Fee smiled, and Mde. de
+Rheims taking a look at me continued: "The stock is incomparable out of
+France. Remember, my child, that your ancestors were grande noblesse,"
+haughtily raising her head. A novel feeling of distinction was added to
+my swelling current of new pleasures.
+
+A ruddy, simply-dressed, black-haired lady, but of natural and cultured
+manner, was now received by her with much cordiality, and I had an
+opportunity to survey the whole concourse and continue my observations.
+Brought up as I had been for the last few years, I found my own people
+markedly foreign,--not so much in any obtrusive respect as in that
+general atmosphere to which we often apply the term.
+
+In the first place there was the language--not patois as of _habitants_
+and barbers, nor the mode of the occasional caller at our house, whose
+pronunciation seemed an individual exception; but an entire assemblage
+holding intercourse in dainty Parisian, exquisite as the famous dialect
+of the Brahmans. There was the graceful compliment, the antithetic
+description, the witty repartee. One could say the poetical or
+sententious without being insulted by a stare. Some of the ladies were
+beautiful, some were not, but they had for the most part a quite ideal
+degree of grace and many of them a kind of dignity not too often
+elsewhere found. Every person laughed and was happy through the homely
+cotillion that was proceeding. The feelings of the young seemed to issue
+and mingle in sympathy, with a freedom naturally delightful to my
+peculiar nature, and the triumphant strains of music excited my pulses.
+
+Mde. De Rheims touched my arm and pointed individuals by name. "That
+strong young man is a d'Irumberry--the pale one, a Le Ber--that young
+girl's mother is a Guay de Boisbriant. Do not look at her partner, he is
+some _canaille_."
+
+There was, true enough, some difference. The descendants of gentry were
+on the average marked with at least physical endowments quite distinctly
+above the rest of the race. But there was a ridiculous side, for I
+recognized some about whom my grandmother was used to make merry, such
+as the youth who could "trace his ancestry five ways to Charles the
+Fat," and the stout-built brothers in whose family there was a rule
+"never to strike a man twice to knock him down.". My grandmother said
+that "those who could _not_ knock him down kept the tradition by not
+striking him once!"
+
+Mde. De Rheims now introduced me to two people simultaneously--Sir
+Georges Mondelet, Chief-Justice, and the ruddy lady, Mde. Fauteux of
+Quebec. The Chief Justice was of that good old type, at sight of which
+the word gentil-homme springs naturally to one's lips He was small in
+figure, but his features were clearly cut, and the falling of the cheeks
+and deepening of lines produced by approach of age, had but imparted to
+them an increased, repose. His clear gaze and fine balance of expression
+denoted that remarkable common sense and personal honor for which I
+divined his judgments and conduct must be respected. His smile was
+charming, and displayed a set of well-preserved teeth. The few words he
+spoke to me were not remarkable. They were simple and kind like his
+movements.
+
+To Mde. Fauteux I offered my arm, and conducted her into the large
+conservatory opening off the parlors, where we walked.
+
+"Is it not a great privilege, Monsieur, to be an Englishman?" she began
+with polite banter. "You are the conquerors, the millionaires; yours are
+the palaces, and the high and honorable places! But you, Monsieur, you
+are not too proud to patronize our little receptions."
+
+"Pardon me, Madame, I am not English."
+
+"Is that true? But you have the air."
+
+"There is no air I could prefer to that of a man like Sir Georges
+Mondelet."
+
+"Nor I too, in seriousness. That is the true French gentleman. He cares
+little even for his title, and prefers to be called _Mr._ Mondelet,
+holding his judicial office in greater esteem. I once heard him say in
+joke, 'that there could be many Knights but only one Chief Justice.'"
+
+"That is true," I said.
+
+"Yes, it is true," she echoed. "Law is a noble philosophy, and its
+profession the most brilliant of the highways to fame."
+
+"Do you know," she continued, "that we inherit our law from the Romans.
+This beautiful system, this philosophic justice of our Province, is the
+imperial legacy bequeathed us by that Empire in which we once took our
+share as rulers of the world--the shadow of the mighty wings under which
+our ancestors reposed. We all have Roman, blood in our veins. Do you see
+that face there?--that is a Roman face. Our Church speaks Latin, and
+looks to the city of Caesar. Our own speech is a Latin tongue. The
+classics of our young men's study are still those that were current on
+the Forum. Our law is Roman law."
+
+If the gaiety of the French world had satisfied me, what was not my
+wonder and joy at discovering in it a reflective side; and for half an
+hour I remained in a leafy alcove listening to her refined
+converse,--dealing with books like "Corinne," and "La Chaumiere
+Indienne,"--La Fontaine, Moliere, Montesquieu,--and especially
+interesting me in the society which moved around us, which as she
+touched it with her wand of history and eloquence, acquired an
+inconceivable interest for me, and I was for the first time proud of
+being a French-Canadian.
+
+In the midst of these excitements, as I stood so listening, and now
+joined by two others,--
+
+"Chamilly, my brother, I have come for you," suddenly broke in Grace;
+and stood before me all radiance, dropping somebody's arm. Excusing
+myself, I took her in charge and we moved gaily off. Waltzing with her
+was so easy that it made me feel my own motion graceful; the swirl of
+mingled feelings impelled me to recognize how superior she was in other
+things, and to proudly set her off against each lovely or dignified or
+sprightly figure there; and when the music closed abruptly, we started
+laughing together for the conservatory of which I have spoken, at the
+end of the vast rooms. This conservatory ended in a circular enlargement
+divided into several nooks or bowers, and we wandered into one in which
+the moonlight came faintly on our faces through the glass and the vines.
+
+Again the Greek head with the light upon it!
+
+Strains of other music floated in. Every sense was enraptured.
+
+"Let Alexandra go!" I thought. "Let me live as my people have discovered
+how to live."
+
+"Mon cher, am I tending you faithfully."
+
+"Charmingly, my sister."
+
+She laughed at the way I said it, because I spoke with perfect
+resignation.
+
+The thread running through all my other experiences of the evening had
+been admiration of Grace. Pleased as I was with this society, I had
+compared her with each of the best members of it, to her advantage. She
+had in her young way, the dignity of Madame de Rheims; all the
+gracefulness of the Southern girl with the pretty eyes; beauty as
+striking, though not the same as that girl's sister; the gaiety of
+Chinic; and now I was to find that she was apparently as cultured as
+Mde. Fauteux. For she did talk seriously and brightly about books and
+languages and artistic subjects:
+
+"I would abhor beyond everything a life of fashionable vanity. My desire
+for life is to always keep progressing."
+
+Whilst she talked I was reflecting, and mechanically looking around at
+the divisions into nooks.
+
+"Don't you think this arrangement inviting, Chamilly? It has a history.
+An engagement has taken place in each of these alcoves except one."
+
+I looked around at them again; then asked:
+
+"Which is the one?"
+
+"The alcove we are in, mon frere."
+
+I glanced at her, the moonlight still falling brokenly-upon the Venus
+head, and could see a crimson blush sweep over her countenance and her
+eyelids droop.
+
+"Grace," I said--agitatedly, "Will you give me more of your evening
+after the next dance you promised?"
+
+"Take from then to the end!--three dances that I have kept for you
+especially; I wish they were longer. But I am ashamed to sit here after
+what I have happened to say."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+THE "CAVE."
+
+
+A whirl of rapid thoughts made it some time till I could regain presence
+of mind, and I found my eyes following her feverishly into the weavings
+of another waltz, and was roused by the "Salut, Monsieur," of a quiet
+man who did not know me, but turned out from his remarks, to be Picault,
+the owner of the mansion. His observations were general and of a kind of
+a conciliatory tone, and seemed to be each uttered after grave
+deliberation. There was a prudence and respectability and an air of
+inoffensiveness about his manner which indicated the quiet merchant of
+means. He spoke of Madame De Rheims with great respect, and drew my
+attention to quondam Mlle. Alvarez, the New Orleans beauty, as though
+her presence was a marked honor to his house; and hearing that I was not
+acquainted with her, he insisted on an introduction and I found myself
+leading her into the alcove Grace and I had left. She spoke first of New
+Orleans, where English, she said, was taking the place of our language,
+and I gathered that the latter was becoming gradually confined to a
+limited circle. There was a French quarter apart from the American city,
+though in its midst.
+
+"The fate of your people should make you intensely French," said I.
+
+"Monsieur has an English descent, to judge by his name. Well then, I
+will say something I say at home. I do not admire Frenchmen."
+
+"But Mlle.--your patriotism!"
+
+"I am not very French," she said haughtily, "My father is the son of a
+Spanish Minister."
+
+"But why do you disapprove of the French? As to me, I find them
+excessively attractive."
+
+"It is because I know them well," she said gaily. "My husband is the
+only Frenchman I would have married. Their quest is self-gratification,
+to which they sacrifice no matter what. I despise them."--She laughed
+mock-heroically,--"Take now your Englishman! Let him love a Frenchwoman,
+for it is only a Frenchwoman who can return such love! Domestic, silent,
+energetic,--he adores, protects, provides, and yet accomplishes
+ambitions. This is because he sacrifices none of such things to the
+Myself, who is the god of Frenchmen!"
+
+These words seemed of more importance to me than the beautiful speaker
+could have thought. I had almost committed my soul; was it to a cup of
+Comus, to a fatal household of Circe?
+
+The lady smilingly glided away with her husband.
+
+Then new characteristics seemed in face of race patriotism, to dawn as I
+looked at those passing around. I imagined each facial expression
+thoughtless, heartless, jaded or disgusted. I had taken the beautiful
+Creole's cynical words seriously, and thought I saw the search for
+self-gratification everywhere.
+
+Instead of striking a balance of impressions, I passed for the time from
+the extreme of admiration to the extreme of criticism, and at last
+turned into the supper room to think. A dapper man of sanguine
+complexion and grey moustache and hair, a cynical gentleman-of-leisure
+and old-established visitor at my grandmother's, was taking wine there,
+and he addressed me familiarly. I began to question him about several
+people:
+
+"Who is that man with the mass of locks and the queer beard?"
+
+"That," replied he like a showman, "is the Honorable Grandmoulin, the
+National Liar, Premier Minister of the Province, and First Juggler of
+its finances:--a profligate in public in the name of the Church--in
+secret in the name of Free-Thought--_beau diseur_--demagogue of the
+rabble and chieftain of the Cave."
+
+"The Cave?"
+
+He lifted his glass of ruby liquid and faced me across it. "You may not
+know, my simple Ali Baba, that the Government of this Province is the
+private property of Forty Thieves."
+
+"What are these thieves--this Cave?--I do not understand what you mean,
+sir."
+
+"Chevaliers of the highway my child," (he had just enough in him to make
+him free of speech), "who obtain office through the credulity of Jean
+Baptiste the industrious Beaver, who, like Jacques in France, bears
+everything. Jean Baptiste labors. It is the duty of Jean Baptiste to
+believe everything he is told. Monsieur of the Forty and Company must
+live upon something. Tsha! The Beavers were created to sweat--to load up
+their pack mules and be plundered. Quebec is the cave of the Forty,--and
+plunder is their sesame."
+
+"But how does such a man come to be received into society?" exclaimed I,
+disturbed.
+
+The answer was prompt.
+
+"He is successful."
+
+Reason only too obvious. It staggered me to watch the man receiving and
+being greeted.
+
+Presently I asked again: "Are more of them present?" "Assuredly. Like
+devils they fly in swarms: like the Apostles they never travel less than
+two--one to preach you the relics and the other to pick the pocket in
+the tails of your coat. The man with the Oriental beard there looks
+respectable, does he not? Tell me,--does he not?"
+
+"It is true."
+
+"He is the honest-man-figure-head and book-keeper of the Cave. This
+fellow near us," (gesturing towards a scraggy-looking little man), "has
+got himself appointed a judge and once securely off the raft, poses as a
+little tyrant to young advocates, on the Kamouraska Bench."
+
+"What does our host, Mr. Picault do?" I said, to change the subject.
+
+What was my surprise when he answered:
+
+"Picault is the Arch Devil--the organizer of the Cave--the man who
+manipulates the Government for the profit of his accomplices. When they
+require money the Province calls a loan; it is members of the Cave who
+negociate it, exacting a secret commission which is itself a fortune.
+The loan is expended," he went on, marking each step of his narration by
+appropriate gestures of his right forefinger, as one who is expounding a
+science, "on salaries to the Cave supporters, who are appointed to
+ingenious sinecures. Vast contracts are given at extravagant prices to
+persons who pay a large share to our friends. Then the works, such as
+railways, are sold,--if possible to Picault, or through him in the same
+manner. And finally, by this system no burden is left upon the Treasury
+except the loan to be paid. Between this and all sorts of minor
+applications of the principle, though they have not long begun, the end
+is clear;--yet the electorate persists in being duped by these ruffians.
+Men cherish their prejudices," he closed oracularly. "Men cherish their
+prejudices with more care than their interests."
+
+"Until, he began to control the politicans," he immediately resumed,
+"Picault was a bankrupt financier. Now he is nominally a banker with
+millions. Once bribed or scandalized, your politician is broken in; and
+Picault's favourite maxim is 'You can buy the Pope, and pay less for a
+Cardinal.'"
+
+"I want to get out of this house!" I cried, no longer able to retain my
+indignation, "Am I a thief to associate with these criminals?"
+
+"My young man," said he, holding me quiet by the shoulder. "Accept the
+good points of Picault and drink your lemonade. The chieftain of fools
+is ever a knave; he has been tempted by the ignorance of the people."
+
+Such feelings of contempt and determination nevertheless took possession
+of me that the relish of Picault's magnificence and the charms of his
+assembly soured to very repulsion.
+
+Indignation above all with my own self took possession of me; for this
+circle was what I was to have exchanged for the world of Alexandra.
+
+Must I endure to be detained here till the time of my appointment with
+Grace? I went up to her to tell her abruptly I must go--what reason to
+give I knew not--and as I looked into those trustful, believing eyes and
+flushed face, feelings of desperate abandon for an instant almost
+overcame me. But natural resolution increased with the antagonism, "I
+must leave, Grace," said I, shortly and fiercely. "I cannot tell you the
+reason. Good night."
+
+Next morning my father sent me to France with Quinet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+LA MERE PATRIE.
+
+   "Et pour la France un chant sacre s'eleve;
+    Qu'il brille pur, le ciel de nos aieux!"
+      --F.X. GARNEAU.
+
+
+"Chamilly! Chamilly! This is the soil of our forefathers!" Quinet and I
+stood at last on the shores of France. We trod it with veneration, and
+looked around with joy. It was the sea-port of Dieppe, whose picturesque
+mediaeval Gothic houses ranged their tall gables before us. Hence my
+ancestor had sailed to the wild new Canada two centuries before.--O
+enchanted land!
+
+"Behold the Middle Ages!"--cried Quinet again, looking at the Gothic
+houses--"of which we have heard and read."
+
+"Is it not strange!"--I exclaimed--"Yes, this is the old Patrie.--Is it
+possible to believe ourselves here?--Stamp and see if the ground is
+real!"
+
+"There is a _blouse_!--a _paysan_, as in the pictures--he wears the cap!
+he has the wooden shoes!"
+
+"It is our brother--the Frenchman!"
+
+There was more nevertheless. Celestial angels,--I too have been in
+heaven. I have been a French Canadian in Paris!
+
+Dieppe was the first note of the music, the noble and quaint Cathedral
+of Rouen and our railway glimpses of rural Normandy were the prelude. At
+last our pilgrim feet were in the Beautiful City. O much we wandered in
+its Avenues, with throbbing delight and love towards every face, that
+first memorable day. This river is the _Seine_! that Palace so proud and
+rich, the world-renowned _Louvre_. What is yon great carved front with
+twin towers--that pile with the light of morning melting its spires and
+roofs and flying buttresses as they rise into it--that world of
+clustered mediaeval saints in stone, beautiful, pointed-arched portals
+and unapproached and unapproachable dignity--from which the edifices of
+the City seem to stand afar off and leave it alone, and which wears not
+the air of to-day or yesterday?--_Notre Dame de Paris_, O vast monument
+of French art, recorder of chivalric ages, all the generations have had
+recourse to thine aisles and the heart of Paris beats within thee as the
+hearts of Quinet and this d'Argentenaye beat under the ribs of their
+human breasts.
+
+Paris knew and loved us. The fountains and great trees of the Tuilleries
+Gardens were palatial for us; the Champs Elysees laughed to us as we
+moved through their groves; the Arch de l'Etoile had a voice to us
+grandly of the victories of our race; the Bois de Boulogne was gay with
+happy groups and glistening equipages.
+
+How well they do everything in Paris! When shall the streets of Montreal
+be so smooth, the houses so artistically built, when shall living be
+reduced to such system of neatness and saving?
+
+Quinet betook himself much to the obscure cheese shops and cafes in the
+quarters of the people, and ate and chatted with such villains that I
+called him "The Communard." He, on the other hand, called me "Le Grand
+Marquis," because I made use of some relatives who were among the
+nobility.
+
+Between us we missed little. On the one hand the heart of the masses
+affected us. Once we bought bread of a struggling baker hard by the
+famous abbey of St. Denis. We asked for a cup of water to drink with
+it,--"But Messieurs will not drink water!" he cried, and rushed in his
+generosity for his poor bottle of wine.--My French-Canadian countrymen,
+that was a trait of yours!
+
+I remember too,--when my shoe hurt me and I limped badly one evening
+along the Avenue of the Bois,--the numbers of men and women who said to
+one another: "O, le pauvre jeune homme." Ye world-wide Pharisees, erring
+Paris cannot be so deeply wicked while its heart flows so much goodness!
+
+But the enthusiasms will run away with my story. Resolutely, _revenons_.
+
+While Quinet, the positive pole of our expedition, was ever edging our
+march towards his Bastille Column and his cut-throat Quartier
+Montmartre, I, the negative; drew it a little into more polished circles
+where wit and talent sparkled. The Vicomte D'Haberville, a French
+d'Argentenaye, took us to a reception--not too proud of us I daresay,
+for the gloss of his shoes and the magnificence of his cravat outshone
+us as the sleek skin of a race-horse does a country filly. Especially
+did he eye Quinet a little coldly, so that I could scarcely persuade the
+proud fellow to come.
+
+To the astonishment of the Vicomte, however, Quinet was the attraction
+of the evening. Taine and Thiers were there, and fired by a remark from
+one of these his famous men, the young Radical had ventured a clever
+saying.
+
+Thiers looked at him a sharp glance as he heard the accent:
+
+"Vous etes des Provinces, monsieur?"
+
+"No, sir--from New France."
+
+"We had once,--in America--a colony of the name," replied the statesman,
+reflecting.
+
+"France has it still. It is a colony of hearts!"
+
+Quinet awakened interest; was inquired into and drawn out, and we were
+invited to a dozen of the most interesting salons of the capital.
+
+O but those Parisians are clever! Why is it they are so much more
+brilliant than we? Perhaps because there intellect is honored.
+
+Quickly, through these surroundings, our knowledges and tastes
+advanced--Quinet's verging to the path of social science--mine to an
+artistic sense which suddenly unfolded into life and became my chief
+delight. The enthusiasm for Paris gradually led me to another offer by
+Life of a Highest Thing. To say it shortly--the salons led to a pleasure
+in the artistic, the society of artists to a growing appreciation of
+fine works of skill, and these, to Italy and Rome.
+
+Do you desire to rest eyes upon the noblest products of the hand of man?
+Go into the Land of Romance as we did, and wander among its castled
+hill-tops, its ruins of Empire, its cathedrals in the skill of whose
+exhaustless grandeurs Divinity breathes through genius. Meditate in
+reverence before the famous masterpieces of antiquity--the Venus of
+Milo--the silent agony of the Laocoon, the Hyperion Belvedere. Learn
+from Canova's pure marble, and Raphael's Chambers, and from Titian, and
+Tintoret, and the astonishing galaxies of intellect that shine in their
+constellations in the sky of the true Renaissance.
+
+Then you may say as I did, "At length, I am finding something great and
+best. The beautiful is the whole that mankind can directly apprehend,
+and as for other things hoped for, symbolism is the true outlet for his
+soul. Art is the union of this beauty and symbolism. No aspiration
+exists but can be expressed in pleasing forms."
+
+Does man desire God, he paints--O how raptly!--a saint; does he feel
+after immortality, he sculptures an ever-young Apollo. Looking to them,
+he has faith, as of an oracle, in their emblematic truth, and through
+them instructs the world.
+
+Art seemed to me then the Highest Thing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+SOMETHING MORE OF QUINET?
+
+
+One evening as we sat on the Pincian Hill, in the semi-tropical garden,
+overlooking the domes and towers of the Imperial City, Quinet broke our
+silence, and surprised me by saying abruptly:
+
+"Let us go to England."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Let us go; I wish to go."
+
+"But what is your press about England. I thought you hated the English."
+
+"I do not hate the English. Among whom are there more amiable friends,
+more beautiful women. I am seized with a wish to see that great people
+in their country."
+
+"You hated them some time ago."
+
+"In the present tense, that verb has with me the peculiarity of parsing
+itself negatively."
+
+I reflected a little on this change of opinion in Quinet, and its
+possible causes, till he again broke out abruptly:
+
+"Miss Carter gave me a message for you."
+
+The recollection of my conduct at Picault's sent a pang through me.
+
+"What is it?" I said. The tropical plants around us brought up vividly
+those at the ball.
+
+"I did not ask her,"--his voice was curious--"what it meant, but she
+desired me to say for her; 'I beg you to write me why you left the
+ball.'"
+
+"So you do her page-work," I returned, for I thought I could now divine
+the reason of his change towards the English. "Pretty work for a grown
+knight! If you know her so well, you know the picturesque groves of St.
+Helen's Island where she lives. Why stop at page-work? One would think
+with an enchanted isle, and an enchanting maiden, the Chevalier would
+find his proper occupation."
+
+Quinet changed aspect. "Do you not then admire her?" he advanced
+quickly, with uncontrollable feeling.
+
+"Not admire Grace Carter!" said I, for I felt as if I had done her
+injustice when I last left her,--"Yet no more than a friend, Quinet."
+
+"Is that the fact?" he cried, springing up--"I thought it was she you
+were in love with! I heard you were in one of Picault's alcoves
+together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP.
+
+   "Dans quelle terre a borderez-vous qui vous soit plus chere que celle
+    ou vous etes ne?"
+     --PAUL ET VIRGINIE.
+
+
+When I reached home my father took me to Dormilliere. "The purpose is
+very special," he said, so gravely that I trusted his wisdom and hastily
+despatching to Alexandra a brooch of Roman mosaic, which I had bought
+for her in Italy, I left with him.
+
+Life had another offer now to extend to me--Dormilliere, and the power
+thereof. As we approached the pier, and I beheld its three green
+terraces one over another; the grove of pines on the hill-top above the
+terraces; and cottages, white, red and grey, appearing among the
+pines;--dear home unvisited so long;--and the spires of the Church in
+the sky glinting the light of the setting sun, and on the shore and pier
+familiar faces of old men and young men changed; boys grown into
+stalwart fellows, and babes into boys and girls; many quiet visions of
+youth rose and mingled with my thoughts, and this spell began its
+working, as those of Society and Art had done.
+
+"V'la Monseigneur!" called out Pierre, our coachman, on the pier, the
+lineaments of whose face half seemed a memory suddenly grown vivid and
+real.--"Mon Dieu!" he cried laughing and crying, as he looked at me
+closely, "It's M'sieu Chamilly! My dear child, it was painful to have
+you absent so long. Why did you not come even to see us?--Please give me
+your hand again. But how you are loaded! Come, where is your valise? Let
+me do something for you, M'sieu Chamilly."
+
+"Les v'la!"
+
+"V'la Monseigneur!"
+
+"V'la M'sieu Chamilly!" the shouts went up.
+
+"It's the young Seigneur! the young Seigneur!" spread among the
+villagers,--they welcomed, they addressed us, the kind spirit of French
+Canadians took us to itself, and I was drawn to my people, as I had not
+been even during the conversation of the delightful Madame Fauteux. My
+father received them with both hands and all sorts of gay remarks, "How
+do you like this, Chamilly?" he laughed, with the satisfaction of an
+Archduke returned to his dominions.
+
+"Are you come to fish, Monsieur?" asked Pierre, in affectionate
+garrulity, as he took up the reins.
+
+"No, good Pierre, I do not know what I am coming for."
+
+"You will troll as formerly? Our magnificent maskinonge are polite as
+guests for a wedding. Yesterday I took one of ninety-seven pounds!"
+
+The good hearted fellow kept talking as we drove.
+
+One familiar scene after another! The village street of which I knew
+every doorstep. Ah!--a new wayside across in front of Widow
+Priedieu's--and the gay mast before the Captain Martinet's--the
+blacksmith's dusty shop--the inn-keepers' poles holding out their oval
+hotel-signs--the merry little cocked house where they had that famous
+jollification immortalized in the song:
+
+   "Au grand bal chez Boule."
+
+But my friends! my friends!--to see my old friends was the great
+enjoyment. "Hola," deliberate Pierre; and you three Jeans--gros Jean,
+grand Jean and petit Jean; "Monsieur le Notaire, bon jour!" the faces at
+the panes and the heads at the door!
+
+And lo, the gardens,--the broad fields so generous of harvest--the
+Manoir trees in the distance!
+
+And as of yore,--driving up the road those merrymen in the carts singing
+that well remembered "En roulant":
+
+   "Le fils du roi s'en va chassant
+   En roulant, ma boule."[E]
+
+And with sympathetic exhilaration, I swing into the old life again on
+the current of the jovial chorus:
+
+   "En roulant, ma boule roulant:
+   En roulant, ma boule!"
+
+[Footnote E:  "The Dauphin forth a hunting goes.
+                Roll, roll on, my rolling ball."
+                --OLD CHANSON.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE LIFE OF LEADERSHIP.
+
+.... "Pourvu qu'ils vivent noblement et ne fassent aucun acte derogeant a
+noblesse."
+
+PATENTS OF NOBLESSE.
+
+
+"Light the lamps," my father ordered.
+
+Tardif, the butler, did so with alacrity.
+
+"Tardif, thou canst withdraw," added my father.
+
+"Oui, monseigneur," replied Tardif, bowing respectfully, and went.
+
+The room and its antiquated splendors looked ancestral to me. Its size
+struck me. It was larger than any in our town house. The family
+portraits and furniture revived lifelong memories. We had a fine
+collection of forefathers.
+
+"Chamilly"--began my father, walking up before the picture of one who
+was to me childhood's holy dream. He stopped for some moments, gazing up
+to her face with intense affection, and then turning to me, said in a
+broken voice--"Never forget your mother."
+
+"No, sir," I replied, bending my head.
+
+In a moment he went on to the other portraits, and his manner altered to
+more of pride.
+
+"Your grandfather, the Honorable Chateauguay, this. This is his Lady,
+your grandmother. Here is her father, a LeGardeur de Repentigny. There
+is the old Marshal in armor. Here is Louise d'Argentenaye, of the time
+of Henry IV., who married a Montcalm. Here is the Count d'Argentenaye in
+armor." And thus he took me about on a singular round, and informed me
+concerning the whole gallery.
+
+He stopped at an old, solid wood cabinet, with spiral legs, bent over
+and opened it with a key.
+
+"Now," thought I, "these mysteries are going to be explained."
+
+"This is a dress sword," he went on, "worn in France, at the court of
+Louis XIII. It was worn by one of your forefathers. Here are two
+decorations--Crosses of St. Louis--what beautiful little things they
+are. They belong to two of us who were Chevaliers."
+
+I was only still more mystified.
+
+"Come into the office, my son," said he, leading me into a room used for
+collecting the feudal rents and other business.
+
+"It is coming now," I exclaimed to myself.
+
+My father lifted out an iron box, ornamented with our arms in color, and
+handed to me a parchment, having an immense wax seal, which I took and
+read.
+
+Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, Councillor of the King in his
+Councils of the State and Privy Council, Governor and Lieutenant-General
+of His Majesty in Canada, Acadia, and other countries of Septentrional
+France. To All Those who shall see these present letters: HIS MAJESTY
+having at all times sought to act with "zeal proper to the just title of
+Eldest Son of the Church, has passed into this Country good number of
+his subjects, Officers of his troops in the Regiment of Carignan and
+others, whereof the most part desiring to attach themselves to the
+country by founding Estates and Seigniories proportionate to their
+force; and the Sieur JEAN CHAMILIE D'ARGENTENAY, Lieutenant of the
+Company of D'Ormilliere, having prayed us to grant him some such: WE,
+in consideration of the good, useful, and praiseworthy services he has
+rendered to His Majesty as well in Old France as New, do concede to the
+said Sieur Jean Chamilie D'Argentenay, the Extent of Lands which shall
+be found on the River St. Lawrence from those of Sieur Simon de la
+Lande to those heretofore granted to the Sieur de Bois-Hebert, to enjoy
+said land _en Fief et Seigneurie_ at charge of the Faith and Homage,
+the said Sieur Jean Chamilie D'Argentenay his heirs and representatives
+shall he held to render at Our Castle of St. Louis at Quebec.
+
+"DE FRONTENAC."
+
+I laid down the parchment.
+
+"This is the original grant of the seigniory?"
+
+"Yes," he replied with animation, "The 'HIS MAJESTY' there is the Grand
+Monarque himself! De Frontenac is the Great Count, and that Jean
+Chamilly D'Argentenaye, cadet of the Chamillys of Rouen, is our first
+predecessor on these lands."
+
+Taking a large genealogical tree out of the box, and spreading it on the
+table, he showed me my descent. "The Honorable Chateauguay drew this up
+at the time of my marriage," he began.
+
+"The whole tree is mine then?" I ventured, surveying it.
+
+"Yes," he cried, "and these are brave and honorable names! The wish of
+my heart has been that you preserve their record. See: the first
+marriage is a Mlle. Boucher de Boucherville, whose father, Pierre,
+Governor of Three Rivers, was so honest and wise in the perilous early
+course of the Colony! Madeline de Vercheres, heroic holder of the fort
+surprised by Iroquois, is near her. See! we date from the fourteenth
+century, and are allied with the Montaignes, Grammonts, Sullys, La
+Rochefoucaulds. Here is Le Moyne d'Iberville, and there De Hertel, brave
+and able,--a Juchereau du Chesnay; a Joybert de Soulanges. Down here is
+De Salaberry, the Leonidas of Lower Canada. There behold Philippe de
+Gaspe, who wrote 'Les Anciens Canadiens;' there Gaspard Joly, the Knight
+of Lotbiniere.--But you can inform yourself about these names. They will
+be useful in your enterprises by raising you above the reproach of being
+an adventurer. Seat yourself over there."
+
+"My father," thought I to myself, "you and your pride are both very much
+out of date," but I obeyed him and seated myself where he indicated.
+
+"The reason why I have brought you here, is to tell you, that it has
+always been intended that you should in some way, succeed in these
+properties. Before you developed, it was not possible to predict exactly
+how you might do it; but within the last few years you have surpassed
+our hopes; and I have no trepidation in putting before you my views of
+your future position. You may think I am strong in health, but I shall
+soon pass away."
+
+My heart suddenly started.
+
+"And you will find yourself here with revenues ample for the moderate
+purposes of a gentleman. You may live in the country, or in the city, as
+you please; but my desire is that you should live here, and continue in
+the paths of your grandfather and myself: for he was a just Englishman,
+and taught me that no one must take without an equivalent; and that a
+landlord owed duties to his people, of the value of the moneys they paid
+him. Formerly the lord gave his vassals armed protection for their
+rents: now there is nothing to which the law forces him; thus his
+returns must be fixed by his sense of duty."
+
+"Do not fear that I am proposing anything too sombre, Chamilly: It is an
+agreeable life. There is no demand for your being shut up in the place;
+and one can surround himself very conveniently with his private tastes."
+
+But I did not feel the scheme repugnant. The house and locality had
+struck me before as a comfortable retirement to prosecute the study of
+Art, "and perhaps, I might bring here"--(I dared not put her name into
+syllables in such a flight of hope.)
+
+"You will find, though, more than you anticipate to do"
+
+I looked up.
+
+"And greater undertakings to accomplish properly than I have been
+strong enough to meet."
+
+"What do you mean, sir?" I enquired.
+
+"These poor simple people," he said, "have many enemies, and they
+sometimes do not know their friends. You are their hereditary guardian.
+Instead of mediaeval protection, you must give them that of a nineteenth
+century Chief."
+
+"A nineteenth century Chief?" I could not but exclaim, "What is a
+nineteenth century Chief?"
+
+"The people's friend and leader."
+
+"Yes, but what am I to do, sir?"
+
+"In the first place, discourage litigation and its miseries. Offer
+mediation wherever you can. Keep drink out of the villages. Preserve the
+ancient forms of courtesy. Grow timber, and introduce improvements in
+farming."
+
+He spoke of other things. I was to fight especially the Ultramontanes
+and the demagogues. My father was an uncompromising Liberal of the old
+school.
+
+"But what can I do about this?" I asked, my artistic skies beginning to
+cloud with the prospect.
+
+"You can speak! I know you will make an orator. You will be a member at
+Quebec; and then you can effect something. I mourn over the state of
+affairs, but I do not fear for the true end; and I yearn, as if across
+the grave to see the vigor of another generation of us pressing into the
+struggle. Remember our ancient motto," and he laid his finger on the
+little coat of arms on the iron box, with its scroll: "_Sans Hesiter_."
+
+I did not answer him, but sat thinking, while gathering up the documents
+into the box, he carried it back to the office.
+
+   END OF THE FIRST PART OF THE
+   BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS.
+
+When Chrysler arrived next morning at the break in Chamilly's
+manuscript, the sun was rising high and shining upon the river and
+front hedge, and on the green lawn before the Ontarian's window, and he
+could see Haviland walking backwards and forwards meditatively across
+the grass waiting for him to descend to breakfast. He hurried down, and
+as he came to his host, remarked, "The drift of your story is not quite
+clear to me."
+
+"I wish I had the sequel written," the young man replied, "I am trying
+to lead on to a great matter."
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A POLITICAL SERMON.
+
+   "In the crowded old Cathedral all the town were on their knees."
+
+   --D'ARCY MCGEE
+
+
+"That's not preaching _la morale_. And it's _actionable_!" a vigorous
+man energetically gesticulated among the crowd in the Circuit Court
+Room.
+
+The subject of excitement was a sermon by the Cure.
+
+Messire L'Archeveque, of Dormilliere, was in most respects an
+unimpeachable priest. He ministered to the sick faithfully, after the
+rites of the Church, he gave to the poor, he rendered unto Caesar.
+But--but, he hated Liberalism. On this point he was rabid; and as his
+Reverence was a stout, apoplectic person, of delivery and opinions not
+accustomed to criticism, it sometimes laid him somewhat open to
+ridicule.
+
+How the sermon was delivered, matters little to us. Suffice it that it
+was a bold denunciation of the Liberals, named by their party name, and
+that there were some strong expressions in it:
+
+"My brothers--when the priest speaks, it is not he who speaks,--but God."
+
+"My brethren, when the Priest commands you, it is the Church which
+commands you; and the voice of the Church is the voice of the Eternal.
+... Look at France. Remind yourselves what she was in the centuries of
+her faith, devout and glorious, the lily among the kingdoms of the
+earth, because she was the Eldest Daughter of the Church. Behold her at
+this time, among the nations, dying in the terrible embraces of
+FREE-MASONRY!!"
+
+"Take warning by her, brethren. Follow her not! It is the Liberals who
+have done this. Crush out the seeds of that doctrine! Let the spirits
+which call themselves by this name never have peace among you. Avoid
+them! Distrust them! Have nothing to do with that people! May the wrath
+of our Father descend upon them, the damnation of the infernal dungeons!
+and--" he brought down his book's edge loudly on the pulpit,--"the
+excommunication of the Church of God, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman!"
+
+The book was taken up once more, and slamming it down again with all its
+force, the good cure turned and waddled from the pulpit.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Since the first moments when Chrysler's eyes rested on the village of
+Dormilliere from the steamer's deck, the observations of the place and
+its people were to him a piquant and suggestive study.
+
+He had been there but a few hours when he discovered its central fact.
+The Central Fact of Dormilliere was the Parish Church.
+
+First, it was the centre in prominence as a feature of the view, for
+with the exception of the Convent school, no one of the string of
+cottages and buildings, stone, brick and wood, which constitute the
+single street of the place, presumed to rival it even in size, but all
+of them disposed themselves about it, and, as it were, rested humbly in
+its protection, particularly the Convent school itself, a plain
+red-brick building, which stood by its side.
+
+It was also the centre by position; being situate about mid-way between
+the ends of the long street, standing back commanding the only square,
+which was flanked on its two sides by the sole other edifices of public
+character, the priest's residence, or _presbytere_, and the friars'
+school for boys.
+
+It is needless to say that the Church was the central fact
+architecturally also. Large and of ancient look, its wrinkled, whited,
+rude-surfaced face was impressive, notwithstanding that it was relieved
+by but little ornament; for its design was from the hand of some by-gone
+architect of broad and quiet ability.
+
+Be in no hurry, friend reader, but let us look it over, for it is an
+antiquity, and worthy of the title.
+
+The facade consisted of a great gable, flanked by two square towers. The
+gable roof had a steep mediaeval pitch, and was pinnacled by the statue
+of a saint. A small circular window was set in the angle, and looked
+like the building's eye. Three larger windows and the great door came
+below in the broad front at their proper stages of the design; and in
+the centre a cut stone oval, bore the date "1761," in quaint figures--a
+date that seemed a monument of the fatal storming of Quebec, just over,
+and the final surrender of Montreal, just to be made--the end of French
+dominion over three quarters of North America!
+
+A number of details afforded entertainment to the curious eye. There
+were the rude capitals "St. J.B." and "St. F.X." on the keystone of the
+round-arched side doors at the foot of the towers. There were the series
+of circular windows leading one above another, on the towers, up to the
+charming belfry spire which crowned them. There were high up in the air
+on the latter, the fleur-de-lys and cock weather-vane, symbolical of
+France. Nine gables too, had the church, of various sizes. Its roof was
+shingled and black, and where it sloped down in the rear, a little third
+belfry pointed its spire. A stout, stone sacristy grew out behind. A low
+pebbled platform, two steps high, extended in front, and had a crier's
+pulpit upon it. And amid these varied features, the body of the church
+on all sides cloaked itself in its black roof with a mien of dignity,
+and its graceful tin-covered belfries, fair in their mediaeval patterns
+and pointing sweetly to heaven, glinted far over the leagues of the
+River.
+
+Yet it was not alone as to prominence of appearance, situation, and
+architectural attractiveness--that Dormilliere found its centre in the
+Parish Church. No relation of life, no thought, no interest, no age in
+years, but had its most intimate relation with it. There alike weary
+souls crept to pray for consolation, and vain minds sought the pomp of
+its ecclesiastic spectacles and ceremonies; the bailiff cried his
+law-sales before it, the bellman his advertisements; there was holy
+water for the babe, holy oil for the dying, masses for the departed; the
+maiden and the laborer unveiled their secret lives in its
+confessional-box; and all felt the influence, yea some at that period,
+the sternly asserted rule, of the Master of the institution.
+
+Chamilly went with Chrysler to it on the first morning of his stay in
+Dormilliere, which was a Sunday. As they approached it through the
+square, filled with the tied teams of the congregation, a beadle,
+gorgeous in livery of black and red, with knee-breeches and cocked hat,
+emerged from the side door and proceeded to drive the groups of
+stragglers gently inwards with his staff, as a shepherd guides a flock.
+
+Haviland looked at his friend, smiling.
+
+"You are not in Ontario," he said.
+
+"Clearly not," replied Chrsyler, "In my democratic Province, such a
+proceeding would be impossible."
+
+When they entered, the gorgeous beadle led them soberly up one of the
+aisles,--carrying his staff in a stately manner--to the seigneurial pew,
+a large, high enclosure, with a railing about the top like a miniature
+balustrade, and a coat-of-arms painted on the door; and into this he
+ushered them with grave form, and the Ontarian vividly began to realize
+that he was in a feudal land: after which he took a glance about him.
+
+Filling the great phalanx of soiled and common pews in the nave, were
+the first representative mass of French-Canadians whom he had been
+brought to face. "Here," he thought, "are those who speak the partner
+voice in our Confederation, and whom we should know as brothers."
+
+A few stood out in the quality of parts of the whole, but only to
+emphasize it as a mass. Above the crowd, he marked, for instance, the
+sober, responsible faces of the Marguilliers. A girl's face too,
+particularly attracted him--that of one who sat beside the Sisters
+attendant over the convent children in their gallery. No romantic
+seraphieness glowed upon her features or her form; but she was following
+the service with the light of simply such spiritual earnestness and
+intelligence about her that she seemed to sit there a superior being.
+But it was the faces of the laborer and the solid farmer that oftenest
+dotted the surface of the sea of heads. So typical to him were the
+features and responses of all, that he could not shake off the feeling
+that it was not individuals he saw, but a People.
+
+A People! No flippant thing is it to feel oneself in the presence of so
+great an Organism. If some hour of one man's pain, or of the grandeur of
+some other one, may be thought-worthy things, how reverently must breath
+be hushed as we stand in presence of a race's life, and think we hear
+its sorrows, cries and voices! Ever, thou People's Song, must thou stir
+the heart that listens, sweeping its tenderest chords of pity, and
+chanting organ music to its aspirations.
+
+The cure's sermon following as before detailed, the congregation
+appeared oppressed with its denunciation, but it produced, no effect
+whatever upon Haviland, the Liberal leader, whose countenance rested its
+dark eyes on the tablets of his ancestors in the transept wall before
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION.
+
+
+A noble looking man of fifty years, stood waiting to meet them as they
+made their way out. Of olive complexion, small cherry mouth and
+features, yet fine head and person, and smiling benignly, he advanced a
+step before Chrysler noticed him.
+
+"Salut, M'sieu L'Honorable," bowed Haviland.
+
+"Good-day, Chamilly," he replied quickly, without ceasing to smile
+directly towards the other man and holding out his hand.
+
+Chrysler looked closer at his features.
+
+"Ah, Mr. Genest!" he exclaimed, with pleasure, recognizing the Hon.
+Aristide Genest, a personage potent in his time in Dominion Councils.
+
+"I hope now to know the gentleman as completely as I have admired him,"
+Genest complimented in the French way, twinkling his eyes merrily. "Many
+a time I have listened to your advices in the Parliament. I say to you
+'Welcome.'"
+
+Chamilly started off to talk with his innumerable constituents in the
+crowd.
+
+"Let us cross over here, sir, and hear what they have to say about the
+sermon," proposed Genest.
+
+They crossed to a stone building on the other side of the road, and
+passed through a group of countrymen into a hall of some length, where
+sat sunk in a rustic rocking-chair, a singular individual, whose
+observations seemed to be amusing the crowd.
+
+In appearance, he reminded one of no less remarkable a person than the
+Devil, for he bore the traditional nose and mouth of that gentleman, and
+his body was lean as Casca's; but he seemed at worst a Mephistopheles
+from the extravagance of the delivery of his sarcasms.
+
+The subject of discussion was the sermon.
+
+"Bapteme, it is terrible!" exclaimed the cadaverous humorist. "Ever
+this indigenous Pius IX--fulminating, fulminating, fulminating!--Too
+much inferno. The cure does half his burning for Beelzebub! We are
+served in a constant auto-da-fe."
+
+"Heh, heh, heh," creaked an old skin-and-bones, with one tooth visible,
+which shook as the laugh emerged. Stolid men smoking, deigned to smile.
+
+People seemed prepared to laugh at anything he said.
+
+"What is it that an auto-da-fe is?" a young man demanded from a corner.
+
+"You don't know auto-da-fes?--A dish, my child.--An auto-da-fe is
+Liberal broiled."
+
+The character of the room, at which Chrysler now had time to glance,
+explained itself by a large painting of that lion-and-unicorn-supporting
+-the-British-arms, which embellishes Courts of Justice.
+
+"This room is the Circuit Court," Genest remarked--"Zotique there,
+calls it the Circuitous Court--A very poor pun is received with
+hospitality here."
+
+"I should like to know that man," said Chrysler.
+
+"Nothing easier. Zotique, come here, my cousin."
+
+He caught sight of them, and rising, without altogether dropping his
+broadly humorous expression, extended an invitation to take his
+rocking-chair, which Chrysler accepted.
+
+Zotique was like the Mephistopheles he resembled, one of those who have
+been every where, seen much, done everything. Born respectably,--a
+cousin of L'Honorable's--he had executed in his younger days a record
+of pranks upon the neighbors, which at a safe-distance of time became
+good humoredly traditional. The trial and despair of Pere Galibert, and
+the disapproved of Chamilly's father, he ran away to Trois-Rivieres as
+soon as he knew enough to do so; thence to Montreal, and Joliette; and a
+Fur Post near Saipasou (or, "Nobody-knows-Where," for Zotique asserts
+the region has that name); then was a veracious steamboat guide for
+tourists to the Gulf; edited a comic weekly at Quebec, "illustrated" it,
+itself cheerfully and truly confessed, "with execrable wood-engravings;"
+as Papal Zouave, he embarked for Rome to gallant in voluminous trousers
+on four sous a day; fought wildly, for the fun of it, at the Pia Gate
+against Victor Emmanuel's red-shirted patriots,--and came back to
+Dormilliere disgusted. The Registrarship of the county being vacant, a
+pious government appointed him to the position, upon recommendation by
+the "high Clergy," as a martyr for the good cause; and on a similar
+sacred ground he obtained the passage of a private bill through the
+Legislature, admitting him to the honorable profession of notary without
+the trouble of studying.
+
+So it came to pass that our friend was installed in the Registry Office
+end of the long cottage known as the Circuit Court House, and made use
+of the Court Hall itself for his Sunday receptions to the people.
+
+The people themselves were worth a brief catalogue.
+
+Jacques Poulin, the horse trader, stood against a window, with his big
+straw hat on. His trotting sulky was outside. Gagnant, the established
+merchant, with contented reticence of well-to-do-ness, was remarking of
+some enterprise, "It won't pay its tobacco." Toutsignant, his insecure
+and overdaring young rival; who was bound to cut trade, and let
+calculation take care of itself, sat on the opposite side of the room,
+and, bantering with him, the shrewd _habitants_, Bourdon and Desrochers,
+who were to profit by his theory of an advance in rye. The young
+doctor, Boucher from Boucherville, leaned near, superior in broad-cloth
+frock coat, red tie, and silk hat. Along a bench, squeezed a jolly
+half-dozen "_garcons,"_ and a special mist of tobacco smoke hung
+imminent over their heads. About the floor, the windows, the corners of
+the room, the bar of the court, sat, lounged, smoked, and stood, in
+friendly groups, a host of neighbors, amiably listening, more or less,
+to Zotique's harangues and conversations. It cannot be said, however,
+that they abated much of their own little discussions. Every now and
+then some private Babel would break in like a surge, over the general
+noise, and attract attention for an instant.
+
+"The auto-da-fe--alas, it recalls me the ravishing country of Spain! O
+those Sierras!--those Vegas! the mountains shirting with snow! the green
+plains watered!--but misere! hot as--the disposition of the Cure.
+To-day, gentlemen, the affair becomes serious, for lo, the approach of a
+doubtful election, and a trifle of clerical interference, like a seed
+upon the balance, might well--" the sentence was appendixed by an
+explosive shrug.
+
+"Now, the Council of war! we must have a command to him from the Bishop;
+and it is I, Zotique Genest, as prominent citizen! as Registrar! as
+_Zouave_! who will write and get it."
+
+"But more--that sacre Grandmoulin is coming, and we must receive him at
+point of bayonet, _a la charge de cuirasse_! that sacre Grandmoulin!"
+
+"He will be received!" called out a voice.
+
+"The National Liar!" proposed another.
+
+"The breach in our wall is the Cure," continued Zotique.
+
+"Mais."
+
+   Qu'allons nous faire,
+   Dans cette gallere?
+
+"If we could only strap him up with, every mark of respect, like the
+sacred white elephant of the Indies!--But first, the Bishop's order!
+Remark my brother, I am not advocating disobedience:--only coercion."
+
+The laugh rose again. It was not so much anything he said, but his
+extraordinarily grotesque ways--a roll of his large eyes, or a drawing
+down of his long, thin mouth, with some quick action of the head, arms
+or shoulders, that amused them.
+
+"Me, I say _sacre_ to the Cures," boasted a heavy, bleared fellow,
+stepping forward and looking round. His appearance indicated the class
+of parodies on the American citizen, known vulgarly as "Yankees from
+Longueuil," and as he continued, "I say to them,"--he added a string of
+blasphemy in exaggerated Vermontese.
+
+"Be moderate, Mr. Cuiller," Zotique interposed, "None of us have the
+honor of being ruffians."
+
+"In the Unyted Staytes," continued Cuiller, however, jerking his heavy
+shoulder forward, "when a cure comes to them they say 'Go on, cursed
+rascal,'" More oaths in English. The hearers looked on without knowing
+how to act, some of them, without doubt, in that atmosphere, tremblingly
+admiring his hardihood.
+
+"Cuiller,"--commenced the Honorable, easily.
+
+"My name is Spoon," the Yankee from Longueuil drawled, "I've got a white
+man's name."
+
+Cuiller, in fact, was of the host who have Anglicised their patronymics.
+Many a man who goes as "White" in New England, is really Le Blanc;
+Desrochers translates himself "Stone," Monsieur Des Trois-Maisons calls
+himself "Mr. Three-Houses," and it is well authenticated that a certain
+Magloire Phaneuf exists who triumphs in the supreme ingenuity of
+"My-glory Makes-nine."
+
+"There is a respect due," proceeded the Honorable, ignoring the
+correction "to what others consider sacred, even by those who themselves
+respect nothing. This gentleman, besides, sir, is an English gentleman,
+and your use of his tongue cannot but be a barbarism to his taste."
+
+The big fellow shoved his hands into the hip pockets of his striped
+trousers; and putting on a leer of pretended indifference, turned to a
+man named Benoit, who was regarding him with admiration.
+
+This was an orator and a Solomon. He was a farmer, middle-aged, and
+somewhat short, whose shaven lips were drawn so over-soberly as to
+express a complete self-conviction of his own profundity, while his
+unstable averted glance warned that his alliances were not to be
+depended on where he was likely to be a material loser. A particularly
+"fluent" man, accomplished in gestures such as form an ingredient in all
+French conversation, he was in Zotique's Sunday afternoons a zestful
+contestant. His clothes were of homespun, dyed a raw, light blue, and he
+was proud of his choice of the color, for its singularity.
+
+"Monsieur Genest," he began, with oratorical impressiveness, coming
+forward, and bowing to Zotique, "Monsieur l'Honorable; Monsieur;" bowing
+low; "and Messieurs. I speak not against the clergy, whom the good God
+and His Pontifical Holiness have set over us for instruction and
+guidance. I am not speaking against those holy men. But it seems to me
+to-day that you, my friend, are a little rash--a very little severe--in
+reproaching my friend, Mr. Cuiller, upon the language which he uses,
+coming from a foreign country where neither the expressions, nor the
+customs, are the same as ours; and it seems to me that there is a point
+a little subtle which should have been noticed by you before commencing,
+and on which I dare to base my exception to the form; and this point is,
+I pretend, that Mr. Cuiller has said nothing directly himself against
+the clergy, but has simply told how they were treated in the United
+States."
+
+This beginning, delivered with appropriate gestures--now a bow, now an
+ultra-crossing of the arms, only to throw them apart again, now a
+chopping down with both hands from the elbow, now again a graceful
+clasping of them in front, made a satisfactory impression on Benoit
+himself, who prepared to continue indefinitely had not Zotique
+interrupted.
+
+"Benoit, you are too fine for good millstone. But respecting friend
+Cuiller, we are willingly converted to your delusion. He is honorably
+acquitted of his crime."
+
+"And now," he cried, "Oyez! Let all who have not forgotten how to make
+their marks, sign the requisition which I observe in the hands of Maitre
+Descarries."
+
+Maitre Descarries, Notary, an elderly, active little man, carefully
+attired and wearing his white hair brushed back from his forehead, in a
+manner resembling a halo, or some silvery kind of old-time wig, stood at
+the door holding a document,--a paper nominating Sieur Chamilly Haviland
+to represent the Electoral District of Argentenaye.
+
+The Notary, advancing, laid it on the bar of the Court, and everybody
+crowded to look on and see those requested to sign do so.
+
+The Honorable, the first to be called, went forward and affixed his
+name, and Maitre Descarries turned to a person who was apparently an old
+farmer, but a man with a face of conspicuous dignity.
+
+"Will you sign, Mr. De La Lande?"
+
+"Ah yes, Monsieur Descarries--'with both hands,'"--answered he, bowing
+quickly; and his signature read, to the Ontarian's astonishment: "De La
+Lande, Duke of St. Denis, Peer of France."
+
+Thus, at this after-mass reception, Chrysler was introduced to a circle
+of whom he was to see much in the events to follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE AMERICAN FRANCE.
+
+
+Chrysler and Genest, after reaching the Manoir, sat conversing under the
+large triple tree on the side of the lawn.
+
+"You have no idea of the simplicity of life here," l'Honorable
+philosophised. "We dwell as peacefully, in general, and almost as much
+in one spot as these great trees. After all, is there any condition in
+which mortal existence is happier than that of pure air and tranquility.
+We have a proverb, 'Love God and go thy path.' To love God, to live, to
+die, are the complete circle."
+
+Chamilly's entrance put an end to these idyllic observations. He was
+driven up in a cart by a country jehu, and leaping out, there followed
+him a couple of friends.
+
+Haviland called Tardif, the head servant, who appeared at the door of
+the house, bareheaded, with an apron on:
+
+"Bring the dinner out here, Tardif," he ordered; and a light table was
+set under the spreading boughs.
+
+"Now tell us, De La Lande, about your trip to Montreal."
+
+Of the two friends who drove up with their host in the cart, one was
+Breboeuf, a hunchback. This little creature on being introduced, bowed
+and shook hands with an aspect of hopeless resignation, and sitting
+down, relapsed into thought, telescoping his neck into his squarish
+shoulders. His companion was a young man of small build, but spirited,
+good-looking face--De La Lande, schoolmaster of the village, a son of
+the farmer "Duke."
+
+"And where commence?" responded the schoolmaster to the request for an
+account of the trip to Montreal.
+
+"In the middle, as I am doing," retorted Haviland, flourishing the
+carving-knife over the joint.
+
+"Ah well. The middle was the climax with me. It was the Fete of St. Jean
+Baptiste!"
+
+"You saw Notre Dame, and the great procession?" inquired the Honorable.
+
+"Yes, I saw that vast Cathedral fifteen thousand full! And the Cure of
+Colonization climbed up in the midst, and I heard the most glorious
+words that were ever spoken to French Canadians!"
+
+"Was the procession like ours here?"
+
+"At Dormilliere? Pah!--we have two Cures, a beadle and the choir-boys!
+Theirs was a mile in length. There were nineteen bands playing music,
+all in fine uniforms, and there were all the Societies of St. Jean
+Baptiste walking, with their gold chains and their badges, and as many
+as forty magnificently decorated cars, bearing representations of the
+discovery of Canada by Jacques Cartier, and the workings of all the
+trades, and innumerable splendid banners, of white, and blue, and red
+and green, with gold inscriptions and pictures--and the Cure of Col----"
+
+"Were the streets well decorated? How were the arches and flags?"
+
+"They were good. The streets were full of flying tricolors and Union
+Jacks stretched across them. They were lined with green saplings as we
+do here. The crowd was enormous. There were thousands from the States.
+And the Cathedral of Notre Dame was all excitement; for the Cure----,"
+
+"Tell us about it! Every one speaks of it! What did he say?"
+
+(A well-known priest had just electrified the people of the land with an
+extraordinary declaration.)
+
+"But, to speak of his aims, I must recollect the numbers of our
+people."
+
+"Breboeuf, mon brebis," said Chamilly, turning to the little fellow,
+"what is the number of the French Canadians?"
+
+The hunchback lifted his face gravely, and issued in a monotonous voice,
+but with the precision of a machine:--"One million, eighty-two thousand,
+nine hundred and forty-three, in Canada, by the census of 1870; one
+million, one hundred and ten thousand, in Canada, by the computation of
+the Abbe Zero; four hundred and thirty-five thousand in the United
+States by the computation of the same."
+
+The Ontarian was surprised at his odd, machine-like accuracy, but
+Haviland only laughed a little chuckle and Chrysler's glance was drawn
+away towards a figure entering the gate, walking abstractedly, his hands
+in his hip pockets and eyes on the path. He was of slender but agile
+person, the decision which marked every movement showing his
+consciousness of latent activity. Haviland espied him presently:
+
+"Bravo, here is Quinet. Quinet, what are you doing?"
+
+"Cultivating dulness," replied the figure, scarcely glancing up.
+
+"Come and cultivate us, for a contrast, my friend."
+
+"Would I be changing occupation?"
+
+"Sit here and we will show you. Yourself may be as dull as you like."
+
+The stranger, nonchalantly, and half-defiantly, seated himself, after
+introduction. Chrysler scanned him curiously in recollection of the
+references to him in Haviland's Book of Enthusiasms, and recognized the
+strange red-brown scale of hues of hair, eyebrows and moustache, which
+gave character to his appearance; but the pale countenance was strong
+now, and tanned, though spare, and all the signs of former weakness had
+departed.
+
+Chamilly continued to Chrysler:
+
+"I am not a little proud of the cheerfulness, the spirit, the
+respectability, the intelligence of my little people. And if you had
+seen the mottoes which I have read on cars and banners in the
+processions of our national saint; such as, "GOD HAS MADE LAW TO EVERY
+MAN TO LABOR," and: "TO MAKE THE PEOPLE BETTER,"--you would have felt
+with me that it must be a people responsive to sober and admirable
+aims."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," remarked the visitor genially.
+
+"But I scarcely think you can be familiar with a group of startling
+projects lately cherished in our circles."
+
+"Plots against everybody," Quinet remarked. "Have the goodness to pass
+me the asparagus."
+
+"The Continent of North America is a large acre," continued Haviland.
+"Can you fancy a race who a century ago were but ninety thousand,
+aspiring and actually planning for its complete control?"
+
+Chrysler looked amused at the idea, for the handful of French-Canadians.
+
+"That is our firmly-persuaded future!" asserted the young man, De La
+Lande, eagerly and boldly. "The Cure of Colonization has demonstrated
+that it is possible. We shall reconquer the continent!"
+
+"Is it your view?" Chrysler asked of Chamilly.
+
+"I instance it," he returned, "because it shows that my people are
+capable of thinking high."
+
+"There is a progression of plans!" went on the eager De La Lande. "The
+first is to get control of the six English counties!"
+
+"I will trust the Anglo-Saxon for holding his own," the Ontarian
+laughed, in the amusement of vigorous confidence.
+
+"But we gain!" the young man cried. "Our race is always French! We win
+fast the British strongholds in our dear Province."
+
+"This the least, of the plans," Haviland remarked. "All are founded on
+a curious fact."
+
+"What fact is that?"
+
+"Our phenomenal multiplication in numbers," returned the seigneur,
+smiling.
+
+"What?" cried Chrysler.
+
+He stopped a moment open-eyed, and then laughed heartily and long. He
+could not satisfy his laughter at such a basis for conquest of a
+continent, and it burst forth again at intervals for some time.
+
+"Nevertheless it is true,--and Biblical," continued the undaunted
+schoolmaster. "_Sicut saggittae in manu potentis, ita filii
+excussorum_."
+
+"Breboeuf," said Haviland, who took some part with De La Lande but
+joined in Chrysler's amusement, "help us. What was the number of
+French-Canadians at the conquest by the English?"
+
+"Sixty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-five, by the census of the
+General Murray in 1765, including approximately 500 others."
+
+"And now?"
+
+"One million and eight-two thousand nine hundred and forty, by the
+census of 1870."
+
+"You see, sir, what a growth. The clergy encourage it with satisfaction.
+It is not comfortable for bachelors in some of our parishes."
+
+All at the table were laughing, more or less, except De La Lande and the
+hunchback, who were perfectly serious.
+
+"One plan, sir, I confess freely," said the former, "affects yourself.
+You are perfectly acquainted with the Ottawa River, separating your
+Province from our own, and that it cuts across and above yours, which is
+a peninsula. The fourth great plan (out of six), is to plant centres
+along the Ottawa which shall exert their expansive force downwards to
+overrun your peninsula."
+
+"What a dangerous race!"
+
+"While another contingent meets it further south, where our progress is
+well known. So we shall win the centre itself of the Dominion. Let us
+possess the North, says our Peter the Hermit, and we can rest sure of
+the whole. Yes, let us possess the North! let us populate the shores of
+Hudson's Bay!" the enthusiast cried, losing himself in his vision, "Let
+us possess the shores of Hudson's Bay, where d'Iberville of old
+dislodged our enemies!"
+
+"Peter the Hermit!" laughed Chamilly. "What a name for our jolly old
+Cure of Colonization. But all that is well enough for ecclesiastics to
+recommend, since none others would invite their friends to die on those
+refrigerated wastes.--Yet the people themselves are heroically willing."
+
+"Our next ambition," proceeded De La Lande, absorbed in his enthusiasm
+and quite guileless of any personal enmities, "is the conquest of the
+United States. Northern Maine is French Canadian. In New England we
+count half a million. Lowell, Worcester, Lawrence, Nashua and Fall River
+are ours. In farms, in parishes, in solid masses, we shall establish
+ourselves on the banks of the Merrimac as we have on our own historic
+streams, to increase and multiply and possess the land, replacing the
+degenerate New Englander, _possedentes januas hostium_, performing a
+divine mission, working out a high destiny for our language and the
+Catholic faith, and establishing a new, magnificent State out of the
+portions of those destroyed, over which shall fly the lilies of old--"
+
+"And perhaps reign a duly fat Bourbon," interrupted Quinet over his
+salad.
+
+"We shall re-unite at last again with France! The affection of this
+remnant of her children, turned adrift in their few arpents of snow, has
+never died towards the land so changed from the time of our forefathers.
+It is still to us the Palestine of our speech, our history and our faith
+of St. Louis! We are the American France! We are all ready. We are the
+people of God. In the words of a brother: 'This blood was set in
+America in the midst of a material world, like France in Europe, to
+regenerate these peoples and perpetuate the reign of ideals. God has
+willed it: 'GESTA DEI PER FRANCOS!'"
+
+Chamilly turned to Chrysler as the school master ended, and said with a
+smile: "Do you not think there is enterprise in a people like this?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+A DISAPPEARING ORDER.
+
+   "Qu'il est triste d'etre vaincu!--"
+
+   --DU CALVET.
+
+
+From Quinet who had been deliberately dealing with his dessert, now came
+words:
+
+"Mistaken impulses! Led after will o' the wisps by dreamers and
+designers! If it were not that all movements work but one way, like the
+backward and forward of a machine--towards _advancement_, these things
+would make a man despond."
+
+"What then, sir," Chrysler asked, "are your ideas?"
+
+"Hear me, like a different messenger from the same battle. The motto,
+'God has made Law to Every Man to Labour,' means that the slaves of
+priestcraft are to be contented with their servitude. 'To Make the
+People Better,' means to blind the second eye of their obedience."
+
+"To--?"
+
+"Stop my dear friend," Chamilly interrupted with emotion, "that motto's
+words are sacred to me and will ever justly be to all our people. Do not
+disparage that motto?"
+
+"I will never disparage making the people truly better. It is to the
+tone of those who usurp the aim, you should apply my critique. The men
+who lip these terms are none other than the evil geniuses of history. It
+is the _Jesuits_ who would make us poor and miserable,--who have wrecked
+French America, past and future. Without them we should have welcomed to
+our dominions from the first, an immigration twice larger than
+England's: we should have held the continent north, south and centre;
+our people would have been vitalized by education instead of so ignorant
+that no commoner but one ever wrote a book; they would have built and
+flourished and extended; and in place of a poor and helpless people they
+would have been rich, powerful, and self-reliant, like the Bostonians;
+Bigot and his nest of horse-leeches would never have sucked our blood
+and left us to ruin!"
+
+He paused, but as if not yet quite finished. His hearers listened.
+
+"And _since_--," he suddenly and energetically added, with a stern look
+around and a bitter suggestiveness on the word as if it were enough to
+pronounce it; and in truth, it silenced both De La Lande and Chamilly,
+and appeared to make a completely effective ending.
+
+In the evening, walking out on the road before retiring, Chamilly and
+Chrysler commented on the discussion, and Chrysler said, "I must say I
+was unprepared for this debate. I was a poor helpless Briton, caught
+like Braddock in Mr. De La Lande's ambush. Tell me what you think
+yourself of these things."
+
+"It is a sad thing to belong to a disappearing order," Haviland replied,
+"Sympathising with my people, I am grieved in a sense to believe their
+present aspirations dreams. It is sad to behold any race, and deeply so
+if it is your own, blind in the presence of unalterable forces which
+will soon begin their removal of what it considers to be dearest."
+
+"I sympathize with them and you," Chrysler said.
+
+"Ecclesiasticism ruins us!" exclaimed Quinet the Radical, who was with
+them:
+
+   "Quiconque me resiste et me brave est impie
+   Ce qu'ici-bas j'ecris, la-haut Dieu la copie."
+
+"You should moderate your animosity," Chamilly said. "These Jesuits are
+most certainly humble, self-devoted men?"
+
+"I detest them as machines, not as men!" retorted the Radical.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+HUMAN NATURE.
+
+   "Va ...
+   A monsieur le Cure
+   Lui dire que sa paroisse
+   Est tout bouleversee."
+
+   --POPULAR BALLAD.
+
+
+Cure L'Archeveque, black skull-cap on head, was in the best of humour,
+playing with his little dog in the ample reception-room of the
+parsonage, when a laborer came and brought an account of several late
+doings in the village.
+
+When Messire heard what had been said at Zotique's, his rotund black
+stole writhed as if founts of lava boiled in him; his face swelled to
+the likeness of a fiery planet; indignation choked his speech for four
+minutes by the face of the tall clock in his sitting-room; and then the
+lava rose to the surface in jets:
+
+"Gang of accurseds!"
+
+"Atheists!"
+
+"Freemasons!"
+
+He turned for a moment to the laborer again who had come to inform him.
+Then he exploded successively as before:
+
+"They laughed?"
+
+"They laughed!"
+
+"I will make them laugh!"
+
+The young cure, his vicar, who was present, tried to calm him, but could
+not.
+
+His energies turned to action; he dismissed the parishioner, who, hat
+in hand, stood humbly by the door, and sitting down began to write
+letters and concoct vows.
+
+The first of the latter was to announce a spiritual boycott from the
+pulpit on Zotique and his iniquitous hall; and with this he wrote to the
+Attorney-General on the scandal of the gross misuse of the Circuit Court
+and the bad character of the local Registrar.
+
+The second bitter vow was that the Liberals should lose their election:
+this inspired a letter to Grandmoulin, the "Cave" Chief.
+
+There were other vows and other letters; one each to the Bishop and the
+Archbishop,--whose contents are unknown.
+
+At similar times, however, the Reverend gentleman had a recreation to
+which he was accustomed to turn for refreshment, and this was not long
+in rising in his mind. By law he was Visitor to the secular school: than
+which there was nothing he considered more nearly the root of all evil.
+He therefore took up his brown straw hat and black cane, and started
+determinedly out to exercise his habit of vexing the high spirit of the
+school master, De La Lande.
+
+"Ah bon, fratello!" cried Zotique that afternoon when de La Lande
+appeared at his door, "How goes it? Come in and speak to Mr. Chrysler,
+here."
+
+"It goes ill, Zotique," answered the school master, gloomily, "I have
+had the Cure again."
+
+"And what did he say to you?"
+
+"Quarrels with everything in the system. Our geography was galimatias,
+and book-keeping a crime: the people must not think they were on a level
+with the learned, and the children must do this and that. At last--at
+last--I was exasperated, and told him I had a right under the laws to my
+position and powers. He said there can be no right against the Right! I
+told him there were many wrongs against the Right! And he went away
+saying he would bring me to a bed of straw."
+
+"Let him do!" laughed the Registrar.
+
+But Zotique himself was not to escape quite scot-free, for when Chrysler
+stopped next day at his office, as he was getting accustomed to do, he
+found him in one of his excitements.
+
+[F]"Ac-re-ye!" he was ejaculating.
+
+[Footnote F: NOTE--An evasive form of "Sacre," analogous to "Sapre,"
+"Sacristie," "Sac," "St. Christophe," &c.]
+
+"Ah, good day, sir. Come in and take a seat Aa-a-creye, how they enrage
+us!"--and he cast an impatient glance on the floor at a large envelope
+deeply marked with his heel.
+
+"What is the matter?" Chrysler queried.
+
+"The matter, sir, is that!"--spurning the envelope.
+
+"An official notification?"
+
+"Not official!--No, sir, unofficial! ultra-official, contra-official,
+pseud-official! See, read it!"
+
+He picked up and handed over the objectionable letter, which was headed
+with the stamp of the Attorney-General's Office:--"Dear Sir,--You are
+requested to grant Mr. Cletus Libergent the use of the Circuit Court
+edifice and rooms, which are in your charge, for whatever purpose he may
+desire, for the space of three weeks from the present date."
+
+   T. OUAOUARON,
+   Attorney-General.
+
+Chrysler smiled to Zotique. Could a Government that openly granted the
+public buildings to partisans pretend to a sense of right or dignity?
+
+As to the effects of the Cure's second vow, they remain matter for
+narration to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+CHEZ NOUS.
+
+   "Bonjour le maitre et la maitresse
+   Et tous les gens de la maison."
+
+   --THE GUIGNOLEE CAROL.
+
+
+The crimson and gold of sunset were stained richly across the west.
+Chrysler was walking leisurely out in the country. A mile from
+Dormilliere, a white stone farm-house stood forward near the road. In
+front, across the highway, the low cliff swelled out into the stump of a
+headland, which bore spreading on its grassy top three mighty and
+venerable oaks.
+
+Chrysler, pondering as was his wont upon this and everything, noting the
+surges of color in the sky, the clear view, the procession of
+odd-looking homesteads down the road; their narrow fields running back
+indefinitely; the resting flocks and herds; here a group of
+thatched-roof barns, and there a wayside cross; passed along and mused
+on the peace of life in this prairie country, and the goodness of the
+Almighty to His children of every tongue.
+
+The strains of a violin in the farm-house struck his ear. Someone was
+fiddling the well-known sprightly air, "Vive la Canadienne:"
+
+   "Long live the fair Canadian girl,
+   With her sweet, tender eyes."
+
+The house was a large cottage, having around its door a slender gallery,
+at whose side went down a stair. Its chimnies were stout, and walls
+thick, its roof pitched very steep and clipped off short at the eaves;
+a garden of lilac-bushes and shrubs, some of which pressed their dark
+green against its spotless white-wash, surrounding it in front and on
+one side, while on the other lay the barn-yard, with a large wooden
+cross in its centre, protected by a railing. Two hundred years ago such
+houses were built in Brittany.
+
+Chrysler's glances took in with curiosity the tiny window up in the
+gable, the quaint-cut iron bars of the cellar openings, the small-paned
+sashes of the four front windows.
+
+Above the door, was the rude-cut inscription:
+
+   A DIEU LA GLOIRE
+   J.B.
+   1768.
+
+The fiddler drew his attention particularly, however, to the people on
+the gallery. There was one at least whom he had seen before. A
+_cavalier_ of much shirt-front and large mouth, and on whose make-up,
+Nature had printed "BAR-TENDER" in capitals--in short the "Spoon" of
+Zotique's reception--was sitting on the balustrade of the little
+gallery, making courtship over the shoulder of a dark-eyed maid, whose
+mother--a square-waisted archetype of her--stood in the door.
+Paterfamilias sat on the top step with his back to Chrysler, barring the
+stair rather awkwardly with his legs. A second young man slender, and
+dressed in a frock coat of black broad-cloth, and silk hat, and with
+face pale, but of undiscourageable obserfulness, though without doubt
+repulsed by the father's attitude from a front attack on the position,
+was taking the three steps in the garden necessary to bring him
+alongside the gallery. And, unobserved, down beside her dress, the
+maiden's fair hand was dropping him a sprig of lilac.
+
+Within, the grandfather bent crooked over his violin.
+
+Our traveller halted, there was a whisper, and the music stopped.
+
+"Salut, Monsieur," cried the householder, stumbling down the steps and
+hurrying half-way across the garden, where he took up a position,
+"Monsieur is tired. Will he honour my roof? All here is yours, and I and
+my family are at your service. Enter, Monsieur."
+
+A dramatic gesture of humility recalled at once the man in blue
+homespun, who had addressed the crowd at Zotique's.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Benoit," the Ontarian said, opening the gate and
+mustering his French, "I shall be charmed."
+
+The air immediately bustled with hospitality.
+
+"Come in, sir, come in," feebly rasped the voice of the old man from the
+door. "Josephte, bring a chair for Monsieur." "I will fetch one!" cried
+the good-wife. The girl Josephte, rose from her seat and followed her
+mother quickly into the house; the pale young man in the garden doubled
+his cheerful smile; and only the bar-tender endued himself in an
+aggressive grin of independence.
+
+"I assure you, monsieur," pronounced Jean Benoit, with his full armory
+of oratorical gestures, "that a friend of Monseigneur Chamilly will
+always have our best. Ascend, sir.--Josephte, place Monsieur the chair."
+
+Never was there a greater occasion of state.
+
+Their guest raised his hat to the young lady and her mother, who threw
+into her carriage all the dignity and suavity she could command. Then he
+ascended and sat gratefully down, for he was fatigued.
+
+The grandfather had laid his instrument on a spinning-wheel within the
+door, and slowly lit a pipe with both hands. The bar-tender jumped from
+his perch and stood with a familiar leer, of which when Benoit said "Mr.
+Cuiller, monsieur," Chrysler took trifling notice. On the other hand the
+pale lover remained modestly down the steps, and his cheerfulness
+redoubled when Chrysler nodded to him, passingly introduced as "Le
+Brun."
+
+"Does the gentleman take white whiskey,[G] or well milk?" asked the old
+man. "Josephte, bring some milk."
+
+[Footnote G: Highwines.]
+
+The daughter darted into the house.--"There is tea on the stove,
+Josephte!" Madame called hurriedly inwards, "and bring out some cakes
+and apples, and perhaps Monsieur would like new honey.--Be comfortable,
+sir."
+
+"Monsieur has come into the parish for the election?" the old man
+queried politely.
+
+"Only to see what passes," he replied, accepting the bowl of milk which
+Josephte tendered him, and a piece of raisin cake from a pile on a
+blue-pattern plate.--"What do you think of it?"
+
+But a diversion occurred. The wife had retired a few moments, and a
+veteran piano commenced playing, while a spirited boy's voice struck up
+a hymn from the services of the Church,--"O Salutaris Hostia." It was
+her youngest son, whom she had not been able to resist showing off a
+little. Chrysler praised the voice, which was excellent, and the boy,
+attired in a neat, black, knee-breeches suit with white stockings, was
+proudly brought forward and presented.
+
+The grandfather had the twinkle in his eye of a true country violinist.
+
+"I was going to tell them a story of the old times, sir. Will you pardon
+me?" he said, with the twinkle sparkling.
+
+Chrysler protested his own desire to listen.
+
+"We always like to hear about the old times," said young Le Brun,
+apologetically.
+
+"It's about a rascality of Zotique's, the droll boy, when we were
+young--the delectable history of Mouton. Mouton, the servant of Pere
+Galibert, who in those times was Cure, was a fat man, of the air of a
+tallow image. You know Legros--the butcher's son,--just like that. If he
+had had red hair there would have been spontaneous combustion."
+
+"Someone stole the sacramental wine of Pere Galibert, and everyone
+except the Pere knew it was Mouton. Messire would never believe them,
+though it so angered him he preached fourteen discourses against the
+thief. They were eloquent sermons."
+
+"One Sunday afternoon--it was about the Day of St. Michel, when we went
+in to pay the seigneur his rents--Zotique was at the presbytere with me
+and his brother the Honorable, and all of us playing cards with Pere
+Galibert. Zotique had come down from the city with a new keg of wine for
+the Sacrament, and they were discussing the disappearance. Mouton was
+there, and he says never a word. "Let it alone," says Zotique, and he
+looks around and takes up the inkbottle carelessly from the shelf and
+goes off to the kitchen and down into the cellar, where he puts away the
+wine, and then he comes back to us, upstairs. Mouton disappears in a
+moment. Zotique pretends to play,--but he is calculating the seconds.
+Presently he says, "Monsieur le Cure, you and I are too good players.
+Let Mouton take my place, and do you play against Benoit and my cousin,"
+and without waiting for any answer he flies out to the kitchen, and
+cries sharply: "Mouton, Messire wants you!" adding, "Quick, quick, tete
+de Mouton!" Mouton rushes upstairs, brushing his mouth. There he stands
+before us, solid as the image of tallow; but his mouth was as black as
+an oven's, _and his features indistinguishable with ink_."
+
+The circle, all eagerly listening, burst forth:
+
+"How did Zotique do it?" they cried.
+
+"Voila the mystery."
+
+"What was done to Mouton?"
+
+"Pere Galibert boiled him down into tapers, and sold him to the
+congregation."
+
+The old man put his pipe, which had gone out, once more to his lips and
+nonchalantly repeated the operation of lighting it between his hands.
+
+Spoon, his low felt hat tipped over his eyes made Josephte blush crimson
+with his attentions. Her glances and smiles were to Francois.
+
+Chrysler as he watched her, saw that it was she whose spiritual
+expression had attracted him at church. Near at hand, he took notes of
+her appearance. She was of modest face, regular and handsome in
+features, though not striking, and her cheek wore just a suggestion of
+color. Dressed in black, her apparel and demeanor were quietly perfect.
+
+The fine sweep of view from the gallery across the water attracted him,
+and his eyes rested upon the leafy monarchs shadowing the river-bank
+before them.
+
+"Your house is well placed," he said in admiration.
+
+"Yes, Monsieur," replied the old man, simply, and he pointed out the
+various parishes whose spires could be descried across the water.
+
+Thus conversing and observing, the Ontarian spent an instructive and
+delightful hour. When he rose to go, calm and rested, the hospitality
+again became profuse. "The gentleman will not walk!" shrilly protested
+highly-pleased mater familias. "Go Francois," turning to young Le Brun:
+"row Monsieur to the Manoir, you and Mr. Cuiller. Take the rose
+_chaloupe_, and Josephte shall go too."
+
+Chrysler made a very admirable guest. He would have struck you as a
+fine, large man, of kindly face, and influential manner, and people
+pressed upon him their best wherever he went. "You speak our tongue,
+sir," said the grandfather, "That is a great thing. I have often thought
+that if all the people of the earth spoke but one speech they would all
+be brothers. What an absurdity to be divided by mere syllables."
+
+So they parted, with many "Au revoirs" and mutual compliments at the
+water-side. The willing Francois planted one foot on a stone in the
+water and handed the young lady into the boat, and Cuiller hastening for
+the seat next her, made a pretended accidental lunge of his heavy
+shoulder at him into the water. Francois kept his balance and, quite
+unconscious of the malicious stratagem, held the ill-wisher himself from
+going over, which he almost did, to Josephte's demure amusement; next
+Chrysler got in and Francois essayed to push off. But as the boat stuck
+in the bottom and refused to stir, he suddenly dropped his hold, and
+with an "Avance done!" gallantly slushed his way into the water
+alongside, in his Sunday trousers, lifted the gunwale and started her
+afloat, amidst a shower of final "Au revoirs," and the rose _chaloupe_
+moved with noiseless smoothness down the current.
+
+Peace reigned over every surrounding. The broad, molten-like surface;
+the dusky idealizing of the lines of cottages and delicate silhouetting
+of the trees along the shore near them; the artistic picture of the old
+white farm-house, mystic-looking in the soft evening light, with its
+shapes of lilac-trees rioting about it and the three great oaks
+darkening the bank in front; the ghost of light along the distant
+horizon; the gentle coolness of the air; the occasional far-off echo of
+some cry; and the regular splash and gleam of the oars as they leave the
+water or dip gently in again. A fish leaps. An ocean steamer, low in the
+distance, can be descried creeping noiselessly on. The islands and
+shores mirror themselves half-distinctly in the water.
+
+A mile above, some boatful of pensive hearts are singing. So calm is the
+evening that the cadences come distinctly to us, and almost the words
+can be plainly caught. In a lull of their song, faint sounds of another
+arrive from far away. Rising and falling, now heard and now not,
+plaintive and recurring, it is like the voices of spirits.
+
+But farther, farther yet, a still more distant echo--a suggestion
+scarcely real--floats also to us. The whole river, in its length and
+breadth, from Soulanges and the Lake of Two Mountains, and the tributary
+Ottawa, to Quebec and Kamouraska and the shores of the Gulf beyond, all
+is alive with plaintive sweetness, echoing from spirit to spirit, (for
+it is a fiction that music is a thing of lips and ears), old accents of
+Normandy, Champagne, and Angouleme.
+
+The brimming Francois strikes up by natural suggestion of his dipping
+oars;
+
+   A la claire fontaine
+   M'en allant promener.
+
+   I.
+
+   Beside the crystal fountain
+   Turning for ease to stray,
+   So fair I found the waters
+   My limbs in them I lay.
+
+               Long is it I have loved thee,
+               Thee shall I love alway,
+                         My dearest.
+               Long is it I have loved thee,
+               Thee shall I love alway.
+
+   So fair I found the waters,
+     My limbs in them I lay:
+   Beneath an oak tree resting,
+     I heard a roundelay.
+                   Long is it, &c.
+
+   III
+
+   Beneath an oak tree resting,
+     I heard a roundelay,
+   The nightingale was singing
+     On the oak tree's topmost spray.
+                   Long is it, &c.
+
+   IV.
+
+   The nightingale was singing
+     On the oak tree's topmost spray:--
+   Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
+    Thou who hast heart so gay!
+                  Long is it, &c.
+
+  V.
+
+   Sing, nightingale, keep singing,
+     Thou hast a heart so gay,
+   Thou hast a heart so merry,
+     While mine is sorrow's prey.
+                  Long is it, &c.
+
+  VI.
+
+   For I have lost my mistress,
+     Whom I did true obey,
+   All for a bunch of roses,
+    Whereof I said her nay.
+                 Long is it, &c.
+
+  VII.
+
+  I would those luckless roses,
+    Were on their bush to-day,
+  And that itself the rosebush
+    Were plunged in ocean's spray.
+                 Long is it I have loved thee,
+                 Thee shall I love alway,
+                         My dearest
+                 Long is it I have loved thee,
+                 Thee shall I love alway.
+
+The melody was of a quiet, haunting strangeness, and from the end of the
+words "Thou who hast heart so gay," the maiden perfected it by
+interweaving an exquisite contralto into the chorus,
+
+   Long is it I have loved thee,
+   Thee shall I love alway.
+
+In this fashion was Chrysler delivered at the Manoir, and when Chamilly
+asked him "Where have you been-this evening?" as he entered the grounds,
+he answered, "In Arcadia!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE.
+
+"Aie! cela ressemble un peu a certaine fable celebre, dont la morale se
+resume ceci ne comptez pas sans votre hote."
+
+--BENJAMIN SULTE
+
+
+"St. Gregory the Great! Here comes the Small-pox!" exclaimed Zotique, as
+he and Chamilly, with their guest, were off behind the Manoir, and
+standing by the weather-worn Chapel in the hayfields, which served as
+the tomb of the first Haviland, "the Protestant Seigneur."
+
+The name "Picault" offered itself so readily to the pun of
+"Picotte,"--Small-pox,--that the jest had become almost a usage.
+
+Startled by Zotique's exclamation, Mr Chrysler looked from the
+commemorative table on the Chapel's side (whose rivulet of eulogies he
+was reading line by line), towards the pine-walk round the Manoir,
+whence a distant figure was sauntering towards them along the path,
+meditatively smoking a cigar.
+
+"That's a fact," exclaimed Chamilly, straining his eyes towards the
+figure; and the three looked at each other in astonishment. "Has he
+actually the enterprise to try me again? Or what can he want?"
+
+"I can answer you," the veracious Zotique undertook, "my eyes are
+good.--He is smiling fully a second hundred thousand."
+
+"That is courage after what I gave him for the first."
+
+"It is doubtless, then, glory:--say Member of the Council."
+
+"Did I ever tell you of the last time he came to me, and offered not
+only that Membership, but finally advanced to the Presidency of it.
+Imagine the recklessness of the Province's interests--A President of the
+Council at twenty-four years! More than that, if I wished for active
+glory, he would give either the local Premiership, or undertake to
+combine the French parties at Ottawa, and put me at their head, with a
+surety of being Premier of the whole country. And this again for a youth
+of twenty-four years!--He tried to flatter me that I was a Pitt or a
+Napoleon. And I answered, that no man guilty of such a compact could be
+either."
+
+"You will do it without him," replied Zotique, confidently.
+
+Chrysler looked closely at the approaching figure, growing larger and
+clearer.
+
+"Where is he Member for?" he asked.
+
+"Member for Hoang-ho _in partibus infidelium_," replied Zotique,
+sarcastically.
+
+Picault sauntered up with a smile of unfaltering genial sang-froid,
+bowed, removed his cigar, and addressed them.
+
+"Salut, my dear Haviland, salut Messieurs. Oh! my dear Genest, how goes
+it?" offering his hand, which Zotique took with a caricature of
+extravagant joy and imitation of the other's style:
+
+"My dear Small-pox--pardon me--my dear friend, I am charmed to meet
+again a man of so much sense and honor."
+
+"Ah yes, we have fought on many a field, but we respect each other
+'Honneur au plus vaillant.' But why, my dear Haviland," turning, "why
+should the valiant oppose each other, and half of them lose at each
+battle? Is it not because they are divided? Union makes strength!"
+
+"Yes, it is because they are divided by impassable gulfs," said
+Chamilly, coldly. "Did you come to see me, Monsieur?"
+
+"My dear fellow, can't we have a little private conversation together?
+I am, of course, in the country to oppose your politics, but being in
+Dormilliere, I cannot forget our social acquaintanceship."
+
+"Do me the honor of saying here what you desire to say, Monsieur. I have
+no political secrets from these friends."
+
+"Pardon me, what I have to tell you, is strictly private."
+
+"If it is in political matters, I do not wish it to be so."
+
+"It is personal, I assure you."
+
+"Then you will humor me, sir, by writing it."
+
+"My friend, do not let party differences put grimaces at each other on
+our real faces:--I would say rather party names; for I am in reality as
+much a Red as yourself. If you were willing we would prove that to you
+by changing the title, of our side to yours."
+
+"At that moment, sir, there would be what I live for in the name
+'Blue.'"
+
+Picault drew a deliberative puff at his cigar, and lowered it again.
+
+"You will not, then, do me the honor of a personal interview?" he asked,
+smiling unprovokably still.
+
+"Cease, cease!" replied Haviland, "It will soon be the noon of plain
+words!"
+
+The tempter with nice discernment, perceiving that this short and bold
+interview was useless, and that he ought to withdraw, put his cigar
+between his lips, puffed a "Good-day, gentlemen," and turned back
+meditatively, along the path towards the pines of the Manoir.
+
+"Au plaisir!" returned Zotique to him with facetious exactitude.
+
+Haviland was furious.
+
+"Shall the children of these men, enriched perhaps and elevated through
+their crimes," he exclaimed, "pretend in time to come that they obtained
+their 'Honorables,' and Knighthoods, and seats on the Bench of Justice,
+and of Cabinets fairly from their country, and were the world's great
+and true? Forbid it, and forbid that their names should live except in
+memory of their paltriness!"
+
+"But dear Mr. Chrysler," he added in a moment, "you must not take us for
+party bigots. The masses of the Bleus are honest, and any day our own
+name may be desecrated by a clique of knaves, our principles represented
+by the other name."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS.
+
+
+Haviland's approaching election kept him very busy from this time
+forward, and deluged him with interviews, canvasses, meetings, great and
+little, and perpetual calls on his attention. His conscientiousness made
+him work almost unremittingly, for he determined his part in the
+struggle to be far more than a matter of mere verbiage and smiles. Mr.
+Chrysler, like a sensible fellow-Member, quite comprehended the
+situation, and was content to note the admirable way in which his friend
+did everything; to receive a smile or friendly direction here and there,
+and to fall back on the attentions of l'Honorable, and the over-zealous
+Zotique. He felt his entry free, however, to the office where Haviland
+was principally employed, and which was not uninteresting of itself.
+There the young man had gathered a library of statistical volumes and
+other statesman's lore, with busts of Thiers and Caesar and strangely
+ideal and unlike the rest,--a pure white classic mask of Minerva on the
+wall opposite his chair, as if to strike the note of a higher life;
+while Breboeuf, curious little object, devoured some blue-book in a
+corner.
+
+Now what were those great aims of Haviland's? NATION-MAKING, we know in
+general. But what was the work upon which he was employed as the means?
+
+On the occasion of one of Chrysler's quiet entries, Haviland rose from
+his table as the light began to fall, threw off his toils with a breath
+of relief, and turning towards the older gentleman, called his
+attention to a large green tin case of pigeon-holes and drawers of
+different sizes, labelled.
+
+"Here," he said, "is my manufactory of reflections."
+
+One compartment was marked "FINANCES," another "LABOUR," a small one
+"DEFENCE," and a drawer lying open for use was titled "THE UNITY OF
+RACES."
+
+"Take out a paper, Mr. Chrysler."
+
+Chrysler put forth his hand willingly, and withdrawing one, held it to
+the window and read as follows:
+
+"A great thought can be thought in any place. A great Empire may be
+planned in any corner."
+
+The second was a note from "GENERAL NEEDS."
+
+"What the country most requires is Devoted Men."
+
+Others read similarly, some long, some short.
+
+"I can show you what will strike you more," exclaimed Chamilly, in a
+moment. "I have been planning your visit a little."
+
+"Have you a geyser or a catacomb?"
+
+"No sir,--a fountain of life," replied he, jocosely. "Let us get our
+hats."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+THE STATESMAN'S DREAM.
+
+
+As they went down the village, he continued to banter.
+
+"You great Ontarians believe too firmly that there is no progress here.
+According to you there is no being to be met in these forsaken wastes,
+except a superstitious peasant, clothed all the year in 'beefs' and
+homespun, capped with the tuque, girded with the sash, and carrying the
+capuchin hood on his shoulders, like the figure on some of our old
+copper _sous_;--who sows, after the manner of his fathers, a strip of
+the field of his grandfathers, and cherishes to his heart every
+prejudice of his several great, great-grandfathers."
+
+"I do not think so," interrupted Chrysler laughing, "I might put you
+fifty years behind the age, but no further."
+
+"Yes, but you, sir, have seen us. Why do not more of you come and see?"
+
+"For some of the same reasons perhaps why you do not know us."
+
+Some distance past the Church northward, the village, obscured by the
+great, irregularly-occurring pines, takes a turn and a sudden dip. The
+dip and the pines, which are thick at that end, obscure a section of the
+village known locally as La Reveilliere.
+
+As they came to the high ground where the dip occurs, the vista appeared
+below of a spacious avenue, down whose centre ran a straight and smooth
+road-bed, and on either side twice its breadth of lawn, rolled and cut,
+forming a sort of common, ornamented by a sparing group or two of the
+ubiquitous pines of the neighbourhood. Along the edges of this avenue or
+common, lay what could only be called a sort of _transfigured
+French-Canadian village_, looking, in the quiet light of evening, as if
+pictured by some artist out of studies of the places in the country
+about. The dwellings were larger, better drawn, their windows, attics
+and wings more varied in design, but amid their picturesque variety
+could be discerned in several, a suggestion of the chimney of a certain
+wild little cot in a dell near the Manoir; in others, of the solid stone
+home of Jean Benoit; in many the chalet-eaved pattern of the ordinary
+cottage. Perhaps the latter were made prettiest of all--they were at
+least the airiest looking. It was in the colors and stainings applied to
+the gables and other parts that the greatest care had been taken. These
+were selected out of the ordinary red, yellow, white, and sage-green
+washes in common use, with such taste as to effect a deeply harmonious
+and ideal issue. Again, the plan of the village was peculiar. It was
+simply an improvement on that of the local villages in general, the
+dwellings being upon the border of the street and not far apart, with
+their little, foot-wide flower-gardens close against the front. The
+circular fan of a patent windmill lifted itself lightly, the most
+prominent object in the settlement, and a charming Gothic schoolhouse
+crouched farther down on the opposite side. Behind the houses, growths
+of trees formed an enclosing background, according to the tastes of the
+owners, but guided by some harmonizing supervision like the colors. And
+at a short distance the avenue was crossed by a white poplar grove,
+which brought the scene to a limit, and separated this dream of a rural
+statesman from the common world.
+
+"V'la, monsieur," said Zotique, who had joined them, stretching his
+hand, "Behold the cherished work of our young seigneur."
+
+Upon the galleries, the verandahs, the green lawn, the picture moved
+with life. A half-haze, precursive of the twilight, lent scenic softness
+to the forms of old men puffing their pipes before the doors, a maiden
+listlessly strolling on the sward, a swarm of children playing near the
+road, a distant toiler making his way home, bearing his scythe. The
+visitors went down into the place and Chrysler saw that the artistic
+shapes and ideal colors were worn with daily use, the men and women,
+serene-looking, were still the every day mortals of the region.
+
+"I think I have gained a great step in the houses and street," said
+Haviland.
+
+"And the Reveilliere is proud of its founder," added l'Honorable.
+
+"We have a little newspaper--_Le Coup d'Oeil_,"--cried Zotique.
+
+Chrysler congratulated Chamilly on his felicity of design in the
+dwellings.
+
+The greater size of the houses was chiefly for better ventilation. The
+windmill was part of a simple water-works system, which supplied the
+village with draughts from the bottom of the river. The school was a
+gift of Chamilly's.
+
+"If we had some great architect among us," replied he, "he would
+transmute for our country a national architecture."
+
+A little house, conspicuous for the delicacy of its architecture, stood
+near them, and a young man--the schoolmaster--who was on the verandah,
+reading, in his shirtsleeves, threw down his newspaper at the call of
+Zotique, came forward and entered eloquently into the work of
+information about the Reveilliere, flinging his cotton-clad arms
+recklessly towards the winds of heaven.
+
+"The Institute--the fountain of all--the gentleman has not seen the
+Institute?" inquired he, looking to the two Frenchmen.
+
+"I believe not," Zotique said. "Have you seen it, sir?"
+
+"Not that I know of."
+
+"Monsieur, you must see the Institute."
+
+"What is this Institute?"
+
+"The _enfant perdu_ of Liberalism, the mainspring of Dormilliere, the
+hope of French America!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE INSTITUTE.
+
+   "The battle for the sway,
+         Of liberty,
+         Fraternity,
+   And light of the new day"
+
+   --MARY MORGAN.
+
+
+"About eighteen hundred and fifty," explained the Honorable, "L'Institut
+Canadien was our national thinking Society, and the spark of an
+awakening of great promise."
+
+"Under the French regime, our people received no education. They knew
+the forests, the rapids, the science of trapping beaver, and when to
+expect the Iroquois, and sow grain. The English, conquest came next and
+cut us off from the new birth, of modern France, and the Church, our
+only institution, was very willing to ignore that stimulation of ideas.
+We lived on; we read little; we labored much.--But, monsieur," said
+l'Honorable, with his quiet dignity, "we were of the race of Descartes."
+
+"We slept. At last the awakening! Our griefs and our grievances forced
+the Rebellion; they brought our thoughts together and made us reason in
+common; we demanded a new Canada, relieved of bureaucracy, of political
+disabilty, of seignioral oppression, some said even of abuses of the
+Church--a Canada of the People, in which every citizen should stand up
+equal and free."
+
+"The first result demanded--and obtained--was responsible government.
+Among others came preparations for the abolition of feudal tenure,
+making a vassal population freeholders!"
+
+"The next cry was Education! The French-Canadians were delighted with
+the opening world of knowledge and ideas, and there is no race which
+ever rose with greater enthusiasm to pursue progress and science. A few
+young men of Montreal were banded into a Society for mutual advancement,
+to hold debates at which all races were to be free to contribute
+opinions, to open a library of useful books, and to seek truth without
+any conditions. That was the Institut Canadien!"
+
+"These noble young enthusiasts soon attracted chosen spirits, a precious
+essence of the race. They sprang into fame;--fourteen were returned to
+Parliament in one year. They called all the world freely to their
+discussions, and created eclat by the brillancy of their programme. The
+province kindled--every village had its Institute!" "But 'sa-a-a-cr!'"
+savagely ejaculated Zotique, and his eyes grew intense in their
+fierceness."
+
+"The Institut Canadien gradually excited the jealousy of certain
+ecclesiastics by its free admissions and the liberality of its
+researches. What is known as the "Struggle" commenced. A series of
+combined assaults by episcopal summons, a pulpit crusade,
+excommunication, refusal of burial, encouragement of dissensions, and
+the establishment of rival Institutes bearing names such as "Institut
+Canadien Francais," most of which existed only on paper, finally
+succeeded in crushing the movement."
+
+"Ac"--ejaculated Zotique.
+
+"The Institute at Dormilliere is the insignificant sole survivor."
+
+"I understand now your Reveilliere," Chrysler said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE CAMPAIGN PLAN.
+
+
+On Saturday evening of Chrysler's first week at the Manoir, they went to
+the Institute. It was a house down the Dormilliere Street, that held its
+head somewhat higher, and tipped it back a little more proudly than the
+rest,--a long old fashioned wooden cottage, of many windows, and some
+faded pretensions to the ornamental: still elegant in the light curve of
+its capacious grey roof, the slender turned pillars of its gallery,
+separated by horizontal oval arches, its row of peaked and moulded
+dormer windows, its ornaments, its broad staircase climbing up to the
+doorway, and the provincial-aristocratic look of its high set-back
+position in its garden. The name of a rich money-lender, who had been
+feared in days gone by--"Cletus the Ingrate,"--was mentioned under
+breath in the stories about it. But ever since his death, many years
+before, it had been the faded outer shell into which the intellectual
+kernel of Dormilliere life withdrew itself, and in the passage as one
+entered, the sign "INSTITUT CANADIEN," which had once had its place on
+the front, might be seen resting on the floor,--a beehive and the motto
+"Altius Tendimus," occupying the space between the two words.
+
+The interior was a very great contrast to the outside. Its fittings were
+in the pleasantest of light-hued paints and varnished pine: maps, casts,
+and pictures enlivened the walls and corners; a handsome library and
+nucleus of a museum, with reading tables, opened to the left, and a
+large debating hall to the right--together occupying the whole of the
+principal floor.
+
+That evening the row of front windows shone with particular
+illumination for a meeting of Chamilly's supporters, and as Chrysler
+entered with Haviland and Zotique, they caught from De La Lande the
+fragmentary assertion, "It is France that must be preached!"
+
+"Aux armes, citoyens!" roared Zotique, entering like a captain on the
+stage. "Give me my battalion! Write me my letters of marque:" Then
+throwing one hand in air: "Allons! what has been done?"
+
+The audience sitting around on tables and windowsills, as well as on
+groups of chairs, laughed boisterously and thumped the floor, and
+recalled to the proper work of the meeting, commenced a cry of
+"l'Honorable!"
+
+"The Honorable presides!" intoned Benoit, like a crier; and Genest,
+accustomed to understand their wishes, seated himself in the chair,
+while a momentary lull fell over the noisiness.
+
+"A Secretary!"
+
+"De La Lande!"
+
+"Calixte Lefebvre!"
+
+"Le Brun, Le Brun, Le Brun, Le Brun!"
+
+"I nominate our good friend Descarries," smilingly spoke the Chairman.
+"Does the meeting agree?"
+
+"Yes!" "Yes!" "Maitre Descarries for Secretary!" "Maitre Descarries!"
+"Carried!" were the responses shouted together from all sides.
+
+"We have to consider this evening," continued the Chairman, after the
+white-wigged official had seated himself in his place as Secretary, "our
+general organization and appointment of districts. The aim is to work
+hard for Monsieur during the times coming. The people's meeting to take
+place to-morrow, is to be addressed for Libergent by Grandmoulin
+himself, and Picault will be in the county with them till the election.
+So you see our task is not less than to defeat the whole strength of
+the Cave. As we fight with men of stature, there is need of valor and
+address."
+
+"We'll have to pull the devil by the tail!" cried one. The words were
+those of a common proverb referring to "close shaving."
+
+The Chairman added: "Mr. De La Lande, the floor seems to be already
+yours."
+
+"I have heard," began De La Lande, "that Grandmoulin has commenced to
+raise the issue of French patriotism."
+
+"You are right," said Zotique.
+
+"Well, then, why can we not use a like word, that shall go to the heart
+of the people? Give us a national cry! Let the struggle rest on our
+fundamental emotions of race! Why can we not"--The face of the impetuous
+schoolmaster began to flame into eagerness and fire.
+
+"Because," interrupted Haviland, firmly, "we are in this particular
+country. Would you have us enter upon a campaign of injustice and
+ill-will? Leave that, and the glory of it, to Grandmoulin and to
+Picault!"
+
+"But, my chief, the positions of the French and the English!--We who
+were first, are becoming last!"
+
+"Come here if you please, sir," Haviland said, turning to Chrysler, who
+rose and advanced to him surprised. Haviland took him, and passing over
+to De La Lande, placed the hand of the Ontario gentleman in that of the
+high-spirited schoolmaster, who accepted it, puzzled. "There!" cried
+Haviland, raising his voice to a pitch of solemnity. "Say whatever you
+can in that position. _That is the position of the Canadian races_?"
+
+A shout rose in the hall, and every man sprang to his feet. Cheer rose
+upon cheer, while De La Lande shook the hand in his with feeling; and
+the cheering, smiling, and hand shaking, lasted nearly a minute.
+
+It ended at a story by Zotique.
+
+"When I was a boy,"--he began, in a deep, exaggerated voice, and
+whirling his two arms so as to include the whole of those present in the
+circle of his address. The cheers and confusion broke into a roar of
+laughter for a moment, that stifled itself almost as quickly, as they
+listened.
+
+"We lived for a year in the Village Ste. Aldegonde, near to Montreal. In
+the Village Ste. Aldegonde there was a nation of boys. All these boys
+marched in daily to town to the great School of the Blessed Brothers.
+Along the way to the School of the Blessed Brothers, many English boys
+lay in wait between us and learning, and we passed certain streets like
+Hurons passing through the forests of Iroquois. Often we went in large
+war parties, and repeated the charges of Waterloo for hours up and down
+streets."
+
+"One afternoon I passed there alone--accompanied by a great boaster. We
+behold three big English boys. We cross the street. They come
+after:--get before us:--command us to stop!"
+
+The audience were worked up into suppressed fits, for Zotique's gestures
+were inimitable.
+
+"My friend the boaster steps forward with the air Napoleonic! He sticks
+out his breast like this; he shortens his neck, like this; he frowns his
+brows; he glares at them a terrible look; he cries: 'I am of the
+Canadian blood!'"
+
+"And what does he do next, gentlemen?" Zotique paused a moment.
+
+--"Runs for his life!"
+
+The roar that followed shook the apartment. Zotique stopped it.
+
+"But what did _I_ do, gentlemen?"
+
+No one ventured to guess.
+
+"I--perhaps because I was of the Dormilliere blood--did not run, but
+looked at the English.--We laughed all together.--And I passed along
+unmolested."
+
+"Messieurs,--with the exception of our excellent De La Lande, I am
+afraid it is too often those who lack the virtues of their race who make
+most cry of it."
+
+The meeting now resumed its discussions.
+
+"We require strategy!" asserted a burly, red-haired lawyer from the
+City.
+
+"I confess myself in favor of strategy," admitted Zotique also;
+
+"I am always in favor," said Chamilly, "of the strategy of organized
+tactics, of the avoidance of useless by-questions, and of spirit and
+intelligence in attack and defence."
+
+"But you will not let us lie a little in protection of you," retorted
+Zotique. "To me the moral law is to beat Picault."
+
+"Assuredly!" the red-haired lawyer said indignantly, looking a half air
+of patronage towards Chamilly, and breathing in for a steady blast of
+eloquence: "It is time these ridiculous ideas which forbid us so many
+successes were sent back to Paradise, and that such elections as the
+present were governed upon rational principles. We cannot offer the
+people directly what is good for them; because it is not what they want.
+What they want, is what we must first of all assume to provide. Once in
+power we can persuade them afterwards. Gentlemen, _to get into power_ is
+the first absolute necessity. We cannot defeat the enemy except by
+opposing to them some of their own methods. Revive the courage of the
+young men by offering what they deserve--good places in case of success!
+Replenish the coffers by having our army of contractors to oppose to the
+ranks of theirs. If they lie, we have a right to lie. If they spend
+money, we must spend it. If they cajole with figures, surely our
+advantage as to the facts would enable us to produce others still more
+astonishing. Human nature is not angelic--and you can never make it
+otherwise."
+
+"My friend," answered Chamilly, raising his strong frame deliberately,
+"these are the very principles that I am resolutely determined to battle
+with all my forces, I care not whether among my foes or my friends. Must
+our young Liberals learn over again what Liberalism is? The true way to
+enter polities is none other at any time than to deliberately choose a
+higher stand and methods. Trickeries are easier and sometimes lead to a
+kind of success: if our objects were sordid, we might descend to
+demeaning hypocrisies, we might cheat, we might thieve, perjure, and be
+puppets, and perhaps so win our way to power; we might think we could
+use these to better ends, though that doctrine succeeds but rarely;--and
+perhaps what we might achieve may appear to you of some value, even of
+great value to you."
+
+"Yet, no, my friends of Dormilliere, your very work is to lay the
+foundations of sincerity deep in this sphere, and to withstand and
+eradicate the existing political evils. 'One must determine,' said a
+very great man, 'to serve the people and not to please them.' If some
+youth replies, 'This is a laborious, troublesome, hopeless occupation,
+in which there is not reward enough to make it worth my while,' I tell
+him but 'Attack it: rejoice to see something so near to challenge your
+mettle, and if you meet the battle boldly so, and ennoble yourself, you
+will immediately understand how to think of the ennoblement of your
+people and your country as glorious.' '_Altius tendimus_! We move
+towards a higher!'--The country reads our motto, and is watching what we
+practise. Give it an answer in all your acts!"
+
+Chamilly's manner of uttering these words produced the only perfect
+stillness the meeting observed during the evening, for the
+French-Canadians have a custom of talking among themselves throughout
+any ordinary debate. Their respect for Chamilly was striking.
+L'Honorable listened with a smile of pleasure; Zotique looked all
+loyalty: and the young men beamed their over-flowing flowing
+endorsation of sentiments worthy of the Vigers, Dorions, and Papineaus,
+those grand men whose portraits hung upon their walls.
+
+As he stopped, there was a sudden movement all about. A spirit of energy
+took hold on all. Zotique, posing at the head of a large table in front
+of the Chair, almost at once had installed De La Lande assistant-secretary,
+to do the real work of which punctilious old Maitre Descarries could only
+make a courageous show; had swept towards him an inkstand, shaken open a
+drawer and whipped out some foolscap, and darting his cadaverous eyes from
+one to another around, despotically appointed them to places of various
+service, now sharply answering, now ignoring a question by the appointee,
+while De La Lande scribbled his directions; and everyone was so anxious to
+find some post that there was no grumbling at his heedless good
+generalship. In a trice they were all being called for at various tables
+and corners, which he fixed for the operations of the Committees.
+
+The most zealous and loquacious of those who pressed forward to be given
+positions of trust was Jean Benoit.
+
+"What pig will you shear?" demanded Zotique, (looking for an instant, as
+he turned to shout towards another quarter, "En'oyez done; en'oyez!")
+
+"I take the Reveilliere."
+
+"The Reveillere is parted among three."--("Be quiet there!")
+
+"Well then,"--grandiloquently,--"I take from St. Jean de Dieu to the
+parish Church of Dormilliere."
+
+"Too much for four?" pronounced Zotique.
+
+Spoon pressed heavily behind Benoit, and whispered something.
+
+"La Misericoide then," said Benoit, hastily.
+
+Zotique shouted to the Secretary: "Jean Benoit the countryside of La
+Misericorde!" And to Benoit again:
+
+"There is your committee."
+
+But Jean would have a hand in shoving forward his admired bar-tender:
+"Give monsieur something near my own."
+
+"Cuiller--the village of La Misericorde," directed Zotique. "Now, both
+of you, the chief thing you have to do is to report to us if the Bleus
+commence to work there. Go; go!"
+
+"Salut, Benoit; how goes it; how is the wife? and the father?--the
+children also? I hope you are well. Comment ca-va-t-il Cuiller?"--asked
+Chamilly.
+
+Spoon took the proffered hand with his sleepy grin. Benoit responded by
+an obsequiously graceful shaking and deliberative loquacity:
+
+"Well; well, Monsieur the Seigneur,--We are very well. The wife is well,
+the father, the children also. And how is Madame the Seigneuresse? and
+yourself? The crisis approaches, does it not? Eh bien, at that point you
+will find Jean Benoit strong enough. I have a good heart, Monseigneur.
+Once Xiste Brin said to me, 'Monsieur the Director, you have a good
+heart.' Deign to accept my professions, monseigneur, of a loyalty the
+most solemn, of a breast for ever faithful."
+
+"I have always accepted your friendship, Benoit, and trusted you,"
+smiled generous Haviland. "See here, Zotique, give Benoit a responsible
+post.--How different must be our feelings at this priceless service of
+personal affection from those of our opponents, served only for money."
+
+"No money!" blurted Spoon. "Taurieu! An election without money?"
+
+Chamilly, with one quiet glance, turned away to L'Honorable. "Without
+'tin,'--St. Christophe, I say!--St. Laurent!"
+
+"Keep quiet--silence, I pray thee," returned Benoit, and drew his
+companion aside.
+
+"Why did Benoit call himself Director?" Chrysler asked.
+
+Haviland and the Honorable smiled. Chamilly answered:
+
+"It is a weakness of his ever since he was put on the Board of our
+Agricultural Society. Do not laugh, unless at the common vanity of
+mankind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE LOW-COUNTRY SUNRISE.
+
+"Chacun son gout. Moi, j'aime mieux la nature primitive qui n'est pas a
+la mode du jour mais que l'on ne pourra jamais demoder ... J'aime ce que
+j'aime, et vous, vous aimez autre chose. Grand bien vous fasse--je vous
+admire, Monsieur Tout-le-Monde."
+
+--Ben Sulte
+
+
+"I am going to rise before the sun to-morrow. Would you like to come out
+fishing?" remarked Haviland, cheerfully, on the way home. Chrysler
+signified assent.
+
+At grey dawn, before it was yet quite daybreak, they were on the road.
+All the houses in the neighbourhood looked asleep. Heavy dews lay upon
+the grass. The scene was chilly, and a little comfortless and suggestive
+of turning back to bed.
+
+"Where are we going?" the visitor asked, trying to collect his spirits.
+
+"To find Bonhomme Le Brun, who superintends the boating
+interest.--'Bonhomme'--'Good Man'--is a kind of jocular name we give to
+every simple old fellow. 'Le Brun' is not quite correct either. His real
+name--or rather the only one extant among the _noms-de-guerre_ of his
+predecessors, is Vadeboncoeur--'Go willingly,' which the Notaries I
+suppose would write 'Vadeboncoeur _dit_ Le Brun.'"
+
+Notwithstanding the early hour they were not alone on the road. A
+wrinkled woman, bent almost double, was toiling slowly along with heavy
+sighs, under a sack of firewood.
+
+"See here, madame," Charnilly called out, stepping forward to her,
+"give me the sack;" which he unloaded from her back and threw over his
+shoulder.
+
+"You are always so good, monseigneur Chamilly," the old woman groaned in
+a plaintive, palsied voice, without straightening her doubled frame.
+
+"Is the Bonhomme at the house?" he enquired.
+
+"I think not, sir; he was preparing to go to Isle of Ducks."
+
+"Just where I thought," exclaimed Haviland in English. "This Le Brun is
+of the oddest class--a secular hermit on the solitudes of the river--a
+species of mystery to the others. Sometimes he is seen paddling among
+the islands far down; sometimes seining a little, by methods invented by
+himself; sometimes carrying home an old gun and more or less loaded with
+ducks; sometimes his torch is seen far out in the dark, night-fishing;
+but few meet him face to face besides myself. When a boy I used to think
+he lived on the water because his legs were crooked, though more
+probably his legs are crooked because he avoids the land. He keeps my
+sail-boat for me and I let him use the old windmill we shall come to by
+those trees."
+
+The windmill and the cot of Le Brun stood in a birch-grown hollow, not
+far off, where a stream cascaded into the St. Lawrence, and had worn
+down the precipitous bank of earth. It was a wild picture. The gable of
+the cot was stained Indian red down to the eaves, and a stone chimney
+was embedded irregularly in its log side. The windmill, towering its
+conical roof and rusty weather-vane a little distance off, and
+stretching out its gray skeleton arms as if to creak more freely in the
+sweep of gales from the river, was one of those rembrandtesque relics
+which prove so picturesquely that Time is an artist inimitable by man. A
+clay oven near the cot completed this group of erections, around and
+behind which the silver birches and young elms grew up and closed.
+
+No, Messieurs, Le Brun was not at home; he had gone to Isle of Ducks;
+and all the blessings of the saints upon Monseigneur for his kindness to
+a poor old woman.--"Ah, Seigneur!"
+
+Chamilly took his skiff from the boathouse himself, and was soon pulling
+swiftly from the shore, while as they got out upon it the vastness and
+power of the stream became apparent.
+
+From its broad surface the mists began to rise gracefully in long
+drifts, moved by the early winds and partly obscuring the distant
+shores, whose fringe of little shut up houses still suggested slumber.
+The dews had freshened the pines of Dormilliere, and the old Church
+stood majestically forward among them, throwing back its head and
+keeping sleepless watch towards the opposite side. Gradually receding,
+too, the Manoir showed less and less gable among its mass of foliage.
+
+If the Church is one great institution of that country, the St. Lawrence
+is no less another,--displaying thirty miles unbroken blue on a clear
+day in the direction of the distant hill of Montreal, and on the other
+hand, towards Lake St. Peter, a vista oceanlike and unhorizoned. In
+certain regions numerous flat islands, covered by long grasses and
+rushes intersected by labyrinthine passages, hide the boatman from the
+sight of the world and form innumerable nooks of quiet which have a
+class of scenery and inhabitants altogether their own. As the chaloupe
+glides around some unsuspected corner, the crane rises heavily at the
+splash of a paddle, wild duck fly off low and swiftly, the plover circle
+away in bright handsome flocks, the gorgeous kingfisher leaves his
+little tree. In the water different spots have their special finny
+denizens. In one place a broad deep arm of the river--which throws off a
+dozen such arms, each as large as London's Thames, without the main
+stream appearing a whit less broad--shelters among its weeds exhaustless
+tribes of perch and pickerel; in another place a swifter and profounder
+current conceals the great sturgeon and lion-like maskinonge; while
+among certain shallower, less active corners, the bottom is clothed with
+muddy cat fish.
+
+They approached a region of this kind, skimmed along by spirited
+athletic strokes, and had arrived at the head of the low-lying
+archipelago just described, where they came upon a motionless figure
+sitting fishing in a punt, some distance along a broad passage to the
+left.
+
+Short blue blouse, little cap and flat-bottomed boat, the appearance of
+the figure at that hour made one with the drifting mists and rural
+strangeness of the landscape, and Chrysler knew it was Le Brun, and
+remarked so to Haviland.
+
+"Without doubt, Bonhomme is part of nature and unmistakable--Hola
+Bonhomme!"
+
+"Mo-o-o-o-nseigneur," he sung in reply, without looking up or taking
+further notice of them.
+
+Haviland gave a few more vigorous strokes.
+
+"How does it bite, Bonhomme?"
+
+"A little badly, monseigneur; all perch here; one pickerel. Shall we
+enter the little channels?"
+
+"I do not wish to enter the little channels: I remain here."
+
+They were soon fishing beside him, Chamilly at one end of the skiff
+intent upon his sport. The old man's flat punt was littered with perch.
+How early he must have risen! He was small of figure, weathered of face,
+simple and impassive of manner.
+
+"Good day," Chrysler opened; "the weather is wettish."
+
+"It is morningy, Monsieur."--
+
+"My son knows you, Monsieur," he said again humbly, after a pause.
+
+As Chrysler could not recall his son, as such, he waited before
+replying.
+
+"He saw you at Benoit's."
+
+Still Chrysler paused.
+
+"On Sunday."
+
+"A--ha, now I remember. That fine young man is your son?"
+
+"That fine young man, sir," he assented with perfect faith.
+
+After adjusting a line for Chrysler, he continued.
+
+"Do you not think, monsieur, that my son is fine enough for Josephte
+Benoit?"
+
+"Assuredly. Does he like her?"
+
+"They are devoted to each other."
+
+"If she accepts him then, why not? You do not doubt your son?"
+
+"Never, Monsieur! what is different is Jean. He thinks my Francois too
+poor for his Josephte, and he is for ever planning to discourage their
+love. Grand Dieu, he is proud! Yet his father and I were good friends
+when we were both boys. He wants Mlle. Josephte to take the American."
+
+"Reassure yourself; that will never be. No, Bonhomme, trust to me; that
+shall never he," exclaimed Chamilly.
+
+"How did you come to know these parties, sir," he put in English. But
+without awaiting an answer he continued: "Benoit is crazy to marry his
+daughter to that rowdy. Benoit was always rather off on the surface, but
+he has usually been shrewder at bottom. Cuiller infatuates him. He
+hasn't a single antecedent, but has been treating Benoit so much to
+liquor and boasting, that the foolish man follows him like a dog."
+
+"My son has been to Montreal,--he has done business," said the Bonhomme
+with pride--"he is a good young man--and he had plenty of money before
+he lost it on the journey."
+
+"How did he lose his money?"
+
+"Some one stole it. He was coming down to marry Josephte. If he had had
+his money Jean would have let her take him.--But he can earn more."
+
+"There was a mysterious robbery of Francois' money on the steam boat a
+couple of weeks ago," said Chamilly in English again, "I shall have to
+lend him some to set him up in business here, but mustn't do it till
+after my election."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE IDEAL STATE.
+
+
+The air, meanwhile, had been losing its dampness and the mist
+disappearing, when Haviland drew up his rod and threw it into the boat,
+and called upon his friend to turn and look at the sunrise.
+
+American sunsets and sunrises, owing to the atmosphere, are famous for
+their gorgeousness; but some varieties are especially noble. Mountain
+ones charm by floods of lights and coloring over the heights and
+ravines, to whose character indeed the sky effects make but a clothing
+robe, and it is the mountains, or the combination, that speaks. But
+looking along this glassy avenue of water, flushed with the reflection,
+it was the great sunrise itself, in its own unobstructed fullness,
+spreading higher and broader than ever less level country had permitted
+the Ontarian to behold it, that towered above them over the reedy
+landscape, in grand suffusions and surges of color.
+
+"It is in Nature," said Chamilly, comprehending that Chrysler felt the
+scene, "that I can love Canada most, and become renewed into efforts for
+the good of her human sons. I feel in the presence of this,"--he waved
+his hand upward, "that I could speak of my ideas."
+
+"You would please me. You said a nation must have a reason for existing
+and that Canada should have a clear ideal of hers. What is the raison
+d'etre of Canada?"
+
+"_To do pre-eminently well a part of the highest work of all the world!
+If by being a nation we can advance mankind; if by being a nation we
+can make a better community for ourselves; our aims are founded on the
+highest raison d'etre,--the ethical spirit._ We must deliberately mark
+out our work on this principle; and if we do not work upon it we had
+better not exist."
+
+Then Haviland related to Chrysler freely and fully the comprehensive
+plan which he had worked out for the building of the nation.
+
+"First of all," he said, "as to ourselves, there are certain things we
+must clearly take to mind before we begin:"
+
+"That we cannot do good work without making ourselves a good people;"
+
+"That we cannot do the best work without being also a strong and
+intellectual people;"
+
+"And that we cannot attain to anything of value at haphazard; but must
+deliberately choose and train for it."
+
+"Labors worthy of Hercules!" ejaculated the old gentleman.
+
+"Worthy of God," the young one replied. The difference of age between
+himself and the Ontarian seemed to disappear, and he proceeded
+confidently:
+
+"The foundation must be the Ideal Physical Man. We must never stop short
+of working until,--now, do not doubt me, sir,--every Canadian is the
+strongest and most beautiful man that can be thought. No matter how
+utterly chimerical this seems to the parlor skeptic who insists on our
+seeing only the common-place, it cannot be so to the true thinker who
+knows the promises of science and reflects that a nation can turn its
+face to endeavours which are impossible for a person. Physical culture
+must be placed on a more reasonable basis, and made a requisite of all
+education. We need a Physical Inspector in every School. We need to
+regularly encourage the sports of the country. We require a military
+term of training, compulsory on all young men, for its effect in
+straightening the person and strengthening the will. We must have a
+nation of stern, strong men--a careless people can never rise; no deep
+impression, no fixed resolve, will ever originate from easy-going
+natures."
+
+"Next, the most crying requirement is True Education. The source of all
+our political errors and sufferings is an ignorant electorate, who do
+not know how to measure either the men or the doctrines that come before
+them. There is necessity in the doctrine of the State's right over
+secular education. Democracy, gives you and me an inalienable interest,
+social and political, in the education of each voter, because its very
+principle is the right to choose our rulers. As to religious education,
+that of course is sacred, where it does not encroach on the State's
+right, and the arrangement I favor is that secular studies be enforced
+during certain hours, and the use of the school buildings granted to
+religious instructors at others."
+
+"I notice you say true education."
+
+"A man is being truly educated when his training is exactly levelled at
+what he ought to be:--first of all a high type of man in general, and
+next, a good performer of his calling. Let him have a scheme of facts
+that will give him an idea of the ALL: then show him his part in it."
+
+"Let him be taught in a simple way the logic of facts."
+
+"Let him be taught to seek the best sources only of information."
+
+"Let him be taught in school the falsity of the chief political
+sophisms."
+
+"Let him be branded with a few business principles of life in general:
+such as how much to save, and where to put it, and the wisdom of
+insurance."
+
+"Let him learn these three maxims of experience:"
+
+"Gain experience."
+
+"Gain experience at the lowest possible price."
+
+"Never risk gaining the same experience twice."
+
+"Seek for him, in fine, not learning so much as wisdom, the essence of
+learning."
+
+"But especially, let every Canadian be educated to see The National
+Work, and how to do it."
+
+"In short, educate for what you require and educate most for the
+greatest things you require, and in manner such that everyone may be
+equipped to stand anywhere without help, and fight a good battle."
+
+"It is an Ideal Character, however, a character perfectly harmonized
+with his destinies as a soul, and his condition as a citizen, that is
+the most important armour in the panoply of the Canadian. Purity and
+elevation of the national character must be held sacred as the snowy
+peaks of Olympus to the Greek. And as those celestial summits could
+never have risen to their majesty without foundations of more humble
+rocks and earth; so we must lay foundations for our finer aspirations by
+the acquirement of certain basal habits:"
+
+"The Habit of Industry."
+
+"The Habit of Economy."
+
+"The Habit of Progress."
+
+"The Habit of Seriousness."
+
+"In other words the habits of honestly acquiring, keeping and improving,
+all good things, material, intellectual and moral, and of dealing with
+the realities of things."
+
+"The Habit of Seriousness may seem strange to insist upon, but one has
+only to mark the injury to everything noble, of an atmosphere of
+flippancy and constant strain after smart language. There is nothing in
+flippancy to have awe of--any one can learn the knack of it--but it is
+foolish and degrading, while seriousness is the color of truth itself."
+
+"As to the Habit of Industry, there is no other way that can be depended
+upon for becoming wealthy in goods, or learning, or in good deeds.
+Materially, if we can learn to employ all our available time at
+something, we shall be the richest of nations. Why have we so many men
+idling about the villages? Why do so many women simply live on a
+relative? How different the country would look if the man spent his
+waste moments in building a gallery, an oriel window, or an awning, to
+his house, and the idle girl practised some home manufacture. The
+prosperity of certain Annapolis valley farmers once struck me. 'Do you
+know why it is?' said a gentleman who was born there. 'The forefathers
+of these people were a colony of weavers, _and there is a loom in every
+house_.'"
+
+"The Habit of Economy is simply making the best use of our possessions
+and powers."
+
+"The Habit of Progress, or of constantly seeking to improve, is to be
+deeply impressed. It alone will bring us everything. It is never time to
+say, 'Let us remain as we are.'"
+
+"We could attend to some minor habits with benefit. How the popular
+intelligence would be improved, for instance, by:--"
+
+"A habit of asking for the facts."
+
+"A habit of thinking before asserting."
+
+"A mean between liberality and tenacity of conviction."
+
+"Now one more piece of equipment, but it is the highest: The Canadian,
+if he is to live a life thoroughly scaled on the scale of the
+reasonable, must place the greatest importance on those interests which
+transcend all his others, his future fare beyond this make-shift
+existence; his relations to the unseen world; and how to lay hold on
+purity and righteousness. Think what he may of them, life should at any
+rate think. Let him set apart times to ponder over these matters: and
+for this, I say that to be a lofty and noble nation, we must all borrow
+the rational observance of the Sabbath, not as a day merely of rest and
+still less of flighty recreation, but a necessary period devoted to
+man's thought upon his more tremendous affairs."
+
+After the equipment of the ideal Canadians, Chamilly proceeded to
+describe their work. They were to see its pattern above them in the
+skies--The Perfect Nation.
+
+Among themselves a few great ideas were to be striven for: "We must be
+One People," "Canada must be Perfectly Independent:" "There must be No
+Proletariat"
+
+The principle of government was to be "Government by the Best
+Intelligence."
+
+"We must try to amend unfair distributions of wealth. Yet not to take
+from the rich, but give to the poor. Fortunes should be looked upon as
+national, and we should seek means to bring the wealthy to apply their
+fortunes to patriotic uses. The surroundings of the poor should be made
+beautiful. No labour should be wasted. Men should learn several
+occupations, and Government find means of instant communication between
+those who would work and those who would employ. The lot of the poor
+must not be made hopeless from generation to generation!"
+
+The next demand of the Ideal was, "There must be No Vice."
+
+"The difficulties!" sighed Chrysler.
+
+"We ought to be ashamed to complain till we have done as well as
+Sweden."
+
+"Again, we must stamp our action with the Spirit of Organization. The
+nation must work all together as a whole. The public plan must be
+clearly disseminated, and especially the aim 'To do pre-eminently well
+our portion of the improvement of the world.' Consecrated by our ideal
+also we must seek to draw together, and foster a national
+distinctiveness. Canada must mean to us the Sacred Country, and our
+young men learn to weigh truly the value of such living against foreign
+advantages. For there is no surety of any excellence equal to a national
+atmosphere of it. They have always been artists in Italy; they have
+always been sternly free in Scotland: for a word of glory the French
+rush into the smoke of battle: the Englishman is a success in courage
+and practicality; the German has not given his existence in vain to
+thoroughness; nor the American to business. Let us make to ourselves
+proper customs and peculiarities, like the good old New Year's call, the
+Winter Carnival, the snow-shoe costume, and a secular procession of St.
+Jean Baptiste. Tradition too! Why should we forget the virtues of our
+fathers; or perhaps still better their faults? Let the man who was a
+hero--Daulac; Brock; the twelve who sortied at Lacolle Mill; our
+deathless three hundred of Chateauguay,--never to be forgotten. Have
+them in our books, our school books, our buildings. Make a Fund for
+Tablets; so that the people may read everywhere: 'Here died McGee, who
+loved this nation.' 'Papineau spoke here.' 'In this house dwelt
+Heavysege.' So might all Canada be a Quebec of memories."
+
+He held that the office of our literature and art was to express the
+spirit of our work. "Nor let the poet," he said, "find the keystone of
+our spirits dull; let him not fear he sings a vain song when he leaves
+that voice lingering in some vale of ours that conjures about it forever
+its moment of richest beauty and romance."
+
+In dress, in manners, we should be common-sense, tasteful and fearless,
+and in the development of our territory energetic and full of hope.
+"Believe me, sir, we shall yet learn how to have bright fire-sides on
+the shores of the Arctic."
+
+"And where is our world-work?" Chrysler asked, like one awakening.
+
+"Wherever there is world-work undone that we can reach to do."
+
+"Think," cried he, finally, "of a country that lives, as I am
+suggesting, on the deepest and highest principle of the seen and the
+unseen--what has been the aspiration of the lonely great of other
+nations, the clear purpose of all is this: what have been the virtues of
+a few in the past, determined here to be those of the whole; and every
+citizen ennobled by the consciousness that he is equally possessed of
+the common glory!"
+
+"It can be done! Heaven and earth tell us that all is under laws of
+cause and effect, and that this, which has been once, can be made
+universal. I hear the voice of Science, 'It can be done. It can be
+done!' I hear the voice of Duty, 'It must be done!' Inextinguishable
+voices!!"
+
+"It comes to me so vividly that I almost point you to that sunrise and
+say, 'See yon beautiful city whose palaces and churches tower with the
+grace and splendors of all known architecture; those rural plains and
+vales of park and garden, where every home nestles so as one could not
+conceive it more lovely; that race of heroes and goddesses in strength
+and thought; those proud tablets and monuments of national and
+international honor and achievement and blessing.' And if any say, 'How
+can we attain to that greatness?' I would write him this amulet: 'Begin
+at the POSSIBLE!'"
+
+The patriot ended, and when he had finished, Chrysler exclaimed:
+
+"Work it out, Haviland! If a convert is any use to you, take me over and
+send me forth. It's a noble scheme. But, for Heaven's sake, fortify
+yourself. How many proselytes do you expect in the first hundred years?"
+
+"You forget," replied Haviland. "I have always this faithful little
+legion of Dormilliere. Has not Lareau said," and he smiled half in joke,
+half seriously, "that we are a people of ideals."
+
+They returned to their fishing in silence, broken by a meditative query
+now and then from Chrysler, but no movement of curiosity from the
+Bonhomme.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+JOSEPHTE.
+
+
+"Sister Elisa," lisped Rudolphe, the tiny boy. (In the garden the
+children of the farmer of the domain, and of Pierre, were playing
+together.) "Mr. Ch'ysl' has told me he was a Canadian."
+
+"Did he say so, _mon fin_?" asked motherly ten-year-old Elisa, picking a
+"belle p'tite" flower for the little fellow, whom she held by the hand.
+
+"He's not Canadian," put in the large boy, Henri, with contempt
+befitting his twelve years of experience. "Because he doesn't speak
+French. He's an English."
+
+"Speaking French don't make a Canadian," answered Elisa. "The Honorable
+says every one who is native in Canada is a Canadian, speak he French,
+speak he English."
+
+"O, well--the Honorable--the Honorable--" retorted Henri, testily.
+
+While this went on, the voice of Josephte could be heard singing low and
+happy, in a corner of the walk of pines which surrounded the garden and
+the back of the grounds:
+
+   "Eglantine est la fleur que j'aime
+   La violette est ma couleur...."[H]
+
+Next, lower, but as if stirred softly by the lingering strain rather
+than feeling its sadness:
+
+[Footnote H:  "Eglantine is the flower I love,
+              My color is the violet"]
+
+     "....Dans le souci tu vois l'embleme
+      Des chagrins de mon triste coeur."[I]
+
+[Footnote I:
+
+   "....The symbol shall the emblem prove
+   Of my sad heart and eyelids wet"]
+
+When she got thus far, she stopped and called out, cheerfully:--"Come
+along, my little ones; come along; come along and recite your duties!"
+And in a trice they all raced in and were panting in a row about her.
+
+Thus one sultry afternoon, Mr. Chrysler found her sitting, book and
+sewing on her lap and only a rosary about her neck to relieve the modest
+black dress, whose folds,
+
+   "Plain in their neatness,"
+accorded well with her indefinably gentle bearing. Seeing him, she
+stopped and dropped her head, like a good convent maiden.
+
+"Procedez, ma'amselle," he said, nodding benevolently. "Do not disturb
+yourself."
+
+"But, monsieur," she said, and blushed in confusion.
+
+"Go on. I shall be interested in these young people's lessons."
+
+"As monsieur wishes," she replied. "Now, my little ones, your
+catechism."
+
+They ranged themselves in a line.
+
+"Elisa, thee first; repeat the Commandments of God."
+
+Elisa commenced a rhyming paraphrase of the Ten Commandments.
+
+"Ah, no, cherie,--more reverence. Say it as to the Holy Virgin."
+
+Elisa went through it in a soft manner to the end.
+
+"Rudolphe; the Seven Commandments of the Church."
+
+The childish accents of the little one repeated them:--
+
+   1. Mass on Sundays them shalt hear
+        And on feasts commanded thee.
+
+   2. Once at least in every year,
+        Must thy sins confessed be.
+
+   3. Thy Creator take at least
+        At Easter with humility.
+
+   4. And keep holy every feast,
+        Whereof thou shalt have decree.
+
+   5. Quatre-temps, Vigils, fasts are met,
+        And in Lent entirely.
+
+   6. Fridays flesh thou shalt not eat;
+        Saturdays the same shall be.
+
+   7. Church's every tithe and fee
+        Thou shalt pay her faithfully.
+
+"Henri, what is the Church which Jesus Christ has established?"
+
+"The Church which Jesus Christ has established," said he stoutly, "is
+the Church Catholic, Apostolic and Roman."
+
+The next was Henri's eight year old sister.
+
+"Can anyone be saved outside of the Church Catholic, Apostolic and
+Roman?"
+
+"No," (solemnly,) "out of the Church there is no salvation."
+
+"Say now the Act of Faith all together."
+
+"My God," said the children in unison, "I believe firmly all that the
+Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches, because it is you who have
+said it and you are Truth Itself."
+
+"You may rest yourselves."
+
+Chrysler was most curious regarding what he heard thus instilled. The
+thought struck him: "There's something like that, in our Calvinism too."
+
+"My dear demoiselle," he said aloud, "as I am a Protestant--"
+
+"A Protestant, sir!" She regarded him with visibly extraordinary
+emotions, and involuntarily crossed herself.
+
+"It is impossible!"
+
+It was the first time a Protestant and she had ever been face to face.
+"Monsieur," she appealed in agitation "why do you not enter the bosom of
+the true Church?"
+
+"Must one not act as he believes?"
+
+"But, sir," said the dear girl, painfully, still regarding him with
+great wonder, "on studying true doctrine, the saints will make you
+believe; the priest can baptize you. He will be delighted, I am certain,
+to save a soul from destruction." She could not restrain the flow of a
+tear.
+
+"My child," Chrysler said, for he saw that curiosity had led him too
+far: "Leave this to God, who is greater than you or I and knows every
+heart."
+
+"Monsieur, then, believes in God!" Her present astonishment was equal to
+that before.
+
+The rising voices of the children relieved him. That of Elisa, who sat
+in a ring of the rest, nodding her head decidedly and rhythmically, was
+conspicuous:
+
+"I am going to join the Sisterhood of the Holy Rosary and go to church
+early, early, often, often, four times a day, and pray, pray, and say my
+paters and my aves, and gain my indulgences, and be more devout than
+Sister Jesus of God; and then I am going to take the novitiate and wear
+a beautiful white veil and fast every day, and at last--at last--I am
+going to be a Religieuse."
+
+"What name will you take, Elisa?"
+
+"I have decided," the little convent girl responded, "to take the name
+of 'Sister St. Joseph of the Cradle.'"
+
+"Mais, that is pretty, that! But I prefer 'St. Mary of the Saviour.'"
+
+"What are you going to be?" Elisa asked of the smaller girl.
+
+"I will be--I will be--I will take my first communion."
+
+"I have taken it already," replied Elisa, with superiority.
+
+"Henri! Henri! it is your turn."
+
+"I am going to be an advocate."
+
+"And I am going to be a Rouge," replied little Rudolphe.
+
+"Hah,--we are all Rouges," replied Henri.
+
+"O, well--I will be, then--Monseigneur, like Monsieur Chamilly."
+
+The garden stretched behind the manor-house. Along its paths these
+children delighted to explore the motherly currant-bushes. Old-fashioned
+flowers stocked it, and, as Chrysler walked away among them, they
+reminded him of the simple gardens of his childhood before the showy
+house-plant era had modernized our grounds. There were erect groups and
+rows of hollyhocks; monkshood offered its clusters of blue caps; striped
+tulips and crimson poppies flourished in beds of generous shapes;
+delicate astors, rich dahlias, and neat little bachelors' buttons peeped
+in crowds from green freshnesses. This was one of Madame's domains,
+where she walked, weeded and superintended every morning in broad straw
+hat and apron; and it was to Chrysler one of the attractions of the
+Manoir.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+GRANDMOULIN.
+
+   "Que Demosthenes,
+     En haranguant,
+   Entraine Athenes,
+     Come un torrent!"
+
+   --JACQUES VIORR--LE JARGON DU BEL-ESPRIT.
+
+
+The events to which all others were leading now began to happen.
+
+The great nomination day,--Sunday--is here. Mass is over, the whole
+parish, aye and crowds from far and near behind, surge all over the
+square, where the Church looks down upon them in serenity and silence.
+
+When Chrysler came up, the Cure and his vicar were sitting on their
+gallery, and a man of strong frame stood upon the crier's rostrum
+looking round with the assertive consciousness that he was a recognized
+figure. His face wore a beard of strong but thin black wisps, which
+would have been Vandyke in form had it been heavier, but allowed the
+forcible outlines of his chin and cheek to be visible; and his locks,
+imitated by many a follower throughout the Province, were worn like
+Gainbetta's in a long and swelling black mass behind. His countenance,
+evidently from long experience, was so controlled that no trace of
+natural expression could be discerned upon it beyond an appearance of
+caution and diplomacy; but whatever its specific character, it bore
+without gainsay the stamp of power.
+
+The man was Grandmoulin.
+
+After looking this way and that way for several moments allowing the
+assemblage to hush, he began in a quiet tone.
+
+"My friends!"
+
+He paused deliberately some moments to permit the people's curiosity to
+concentrate upon him.
+
+"My brothers!"
+
+This with a rising, powerful voice.--Then higher:
+
+"French--Canadians!!" separating the two words.
+
+The audience strained with attention to hear him. What he had to say
+next became a matter of suspense.
+
+Then with inflection of passionate enthusiasm:
+
+"Canadian FRENCHMEN!!!" he cried, hurling out all his force. And the
+people could no longer restrain themselves; the rhetorical artifice took
+them by storm, and they shouted and cheered with one loud, far-echoing,
+unanimous voice.
+
+Grandmoulin kept his attitude erect and immovable.
+
+"My friends," he proceeded, when the applause began to subside, "I
+address you as heritors and representatives of a glorious national
+title. To wear it--to be called 'Frenchman' is to stand in the ranks of
+the nobility of the human race. I address you as a generous, a great, a
+devoted people, a people brave of heart and unequalled in intellectual
+ability, a people proud of themselves, their deeds and the deeds of
+their fathers in New France and in the fair France of the past, a people
+above all intensely national, patriotic, jealous for the advancement of
+their tongue and their race. I address you as faithful of the ancient
+Church which was founded on the Petrine Rock, and names itself Catholic,
+Apostolic, Roman; whose altars God has preserved unshaken through the
+centuries amid terrible hosts of enemies, bitter oppressions, diabolical
+persecutions; of whose faith your hearts, your bodies, your race itself,
+are the consecrated depositories set apart and blessed of Heaven."
+
+"I address you further, Frenchmen of Canada, as an oppressed remnant,
+long crushed and evil treated under alien conquerors; who despoiled you
+of your dominion, your freedom and your future, and whose military
+despotism, history records, spurned your cry during eighty years with
+unspeakable arrogance; till you rose like men in the despair of the '37,
+for the simplest rights, brandishing in your hands poor scythes and
+knives against armies with cannon, O my compatriots!--and compelled them
+to dole you a little justice!"
+
+"The brave and generous who still remain of the generation before,
+recount to you those living scenes, and your hearts take part with the
+wronged and valiant of your blood!"
+
+"In this secluded countryside you see too little how they still insult
+you. Ask yourselves frankly whether that for which our nation strove has
+ever yet been had. What have we gained? Is not the battle still to be
+fought? There are no facts more patent than that the English are our
+conquerors, that they rule our country, that they are aliens, heretics,
+enemies of our Holy Religion, and that they are heaping up unrighteous
+riches, while we are becoming despised and poor."
+
+"Think not that I speak without emotions in my breast. There was a day,
+my poor French-Canadian brothers,--a solemn day, when I bound myself by
+a great oath to the cause of my people. It was when my father told me,
+his voice choking with, tears, of the murder of my grandfather,
+ignominiously thrown from the gallows for the felony of patriotism! Was
+I wrong to rise in grief and wrath, and swear with tears and prayers
+before our good Ste. Anne that I would never rest or taste a pleasure
+until I free the French-Canadians?"
+
+"'It is I who will defend my race and my religion!' cried I then, and I
+have ever striven to do this, and still so strive."
+
+Having thus played along each different key of his hearer's prejudices,
+he turned them towards his end.
+
+"It is possible you may think I have, been speaking of everything but
+politics, and that you are asking yourselves what I really mean. Do you
+know what this election signifies? _It is a contest of the French with
+the English._ It is a question whether that arrogant minority shall
+continue to impose their ideas, their leaders, their execrable heresies,
+their taxes and restrictions upon this great French-Canadian
+Province--the only country which you have been able to hold for your
+own. You are here, at least, the majority! If their artifices have
+succeeded in excluding you from a part in governing the Dominion, there
+is one thing left; _you can govern this Province if you stand by me!_ If
+you stand by my me you can make our country purely and powerfully
+French! The ballot gives us the government: we will legislate the
+English. We will repay their oppressions with taxes and leave the
+Frenchman free; we will overvalue their properties, and undervalue our
+own; we will divide their constituencies; we will proclaim parishes out
+of townships; we will deprive them of offices, harass their commerce,
+vex their heretical altars; we will force new privileges from the
+Federal power; we will colonize the public lands with our own people
+exclusively, and repatriate our children lost; we will possess ourselves
+of those palaces and that vast wealth they wring from our labor, and
+finally, free as these great stretches of the valley, we shall live at
+peace in our own land."
+
+A sullen murmur passed about. The passions were being roused. "The
+English eat the French-Canadians," repeated several.
+
+"Messieurs of Dormilliere, you can judge of me! They have said of me all
+sorts of calumnies, all kinds of insinuations. I have been painted as
+black as the evil spirits. Men are here who will tell you 'Grandmoulin
+is a hypocrite; Grandmoulin is a robber, a liar, a libertine,'--that I
+have ruined my Province and sold my people and committed all the list of
+mortal sins. But, my brothers, I turn from those who assert these wicked
+falsehoods and I justify myself to you."
+
+"Because I have not sought peace with the strong--because I have not
+acted a vanquished to the victors--because I have suffered--but that is
+nothing--because I have freely poured out every energy, as I do to-day,"
+(and there was certainly vast physical effort in the output he was then
+making of himself) "they have branded me that disturber, that robber,
+that murderer, that liar and that villain."
+
+"Messieurs, let me tell you a secret that will explain! Scan close and
+you will find that there is no man who says these things of me who is
+not either a friend of the English, and traitor to you, or else has been
+rejected by my associates as unworthy to represent our patriotic
+ambitions. I must speak even of the agreeable young man of intellect and
+eloquence who opposes me. I do not blame him: I forgive him. He is young
+and inexperienced, and he sees things from certain aspects only. Have
+you never considered that it was natural for one whose father was an
+Englishman, and whose Protestant grandfather came across the seas among
+the army that conquered us, to look from a standpoint different from
+ours. If his birth and sympathies lead him in another direction from me,
+and my enemies have succeeded in prejudicing his mind, make allowance
+for him as I myself do, _and trust me_. I adjure you by the holy names
+of Mary and Joseph, I am your friend: understand only that Grandmoulin
+is your friend! Let the confidence be complete, and the triumph of your
+race in the Province of Quebec is secure!"
+
+To Chrysler's utter surprise, the orator, pausing a moment, singled him
+out; pointed his finger towards him, and, turning to the people, cried:
+"Have I not said Mr. Haviland was a friend of your conquerors? Let me
+show you his adviser at this crisis of his plans!"
+
+Grandmoulin knew he was in a community saturated with the Rouge
+tradition. He knew that even with all the weak and corruptible elements
+of the "back parishes" his chances were inferior on their face to
+Chamilly's, and he felt that he must at least retain his adherents here
+or lose the county. It was only after a final, truly magnificent effort
+of eloquence that he withdrew, and cheers upon cheers followed him,
+especially from a party among whom Cuiller, in a state of intoxication,
+was prominent. It was the first time that Grandmoulin had appeared in
+the neighborhood, and he had evidently created a great impression.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+CHAMILLY.
+
+   "Mais, n'avons-nous pas, je vous prie,
+     Encore de plus puissants liens?
+   A tout preferons la patrie:
+     Avant tout soyons Canadiens."
+
+   --POPULAR SONG.
+
+
+Chamilly rose upon the rostrum when Grandmoulin went down. He opened
+quietly, after the exciting peroration of his opponent, and in a manner
+which lulled and calmed the assembly.
+
+"People of Dormilliere, I have had a cause for wonder during Mr.
+Grandmoulin's discourse. I have been wondering at the perfect courage
+with which he invents a fact, a reason, a principle, an emotion, in
+cases where almost the whole world knows that none of these exist."
+
+"I am accounted a person informed in the events of '37. I have studied
+all the accounts and documents that are accessible, and have made a
+point of conversing with the survivors of that time. I state with the
+fullest knowledge, and you have long known the value of my word, that it
+is a falsehood that Mr. Grandmoulin's grandfather died a martyr as he
+has alleged, nor is he known to have been concerned in the rebellion in
+any way."
+
+This statement created a visible sensation over the audience.
+
+"Zotique called out: 'The National Liar!'"
+
+Grandmoulin remained immovable.
+
+"His assertion that I am an Englishman," went on Chamilly, "is as
+absurd as it is futile here. Friends of mine through my youth, and
+children of the friends of my forefathers, whose lives arose and
+declined in this place like ours, am I not bound to you by ties which
+forbid that I should be named a stranger!"
+
+(Cries of "Oui, Oui," "Notre frere!" and "Notre Chamilly!")
+
+"Mr. Grandmoulin speaks a falsehood of perhaps not less importance in
+his assertion that the English are oppressing us. Where is the
+oppression of which he makes cry? The very existence of each of you in
+his full liberty and speaking French ought to be a sufficient argument.
+Speak, act, worship, buy, sell,--who hinders us so long as we obey the
+laws? Would you like a stronger evidence of our freedom? Grandmoulin
+himself presents it when he proclaims his violent incitations! Of
+oppression by our good fellow-citizens, let then no more be said.--"
+
+"The object of Mr. Grandmoulin in these bold falsifications is I think
+sufficiently suspected by you, when you have it on the evidence of your
+senses that they are invented. Let us leave both them and him aside and
+keep ourselves free to examine that theme of far transcending
+importance, _the true position of the French-Canadians_."
+
+"What is our true position? Is it to be a people of Ishmaelites, who see
+in every stranger an enemy, who, having rejected good-will, shall have
+chosen to be those whose existence is an intrigue--a people accepting no
+ideas, and receiving no benefits? Will they be happy in their hatred?
+Will they progress? Will they be permitted to exist?"
+
+"Or shall their ideas be different? Tell me, ye who are of them; is it
+more natural or not that they shall open their generous hearts to
+everyone who will be their friend, their minds to every idea, their
+conceptions to the noon-day conception of the fraternity of mankind,
+liberty, equality, good-will? Is it more natural or not that we should
+find pride in a country and a nation which have accepted our name and
+history, and are constantly seeking our citizen-like affection to make
+the union with us complete? French-Canadians, the honor of this
+Dominion, which promises to be one of the greatest nations of the earth,
+is peculiarly yours. You are of the race which were the first to call
+themselves Canadians! The interests of your children are bound up in its
+being; your honor in its conduct; your glory in its success. Work for
+it, think on it, pray for it; let no illusion render you untrue to it:
+beware of the enemy who would demolish the foundation of one patriotism
+under pretext of laying the stones of another."
+
+"Canadians!"--He lingered on the sound with tones of striking richness
+which sank into the hearts of his hearers. "Canadians!--Great title of
+the future, syllable of music, who is it that shall hear it in these
+plains in centuries to come, and shall forget the race who chose it, and
+gave it to the hundred peoples who arrive to blend in our land? To
+_your_ stock the historic part and the gesture of respect is assigned,
+from the companies of the incoming stream. My brothers, let us be
+benign, and accept our place of honor. Identify yourselves with a nation
+vaster than your race, and cultivate your talents to put you at its
+head."
+
+He said he had no condemnation, however, for those who were rightly
+proud of the deeds of the French race and its old heroes.
+
+"I have nothing but the enthusiasm of a comrade for any true to the
+noble feelings which it would be a shame to let die! I entreat that they
+be cherished, and let them incite us to new assurance of our
+capabilities for enterprises fitting to our age. Let the virtues of old
+take new forms, and courage will still be courage, hospitality
+hospitality, and patriotism patriotism! Away with dragging for
+inglorious purposes the banner of the past through the dust of the
+present! Let the present be made glorious, and not inglorious, in its
+own kind, and the past shine on at its enchanted distance of beauty!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"What shall that greatness be--that splendor of our Canada to come?" He
+pictured its possibilities in grand vistas. The people were spell-bound
+by noble hopes and emotions which carried them upward. Involuntarily, as
+Chrysler looked at his face and bearing, he was reminded of the
+prophets, and the old white church behind seemed to be rising and
+throwing back its head, and withdrawing its thoughts into some proud
+region of the great and supernatural. The old man forgot the crowd and
+the crowd totally forgot Chrysler:
+
+"Canadians!" Chamilly closed, his figure drawn up like a hero's and his
+rich voice sounding the name again with that wonderful utterance, "the
+memories of our race are compatible only with the good of the world and
+our country. If you are unwilling to accept me on this basis, do not
+elect me, for I will only express my convictions."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
+
+   "On high in yonder old church tower,
+          *       *       *       *       *
+   The ancient bell rings out the hour,
+   Sometimes with voice of wondrous power."
+
+   --JOHN BREAKENRIDGE.
+
+
+Monsieur Editor Quinet mounted the platform and stood there, cool and
+masterful.
+
+At the same moment the Cure in his black gown, bolted up from his chair
+beside his young vicar, on the gallery of the parsonage, and regarding
+the orator with indignation, raised his breviary towards the church with
+outstretched arm.
+
+"Messieurs, what ruins us".... Quinet commenced.
+
+His sentence was shattered to pieces!
+
+"KLING-KLANG-G-G-G!" a loud church bell resounded from one of the
+towers, sending a visible shock over the assembly and drowning the
+succeeding words.
+
+"What ruins us".... Quinet, with imperturbable composure, commenced
+again in a louder voice.
+
+A cashing peal from the opposite belfry replied to the first and
+compelled him to stop.
+
+The Cure, swelling with triumph, marched up and down his gallery,
+turning quickly at each end; while the bells of both the towers,
+swinging confusedly in their belfries, sent forth one horrible continued
+torrent of clangor over the amazed crowd.
+
+The speaker was soon convinced that no amount of cool waiting would
+prevail. He did, therefore, what was a more keenly effective
+continuation of his sentence than any words,--raised his finger and
+pointed it steadily for a few moments at the Cure, and then withdrew.
+
+For many a day the story of Quinet and the bells was told in
+Dormilliere.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+LIBERGENT.
+
+
+During the addresses, Libergent, Chamilly's nominal opponent, seemed to
+do nothing more than stand behind the rostrum and let things proceed.
+Libergent, lawyer, was a man of a shrewd low order of ability. About
+forty years of age and medium height, his compact, athletic physique,
+partly bald head, small but well rounded skull, close iron-grey hair and
+moustache would have made him a perfect type of the French military man,
+were it not for a sort of stoop of determination, which, however, added
+to his appearance of athletic alertness, while it took away much
+dignity. The expression of his face was not bad. The decided droop of
+the corners of the mouth, and hardness of his grey-brown eyes indicated,
+it is true, a measure of irritability, but on the whole, the
+objectionable element of the expression was only that of a man who was
+accustomed to measure all things on the scale of common-place personal
+advantage. His life was not belied by his appearance. He found his chief
+pleasures in fishing, and shooting, and kept a trotter of rapid pace.
+His quarters were comfortable in the sense of the smoker and sportsman.
+When he did not wear an easier costume for convenience, his shining hat
+and broad-cloth coat would have been the envy of many a city confrere.
+He lived a very moderate, regular life: now and then took a little
+liquor with a friend, but always with some sage remark against excess;
+made himself for the most part a reasonable and sufficiently agreeable
+companion; and had no higher tastes, unless a collection of coins, well
+mounted and arranged and at times added to, may claim that title. He
+therefore considered Haviland stark mad in spending so much money and
+brains upon nonsense; and the subject made him testy when he reviewed
+his refusal to accept some arrangement by which they could share the
+local political advantages between them.
+
+"Politics is a sphere of business like any other," he said. "Haviland is
+doing the injury to himself and me that a theorist in business always
+does. He makes himself a cursed nuisance."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+MISERICORDE.
+
+
+Fiercely the election stirred the energies of Dormilliere. For more than
+a generation, enthusiasm for political contest had been a local
+characteristic; but now the feelings of the village,--as pronounced and
+hereditary a "Red" stronghold, as Vincennes across the river was
+hereditarily "Blue,"--may be likened only to the feeling of the Trojans
+at the famous siege of Troy. Their Seigneur was the Hector, and their
+strand beheld debarking against it the boldest pirates of the
+French-Canadian Hellas.
+
+In Chrysler's walks he met signs of the excitement even where a long
+stroll brought him far back into the country.
+
+The one of such corners named Misericorde from its wretchedness, was a
+hamlet of thirty or forty cabins crowded together among some scrub trees
+in the midst of a stony moor. The inhabitants, of whom a good share were
+broken-down beggars and nondescript fishermen, varied their discouraged
+existences by drinking, wood sawing and doing odd jobs for the
+surrounding farmers, while their slatternly women idled at the doors and
+the children grew up wild, trooping over the surrounding waste.
+Politically, the place was noted for its unreliability. It was well
+known that every suffrage in it was open to corruption. In ordinary
+times the Rouges troubled themselves little about this, but the strong
+combination they had now to fight might make the vote of La Misericorde
+of considerable importance; hence, there was some value in the trust
+which had been placed, at the meeting, in Benoit and Spoon.
+
+Here the latter, even more than at Dormilliere, was in his element.
+
+A drinking house, misnamed "hotel," was the most prominent building in
+Misericorde. It would not have ornamented a more respectable locality
+but, on the whole, possessed a certain picturesqueness, among these
+hovels, and arrested the Ontarian's steps. Stained a dark grey by at
+least fifty years of exposure, yet slightly tinted with the traces of a
+by-gone coat of green, it lifted a high peaked roof in air, which in
+descent, suddenly curving, was carried far out over a high-set front
+gallery reached by very steep steps. On the stuck-out sign, which was in
+the same faded condition as the rest of the building, were with
+difficulty to be distinguished in a suggestion of yellow color the
+shapes of a large and small French loaf, and the inscription "BOULONGE,"
+but the baking had apparently passed away with the paint. While he was
+curiously surveying this antique bit, a loud voice sounded through the
+open door, and the heavy form of the "Yankee from Longueuil"
+precipitated itself proudly, though a trifle unsteadily, forward down
+the steps and along the middle of the street, swearing, boasting and
+heading a swarm of men and boys, and loudly drawling a line of
+Connecticut notions in blasphemy.
+
+It could be seen that Spoon was some kind of a hero in the eyes of
+Misericorde. Rich,--for he had paid the drinks; travelled,--they had his
+assertion for it; courageous,--he could anathematize the Archbishop;
+Misericorde had seldom such a novelty all to itself.
+
+"Sacre! To blazes wit' you; set 'em up all roun', you blas' Canaydjin
+nigger! Du gin, vite done! John Collins' pour le crowd! I'm a white man,
+j'sht un homme blanc, j'sht Americain; I'm from the Unyted States, I am!
+Sacre bleu! Health to all!"
+
+"Health, monsieur!"
+
+"Health, monsieur!"
+
+"A thousand thanks."
+
+"Set 'em up again, bapteme, you blas' Canayjin nigger!"
+
+"What does he say!" inquired the landlord, on the verge of being
+offended.
+
+"Shut up, Potdevin!" said the only man who understood English, fearful
+lest the second treat should go astray.
+
+"Take!" cried Spoon, in a at of reconciliation, throwing down a five
+dollar bill; and at the sight of the money, Potdevin, true landlord,
+proceeded with the pouring out of the beverages into very small glasses
+with very thick bottoms.
+
+It was funny, when he had precipitated himself from the door, as above
+said, to contemplate the fellow with his low hat on one side and far
+down on his nose, his swelling shirt-front, striped breeches, and mighty
+brass chain, leading the trooping crowd like some travelling juggler.
+
+All this, however, was election work.
+
+Was it the kind of method Chamilly would approve? There was a short and
+certain answer.
+
+Which then of Haviland's friends supplied Spoon with money for these
+only too obvious processes of vote-obtaining. It was not the Honorable,
+it was not De La Lande, it would not be penurious Benoit?
+
+"Ah, well," Chrysler thought, "I am here but to observe. Am I not under
+obligations to Zotique, if it be he, which prevent my interfering?"
+
+Another of Chrysler's theories too was exploded. He had long revolved a
+suspicion that it was Cuiller who had stolen Francois' $750. "Where
+else," thought he, "does he get these liberal sums to spend?" Once he had
+ventured to ask Spoon himself about Le Brun's loss but was plumply faced
+with the growl, "Do you suppose _I_ stole it?" and, ashamed of himself,
+withdrew the theory almost from his own mind. How he could explain even
+the American's expenditure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+BLEUS.
+
+
+The Haviland party were not the only people alive to the necessities of
+the contest. It was not seldom that in the Ontarian's walks during those
+few days, the steady, inscrutable bust of Grandmoulin passed him, driven
+in one direction or another by Libergent; and sometimes Picault
+accompanied.
+
+Grandmoulin, indeed, made herculean efforts. His grand _chefs d'oeuvre_
+of oratory--soul stirring appeals, in the name of all that was sacred in
+honor and religion, for his hypocritical and corrupt purposes, were
+lifted in noble structures of eloquence before the people, till it
+seemed as if the lavishness of his genius and labor could only be
+explained by the desire of challenging the other great orator of the
+race. The young energies of Haviland responded readily. Their speeches
+were reported in full for the journals of the cities and watched for
+everywhere. It was the battle of Cataline and Cicero.
+
+The back parishes were not so soundly "Red" as Dormilliere: they usually
+polled a considerable Blue vote, and were very unstable. Here were
+concentrated the efforts of Grandmoulin to cajole and Picault to buy.
+
+Once thus Chrysler met Libergent driving Grandmoulin in a "buck-board,"
+while another person sat in the back seat.
+
+"Chrysler! Chrysler!--Listen!" exclaimed the person in the back seat.
+
+Chrysler recognized an Ottawa acquaintance.
+
+"De Bleury! how do you do!"
+
+De Bleury put his hand on the reins to stop the vehicle:
+
+"Come up here, Chrysler, we go past the Manoir."
+
+"Thank you, I enjoy walking."
+
+"Come along, come along; we don't hear excuses in the country. Come,
+Chrysler, the road is long."
+
+In order not to offend, Chrysler, in spite of his objection to the
+company, took the unoccupied place behind Grandmoulin.
+
+With Libergent, Chrysler did not reap much in conversation. He was
+conciliatory in his solitary-like way, and had indulged for once in too
+much liquor.
+
+"Right Hon'ble Premier,--Sec' State.--Hon'ble Mr. Grandm'lin--all my
+fren's. You know dose gen'lmen? All my fren's. Da's all. My fren's goin'
+make it all right, eh? I re'spect'ble 'nough." The half-seas-confidential
+style.
+
+Grandmoulin acknowledged the stranger but gravely, and was at once
+immutable--oppressed with thought for the country's welfare! As he sat
+before Chrysler, and the latter felt the nearness of his broad shoulders
+and coarse black mass of hair, he could not but picture the man within
+sinking into littleness and self-contempt at the debased uses of his
+great talent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE FREEMASON.
+
+
+Ross de Bleury, the hospitable passenger, was a character. A man of
+immense physical strength and abounding spirits, soundly and stoutly
+built, of medium height, brown hair, full eyes and large nostrils, and
+strong merry lips, always devising some ingenious adventure.
+
+One of his schemes, a quarter joke, three-quarters half-serious, was to
+band together all persons in the Dominion bearing the Ross name into one
+Canadian clan, he to be chief! His own surname had first of all been
+simply Bleury, but energetic genealogical researches having discovered
+to him that the founder of his line in France was a Scotch adventurer,
+he made bold to resurrect the original name, and add to it what was
+already a "Charles Rene Marie-Auguste-Raoul-St. Cyr-de Bleury."
+
+Jest, quip and lively saying shortened his route to the doorway of the
+Circuit Court, and he insisted on Chrysler's passing to his quarters
+upstairs. The court-room was stocked with dusty benches and tables, on
+and about which a small but noisy company were postured. One reckless
+fellow swinging an ale-mug was singing:--
+
+   "Tant qu'on le pourra, larirette,
+   On se damnera, larira!"
+
+Two girls stood together near the door laughing brazen giggles.
+
+They were the Jalberts, daughters of the innkeeper, who himself with
+two young politicians from Montreal were impressing on a _habitant_: "If
+you don't vote for Libergent, you can't go to heaven;" Jalbert being an
+adherent of the Blues in the hope of "running" Dormilliere, if they
+succeeded, for his license had been taken away by the new movement. The
+bailiff, a wolfish-looking creature, who was always to be had for drink,
+also sat there trailing his vast loose moustache over a table. When
+Grandmoulin entered, a little crowd, like the tail of a comet, followed
+him into the room. As he passed through he said no word, but drew his
+cloak about him and moved forward sphinx-like to the bar of the court,
+where he sat down and commenced to converse with Libergent.
+
+Chrysler mounted the stairs with his entertainer and came upon an
+entirely different scene. De Bleury's spacious attic was appropriated to
+the rough and ready convenience of himself alone, and there was
+something quizzical about its expanses of brown dimnesses and
+darknesses, the cobwebby light that struggled in through the one high
+dormer window, the closet-like partition in the middle with a
+ticket-selling orifice, and the three or four rough chairs, which, with
+table, newspaper, and a basket of bottles, formed the furniture of this
+apartment. What work was done here, and how any one could choose such a
+spot to do work in were questions asked you mysteriously by every object
+about. As soon as he had waved Chrysler to one of the chairs and sank
+back upon another into a shadow, he stretched out his hand and pulled
+the basket of bottles towards him.
+
+"Now, sir, the question of fortune to every good man as he enters the
+world: 'What will you have.' I don't believe in fate: I believe in
+fortune: good things for everybody; let him choose. It's the man who
+won't accept good mouthfuls who is miserable. My Lord, what will you
+have?"
+
+"I never take anything, thank you!"
+
+"Eh, Mon Dieu! You wouldn't have me drink alone! You grieve my soul,
+Chrysler! _Bois, done_, my dear friend, we will be merry together. In
+this cursed country, among these oxen of the farms, we don't often meet
+a civilized friend." In saying this, he was dexterously pulling the cork
+from a bottle of champagne, which his right hand now poured into two
+wine glasses, as skilfully as his left had whisked them out of a corner
+of the basket.
+
+"Drink quickly,--Eh bien, you do not wish to? Your health then!--May you
+long survive your principles, and experience a blessed death of gout!"
+
+He quaffed off the glass and poured out another, laughing and chatting
+on with such bounding, irresistible spirits that his guest caught a kind
+of sympathetic infection. Glass after glass interminable disappeared
+down his throat in a kind of intermittent cascade. The Ontarian laughed
+more than he had done for many a year.
+
+"But, De Bleury," he got breath to say, "what is your important capacity
+here, that they give you such sumptuous quarters?"
+
+"Commercial traveller in the only commerce of the country. We have no
+business here, you know, except statesmanship, the trade in voters, _le
+metier de ministre_. You see a man;--tell me how much he owns:--I can
+tell you his election price. The schedule is simply: How much taxes does
+he pay?--Pay my taxes; I vote your side. There lies the only shame of my
+Scotch blood that they have never devised a commerce so obvious. It's
+like a bailiff we used to tease; he had no money, poor devil, so when he
+came into the bar he used to say to us, 'Make me drunk and have some fun
+with me.' 'Pay my taxes and have some fun with me:' the same thing, you
+see. All men are merchandise. Ross de Bleury alone has no price--but for
+a regular good guzzler, I could embezzle a Returning Officer."
+
+A rap sounded on the door of the stairs.
+
+"I resemble my ancestor, the Chevalier Jean Ross, who, when he was
+storming a castle in Flanders, exclaimed: 'Victory, companions! we
+command the door of the wine cellar!'"
+
+The words of a Persian proverb: "You are a liar, but you delight me,"
+passed through Chrysler's mind.
+
+The rap sounded again, and louder, on the door below.
+
+De Bleury's manner changed. He looked at his companion as if revolving
+some plan; then moving rapidly to the ticket-office-like-closet, he
+opened a door, and beckoned him in, signing to sit down and keep quiet.
+The closet was darker than the darkest part of the surrounding garret,
+for the dormer window in it, similar to the one near the table, was
+boarded up, all but a single irregular aperture, admitting light enough
+only to reveal the surroundings after lapse of some time.
+
+De Bleury, however, by holding his purse up to the chink of light,
+managed to assure himself of the denomination of a bank-note, and then,
+turning hastily, lifted the sliding door of the ticket-hole a trifle and
+pushing out the money, left it partly under the slide, letting in a grey
+beam on their darkness. He then silently applied his eye to an
+augur-hole above the slide, and waited. Meantime the knock sounded once
+more and pair of heavy steps came up the stairs, and tramped towards
+them; and some indefinable recognition of the heavy tread came vaguely
+to Chrysler. The steps stopped, the note was withdrawn, the tread sank
+away down the stairs, and De Bleury, rollicking with suppressed
+laughter, opened the door.
+
+"You have overseen a ceremony of the Freemasons," he said. "Truly. You
+don't believe it? I am a Freemason, I _am_, Chrysler," he said,
+sententiously, with a trace of the champagne, "I have observed a square
+and compass among the charms at your watch-chain. You know, therefore,
+your duties towards a brother, not, perhaps, not to see; but having
+seen, not to divulge. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, my dear De Bleury. Excuse me, I have an engagement at the
+Manoir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.
+
+"Proneurs de l'ancien regime, dites-moi ce que vous faites de ces belles
+et riches natures de femmes, qui sortent du sang genereux du peuple?"
+
+--ETIENNE PARENT.
+
+
+During the excitement and bustle, Mr. Chrysler also sometimes fell into
+the modest society of Josephte. The girl seemed sad at these times, and
+to be losing the serene peace which at first seemed her characteristic.
+He remarked this to Madame Bois-Hebert one day as he met her sitting in
+the shades of the pine-walk reading a devotional work.
+
+Madame was a figure still able to command as well as to attract respect.
+Dignity and ability had not yet departed from her face and bearing, and
+quietude was the only effect of age upon her, beyond falling cheeks and
+increasing absorption in exercises of religion.
+
+"Does it not appear to you that your demoiselle is sad?" he asked.
+
+"It is true, monsieur; her mind is troubled at present."
+
+"The cause is some cavalier."
+
+"You judge correctly. Benoit does not wish her to marry as she desires.
+And though he wishes her to unite herself to a brute compared with her
+cavalier, yet the latter is himself an individual of no consequence, and
+she has been well advised to relinquish him."
+
+"Who is it advises that?"
+
+"Her friends, who see in her a more lovely destiny. The dear child will
+make perhaps a Saint. You do not know the expiations and indulgences she
+has earned these several years by prayers and devotions, her pure
+nature, her admirable conduct. She is not for the world, but for God."
+
+"What did Josepthe herself think?"
+
+That which Madame had said of her nature was correct enough. She was a
+delight to the sisters in their sad, austere lives. "She is like an
+angel, and has the movements of one," they said. Very unlike to, for
+instance, the daughters Jalbert, those bold and idle girls, whose steady
+occupation was tom-boying scandalously with chance young men, and
+jeering impudent jeers at everybody.
+
+Her haunts were in removed and shady nooks, such as the little dell
+behind the log cabin of the Le Bruns. There, one hot afternoon he found
+her sitting under the shade of the windmill, dressed as usual in neat
+black, and as usual lately, pale. The little ones ran, sat and played
+around her; Henri, Rudolphe and Elisa in the pride of their enterprise
+tugging the long beam by which horse or man in the preceding century had
+turned the conical cap of the mill; their efforts cracking and shaking
+the crazy roof, but availing nothing except to disturb a crow or two
+near by, among the white birches through whose clusters gleamed the
+River in the sun.
+
+What brought Josephte to the Le Brun dell?
+
+_Et quoi!_ She was weeping.
+
+Those little children saw not her silent tears. Chrysler beheld
+them--crystalline drops on pale, soft cheek, emblems of pure heart and
+secret sorrow; but she checked them when he drew near and sat up
+composed.
+
+"Mademoiselle," he said, "What is it troubles thee so profoundly? Tell
+me; I am an old man and thy friend."
+
+"Monsieur, Monsieur, I ask your pardon,"--she broke again into tears.
+Fortunately, all the children were running off among the trees.--"My sin
+is great:"
+
+"And what is the offence, my child?"
+
+Josephte was silent, and the blood rushed over her face.
+
+"I mean thee no ill, Mlle. Josephte. Perhaps I can assist or advise
+thee."
+
+"They have promised me to the good God: alas! and my heart thinks of a
+mortal! I never could be like the others.--I cannot forget," and she
+broke completely down, sobbing again and again. In a little while he
+spoke, hoping to soothe her.
+
+"This may be no more than natural, my dear."
+
+"The natural heart, monsieur, is full of sin; and that is ten times
+worse for a woman. O if I could love God alone!" and again she sobbed
+convulsively.
+
+Trained as the highest type of Catholic mind, her imagination habitually
+pictured two worlds--the one of exquisite spiritual light and purity,
+and spotless with the presence of saints, of the Virgin; of God the
+Father: the other the world of mankind,--the "world," shadowed with
+wickedness and mourning, and whose pleasure is itself a sin. She yearned
+towards the first; she sank back with acute sensitiveness from the
+second. For her, to enter a church was to be overpowered with the
+communion of spirits; to think a single thought leading away from God
+was to commit a crime. To know such a girl is to respect for ever the
+nun's orders in which natures like hers take refuge.
+
+"Josephte, ma'amselle," said Chrysler very quietly and pleadingly, "do
+you not love Francois?"
+
+The blood swept over her forehead again, and changed it once more from
+white to red. The tears stopped in her eyes and she regarded him for a
+moment with an intense look.
+
+"Francois loves you," he proceeded.
+
+He went on: "Where is the difficulty? Is it not very cruel to deny
+Francois your love? Who made you promise that?"
+
+"O sir, they willed that I should marry another."
+
+"It is only your father who wished you to marry Cuiller."
+
+"Madame la Seigneuresse wished me to enter the convent." Again she burst
+into bitter tears. Rocking to and fro she continued with breaking heart,
+"I promised it to God himself."
+
+Chrysler had no wish to meddle with the belief of his new friends. Here,
+however, it was a matter of humanity and common sense. He could not let
+the young girl's life be ruined. He said: "My child, _le bon Dieu_ never
+asks the unreasonable. Is not God kinder than you; and will he demand of
+you and Francois what you would not of another?"
+
+"Monsieur, is it possible that that is true?" sobbed she, weeping freer.
+
+"Does not your heart say so?" said he.
+
+"I know not. It must be so. You speak like a priest."
+
+"Think," he said, "and pray to Him about it, and hope a little for
+Francois. He loves you. It would be so cruel to him to lose you."
+
+Henri's voice broke joyously out of the shrubbery:--
+
+   "Good at all times
+     Is sweet bread,
+   But specially when
+     With sugar spread."
+
+Chrysler moved away, and passing through the trees stood on the bank,
+looking down on the beach and the sunny surface of the River. He had
+helped to right one little matter anyway, in Dormilliere.
+
+A guttural call in a low voice startled him,--a subdued longdrawn
+"Hoioch!--hoioch!--hoioch!" followed by a few words of instructions
+rapidly uttered in what seemed a kind of patois--and on turning he saw
+below, along the shore at the left, the little figure of the Bonhomme
+rapidly pulling in one end of a net through the water, while the other
+end was managed by a younger fisherman attired as rudely and queerly. It
+needed a close glance to see that the second man was Francois, assisting
+his father. Together they suggested that strange caste--the fishers of
+the great river--a caste living in the midst of a civilization, yet as
+little of it as the gipsies--families handing down apart among
+themselves from generation to generation manners, customs, haunts,
+unique secrets of localities, and sometimes apparently a marvellous
+skill. These are the true geographers and unboasting Nimrods. You who
+have ever seen the strange sight of the spearing under the flame of
+immense torches in the rapids of the Buisson, where no straining of your
+own eyes could ever discern the trace of a fish; and you with whom it
+was an article of faith that certain death waited in every channel,
+swirl and white horse of the thundering Lachine Rapids, until one day
+some one speculated how the market boats of the lake above could turn up
+every morning safe and regular at the Bonsecours Market,--will be ready
+to understand.
+
+However, it was not long before the net was drawn up and Chrysler stood
+beside them, the greetings were over and all three were duly seated,
+each on his chosen boulder under the green poplar saplings, talking:
+
+"Francois," said the Bonhomme to his son, "Monsieur does not think it
+probable that Cuiller will marry Josephte."
+
+The young man's unconquerable cheerfulness faded for a moment. He was
+silent.
+
+"Why is it Mr. Benoit will not accept you?"--Chrysler asked, very
+interested.
+
+"Solely because I lost my money, air. I was coming to receive his
+blessing on our wishes."
+
+"How was the money lost? That was a singular circumstance."
+
+"I had seven hundred and fifty dollars in my pocket. It was on the
+steamboat down from Montreal, at night time, in the lower cabin. I got a
+corner with Cuiller between two barrels and a bale of blankets and went
+to sleep from time to time. The lamps did not burn well. There was a
+crowd of people. A pedlar was next me whose features I have forgotten.
+Cuiller says it was that pedlar who took my money. I will not blame a
+man without knowing something about him; but the truth is that when I
+got up and searched my pockets, my purse, my money, my pleasure, my
+life's profit,--all were lost, and I had nothing for it but to sit down
+and cry tears, after enquiring of all the people."
+
+"In what pieces was your money?"
+
+"Six bills of a hundred, ten tens and ten fives, sir!"
+
+"Don't you recollect anything about the pedlar?"
+
+"I was certain I recollected him getting off, but Cuiller saw him
+later."
+
+"If Cuiller knew he took your purse why didn't he wake you or stop him?"
+
+"I don't know, sir."
+
+"Cuiller is as much to blame as the pedlar."
+
+"You think so?" said the simple Bonhomme.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+ZOTIQUE'S MISGIVING.
+
+
+At sunset of the day before the Election, Chamilly came over very tired
+from the Institution and ordered tea to be brought out on the lawn.
+Little Breboeuf sat with them; the visiting politicians also; and last,
+least, and highly delighted at the honor, Francois Vadeboncoeur _dit_ Le
+Brun. To-morrow is the election day.
+
+"How do we stand, Zotique?" Chamilly asked, with some air of fatigue.
+Zotique's duty of directing the actual carrying out of the campaign made
+him an authority on the "feel" of the constituency.
+
+"Breboeuf will give you figures," replied he, reticently, for the
+struggle had proved grave. The Cure had almost succeeded, so far, in
+keeping his vow.
+
+"Eh bien, ma brebis?"
+
+"From the lists as Zotique has marked them I compute a majority of 28."
+
+"Morbleu,--that's not comfortable!" exclaimed a young editor, fond of
+old oaths.
+
+"But these estimations of Mr. Genest's prove surprisingly accurate,"
+explained Chamilly.
+
+"A majority of 28, composed as follows:" Breboeuf continued;
+"Donnilliere, 83 to 44--majority 39; Petite Argentenaye, 96 to
+47;--majority 49; St. Dominique, 11 to 19--majority 8; Misericorde,
+majority 47. _Esneval_.--"
+
+"Wait!"
+
+Zotique spoke, and his eyes darkened energetically.
+
+"I cannot guarantee you, Misericorde."
+
+All looked at each other. There was consternation.
+
+"But surely Benoit has reported on that place," said Chamilly.
+
+"In my absence. He has met me as little as possible. But Cuiller was
+seen an hour ago _entering the Circuit Court_."
+
+"Traitors!" breathed de la Lande.
+
+"I do not trust this American. Unless I was ever mistaken, he and Benoit
+are goods and effects of Libergent, and we must save Misericorde without
+letting those know, of perish. Let one go over; you cannot, and I
+cannot, nor any of the prominent, but let us send our Francois here, let
+him discover how it stands, and be back within two hours, so that we can
+work there, if needful, the rest of the night. This is the only
+salvation."
+
+"I will go," cried Francois cheerfully, and picking up his hat, started
+rapidly away. Josephte came in at the gates as he was passing out; she
+bowed to him, and moved by us into the house, wrapped in the composure
+of one mourning at heart.
+
+On hurried Francois, blithely unconscious of any dark prospect on his
+hopes of Josephte, but in visions, as he walked, of a little snow-white
+cottage known to him, with only one window in front, green-shuttered,
+but a dear little opening in the attic gable, and a leafy honey suckle
+creeping over the door way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+A CRIME!
+
+   "The veil of mist that held her eyes was rent
+   As by a lightning flash...."
+
+   --W. KIRBY
+
+
+An hour passes. The shades draw on and begin to blend hues and forms.
+Chrysler moves his deliberative survey over the neat-clipped grass and
+the tall hedge, the poplars looking over it from the other side of the
+highway, the boughs and trunks of the great triple tree--and the little
+pinnacles along the Manor-house. A couple of the visitors along the
+paths are discussing the situation with dapper Parisian steps and
+gestures.
+
+Suddenly the shades creep perceptibly deeper. The gate rattles. A wild
+acting man--it is Benoit in his sky-blue clothes--rushes panting in,
+throwing out his arms before him, stumbling and gasping inarticulately
+lamentations of anguish. "He is dead; my God, the poor young man! Poor
+Francois! My God! my God!"
+
+Yes, it is Benoit Iscariotes.
+
+Everyone springs to him. A great tragedy has occurred--for Dormilliere;
+perhaps little for a more experienced world. In Benoit's mind quivers a
+scene that has set shouting all the wild voices of his conscience.
+Ever-cheerful Francois, so full of life, so faithful, well named
+"Vadeboncoeur," lies motionless upon the highway, deadly white, with
+glazed, half-closed eyes. Blood trickles from his open mouth, scatters
+from a frightful gash over his forehead, and bathes the ground in a
+dark pool; and a heavy stone lies near and relates its murderous tale.
+This is what guilty Jean-Benoit saw at his feet, as, having finished his
+"labors" to his own satisfaction he was returning from Misericorde in
+the footsteps of his coadjutor Cuiller. O, as the poor body lay in the
+blood like a judgment before him, and those half-closed eyes seemed to
+gleam at him from their lids, what a fearful blow did Conscience strike
+that hypocrite, leaping from the lair in which it had long lain in wait!
+
+He cannot stir. A mighty thunder cloud rises up from behind high above
+him, and darkens the earth. A silence lies on the trees, the road, the
+moor, and all around to the horizon--a silence accusing him.
+
+Not a leaf moved. The sun went down. The bright little narrow gleam
+under the eyelids of the dead stared slily up to him with an awful
+triumph. His heart was caught by the grip of a skeleton hand. He could
+feel its several sinews as they tightened their grasp. It was impossible
+to break away--the grip of the hand was on the heart in, his breast, and
+he was in the power of the triumphant _corpse_!
+
+What made him reel, what made him leap at length with such an insane
+cry, over the ghastly obstacle? He will go mad. This not quite balanced
+brain might coldly enough commit even some kinds of murder, but fright
+can unhinge it. Is he not mad, to flee so wildly? He runs--he runs--he
+gropes, under his black thundercloud and load of fright and agony,
+towards the glimmer that he must fly to those he has wronged. To her
+first--to Josephte, his cruelly-treated daughter--the hour tells him
+where she is! Flying, stumbling, pained, groaning, out of breath,
+fearing the lone hedges of the road, in wild struggle throwing his vain
+lust of appearances for once to the winds, and having behind and above
+him as he fled, the sky filled with vast pursuing shapes, with shrieks
+and curses, and before all the pursuers the CORPSE, he reaches at last
+the Manoir, and stops before it crying out. It seems as if the instinct
+failed him here, and the Mansion's imposing front forbade.
+
+She hears though. The maiden's heart, and the world's indefinite voices,
+beats sharply at certain sounds before the ear has caught them, for they
+strike the inner strings of its being. First a pang of great alarm,--and
+then she heard. Rushing forth, she clasps the sobbing wretch in her arms
+and cries, "My father, what say'st thou! My God, what is it?--what has
+befallen Francois?--O my dear father!"
+
+"He is dead, he is dead!--thy loved one,--at La Misericorde."
+
+"O Holy Virgin!"
+
+Josephte did not fall in a swoon: she darted towards the gate.
+
+Chrysler took the man and made him sit down on a bench,--a wild
+spectacle of reason in the course of dethronement. The household stood
+about: the two visitors looked on curiously and made useless
+suggestions. Haviland and Zotique, driving past to make sure of
+Misericorde, heard a commotion and turned their horses in. Benoit threw
+himself on his knees to Chamilly, violently begging his forgiveness, and
+incoherently confessing the evil work of himself and Spoon, whereat
+Zotique attacked him with maledictions.
+
+Chamilly restrained his companion. Soul of man was never seen to soar
+more easily over injury.
+
+"My dear friend, calm yourself. If there has been bad work, what should
+be done now is to try and rectify it. Repeat what you were saying of
+Francois."
+
+"The poor young man! The poor young man! I have seen him dead on the
+road."
+
+The impulse to act was that which came naturally to Haviland. "Not a
+moment, Zotique!" and almost immediately the rattle of the wheels was
+dying into the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+THE PASSING OF THE HOST.
+
+
+They found Francois, Chamilly said, with Josephte kneeling over him
+loosening his collar, and tenderly binding her neckerchief over his head
+with neatness and gentleness quite enough indeed for any Heaven-selected
+Sister of Charity.
+
+Running home breathless, dishevelled and desperate, she had frightened
+her brother and grandfather into speechless activity by a terrible
+command to harness a horse! Dragging out a light vehicle herself she
+speedily completed the arrangements, and whipping the animal pitiless
+lashes, dashed out of the presence of her relatives and was soon at the
+side of her injured lover, on the moorland road.
+
+It must not tell against Zotique's humanity that he had all this time
+such a mastering sense of the necessity of getting on to Misericorde
+that, after barely aiding to place the body on Chamilly's vehicle, he
+took possession of the lighter one of Josephte, and sped on for his
+destination. The young girl and Haviland, however, conveyed their charge
+carefully and safely to the farm-house, had him laid upon her own
+prettily-belaced bed, and Haviland insisted--was it not a sacrifice in
+him on that critical evening of his election!--in watching with her the
+whole night by the bedside of Francois. As the silent hours were broken
+by the occasional sobs of Josephte, the young seigneur often gazed
+anxiously into the face of his faithful friend, wiping the bruised
+forehead and hoping that he might not die.
+
+Chrysler hurried down into the village in the dusk for medicine. By the
+occasional lights of houses he discerned the people, up and out
+discussing the exciting topic. Shadowy young men were standing on the
+path, straining their eyes to make out who passed by; shadowy fathers of
+families sat together at their doorways; half discernible women
+conversed from window to window.
+
+A hand-bell rings somewhere in the dark. It slowly swings and rings a
+thin, melancholy warning tone, comes nearer, a lantern appears, the
+young men, the fathers, the women, the miscellaneous groups, seem, for
+half-a-second, to disappear like lights put out, they drop on their
+knees so instantly wherever they happen to be. A white-robed figure--an
+acolyte--passes; feebly shone upon by a lantern; the "young cure"
+follows, bearing the holy wafer,--a ghostly procession; and Chrysler
+takes off his hat, for he recognizes it as the passing of the Host.
+
+When they are fairly past, and have disappeared into the gloom, the
+shadowy shapes all rise from their knees, and follow the direction with
+eyes and ears, and a distinct, ominous murmur passes through the whole
+village, for clearly Francois Le Brun is in _articulo mortis_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+THE ELECTION.
+
+
+Election day at Dormilliere was as election days in country places
+always--that is, a great peal of driving to and fro, and a great deal of
+crowding about the doors of the poll, and a dense atmosphere of smoke
+and had jokes among the few to whom the polling-room was reserved, and
+now and then a flying visit from Haviland, Libergent, or Grandmoulin,
+for either of whom the people immediately made way by stumbling back on
+each other's toes; and intermittent activity at head-quarters; and
+ominous quiet at the parsonage.
+
+Zotique was mysterious, and in better humor. He supervised with
+determination, and seemed to know how to calculate the exact effect of
+everything. Breboeuf was marvellously transformed into a little flying
+spider, running backwards and forwards strengthening Haviland's web. The
+Honorable seemed to act slowly, but really with deliberation and effect,
+remarking neglected points, and himself seeing that certain "weak ones"
+were brought to the right side of the poll. The schoolmaster was away
+haranguing the back parishes. For the Blue side, Picault and Grandmoulin
+appeared but once on the scene, but the energy of Ross de Bleury was
+astonishing. Cajoling, ordering, opening bottles aside and treating,
+volubly greeting everybody in his strong voice all day, he seemed to
+have raised supporters for his party of whom no one would have dreamt
+except Zotique; but the little closet up in the attic satisfied the
+requirements of strict logic.
+
+Haviland had added the fatigues of the last night to weeks of wearing
+labor, with consequences at length upon his fund of spirits, and also
+plainly on his face. He felt, like Grandmoulin, that his battle was
+principally with De la Lande in the back of the county, cheering up his
+ranks.
+
+About two o'clock Zotique drove over to Misericorde alone. He did not
+return for an hour and a half, and when he did, his expression had
+altered to one of decided triumph, though still mysterious and silent
+Zotique, in fact, the evening before, when he drove to Misericorde in
+Josephte's little gig, found what he had suspected to be the truth, that
+Benoit and Spoon had bought every vote of the hamlet; and paid for them,
+in the interest of Libergent; but he still believed it possible,--Benoit
+being incapacitated, and Spoon, he felt sure, not likely to turn up--to
+bend this plastic material the other way with the same tool, and
+casting, therefore, aside all delicate distinctions, he succeeded, by a
+reasonable hour in the evening, in obtaining once more the adhesion of
+the _hotellier_ and most of the population, giving--for he had no
+Government funds like his opponents--his own personal notes for the
+amounts, and enjoining on the tavern-keeper to have the whole of the
+suffrages polled early. This was all he could do, as it was impossible
+for him to be present on the morrow, or to delegate any other person of
+Haviland's circle. His remaining anxiety was removed, when, on driving
+over, his investigations proved that the arrangement had been fully
+completed.
+
+De Bleury only got the news in the morning, and Picault, who immediately
+hurried over at his suggestion, found himself too late, and his
+carefully prepared representation that "promissory notes representing an
+immoral compact were invalid" was of no use, while his invitation of
+the crowd to 'whiskeyblanc' only produced useless condolences. "_C'est
+dommage, monsieur_. If we could have known." He was not altogether
+displeased, however, to find what he considered the inevitable hole in
+Chamilly's professions of purity, and meeting the latter driving just
+outside the place, he wheeled his horse across the road and compelled an
+interview.
+
+"You think you can do without Picault!" he laughed frankly.
+
+"Let me pass, sir!" said Haviland, unwilling to put up with any
+nonsense.
+
+"To take up the promissory notes of your friend?"
+
+"Do you think sir, that I use your inventions? Let me pass, I tell you,"
+and he rose with his whip.
+
+"I have seen the cards, Haviland; take the game; let us be partners;
+what is the use of dissembling in this extraordinary manner?"
+
+A flash of the whip,--a leap of the two animals,--Picault careening into
+the ditch, and Chamilly flying into Misericorde.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+HAVILAND REFUSES
+
+"Nobleness still makes us proud"
+
+--FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT
+
+
+The election was Haviland's.
+
+A great crowd gathered into Dormilliere at the close of that long day,
+thickening and pouring in from the country around, and arriving by boats
+across the river, to hear the returns: and as Zotique read them in
+triumph from a chair at the door of the Circuit Court, and the issue, at
+first breathlessly uncertain, finally appeared, the cheering became
+frantic. Chamilly himself came out to them, an incomprehensible,
+determined aspect on his face, and amid deafening hurrahs, was seized
+and hurried on their shoulders across the square to the crier's rostrum,
+where he stood up before them.
+
+And then and there took place the most unheard of incident, the most
+remarkable outcome of Haviland's lofty character, of which there as yet
+was record.
+
+His voice can be heard distinct and clear over a perfect hush. What does
+he say? tell me,--have we really caught it correctly? Fact unique in
+political history; _he was refusing the election on account of the
+frauds_!
+
+"Grandmoulin,"--was Picault's subsequent remark, "The young fool has
+courage. What a deep game he is playing. I tell you he has more talent
+than the whole of our side together except yourself--curse him."
+
+"It demonstrates the unpractically of his methods!" said the burly
+Montreal politician to Zotique, with self-satisfied disgust.
+
+"No," returned Zotique, firmly, "If we had followed his methods it would
+have been far better. But nothing can make up for lack of intelligence:
+_Sacre bleu_. I ought to have had a better head than to leave these
+people to such as Cuiller and Benoit!"
+
+Chamilly addressed firm words to the disappointed electorate: "I seek
+not my own cause, friends. It is yours in which I do this thing and do
+you, too, give all for country's honor. Lose not heart. Work on, like
+iron figures, receiving blows without feeling them. Be we young in our
+strength and hope, as Truth our mistress is perennial. Accept from me
+who according to the rule of faint hearts ought to be most crushed by
+our failure, the motto, "_Encouraged_ by disaster!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+FIAT JUSTITIA
+
+
+"I wonder at you!--I wonder at you!" exclaimed Chrysler, pacing the
+drawing-room of the Manor-house, to his friend, "What will be the result
+of it?"
+
+"Cher Monsieur," Haviland replied. "I have done my duty and what have I
+to do with events? What is Dormilliere county and a year or two of the
+consequences of this election? I do not live in them or of them."
+
+The face of the far-seeing god himself, whose statue stood once more
+near, could scarcely show less regret than the easy, indomitable
+countenance of Chamilly; yet that his nerves had been strained to a
+severe pitch, lines of exhaustion upon it clearly told, and his
+restless, reckless movements from one spot and position to another made
+his friend anxious. A raw wind storm had risen quickly from the east and
+whistled without. He advanced to the window and threw both its curtains
+wide apart, revealing under an obscured snatch of struggling moonlight,
+the heavens covered with rapid-moving clouds, and the poplars opposite
+bending their vague shapes beneath the wind,--the beginning of one of
+those storms which come up from the Gulf, and overrun the whole region
+for days.
+
+"I should like to be on the River now," he remarked exultingly. Madame
+entered at the moment and heard him.
+
+"Be quiet, Chamilly," chided the Seigneuresse.
+
+"Alors, Alors," he said impatiently, as if casting about for something
+active to do, and left the room.
+
+"Madame de Bois-Hebert," Chrysler said, "have you news from Mademoiselle
+Josephte?"
+
+"That young person," replied she, "has descended to the plane of her
+condition: I have no further interest in her."
+
+But the devout lady sighed.
+
+The Gulf storm lowered steadily and disagreeably all next day and the
+visitor saw nothing of Chamilly, who kept in his room until the evening.
+But there was one excitement which occupied everyone else's attention:
+
+"Who do you think struck Francois?" Chrysler said to Zotique at the
+Circuit Court House.
+
+"The Bonhomme has tracked Spoon through every bush and bay on the coast,
+and has caught him getting aboard the steamboat at Petite Argentenaye,"
+the Registrar replied.
+
+A crowd came down the road. All the crowd were excited. They ran about a
+long waggon in which were on the first seat, the Honorable and Bonhomme;
+on the second a constable and prisoner handcuffed. Spoon, who cowered
+like a captured wild beast ready to whine with fright, was clapped into
+a private room and a stray Bleu flew off for Libergent to act as
+advocate. The crowd, soon uncomfortably larger, diverted itself by
+taking oratorical views of his guilt or innocence: but the prevailing
+opinion of the prisoner personally was expressed by one in an
+unfastidious proverb: "Grosse crache, grosse canaille."
+
+Libergent, accompanied by De Bleury, came over at once, for he had a
+good deal at stake in seeing that Spoon's trial should lead to no
+unpleasant revelations or consequences to the party. Closeted not more
+than half an hour he came out and said publicly to l'Honorable, who took
+seat as Magistrate upon the Bench under the great lion-and-unicorn
+painting. "My client makes option of opening the investigation at once.
+He is not guilty of the charge and can clear himself."
+
+The Bonhomme cried excitedly,--"It's false!" His wife joined him with a
+wild scream of disappointment. A murmuring ran about. "Silence!" shouted
+the constable.
+
+Every one involuntarily obeyed; and Chrysler absorbed himself examining
+the articles taken from the prisoner's person.
+
+The evidence was as soon disposed of as Libergent could have wished.
+Josephte gave her testimony to the appearance and surroundings of the
+injured man as she had found him. She could relate no circumstances that
+pointed to Spoon. The Bonhomme eagerly proffered his evidence. It was
+torn to tatters by the advocate: he had nothing to tell but rambling
+suspicions, and was told to stand down. It was discovered that none in
+fact had anything pertinent to say. Benoit was mad; Francois,
+unconscious; and Libergent triumphantly asked for the prisoner's
+immediate discharge.
+
+The great doubt on the part of justice was, clearly, why did the
+prisoner disappear? But this was quickly resolved by witnesses who swore
+that Cuiller was entrusted with secret political business which
+necessitated absences and journeys in different parts of the country,
+and this, in the state of political affairs, was an obvious enough
+excuse.
+
+Libergent pressed once again for the discharge.
+
+"I must grant it," simply pronounced Mr. Genest.
+
+Another scream pierced their ears. "Justice, oh God;" the old wife of Le
+Brun shrieked in trembling syllables. "They kill without hanging. I
+demand JUSTICE! Hear me, great God!" and her bent frame and wrinkled
+face writhed pitiably.
+
+But it was done. Spoon descended with a sudden, wild grin and found
+himself free. "In a few hours," he probably thought obscurely, "I can be
+far on my road."
+
+"Pardon me," said Chrysler, however, standing up, to the surprise of
+everybody. "Your Honor, I have another charge to bring against the
+prisoner, and I ask his re-arrest."
+
+The Honorable made a sign to the constable to stay Cuiller.
+
+"These bills," Chrysler said, holding out the bank notes which were
+found in the purse of Spoon, "are marked with the initials of Francois
+Le Brun's name. I am ready to charge the prisoner with having committed
+a larceny of money from Francois Le Brun on his journey from Montreal. I
+sustain it by these initials at the corners of bills just found on the
+prisoner's person. I am informed--"
+
+"I object, your Honor," fairly shouted Libergent--"I object to any
+hearsay."
+
+"What can you swear to of your own knowledge?" asked l'Honorable of
+Chrysler, gently.
+
+"To seeing these marks--"
+
+"Which might be anything!" snapped Libergent.
+
+"To hearing--"
+
+"No hearsay, sir!"
+
+"To having a conviction--"
+
+"Upon no grounds whatever!--Your Honor, I press my just application for
+an immediate discharge."
+
+"I cannot see that there is yet evidence enough," l'Honorable said
+courteously. "There are two charges, but both of them seem founded on
+vague suspicions which I cannot consider sufficient to detain the
+prisoner."
+
+Libergent triumphantly glanced from Spoon to the audience.
+
+At that moment, however, the man at his side rose up:--Ross de Bleury!
+
+"If what Monsieur says is true," he exclaimed to the Honorable, throwing
+out his clenched hand,--"if these letters are found upon those notes,
+then I understand it. I can prove that this infernal, greasy,
+treacherous devil,--be he friend or traitor, or whatever he chooses to
+be, to the Bleu party or myself,--committed that despicable larceny and
+has wronged that poor young man. I was on the steamboat. I saw it. I saw
+him do it to his friend. Talking to the purser, I saw the act, but could
+not believe it a reality. On the parole of all my ancestors, I would
+never go back on a common thief, I would keep faith inviolate with a
+parricide, I have a secret sympathy with every brigand, but I have no
+place out of _l'enfer_ itself for a traitor, _Dieu merci_."
+
+"Swear the informant," said the Magistrate.
+
+The picture at this instant of the frightened face of Spoon who
+collapsed into a seat by the Bar, of the excitement of the crowd, which
+had been gradually brought to a climax, the disgust of Libergent, relief
+of Chrysler, satisfaction of the little Bonhomme and his wife, the
+cynical roll of Zotique's eyes round the room, and serene, judicial face
+of the Honorable on the bench above, would have made the reputation of
+the greatest painter in Paris.
+
+After all, Spoon was remanded for trial, and in due time, the Queen's
+Bench Court condemned him to the fullest penalty of the law for his
+murderous assault and larceny.
+
+Francois meanwhile recovered, and was taken, pale and weak, but
+indescribably happy, in a carriage one morning beside Josephte to
+church, where the young Cure made her his faithful bride.
+
+As for Benoit, "_il est tout en campagne_," they said. In less
+expressive terms, "his mind was hopelessly wandering."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To return to our current day however; in the evening Chamilly came into
+the drawing room with some more manuscript, which he handed to Chrysler.
+
+"Here is the rest of the story I have been writing," said he, "take it
+sir and may it amuse you a little; it is the key to the rest. I am going
+out on the River." And he went-out of the Manoir door into the storm.
+
+The manuscript proceeded as follows:
+
+
+
+
+BOOK III.
+
+BOOK OF ENTHUSIASMS (CONTINUED.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+QUINET'S CONTRIBUTION
+
+   "O, skyward-looking, fleet-winged soul,
+   Earth hath no name for thine ideal flower!"
+
+   --MARY MORGAN.
+
+
+For a night and a day after my talk with my father; I was a fool.
+Swelling names of ancestors rang proudly in my ears, and I shudder to
+think how easily I might have ended in a genealogist.
+
+"Salut, Milord de Quinet."
+
+"Bon soir, Chamilly," replied he, soberly.
+
+"Aha, thou melancholy friend, the liver again, eh?".
+
+We were strolling along the half illuminated Grosvenor street under the
+elms. The dim, substantial mansions in their grounds and trees, pleased
+my foreign eyes and I was glad to find the city of Alexandra able to vie
+with the great cities of the world, and I thought of her as near, and
+for, the moment, could not understand the humor of Quinet.
+
+"You don't seem to know," said he, "at least, I thought I would tell
+you--that Miss Grant has gone away,"--he stopped and looked at me
+earnestly.--"I sympathise with you."
+
+"Away!" I caught my breath. My spirits sank with disappointment. Alas!
+Heaven seemed to ordain that my passion for her should never become, a
+close communion, but only keep this light, ethereal touch upon me.
+
+And so Quinet knew. "I do not ask you how: evidently you have known it
+all along?" (It was the first time I had been spoken to about my love
+for her, and it made me feel peculiarly.) "Mon ami, Quinet, tu es
+heureux ne pas aimer. Que penses tu de ma chere?"
+
+"Go on, my friend Chamilly; be steadfast, for thou could'st not have
+chosen a sweeter, lovelier, holier divinity. O my friend, be steadfast
+and be happy. Yes, as thou hast said, I have known this."
+
+Quinet was diverting our steps along up leading streets which tended
+towards the Mountain, and soon we reached the head of one, where a wall
+met us.
+
+"This way," he said, striking aside into a field which formed part of
+the Park. "Adieu, civilization of street lights!" and he pressed up into
+a dark grove where I stumbled after, and next, under the twilight of a
+sky full of stars, could descry dim outlines of the surroundings of our
+path and even of the Mountain, silent above us like a huge black ghost.
+We toiled up the steep stair, guiding ourselves by feeling, and in a few
+minutes Were at Prospect Point, that jutting bit of turf on the
+precipice's edge where the trees draw back and allow in daytime a wide
+view of the city and surrounding country, and we both stood breathless
+there in the dimness, in front of a sight bewilderingly grand enough to
+of itself take one's breath away.
+
+Above were the radiant constellations. Below, between a belt of weird
+horizon and the dark abyss at our feet, the city shone, its dense
+blackness mapped out in stars as brilliant and myriad-seeming as those
+overhead,--a Night above, a Night below! Once before had I looked from
+that crag upon Montreal, in a memorable sunset hour, and remembered my
+impression of its beauty. Below, the scarped rock fell: the tops of
+trees which grew up the steep face lost themselves, lower, in a mass of
+grove that flourished far out, and besieged the town in swollen
+battalions and columns of foliage. Half overwhelmed by this friendly
+assault, the City sat in her robes of grey and red, proud mistress of
+half-a continent, noble in situation as in destiny. A hundred spires
+and domes pointed up, from streets full of quaint names of saints and
+deeds of heroes. The pinnacled towers of Notre Dame rose impressively in
+the distance. Past ran the glorious St. Lawrence, with its lovely
+islands of St. Helen's and the Nuns'.
+
+Now, however, it seemed no longer a place upon earth at all. It was a
+living spirit. Quiet as the sky itself, its bright eyes looked far
+upward, and it was communing, in the lowliness of Nature, with the
+constellations.
+
+"This is Life!" cried Quinet, who had hitherto been excited with
+suppressed feeling. "The vast winds come in to us from Ether. Night
+hides all that is common, and sprinkles the dark-blue vault with
+gold-dust; the planets gleam far and pure amidst it, and Space sings his
+awful solo."
+
+"All is one mighty Being. There he moves, the Great Creature, his
+crystal boundlessness encompassing his countless shapes. He faces us
+from every point. His God-soul looks through to us. He rises at our
+feet. He surrounds us in ourselves; speaks and lives in us. Is he not
+resplendent, wondrous?"
+
+"We are out of the world of vain phantoms, Chamilly! We are above the
+chatter of a wretched spot, a narrow life. Down there, nothing is not
+ridiculed that is not some phase of a provinciality. The dances in
+certain houses, the faces of some conceited club, long-spun names,
+business or gossip, or to drive a double carriage, are the gaslight
+boundaries of existence! Pah! it is a courtyard, bounded by four square
+walls, a path or two to walk in, and the eyes of busybodies to order our
+doings and sneer us out of our souls. How they deny us that the centre
+of the systems is immeasurably off there in Pleiades! What fools we are.
+We follow trifles we value at the valuation of idiots; we cherish mean
+ideas; we believe contracted doctrines; we do things we are ashamed of;
+dropping at last like the animals, with alarm that we die."
+
+"Look, off into the heart of It! the heart of It! beyond there!" he
+exclaimed, stretching his arm. "Forget our courtyard! Nay, returning
+there, let us remember that this infinite ocean is above it--a boundless
+sea beneath and around, an unknown universe within. Take in this scene
+and feel the rich thrills of its majesty stir you. You are of it; you
+came out of it; it is your mother, father, lover; it will never let you
+die; that heart of it to which your utmost straining cannot pierce, was
+once and will again be known to you. Its beauty caresses your soul from
+another world, and it is Love Divine which moves those stars.[J] Your
+own sweet passion, Chamilly, is the child of that divine Love, and in it
+you mount towards the heavens, and yearn as by inspiration, for a
+mysterious ideal existence? The poets and romancers lightly say of it "a
+divine power:" they think they say a metaphor--a lie; but I tell you it
+is true! May it assist you to live the life of the universe."
+
+[Footnote J: Dante--Divina Commedia.]
+
+"Each man," he cried, "who pursues his highest is a prophet! Ever there
+is an inward compulsion in our race to press on, and we hear the heroes
+of the front as they fall, crying 'Forward, forward, forward, forward,
+forward!'"
+
+While he spoke, for he said much besides, many of the lights were
+disappearing, we seemed to be being left alone, and the church-towers of
+the city chorussed the hour of ten.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+HAVILAND'S PRINCIPLE
+
+
+The final step in the progression of influences was, strange to say, a
+dream. Our residence was then on Grosvenor street,--a Florid Gothic one
+after the model of Desdemona's House in Venice. My own little room was
+fitted up in a Moorish fashion.
+
+After the scene with Quinet on Prospect Point, I sat up till a late
+hour, for I found a letter from Grace, telling jocularly of their
+journey just commenced in the delightful Old World, and seriously of
+Alexandra's ambitions. I sat thinking with my arms folded on the table
+till I fell asleep. Then I felt at first that I was lifted up on the
+Mountain again, and leaving that presently, was carried out into space
+far away among the stars. Phosphorescent mists and cloud masses passed
+over the region, and among these appeared various figures, the last of
+which was, that of a certain old Professor of ours.
+
+The most apparently dissimilar things come to us in dreams. A lecture of
+the Professor's had once greatly impressed me: "Conscience is Reason,"
+he said. "To do a right thing is to do simply the reasonable thing; to
+do wrong is to do what is unreasonable.--
+
+"Now think," he said, "what this means."
+
+What could such words have to do with a dream?
+
+"What is Duty?" he proceeded, "Whence the conviction, the mysterious
+fact, that whatever my inclination may be, I _ought_ to do some
+act--ought to do it though the cup of pleasure be dashed from the
+lifting hand, though a loved face most pale, though the stars in their
+high courses reel, and the gulfs of perdition smoke,--why is it that the
+grave, unalterable 'Ought' must still demand reverence?"
+
+His voice rose.
+
+"Immanuel Kant!"
+
+The familiar name caught my ear, and I attended.
+
+"To him Heaven gave it to solve the problem. Think what Reason is! Be
+men for once and attend to one deep matter! Think what Reason is!--the
+divinest part of us, and common with the Divine, as with every
+Intelligence; speaking not of the voice of the individual, but one sound
+everywhere to all. It is more truth than metaphor to name it the VOICE
+OF GOD."
+
+In my dream, the Professor repeated, as if with mystic significance, the
+cry: "Conscience is Reason!" and as these words vaguely reached me, his
+figure dissolved into a rolling cloud, which grew at once into a shape
+of giant form, and addressed me in echoing tones: "The unalterable
+Ought! the unalterable Ought!" reverberating from the depths and
+heights.
+
+I awoke at the sound, and collecting my energies--for I had been
+half-asleep,--stretched out my hand to my note-book, looked up the
+lecture, and with the words swaying before me, read sleepily:--
+
+"Leave us Reason in any existence;--strip us of sight, sound, touch, and
+all the external constitution of nature, clothe us with whatever
+feelings and powers, place us in whatever scenes may come--but gift us
+with this universal faculty, our power of knowing truth. Otherwise, with
+rudder lost, we are dreamers on a drifting wreck, and where were the
+Divine One, and this harmonious architecture of the universe, and all
+things trustworthy, proportioned, eternal, exalting?"
+
+"Leave us Reason, and, children of God, we may from any point start out
+to see Our Father, His voice indicating from within the paths to Him
+which somewhere surely lie near to everywhere. Leave us Reason, and,
+brothers of men, we recognize that each Intelligence is of value equal
+to ourselves, and more precious than aught else can be, and we perceive
+the due relations of an orderly world."
+
+"The voice within in simple dignity commands"--
+
+But the lines swam before me: I could not hold my head up: the Moorish
+room expanded to the height and magnificence of a Hall of Magic, the
+dream of starry space returned and the pure lights circled in it singing
+to me in chorus. Space itself seemed to become the veiled countenance of
+a Mysterious Power, which "half-revealed and half-concealed" itself on
+every hand, and out of the midst of a dark-blue sky, appeared the form
+and face of Alexandra, like a Princess-Madonna, smiling, O so earnestly
+and kindly.
+
+I started, and woke again. The Professor's notes were still under my
+eyes, and I read the words, "Lose yourself and live as if you were one
+of the others. Exalted on this pinnacle you are prepared for any
+existence; you have learnt your path through eternity, and the world and
+its vicissitudes may sweep by you like winds past a statue."
+
+As I slowly thought over all the dream, and comprehended its remarkable
+character, I conceived it as a revelation.
+
+"The highest things,--I have found them at last!" I exultantly cried, in
+a final enthusiasm--"the total subjection of self and obedience of the
+whole life to Reason! What shall I care more for events and opinions, or
+any matter that but concerns myself and a fleeting world! I will seek in
+my actions ever the greater, finer, nobler thing for all, and the rule
+will be aim sufficient!"
+
+"I saw that DUTY is the Secret of the World."
+
+It was only a question to choose my largest, finest, noblest field of
+work for all. Difficulties disappeared, and the great aim soon appeared
+before me of the cultivation of the national spirit.
+
+The nation must found and shape its own work on the same deep idea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+DAUGHTER OF THE GODS.
+
+   "Soft was the breath of balmy spring
+   In that fair month of May"
+
+   --GEO MURRAY.
+
+
+Time flew brightly for some days, as an early spring, having poured its
+thousand rivulets out of the melting snows, began to dry the soil and
+instil into the willows and birches the essences that soon cover them
+with refreshing green, and earth suddenly teems with leafing and flying
+life, with odor of buds and laughing variety of shade and sun.
+
+I, as is my nature, was deeply under the spell.
+
+   "Rossignolet du bois joli,
+   Emporte-moi-t-une lettre!"
+
+Alexandra was coming home!
+
+St. Helen's Island, named affectionately by Champlain after his fair
+young wife, Helene, stretches its half-mile of park along the middle of
+the River opposite the city of Montreal. It is at all times a graceful
+sight; in summer by the refreshing shade of its deep groves beheld from
+the dusty city; in winter by the contrast of its flowing purple crest of
+trees with the flat white expanse of ice-covered river. The lower end,
+towards which the outlines of its double hill tend, is varied by the
+walls and flagstaffs of a military establishment, comprising some grey
+barracks, a row of officers' quarters, and a block-house, higher on the
+hill. In former times, when British redcoats were stationed here, and
+military society made the dashing feature in fashionable life, when gay
+and high-born parties scattered their laughter through the trim groves,
+improved and kept in shape by labor of the rank and file, and "the
+Fusileers and the Grenadiers" marched in or out with band and famous
+colors flying, and the regimental goat or dog, and shooting practice,
+officers' cricket and football matches, and mess dinners, kept the
+island lively and picturesque, St. Helen's was a theatre of unceasing
+charm to the citizens.
+
+"Is she here yet?" I asked, eagerly grasping the hand of Grace, who,
+more exceedingly pretty than ever, had invited all their friends to meet
+them on the island, in the grove, "I am delighted to see you back. It is
+almost worth the absence."
+
+"And I welcome you as Noah the dove, after the waste of waters,"
+exclaimed she, laughing. "But I must answer your first question before
+it is repeated. No, _mon frere_, I am afraid she is not to be here to
+day. She is a little ill with fatigue."
+
+"O my poor friend!" I exclaimed, and led Grace down the avenue of
+leafing trees in which we were; for this grove had been planted in
+regular walks by the garrison forty years before, and the turf had been
+sown with grass that sprang up at that season a vivid green. The dell
+had been a theatre of the gaieties of days past. To me it was deserted
+loveliness--a scene prepared and not occupied.
+
+"Is she very ill?"
+
+"No; merely tired. You see she is a thousand times more industrious than
+I. Nothing could content her over there unless she was putting out her
+utmost. She said it was her ambition to improve, like the great men and
+women; that she was strong and ought to make up for some of her
+imperfections by greater diligence. I never saw anyone so anxious to do
+a thing perfectly. The great Bertini in Florence said of her--'She will
+certainly be greater than Angelica Kauffman.' ... 'Alexandra,' he said,
+'will rank with men.' The egotism of the creature! You see there are
+others who admire her besides yourself."
+
+"None more passionately."
+
+"I thought so.--But look this way, Tityrus," said she, wheeling quickly
+and stepping forward. "How do you do, Alexandra!"
+
+There she stood, pale and ill, but proud of carriage as ever.
+
+"So you came after all? Here is Mr. Haviland, gladder even than I to see
+you!"
+
+I saw Grace, in a moment, the duties of hostess being temporarily
+undertaken by Annie, walking down a path with soldierly Lockhart
+Mackenzie, who had come over from the "quarters" in his uniform.
+
+Alexandra and I found ourselves wandering into the wood and climbing the
+hillside at the loftiest point of the Island, where, on the summit, the
+trees permitted us a wide view of the St. Lawrence, its islands and
+ships and the open country; while the afternoon sunlight fell brokenly
+upon the faint colors of her face and her golden hair.
+
+"Do you admire distant landscapes?" I asked constrainedly.
+
+"They remind me of high aims and the broad views of great minds,"
+returned she, looking outward.
+
+"You favor aiming high," I said, "I always thought so of you."
+
+She turned her glance for a moment to me, and asked seriously: "How can
+people aim low? Do you know the lines of Goethe:"
+
+   "Thou must either strive and rise,
+   Or thou must sink and die."
+
+Daughter of the immortals!
+
+"I wonder what you will say of _my_ aims," I stammered.
+
+"May you tell them? I should like very much to hear." And as she seemed
+to bend from a queen into a womanly companion, I noticed my gift, the
+brooch of Roman mosaic, on her breast.
+
+While she listened, for I told her fully the story of my quest for the
+highest things, its strange solution, and my present purposes, I was
+surprised to discover that her intelligence was master of the whole
+without effort. "O, I have often talked philosophy with Mr. Quinet," she
+explained. Her spiritual eyes glistened with profound beautiful depths
+as she looked down into the forest-shades before us. A color had
+suffused itself over her face so lovely that the glorified creature
+beside me seemed to surpass my intensest ideal.
+
+"It _is_ the Voice of the Universe," she said, and her cheeks flushed,
+"I once heard the Spirit of All, called, 'Heart of Heaven, Heart of
+Earth,' and I added 'Heart of Man.' Obey it, obey your best thoughts."
+She looked at me with such a glance of sacred sympathy, that--O joy, the
+first words filling life with fragrance have been spoken!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was short, our sweet bridal and few days of united life, and of bliss
+at the old chateau d'Esneval. Gravely ill,--worse,--recovering,--then
+DEAD. O God, was it possible?
+
+Yes; I saw her lying amid garlands of evergreens and white robes, in a
+low-lighted chamber of the chateau, still and transfigured into a
+changed, unearthly beauty, the alas! so thin lips lightly parted in a
+smile, the abundant golden hair I used to admire brushed neatly away
+from her forehead, the darkened eyelids that told of long exhaustion
+peacefully closed as if on visions of heaven--as if she saw God, being
+pure in heart. Supernaturally lovely as her soul had been through life
+the wearied sufferer lay in death, white tuberoses pressing her poor
+thin cheek--one purity affectionate to another. Ah, it was a vision. I
+never saw one on whom Heaven loved so constantly to breathe sweetness.
+Neither health could roughen her beauty nor sickness drive it away: for
+the soul, after all, will shine through the body, will lift it up, and
+if glorious will leave it worthy of itself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Alas, ungovernable, passionate grief! Alas the sight of heart-broken
+friends and painful rites of burial, the anguish of bereavement, the
+irresistible longing to die and be with her;--and Quinet's grief also;
+for then he had confessed that he had loved her too.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now we who knew her recognise that she was sent into this world for
+a season, and tenderly watched and favored of heaven for high
+purposes--for the stirring example and strong influence of a short but
+lofty life.
+
+In moments of weakness the irresistible longing to go to her returns
+upon me, but it is she whose Athene vision impels to throw it off, to
+stand ground firmly and push forward with determination towards the
+years which must be endured, and the glorious work which calk to be
+achieved. Canada, beloved, thy cause is led by an angel!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What of Quinet? Noble friend, when I gave way unlike a man (though that
+is with God, who knows how much hearts can bear); he it was who held his
+own despair sternly back and put out efforts to solace and quiet mine.
+In these years he has grown stronger, but become ascetic towards the
+outer world--an Ishmaelite who cares not to own himself a son of
+Abraham, but lives wild in the deserts of philosophy on locusts and wild
+honey. He will never marry, but has devoted himself to the problems of
+the Secret of the World, in which he too believes, though his studies
+have led him far more scientifically than me; and yet in his hours of
+thought, I know that a vision of beauty and a sweet voice will often
+startle him, and he rises then into scenes of his loftiest, grandest
+life. O, Alexandra! Alexandra!
+
+
+CONCLUSION OF CHAMILLY HAVILAND'S NARRATIVE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+_NOT_ THE END.
+
+"Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis."
+
+--PS. CXIV.
+
+
+When Chrysler came to this sad close of the story, he woke from his
+absorption in the manuscript and became conscious of, the surroundings.
+The late hour, the strange place, even the silent-burning candles, and
+above all the shock of grief for Chamilly at his great bereavement,
+oppressed him into deep loneliness. The wind dashed gusts of rain
+against the casement and shook it savagely. He thought of the storm and
+blackness without--how the tempest must be hounding the black waves--the
+wolfish ferocity of their onward rushes--the dread battle any mortal
+would fight who found himself among them on a night like this.
+
+Is Chamilly safe at home again?
+
+Of course, at this hour.
+
+What an unusual fellow. How strange to enjoy such beating rain, such
+blinding darkness and fierce contest of strength with nature! How
+fearless! How few like him in this or any virtue! Did there in fact
+exist another his equal!
+
+No; Haviland stood alone--the climax of a race.
+
+As Chrysler pondered, dull sounds reached him, breaking in on these
+meditations. A door opened below, and heavy feet tramped in. Voices, and
+then cries of alarm, and then lamentations of all the household startled
+him. Steps sounded coming up the stairs, and a man's sob, and then a
+gentle knock.
+
+"Open!" Chrysler responded.
+
+Pierre entered, the picture of woe, and broke down: "O monseigneur
+Monseigneur Chamilly is dead."
+
+They had found his boat and his body, washed ashore.
+
+The windows of the Parish Church were darkened with thick black
+curtains, the altar was heavily draped, the strains of the mournful Mass
+of the Dead swayed to the responses of a sorrowing people. In the midst,
+raised upon a lofty catafalque whose sable drapery was surrounded with a
+starry maze of candle-lights, lay the silent remains of Chamilly
+Haviland, who loved Canada. Pure and earnest in life, he receives his
+reward in the world of her he loved, who went before him.
+
+A tablet among those of his fathers, facing the Seigniorial pew,
+recorded, for a little, the name of the last d'Argentenaye; but now the
+proud Cure at length has had his will, and instead of its venerable
+house of God, Dormilliere wears in its centre a pretentious nondescript
+structure of cut-stone.
+
+Chrysler has done what he could to repair the country's loss by raising
+his voice with rejuvenated energy in support of good will and progress,
+in the Legislative halls.
+
+"L'idee Canadienne too," Quinet asserts with hope and fire, in his
+seer-like editorials, "is not lost; it is founded on the deepest basis
+of existence: on the simplicity of common sense; on the true affections,
+the true aspirations of the people, on righteousness, on love of God, on
+DESTINY!"
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Young Seigneur, by Wilfrid Chateauclair
+
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