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OLD QUEBEC

The Fortress of New France

by

GILBERT PARKER and CLAUDE G. BRYAN

With Illustrations







[Illustration: _Major General James Wolfe
from a scarce contemporary print engraved by R. Houston_]



New York
The Macmillan Company
London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
1903

All rights reserved

Copyright, 1903,
by The Macmillan Company.

Set up, electrotyped, and published September, 1903. Reprinted
November, 1903.

Norwood Press

J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.





CONTENTS
                                                         PAGE

   NOTE                                                  xvii

   PRELUDE                                                xix


   CHAPTER I

   EARLY VOYAGES                                            1


   CHAPTER II

   THE ERA OF CHAMPLAIN                                    19


   CHAPTER III

   THE HEROIC AGE OF NEW FRANCE                            44


   CHAPTER IV

   "AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM"                                66


   CHAPTER V

   ROYAL GOVERNMENT                                        85


   CHAPTER VI

   THE NOBLESSE AND THE PEOPLE                             95


   CHAPTER VII

   FRONTENAC AND LA SALLE                                 110


   CHAPTER VIII

   FIRE, MASSACRE, AND SIEGE                              134


   CHAPTER IX

   THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY                               159


   CHAPTER X

   BORDER WARFARE                                         175


   CHAPTER XI

   THE BEGINNING OF THE END                               187


   CHAPTER XII

   LIFE UNDER THE _ANCIEN REGIME_                         218


   CHAPTER XIII

   DURING THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR                            246


   CHAPTER XIV

   "HERE DIED WOLFE VICTORIOUS"                           268


   CHAPTER XV

   MURRAY AND DE LEVIS                                    299


   CHAPTER XVI

   THE FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE                        325


   CHAPTER XVII

   THE FIFTH SIEGE                                        342


   CHAPTER XVIII

   SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROGRESS                          364


   CHAPTER XIX

   THE STORY OF THE GREAT TRADING COMPANIES               394


   CHAPTER XX

   THE NEW CENTURY                                        422


   CHAPTER XXI

   THE MODERN PERIOD                                      443


   APPENDICES                                             473


   INDEX                                                  479




LIST OF PLATES

   Major-General James Wolfe                   _Frontispiece_

                                                    FACE PAGE

   Francois-Xavier de Laval                                16

   Cardinal de Richelieu                                   48

   The Earl of Chatham                                    187

   General the Marquis Montcalm                           271

   General Sir Jeffrey Amherst                            282

   Admiral Earl St. Vincent                               294

   General Gage                                           301

   The Hon. Robert Monckton                               307

   [1]General Sir A. P. Irving                            317

   General Townshend                                      327

   Sir James Henry Craig                                  342

   Sir John Cope Sherbrooke                               355

   The Fourth Duke of Richmond                            368

   Admiral Viscount Nelson                                374

   Lord Dalhousie                                         376

   General Lord Aylmer                                    395

   The Earl of Durham                                     407

   Sir John Colborne                                      417

   Lord Sydenham                                          424

   Sir Charles Bagot                                      434

   General Earl Cathcart                                  443

   The Earl of Elgin                                      452

   Lord Lisgar                                            458

   The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava                        466

[Footnote 1: Inscription on plate for 2nd Governor of Canada
1766, _read_ Lieutenant-Governor of Canada 1766.]




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

                                                         PAGE

   Jacques Cartier                                          7

   Manoir de Jacques Cartier a Limoulon                    11

   Arrival of Jacques Cartier at Quebec, 1535              13

   Cap Rouge                                               17

   Champlain                                               21

   Montmorency Falls                                       25

   Bonne Ste. Anne (Old Church)                            31

   Marie de l'Incarnation                                  51

   Ursuline Nuns of Quebec (Salle d'Etude, noviciat)       55

   Jesuits' College and Church                             56

   Chateau Saint Louis, 1694                               57

   The Ursulines' Convent                                  61

   Monument to the First Canadian Missionary               71

   Brebeuf                                                 74

   Lalement                                                75

   Colbert                                                 87

   Old Bishop's Palace                                    103

   New Palace Gate                                        105

   Intendant's Palace                                     107

   Frontenac                                              113

   Old St. Louis Gate                                     117

   Robert Cavelier de la Salle                            123

   Sir William Phipps                                     147

   Plan of Fort St. Louis, 1683                           151

   The Citadel To-day (from Dufferin Terrace)             153

   Notre Dame de la Victoire                              157

   The Citadel in Winter                                  173

   Lieut.-General Sir William Pepperell, Bart.            189

   Bienville                                              193

   De Bougainville                                        197

   Ruins of Chateau Bigot                                 201

   Le Chien d'Or                                          202

   Plan of the City of Quebec, 1759                       207

   Major-General Sir Isaac Barre                          209

   Sir Hugh Palliser, Bart.                               213

   The City of Quebec in 1759                             219

   Baron Grant                                            221

   Baroness de Longueil                                   223

   Upper Town Market To-day                               225

   New St. John's Gate                                    227

   Petit Champlain Street To-day                          229

   Old Prescott Gate                                      231

   A Carriole                                             234

   Village of Beauport                                    235

   The Basilica                                           239

   Jesuits' Barracks                                      241

   Caleches                                               243

   Quebec (from Levi)                                     245

   De Levis                                               251

   Sir George Bridges Rodney, Bart. (Governor of
      Newfoundland, 1759)                                 263

   Entrance to the Citadel To-day                         270

   Hope Gate                                              272

   Admiral Sir Charles Saunders                           274

   The Manor-House at Beauport, Montcalm's Headquarters   277

   General Hospital                                       284

   Captain James Cook                                     290

   New Kent Gate                                          301

   Church of the Recollets and La Grande Place            309

   Old French House, St. John Street                      315

   Manor House, Sillery                                   319

   Montreal in 1760                                       329

   General Richard Montgomery                             345

   Cape Diamond                                           357

   Benjamin Franklin                                      365

   Charles Carroll of Carrollton                          367

   Samuel Chase                                           369

   Breakneck Steps To-day                                 371

   Old Parliament House, Quebec                           377

   H.R.H. the Duke of Kent, K.B                           379

   St. Lawrence River from the Citadel                    381

   Percee Rock                                            387

   Hon. William Osgoode                                   389

   New St. Louis Gate                                     390

   Old Market Square, Upper Town                          391

   Frontenac Terrace To-day                               392

   Mr. Samuel Hearne                                      397

   Prince of Wales's Fort, Hudson's Bay, 1777             401

   Prince Rupert                                          403

   Sir Alexander Mackenzie                                415

   Simon McTavish                                         419

   Earl of Selkirk                                        420

   Ferry-Boat on the St. Lawrence                         423

   Sir Gordon Drummond                                    427

   Major-General Sir Isaac Brock, K.B.                    430

   General de Salaberry                                   435

   A Beggar of Cote Beaupre                               437

   St. Louis Street, Place d'Armes, and New Court House   440

   City Hall, Quebec                                      444

   Lieut.-Colonel John By, R.E.                           445

   Sir Peregrine Maitland                                 448

   Trappists at Mistassini                                449

   The Hon. Louis Joseph Papineau                         451

   English Cathedral                                      455

   The Marquis of Lorne (Duke of Argyll)                  461

   Sir George Cartier                                     465

   Sir John A. Macdonald                                  467

   Sir Wilfrid Laurier                                    469




MAPS

   1. Canada and the North American Colonies,
      1680-1782                               _Face page_ 110

      The Environs of Quebec, 1759.
      Louisbourg, to show the Sieges of 1744 and 1758.

   2. Plan of Quebec, 1759. From a Map published in
      London in 1760                               _Page_ 207

   3. Plan of the River St. Lawrence          _Face page_ 268

   4. Map of Upper and Lower Canada,
      illustrating events until the
      Campaign of 1814                        _Face page_ 378

   5. The Territory of the Hudson's
      Bay Company, 1670-1870                  _Face page_ 399




NOTE


The student of the history of the ancient capital of Canada is
embarrassed, not by the dearth but by the abundance of material at his
disposal. The present volume, therefore, makes no claim to
originality. It is but an assimilation of this generous data, and a
simple comment upon the changing scenes which were recorded by such
ancient authorities as the Jesuit priests and pioneers in their
_Relations_, and by the monumental works of Francis Parkman, whose
researches occupied more than forty years, and whose picturesque pen
has done for Canada what Prescott's did for Mexico. Admiring tribute
and gratitude must also be expressed for the years of careful study
and the unfaltering energy by which the late Mr. Kingsford produced
his valuable _History of Canada_. Nor can any one, writing of Quebec,
proceed successfully without constant reference to the historical
gleanings of Sir James Le Moine, who has spent a lifetime in the
romantic atmosphere of old-time manuscripts, and who, with Monsieur
l'Abbe Casgrain, represents, in its most attractive form, that
composite citizenship which has the wit and grace of the old _regime_
with the useful ardour of the new.

                                        THE AUTHORS.




PRELUDE


About the walled city of Quebec cling more vivid and enduring memories
than belong to any other city of the modern world. Her foundation
marked a renaissance of religious zeal in France, and to the people
from whom came the pioneers who suffered or were slain for her, she
had the glamour of new-born empire, of a conquest renewing the
glories of the days of Charlemagne. Visions of a hemisphere controlled
from Versailles haunted the days of Francis the First, of the Grand
Monarch, of Colbert and of Richelieu, and in the sky of national hope
and over all was the Cross whose passion led the Church into the
wilderness. The first emblem of sovereignty in the vast domain which
Jacques Cartier claimed for Francis his royal master, was a cross
whereon was inscribed--

   _Franciscus Primus, Dei Gratia Francorum Rex, Regnat._

In spite of cruel neglect due to internal troubles and that European
strife in which the motherland was engaged for so many generations,
the eyes of Frenchmen turned to their over-sea dominions with
imaginative hope, with conviction that the great continent of promise
would renew in France the glories that were Greece and the grandeur
that was Rome. How hard the patriotic colonists strove to retain those
territories which Champlain, La Salle, Maisonneuve, Joliet, and so
many others won through nameless toil and martyrdom, and how at last
the broad lands passed to another race and another flag, not by fault
or folly or lack of courage of the people, but by the criminal
corruption of the ruling few, is the narrative which runs through
these pages.

For at least the first hundred years of its existence, Quebec was New
France; and the story of Quebec in that period is the story of all
Canada. The fortress was the heart and soul of French enterprise in
the New World. From the Castle of St. Louis, on the summit of Cape
Diamond, went forth mandates, heard and obeyed in distant Louisiana.
The monastic city on the St. Lawrence was the centre of the web of
missions, which slowly spread from the dark Saguenay to Lake Superior.
The fearful tragedies of Indian warfare had their birth in the early
policy of Quebec. The fearless voyageurs, whose canoes glided into
unknown waters, ever westward--towards Cathay, as they believed--made
Quebec their base for exploration. And as time went on, the rock-built
stronghold of the north became the nerve-centre of that half-century
of conflict which left the flag of Britain waving in victory on the
Plains of Abraham.

When Montcalm in his last hours consigned to the care of the British
conquerors the colonists he had loved and for whom he had fought, he
proclaimed a momentous epoch in the world's history--the loss of an
Empire to a great nation of Europe and the gain of an Empire to
another. Within a generation the Saxon Conquistador was to suffer the
same humiliation, and to yield up that colonial territory from which
Quebec had been assailed; but the fortress city was always to both
nations the keystone of the arch of power on the American continent.
When she was lost to France, Louisiana, that vast territory along the
Mississippi--a kingdom in itself--still remained, but no high memory
cherished it, no national hope hung over it, and a hundred years ago
Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the new Western power--the United
States. As a nation the labours of France were finished in America on
the day that De Ramezay yielded up the keys of the city, and Wolfe's
war-worn legions marched through St. Louis Gate from the Plains of
Abraham.

Yet scores of thousands of the people of France remained in the city
and the province to be ruled henceforth by the intrepid race, with
which it had competed in a death-struggle for dominion through so many
adventurous and uncertain years. Victory, like a wayward imp of Fate,
had settled first upon one and then upon the other, and once before
1759 England had held the keys of the great fortress only to yield
them up again in a weak bargain; but the die was thrown for the last
time when Amherst securely quartered himself at Montreal, and Murray
at the Chateau St. Louis, where Frontenac and Vaudreuil had had their
day of virile governance. Never again was the banner of the golden
lilies to wave in sovereignty over the St. Lawrence, though the people
who had fought and toiled under its protection were to hold to their
birthright and sustain their language through the passing generations,
faithful to tradition and origin, but no less faithful to the Canadian
soil which their fame, their labour, and their history had made sacred
to them. Frenchmen of a vanished day they were to cherish their past
with an apprehensive devotion, and yet to keep the pact they made with
the conqueror in 1759, and later in 1774 when the Quebec Act secured
to them their religious liberty, their civic code, and their political
status. This pact, further developed in the first Union of the
English and French provinces in 1840, and afterwards in the
Confederation of 186