Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present Part 20

"Bra.s.sard Deschenaux, the son of a poor cobbler, was born at Quebec. A notary who boarded with Deschenaux, senior, had taught his son to read. Naturally quick and intelligent, young Deschenaux made rapid progress and soon found something to do in the office of Intendant Hocquart where Bigot found him and succeeded in having him appointed clerk in the Colonial Office at Quebec. Industrious, but at heart a sycophant, by dint of cringing he won the good graces of Bigot, who soon put unlimited trust in him, to that degree as to do nothing without Deschenaux's aid, but Deschenaux was vain, ambitious, haughty and overbearing and of such inordinate greed, that he was in the habit of boasting 'that to get rich he would even rob a church.'

"Cadet was the son of a butcher. In his youth he was employed to mind the cattle of a Charlesbourg peasant; he next set up as a butcher and made money. His savings, he invested in trade; his intriguing spirit brought him to the notice of the Intendant Hocquart, who gave him contracts to supply meat for the army. Deschenaux soon discovered that Cadet could be useful to him; he made him his friend and lost no opportunity to recommend him to the Intendant. He was accordingly often employed to buy the supplies for the subsistence of the troops.

In verity, there were few men more active, more industrious, more competent to drive a bargain. The King required his services and secured them, by having Cadet named Commissary General. He had his redeeming points--was open-handed in his dealings--of a kindly nature and lavish even to excess."

The worthy Commissary General, like Pean, was blessed with a charming wife, whom Panet's Diary styles "La Belle Amazone Aventuriere."

Probably like her worthy spouse,--of low extraction; "elle n'etait pas sortie de la cuisse de Jupiter," to use a familiar French saw.

She certainly was not, like Caesar's wife "above suspicion." Madame Cadet, later on, transferred her allegiance from the rich butcher Cadet, to one "Sieur Joseph Ruffio";... but let us draw the veil of oblivion over the short comings of another age.

"Capt. Hughes Pean, _Chevalier de la Livaudiere_, was Town Major of Quebec, _aide-Major des Troupes_." He was not long in discovering that with an Intendant like Bigot, he could dare anything. Had he not without any trouble netted a gain of 50,000 half crowns? A large quant.i.ty of wheat was required for Government; he was charged with the purchase. There was a fat job in store for the Town Major. How was his master the Intendant to manage the matter for him? Bigot was a man of resource, who never forgot his friends. First, he provided Pean with a large sum out of the Treasury to buy the wheat as low as possible for cash; and then his complaisant council pa.s.sed an order or Ordonnance fixing the price of grain much higher than that at which Pean had purchased. The town Major charged it to the Government at the rate fixed by the Ordonnance; the difference left him a handsome profit. He thought he would next try his hand at building coasting craft, which he could manage to keep constantly in commission for Government; this also was lucrative. Other devices, however, were resorted to; a secret partners.h.i.+p was entered into between Cadet and a person named Clavery, who shortly after become store-keeper at Quebec. Cadet was to purchase wheat in the parishes, have it ground at a mill he had leased, the flour to be sent abroad, secretly. Pean, too, had large warehouses built--at Beaumont some say. Cargoes of grain were thus secretly s.h.i.+pped to foreign ports in defiance of the law. Breard, the Comptroller-General, for a consideration winked at these mal- practices, and from a poor man when he landed in Canada, he returned to France in affluent circ.u.mstances.

The crowning piece of knavery was the erection of a vast shop and warehouses near to the Intendant's Palace. Clavery had charge of this establishment, where a small retail business was carried on as a blind. The real object was to monopolize the trade in provisions and concentrate it here. Clavery was clerk to Estebe, Royal store-keeper at Quebec. In this warehouse were acc.u.mulated all such provisions and supplies as were wanted annually, and ordered from France for the King's stores at Quebec.

It was the practice of the Intendant to send each summer the requisitions to Paris. Bigot took care to order from France less supplies than were required, so as to have an excuse to order the remainder in times of want, at Quebec. The orders were sent to Clavery's warehouse, where the same goods were sold twice over, at increased rates. Soon the people saw through the deceit, and this repository of fraud was called in consequence La Friponne, "The Knave."

Want of s.p.a.ce prevents me from crowding in photos of the other accomplished rogues, banded together for public robbery during the expiring years of French domination in Canada.

It is singular to note how many low-born [122] parasites and flatterers surrounded Bigot.

In 1755, the wheat harvest having failed, and the produce of former years having been carried out of Canada or else stored in the magazine of Bigot's ring, the people of Canada were reduced to starvation: in many instances they had to subsist on horse flesh and decayed codfish.

Instead of having recourse to the wheat stored here, the Intendant's minions led him to believe that wheat was not so scarce as the peasantry pretended--that the peasants refused to sell it, merely in antic.i.p.ation of obtaining still higher rates; that the Intendant, they argued, ought to issue orders, for domiciliary visits in the rural districts; and levy a tax on each inhabitant of the country, for the maintenance of the residents in the city, and of the troops.

Statements were made out, shewing the rations required to prevent the people from dying of hunger. Cadet was charged with the raising of this vexatious impost. In a very short time, he and his clerks had overrun the country, appropriating more wheat than was necessary. Some of the unfortunate peasants, who saw in the loss of their seed wheat starvation and death, loudly complained. A few called at the Intendant's Palace, but the heartless Deschenaux, the Intendant's Secretary, was ever on the watch and had them questioned by his _employes_, and when the object of their visit, was discovered, they were ushered into the presence of Deschenaux, who insulted them and threatened to have them imprisoned for thus presuming to complain to the Intendant. Bigot was afterwards advised of their visit, and when they appeared before him they were so maltreated and bullied that they left, happy in the fact that they had not been thrown into prison; soon, none dared to complain. Bread was getting scarcer every day. The Intendant had named persons to distribute the bread at the baker's shops, the flour being furnished by Government. The people crowded the bakeries on the days fixed; the loaves were taken by violence, mothers of families used to complain that they could not get any; they used occasionally to besiege the Intendant at his Palace with their lamentations and complaints, but it was of no avail, the Intendant was surrounded by a crowd of flatterers, who on retiring, gorged from his luxurious board, could not understand how the poor could die of hunger.

Land of my fathers reclaimed from barbarism at the cost of so much blood--so much treasure, bountifully provided with n.o.bles--priests-- soldiers--fortifications by the great Louis; sedulously--paternally watched over by Colbert and Talon: to what depth of despair, shall we say, degradation are thou sunk!

Proud old city, have you then no more defenders to put forth, in your supreme hour of woe and desertion! Has then that dauntless race of _Gentilshommes Canadiens_, d'Iberville--Ste. Helene--de Bouville --de Becancourt--de Repentigny, disappeared without leaving any successors!

And you stern old de Frontenac, you who replied so effectually to the invader through the mouth of your cannon, is your martial spirit quenched forever, in that loved fortress in which rest your venerated remains, you who at one time (1689) were ready, at the head of your Regulars and fighting Canadians, [123] to carry out the rash scheme, hatched by deCallieres: the conquest of New York and destruction of the chief settlements in New England, a scheme which involved the dispersion of more than eighteen thousand people, as sixty-six years later (in 1755), a British Commander tore from their homes the peaceable Acadians of _Grand-Pre_. [124]

I could enlarge to any extent the gloomy picture which the history of this shameful period discloses. Two skilful novelists, the one in the English language, Wm. Kirby, [125] Esq., of Niagara, the other in the French, Joseph Marmette, [126] of Quebec, have woven two graphic and stirring historical romances, out of the materials which the career of the Intendant Bigot and the desertion of the colony in its hour of trial, by France--so abundantly supply. One redeeming _trait_, one flash of suns.h.i.+ne lights up the last hour of French domination: the devotion of the Canadian militia towards their oblivious mother- country, their dauntless courage at the Beauport engagement--after the battle of the Plains, 13th Sept., 1759--and at the battle of Ste.

Foye, on the 28th April 1760, a day glorious to French arms, but at best a useless victory.

_RUINS OF THE INTENDANT'S PALACE._

"It is the voice of years that are gone! they roll before me with all their deeds."--OSSIAN.

"'The descriptions, or perspective sketches,' says Mr. Walkem, 'according to the fancy or whim of the artist or the photographer, of what is left of the ruins, convey no adequate idea of its real capacity and magnitude in length, breadth or height. My present object, therefore, with your permission, is to supply this deficiency from plans and elevations drawn to a scale of feet about the year 1770--when some repairs were effected by the Military Engineers,--five years before its destruction in 1775. And more especially do I feel it my duty to submit this plan, &c., for publication since it has become part of the military history, not of Quebec only, but of Canada.

"The following is an extract from the Centenary report: 'This once magnificent pile was constructed under the French King's directions in 1684, under Intendant de Meules. It was burnt in 1712, when occupied by Intendant Begon, and restored by the French Government. It became, from 1748 to 1759, the luxurious resort of Intendant Bigot and his wa.s.sailers. Under English rule it was neglected, and Arnold's men having, from the cupola, annoyed Guy Carleton's soldiers, orders were given to destroy it with the city guns.'

"'Skulking riflemen in St. Roch's, watching behind walls to kill our sentries, some of them fired from the cupola of the Intendant's Palace. We brought a nine-pounder to answer them.'--(_Extract from a journal of an officer of the Quebec Garrison_.)

"For those who may not be familiar with the meaning of the term 'Intendant,' and the official duties of his office, the following remarks are submitted from the most authentic sources. It was one of civil administration, direction management, superintendence, &c., and next to that of Governor-General, the office of Intendant was one of the greatest importance and celebrity in Quebec. It was established by the proclamation of the King of France in 1663,--creating a Sovereign Council for the affairs of the Colony--viz: the Governor-General, the Bishop, the Intendant and four Councillors, with an Attorney-General and Chief Clerk. The number of Councillors was afterwards increased to twelve.

"The authority of the Intendant, except in his executive capacity, was indeed little inferior to that of the Governor himself. He had the superintendence of four departments, viz: Justice, Police, Finance, and Marine.

The first intendant named under the proclamation of 1663 was M.

Robert; but he never came to Canada to fill his office, and it was not till the summer of 1655 that Jean de Talon arrived at Quebec, as the first real Intendant, with the Viceroy deTracy, and the Carignan Regiment. The building in which the Sovereign Council first held their meetings would appear to have stood on the south side of Fabrique street westward (?) of the Jesuit College, known at that time as the 'Treasury.'

"During the Intendancy of M. de Meules, in 1684, that gentleman, at his own expense, endowed the eastern portion of the St. Roch's suburbs with an edifice henceforth known as the 'Intendant's Palace' ('Le Palais'), remarkable for its dimensions, magnificence and general appearance; it included also (according to old plans) about ten acres of land contained probably between St. Rochs and St. Nicholas streets, having the River St. Charles in front, and afterwards laid out in ornamental gardens. The Palace was described by _La Potherie_, in 1698, as consisting of eighty toises, or 480 feet of buildings, so that it appeared a little town in itself. The King's stores were also kept there.

"In 1712, Intendant Begon, with a splendid equipage and retinue, arrived in Quebec from France, and took up his residence at the Palace. On the 5th of January, 1713, the entire building and premises unfortunately were destroyed by fire, and such was the rapidity of the flames that the Intendant and his wife escaped with great difficulty.

Madame Begon was obliged to break the panes of gla.s.s in her apartment before she had power to breathe. The young lady attendants were burned to death. The Intendant's _valet de chambre_, anxious to save some of his master's wardrobe, also perished in the flames. His Secretary, pa.s.sing barefooted from the Palace to the river front, was so much frozen that he died in the Hospital of the Hotel-Dieu a few days afterwards. [127]

"The Palace was afterward rebuilt under the direction of M. Begon at the expense of His Majesty, and of which the plans and elevation now presented are presumed to be a correct and faithful ill.u.s.tration. The princ.i.p.al entrance appears to have been from that side next the cliff, opposite the 'a.r.s.enal,'--or from the present line of St. Valier street--with large store buildings, magazines, &c., on either side of the entrance, and in the rear of that stood the building known as the 'Prison.' It would appear that _La Potherie's_ remark, in 1698, of the first construction resembling a little town in itself, would also apply to the group of the second construction--as no less than twenty in number are shown on some of the old plans of this period.

From sketches taken on the spot by an officer of the Fleet in Wolfe's expedition of 1759, and published in London two years afterwards, there can be little doubt, for want of room elsewhere, that the Palace was converted into barracks and occupied immediately after the surrender of Quebec by the troops under General Murray, and continued to be used as such until it fell into the hands of the American insurgents under Arnold, in 1775, and was destroyed by the cannon from the ramparts. The a.s.sumption is strengthened, if not confirmed, by the occupation of the Jesuit College as barracks the following year the amount of accommodation in both cases, a full regiment--would be the same; hence the comfortable quarters in the 'Palais' by the rebel force under Arnold, which would accommodate the most of his men.

"The appearance of this once celebrated structure in its general aspect was more imposing from its extent than from any architectural ornate embellishments. The style was the French domestic of that period, of two clear stories in height, the extreme frontage was 260 feet, with projecting wings at either end of 20 feet (vide plan), the depth from the front of the wings to the rear line 75 feet, and the central part 58 feet; the height from the site level to the apex of roof about 55 feet, and to the eaves line about 33 feet; in the bas.e.m.e.nt there were no less than 9 vaults, 10 feet high to the crown of the arch running along the whole front, as shown in the elevation.

The apartments in the two stories are divided longitudinally by a wall from one end to the other, and comprise altogether about 40 in number, allotted into barrack-rooms as per original military plans.

"The roof is plain and steep, and only broken by the pedimented wings at each end of the building, with chimney stacks and stone coping over the transverse fire walls, and otherwise relieved by a small octagonal cupola of two sections placed in the centre of the roof. The approach to the building in front is by two flights of steps, an enclosed porch forming a central feature to the main entrance; the bas.e.m.e.nt windows are shewn in the elevation above the ground line. The walls were substantially built of black slate rock peculiar to Quebec and must have taken much time in the erection judging from its tenacity, and the hardness of the material still remaining. No doubt the walls, as was the practice in those days, were built of dry masonry, a few feet at a time, and then _grouted_ with mortar in a thin semi-fluid state, composed of quicklime and fine sand poured into the inters.p.a.ces of the stone-work, filling every cavity, excluding the air, and left to dry before commencing the next course. The wrought stone at the quoins and angles appear to have been quarried at Point-aux-Trembles, or more likely at Beauport, while the sides of the doors and windows were faced with hard Flemish brick, still intact, and beyond doubt imported directly from France. [128] The main store buildings in front, with vaults underneath, were undoubtedly built in the same compact manner, as Mr. Boswell, some years ago, in excavating for his brewery on the site of these stores, came in contact with the old foundation walls, so hard that powder had to be used for blasting. The mortar was found to be harder than stone, and a drill had but small effect upon it. That gentleman many years ago became the tenant of the war department for these ruins and vaults, and has roofed them in, taken care of the property and made improvements generally at his own expense. There is an old story current that a subterraneous pa.s.sage, under the old ruins, led to the river. Others say that a pa.s.sage communicated with the Upper Town. It is highly probable the old vaults and pa.s.sage discovered by Mr. Boswell in the above excavation have been the origin of this story; for in one case towards the river it would be flooded at high water, and towards the Upper Town barred by a rampart of solid rock.

"From 1775 to the withdrawal of the Imperial troops in 1870-71-- nearly a century,--this property was used specially for military purposes, and commonly known, as shown on old plan, as the King's Wood Yard, and more recently as the Commissariat Fuel Yard. The land several years ago was reduced in extent by the sale of building lots on the lines of St. Valier and St. Nicholas streets.

"At the beginning of this century, and many years afterwards, a military guard seems to have done duty at the 'Palais' and adjoining premises, east of St. Nicholas street, known as the Royal Dock Yard, King's Wharf, Stores, &c. This latter property extended eastward as far as La Canoterie, in front of a blockhouse, the site of the present Nunnery Bastion, and lying between what is now known as St. Charles street, or the foot of the cliff, and the high water mark on the north side, corresponding pretty nearly with the line of St. Paul street.

"The ruins of 'Le Palais' and accessories since 1775 were several times fitted up by the military authorities for stabling, fodder- sheds, wash-house, military stores, caretaker's quarters, &c., &c., and the vaults were leased for storing ice, wines and other liquors, and storage generally to the inhabitants of the city, and the roof was s.h.i.+ngled or otherwise covered in on several occasions by the Government.

"In the great fire of St. Roch's (1845) the Fuel Yard, about four acres in extent, with some hundreds of cords of wood piled there, and a very large quant.i.ty of coals in a 'lean-to-shed' against the Palais walls were consumed--the coals continued to burn and smoulder for nearly _six months_,--and notwithstanding the solidity of the masonry, as already described, portions of it, with the heat like a fiery furnace, gave way. Upon this occasion an unfortunate woman and two children were burned to death in the Fuel Yard. Great efforts were made by Mr. Bailey, a commissariat officer, and Mr. Boswell, owner of the brewery, to save the lives of the victims, but unfortunately without success. These gentlemen, after their coats had been burned off their backs, and the hair from their heads and eyebrows, had to fly at last to save their own lives.

"On the withdrawal of the Imperial troops in 1870-71, the whole of 'Le Palais' property was handed over to the Dominion Government.

"CHARLES WALKEM, "(Late R. E. Civil Service Staff in Canada.) "Ottawa, 24th July, 1876."

Doubtless to the eyes of the "free and independent electors" of La Vacherie, in 1759, the Intendant's Palace seemed a species of "eighth wonder" The eighth wonder lost much of its _eclat_, however, by the inauguration of English rule, in 1759, but a total eclipse came over this imposing and majestic luminary when Guy Carleton's guns from the ramparts of Quebec began, in 1775, to thunder on its cupola and roof, which offered a shelter to Arnold's soldiery: the rabble of "shoemakers, hatters, blacksmiths and innkeepers," (says that savage old Tory, Colonel Henry Caldwell), bent on providing Canada with the blessings of Republicanism. A century and more has pa.s.sed over the gorgeous Palace--now a dreary, moss- covered ruin, surrounded in rear by coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, fallen stones: Bigot-- his wa.s.sailers,--the fair but frail Madame de Pean, like her prototype of Paris, Madame de Pompadour, have all fleeted to the land of shadows; and tourists, high and low, still crowd to glance meditatively at those fast fading traces of a guilty past. It was in October, 1879, the special privilege of the writer to escort to these ruins one of our Sovereign's gentle and accomplished daughters, H.R.H. the Princess Louise, accompanied by H.E. Lord Lorne, as he had done the previous autumn with regard to the learned Dean of Westminster, Revd. A. P. Stanley: proud he was to think that though Quebec had no such attractions like antique, like cla.s.sic England,--turretted castles, moated granges, or even

"Old pheasant Lords, "Partridge breeders of a thousand years,"

--its romantic past was not without pleasing or startling or interesting memories.

We have just mentioned "_La Vacherie_", this consisted of the extensive and moist pastures at the foot of _Coteau Sainte-Genevieve_, extending towards the General Hospital, where the city cows were grazed; on this site and gracing the handsome streets "Crown" "Craig" and "Desfosses," can now be seen elegant dry-goods stores, vying with the largest in the Upper Town. Had St. Peter street, in 1775, been provided with a regular way of communication with St. Roch; had St. Paul street then existed, the sun of progress would have shone there nearly a century earlier.

"For a considerable time past, several plans of amelioration of the City of Quebec," says the Abbe Ferland, "were proposed to the Ministry by M. de Meules. The absolute necessity of obtaining a desirable locality for the residence of the Intendant, and for holding the sessions of the Council; the Chateau St. Louis being hardly sufficient to afford suitable quarters for the Governor and the persons who formed his household. M. de Meules proposed purchasing a large stone building which M. Talon had caused to be erected for the purpose of a brewery, and which, for several years, had remained unoccupied. Placed in a very commodious position on the bank of the river St. Charles, and not many steps from the Upper Town, this edifice, with suitable repairs and additions, might furnish not alone a desirable residence for the Intendant, but also halls and offices for the Supreme Council and the Courts of Justice, as likewise vaults for the archives and a prison for the criminals. Adjacent to the old brewery, M.

Talon owned an extent of land of about seventeen superficial acres, of which no use was made in M. de Meules' plan; a certain portion of this land could be reserved for the gardens and dependencies of the Intendant's Palace, whilst the remainder might be portioned off into building lots (_emplacements_), and thus convert it into a second lower town, and which might some day be extended to the foot of the Cape. He believed that if this plan were adopted, the new buildings of Quebec would extend in that direction, and not on the heights almost exclusively occupied by the Religious Communities. [129]

We perceive, according to Mr. Panet's Journal, that Saint Roch existed in 1759; that the women and children, residents of that quarter, were not wholly indifferent to the fate of their distressed country. "The same day (31st July, 1759)," says Panet, "we heard a great uproar in the St. Roch quarter--the women and children were shouting, 'Long Live the King!'"

[130] "I ascended the height (on the _Coteau Ste. Genevieve_) and there beheld the first frigate all in a blaze, very shortly afterwards a black smoke issuing from the second, which blew up and afterwards took fire." On the 4th August several bomb-sh.e.l.ls of 80 lbs. fell on St. Roch.

We read, that on the 31st August, two soldiers were hanged at three o'clock in the afternoon, for having stolen a cask of brandy from the house of one Charland, in the St. Roch quarter. In those times the General (or _the Recorder_) did not do things by halves. Who was, this Charland of 1759? Could he be the same who, sixteen years afterwards, fought so stoutly with Lieut. Dambourges at the Sault-au-Matelot engagement? Since the inauguration of the English domination, St. Roch became peopled in a most rapid manner, we now see there a net-work of streets, embracing in extent several leagues.

The first steep hill past the Y. M. C. a.s.sociation Hall--formerly Gallows Hill, (where the luckless David McLane was disembowelled, in 1797, for levying war against the King of Great Britain), and leading from St. John street without to that not over-straight thoroughfare, named after the second Bishop of Quebec--St. Vallier street--borrows its name from Barthelemy Coton, who in days of yore closed his career in Quebec at the advanced age of 92 years. Can anyone tell us the pedigree of Barthelemy Coton? To the French portion of the inhabitants it is known as _Cote a Coton_, whilst the English portion still continue to surround it, unopportunely we think, with the unhallowed traditions of a lugubrious past and call it Gallows Hill. Cote a Coton debouches into St. Vallier street, which on your way takes you to Scott's Bridge, over the Little River St Charles. Across St. Vallier street it opens on a rather magnificent street as to extent--Baronne street,--commemorating the _souvenir_ of an ill.u.s.trious family in colonial History, represented by Madame la Baronne de Longueuil, the widow of the third Baron, who had, in 1770, married the Honorable. Wm. Grant, the Receiver-General of the Province of Quebec, who lived at St. Rochs, and died there in 1805.

On M. P. Cousin's plan of Quebec, published in 1875, parallel to St.

Vallier street to the south, and St. Fleurie street to the north, halfway between, is laid down Baronne street. The most ancient highway of the quarter (St. Roch) is probably St. Vallier street. "Desfosses" street most likely derives its name from the ditches (_fosses_) which served to drain the green pastures of _La Vacherie_. The old Bridge street dates from the end of the last century (1789). "Dorchester" street recalls the esteemed and popular administrator, Lord Dorchester, who, under the name of Guy Carleton, led on to victory the militia of Quebec in 1775.

"Craig" street received its name from Sir John Craig, a gouty, testy, but trusty old soldier, who administered the Government in 1807-9-10; it was enlarged and widened ten feet, after the great fire of 1845. The site of St. Paul's Market was acquired from the Royal Ordnance, on 31st July, 1831.