In the course of this history we have given indications of the lives of some of the outstanding characters of Montreal whom the genius of the place fostered. It is fitting that we should take notice of the last days of the recluse, Jeanne LeBer, whose extraordinary career was one of the products of the age now being treated. She died on October 3, 1714, in her fifty-third year, after having lived fifteen years as a recluse in her parents' house and twenty more in the retreat made by herself in the Convent of the Congregation. The manner of her life was thus described as early as 1702 by M. Bacqueville de la Potherie in his "Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale." "I can not pass by in silence," he says, "an extraordinary trait of virtue of a young lady, making her abode in the Community of the Sisters of the Congregation, Miss LeBer, the only daughter of the richest merchant in Canada. She has an apartment in which she is enclosed, having no outside communication than that offered by a window looking out into the chapel. Her food is brought her, through a little opening in the door of her chamber. She sleeps on the hard floor. Her spiritual director is M. Leguenot, an ecclesiastic of St. Sulpice, and she sees her father, M. LeBer, only once or twice a year. In this solitude in which she has been for eight or nine years, she has formed a new temperament so that she could, with difficulty, now embrace any other manner of life. She has, however, a peaceful and docile disposition: the kind of life she lives does not consist in the abstract speculations of mental prayer, though she employs two hours daily in its practice. All the rest of the time she gives herself to good works of which she makes a present to the community."

Her benefactions were very great. By a contract of October 10, 1696, she gave the sum of 3,000 livres for the maintenance of a sister to worship day and night before the Blessed Sacrament in the Community Chapel. On the 25th of October, 1708, she gave another foundation of 8,000 livres for a daily mass, 2,000 of which was to be expended in the upkeep of the lights and sacred vessels. She also was desirous of adding to the convent suitable buildings for the boarding house of the pensionnaires and for the schools and of founding a number of burses for the education of poor girls who could not afford the pension. The foundation stone was placed on May 13, 1713, and on September 9, 1714, she disposed of the sum of 13,000 livres for the burses mentioned. After this act she did not live more than twenty-four days, having contracted an affection of the chest through rising during the night, as was her wont, to worship the Blessed Sacrament. Her death was the signal of an outburst of reverence. In the "History of the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec," Mother Jucherau chronicles the event thus: "Her body was exposed for two days for the consolation and devotion of the whole of Montreal and the neighbourhood, whence crowds came to look upon and wonder at the holy body of this virgin. Her intercession was invoked with confidence. Her poor tattered garments and even her straw slippers were seized, as well as anything belonging to her, as revered relics. Several persons, afflicted with diverse maladies, approached her coffin and touched her with much reverence and faith, and we are assured that they have been cured. After this great gathering her body was carried to the door of the parish church, where a most solemn burial service was held; the greatest marks of veneration were paid her; and M. de Belmont, superior of the seminary, pronounced a very beautiful funeral oration." The text chosen was from the book of Judith, Chapter XV, v. 10, "Tu honorificentia populi nostri." "It is thou who art the glory of our people," indicated the degree of veneration and sanctity in which the deceased recluse was held by the people, most of whom had only heard of her by repute, never having seen her.

Her body was then taken to the Chapel of the Congregation and buried by the side of her father. The following inscription was placed above her resting place:

CI-GIST VENERABLE SŒUR JEANNE LEBER, BIENFAITRICE DE CETTE MAISON, QUI,
AYANT ETE RECLUSE QUINZE ANS DANS LA MAISON DE SES PIEUX PARENTS,
EN A PASSE VINGT DANS LA RETRAITE QU'ELLE A FAITE ICI. ELLE
EST DECEDEE LE 3 OCTOBRE 1714, AGEE DE 52 ANS.

In 1715 there occurred a charge of murder against Jean d'Ailleboust d'Argenteuil. The major of the town and of the government of Montreal was then Jean Bouillet, Sieur de la Chassaigne. Acting as procureur of the king, he demanded that d'Argenteuil should be declared guilty of the crime and condemned to have his head cut off, and, as he was absent, this should be done in effigy. The court martial came to the same conclusions, the judges being Captains Le Verrier and d'Esgly, the Count de Vaudreuil, de Beaujeu, Du Vivier and de Buisson. As M. de Vaudreuil was a relative of the accused, the place of president was taken by the Baron de Longueuil, who held the trial in his own house.

Bankers and numismatists will learn that in the process of withdrawing the "card" money and putting an end to its circulation, the minister in a letter, dated February 17, 1715, to M. de Norisbel says, that out of 230,000 livres, so withdrawn by M. Bégon, the intendant, there has thus accrued to the profit of the king a benefit of 160,000 livres, which private persons lose. It was precisely this kind of impoverishment suffered by the people which eventually reconciled them to the English rule later.

In 1717, by a decree of May 11th, the merchants of Montreal were given the same privileges of the merchants in France of meeting in a convenient place to transact business in an exchange or bourse with the instruction to name one of their number to make representations in the name of all for the good of commerce to the governor general and the intendant of New France.

Genealogical students of the origins of Montreal families will learn from an edict of March 9, 1717, that it was decreed to maintain the children and grandchildren of Jacques LeBer, the Montreal merchant. This was in consequence of a request presented by his son, Jacques LeBer de Senneville, and the children of another son, Jacques LeBer de St. Paul. It is alleged in this report that the letters patent of nobility were promised to Jacques LeBer by M. de Frontenac, but that subsequently by an edict of March, 1696, it was settled that letters of nobility should not be forthcoming except for a financial consideration. As Jacques LeBer conformed to this condition he received his letters of nobility in November, 1696. But by another edict of August, 1715, all the titles of nobility accorded since 1689 for a financial consideration, were suppressed and revoked. Hence the present request relies on the representation of the services rendered by Jacques LeBer and his sons during all the wars; that one of them was slain in 1691, when he was commanding a party of eighty men, in a fight against the English, at La Prairie de la Madeleine.

In the same year letters patent of April 20, 1717, were issued giving permission to the Le Moynes to register at the Parliament Court of Paris and the Cour des Aydes, the letters of nobility accorded in the month of March, 1668, to Charles le Moyne de Longueuil and en-registered at the Chambre des Comptes on February 21, 1680. This document cites the service of the founder of the family, Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, and of his sons: Charles (baron de Longueuil), Pierre (d'Iberville), Joseph (de Sérigny), Jean Baptiste (de Bienville), and Antoine (de Chateauguay). There is also a notice of Francis, son of Pierre d'Iberville. This document states, that the founder, Charles, had eleven sons, six of whom had died in the king's service after distinguished careers. The survivors at this date were Charles, Baron de Longueuil, de Sérigny, de Bienville and de Chateauguay. Of these, at this period de Bienville and de Chateauguay were in Louisiana. Charles was in Canada and an active member of the Montreal district, holding important appointments. De Sérigny was probably in France, for he was then the seigneur of the Château de Loire in Aunis. The bones of the brave d'Iberville were resting in a cemetery of Havana.

Sportsmen may learn that partridge shooting was prohibited between March 15th and July 15th by an ordonnance of MM. de Vaudreuil and Bégon, dated January 28, 1720. In the same year the lieutenant-general of the jurisdiction of Montreal on May 10th forbids the merchants and private persons to keep more than ten pounds of powder on their premises. On May 21st an ordonnance of the Intendant Bégon forbade gunshots in the town and in the barns and other buildings in the country places.

A similar injunction was repeated by Intendant Dupuy on March 21, 1727, with the addition of a fine of 100 livres, for catching them by net or snare, or taking their eggs.

The druggists of today will hear with satisfaction of the recommendation by the king in a letter to MM. de Vaudreuil and Bégon, on June 8, 1721, of a powder, and the details of its composition, that was very much valued in sicknesses. This had just been recently made public. It was an Alkermes or Aurifique de Glaubec, prepared by Bolduc and La Serre, apothecaries to the king: it could cure the fevers, dropsy, vertigo, apoplexy, dysentery, gravel, smallpox, etc. English and American journals of that period contain numerous advertisements of similar "quack" medicines.

There is an act, dated July 1, 1721, of a land sale on the Coteau St. Louis at Montreal by the seigneurs of the seminary to M. Charles de Ramezay de la Gesse. This was to establish a brickyard and tile works.

To 1721 we may date the first beginnings of our Canadian postal service. In this year a posting system for the transportation of letters and travelers was created between Montreal and Quebec and the monopoly was rented for twenty years to M. Lanouiller on the condition of observing a certain tariff, according to distances, imposed by the Intendant Bégon. We may now give a picture of Montreal in 1721, as described by Charlevoix:

"This town has a very pleasing appearance. It is well situated, well laid out and well built. The charm of its surroundings and its streets inspires a certain gayety, which everybody feels. It is not fortified. A simple palisade with bastions, badly enough maintained, offers the sole defence with a rather wretched redoubt on a little rising ground, which serves as a boulevard and shelves down to a little square. This is the first point which one meets on arriving from Quebec. It is not forty years since the town was quite unprotected and exposed daily to be burned by the savages or by the English. It was the Chevalier de Callières who had it closed in. For some years there has been a project afoot to surround it with walls, but it will not be an easy task to induce the inhabitants to contribute to its expense. They are brave, and they are not rich. There has already been found difficulty in persuading them of the necessity of this expense since they are strongly convinced that their valour is more than sufficient to defend their town against any force that would dare to attack it....

"Montreal is a long square, situated on the bank of the river which, rising insensibly, divides the whole into high and low town, without any appreciable line of demarkation. The Hôtel-Dieu, the King's storehouses and the place d'Armes are in the lower town; this is also the merchants' quarter. In the upper town are the Seminary, the parish church, the Recollects, the Jesuits, the ladies of the Congregation, the Governor and the greater part of the officers. Beyond a little stream which comes from the northwest and bounds the town on this side, there are to be found some houses and the General Hospital and on the right, above the Recollects, whose convent is at the end of the town, or the same side, there is commencing to form a kind of suburb, which in time will be a very beautiful district. The Jesuits have only a small house here, but their church, which they have just finished covering in, is large and well built. The convent of the Recollects is much larger and its community more numerous. The seminary is in the middle of the town. It would seem that the object has been to make it solid and commodious rather than handsome. Its dignity, however, is such that one is not allowed to forget that it is the Seigneurial Manor; it communicates with the parochial church, which has more the air of a cathedral than that at Quebec. The services are conducted with a modesty and a dignity which inspire respect for the majesty of God, adored there. The house of the ladies of the Congregation, although one of the largest in the town, is too small as yet for its numerous community. It is the mother house of the order and the novitiate of an institute which ought to be all the dearer to New France and to this town in particular, since it originated here and the whole colony partakes in the advantages which so worthy an establishment brings to it.... The Hôtel-Dieu is served by nuns, whose first members were drawn from the Hôtel-Dieu of La Flèche in Anjou. They are poor; yet this is seen neither in their hall, which is large and well furnished and well supplied with beds, nor in their church, which is handsome and well ornamented, nor in their dwelling house, which is well built, becoming and spacious. But they are badly fed, although they are all occupied indefatigably, whether with the instruction of children, or the care of the sick.

"There can still be seen, from time to time, little flotillas of Indians arriving at Montreal, but this is nothing in comparison with the past. It is the Iroquois wars which have interrupted this great gathering of the nations in the colony. To remedy this, storehouses with forts have been established among the greater part of them, where there is always a commandant and soldiers enough to place the stores in safety. The savages always wish to have a gunsmith with them. In many places there are missionaries among them, who would do more good, if they were the only Frenchmen there. It would seem good to put things again on their former basis, seeing that throughout the length and breadth of the colony there is now peace. This would be the means of restraining the coureurs de bois, whose cupidity, without speaking of the other disorders brought about by their looseness of life, brings on daily instances of dishonesty, which make us despicable in the eyes of these barbarian people."

CHAPTER XXXV

This added to the beauty of the town and we are gratified to learn that the example of Montreal led the Intendant Claude Thomas Dupuy, on June 7, 1727, to issue an ordonnance for Quebec and the other towns, to take similar precautions against fire, adding that this would also be a means to beautify this town (embellir cette ville). A further ordonnance on fire prevention was issued by Gilles Hocquart, the intendant, when present in Montreal on July 12, 1724.

But other counsels prevailed in 1716 when the government determined to improve the fortifications and the Regent imposed on the town a contribution of 6,000 livres, of which 2,000 had to be paid by the Seigneurs and the rest by the religious communities and the inhabitants, without exception. The works, however, did not begin till 1722. The new walls of rough stone, ornamented with barbicans, were eighteen feet high, four feet thick at their base and three feet at the top. They presented thirteen bastions, four facing the St. Lawrence, four giving on the Little River, and the five others, which were armed with little pieces of artillery, faced three on the north, and two on the west. There were five gates and five posterns. The space enclosed was about 110 arpents (ninety-three acres). The fortifications were never completely finished. As intended by de Léry they might have been strong for he wrote to France on August 17, 1717, "I have determined to commence an inclosure capable to resist the artillery that the English might bring from Orange." Yet a French officer, quoted by Sandham, in "Montreal and Its Fortifications," as present in the city during Amherst's siege of Montreal in 1760, which was to end in the Capitulation, writes of the results as follows: "Montreal was in no way susceptible of a defense. It was surrounded with walls built with design only to preserve the inhabitants from the incursions of the Indians, little imagining at that time that it would become the theatre of a regular war and that one day they would see formidable armies of well disciplined troops before its walls. We were, however, all pent up in that miserable bad place without provisions, a thousand times worse than a position in an open field, whose pitiful walls could not resist two hours' cannonade without being leveled to the ground, when we would have been forced to surrender at discretion if the English had insisted upon it." [174]

The extent of the paternal supervision of France, over what we should consider trifles, is shown in a royal decree of June 9, 1723, on the subject of the renting of pews in the churches, to the following effect: that widows, remaining such, shall enjoy those pews granted to their husbands by paying the same rent; that with regard to children, whose father and mother are dead, their seats shall be put up for auction, and given to the highest bidder, but they shall have the preference, if they pay the same price as that offered by the last bidder.

In 1723, de Vaudreuil commenced the building of his Château.

In 1724 the King found it necessary by a decree of May 22d to prohibit peltry being conveyed into New England or the returning from there with merchandise. As Montreal was evidently the recognized business point of distribution, whence the trouble had arisen, the King ordered all who should have permission from the Governor General or his representative to cross the frontier, to declare at Montreal the quantity and quality of the effects taken, making a similar declaration on their return.

Students watching the progress of the liquor traffic will not be surprised at the skillful adroitness of illicit traders, in evading detection. An edict of de Vaudreuil and Intendant Bégon of May 22, 1725, ordered all those who possessed birch bark canoes to make a declaration of them to the nearest greffe (record office) within a fortnight of the publication. The object was to frustrate illicit traders who made use of the light weight of these canoes to carry liquor into the woods and then to hide there and thence distribute the liquor without arousing the attention of the authorities. The canoe was also doubtless to be watched as a means of illicit trade in furs. No less a person than the lieutenant-general of the government of Montreal, Sieur François Marie Bouat, was condemned in 1719, to a month's imprisonment, and was suspended from his office, for having sent a canoe up-country for trading purposes. The deliberations of the court martial are dated October 18, 1719. The suspension was raised by the King on June 2, 1720.

The year 1724 saw the death of the governor of Montreal, Claude de Ramezay, who was succeeded by Charles LeMoyne, first Baron of Longueuil.

On October 25, 1725, the Governor General de Vaudreuil also died. He was succeeded as administrator by the Baron of Longueuil. In 1726 the Marquis de Beauharnois became Governor General and Thomas Claude Dupuy Intendant, his first act being signed on December 1st of the same year.

In 1727, a special edict concerning commerce with outsiders was issued by the King. [175] Title VI enacts that "strangers established in Our Colonies, even naturalized, cannot be merchants, brokers or commercial agents under any form, on a penalty of 3,000 livres, applicable to the denounceand of perpetual banishment from Our Colonies. We permit them only to make use of their lands and dwellings, and to trade only in provisions which come from their lands. We forbid all merchants and traders established in old said Colonies to have any clerk, assistant, bookkeeper or other persons engaged in their business who are strangers, although they may be naturalized...."

Clearly the modern cosmopolitan character of Montreal was not foreseen.

A decree of the Sovereign Council of February 16, 1682, had already been made, forbidding the transportation by habitants or others of peltries to Manhattan or Orange or other places, and back, under pain of confiscation of their peltry, money, attire, canoes and other effects seized on their departure or return. This was promulgated at Montreal by Sergeant Lorry about March 8th of the same year.

A letter of 1730, [176] giving a description of Indian dress, love making, feasts, burials, fills in the picture of this period and keeps us in touch with the Indian population of Montreal and its district.

"Would you like to learn how they dress—how they marry—how they are buried? First you must know that several tribes go completely naked and wear but the fig leaf. In Montreal you may meet many stately and well proportioned savages, walking about in a state of nudity, as proud in their bearing as if they wore good clothes. Some have on a shirt only; others have a covering negligently thrown over one shoulder.

"Christianized Indians are differently habited. The Iroquois put the shirt over their wearing apparel, and over the shirt another raiment which encloses a portion of the head, which is always bare. The men generally wear garments over their shirts; the latter, when new, is generally very white, but is used until it gets perfectly dark and disgustingly greasy. They sometimes shave a portion of their head, or else they comb one-half of their hair back, the other half front. They occasionally tie up a tuft of hair very tight on the top of the head, so as to look like a plume on a horse's head, rising towards the skies. At other times, some allow a long tress of hair to fall over their face: it interferes with their eating, but that has to be put up with. They smear their ears with a white substance or their face with blue, vermillion, black. They are more elaborate in their war-toilet—lavish of paint—than a coquette would be in dressing,—so that they may conceal the paleness which fear might engender. They are profuse of gold and silver brocade, porcelain necklaces, bracelets of beads—the women, especially in their youth. This is their jewelry, their diamonds, the value whereof sometimes reach 1,000 francs. The Abenakis enclose their heads in a small cap embroidered with beads or ornamented with brocade. They wrap their legs in leggings with a fringe three or four inches long. Their shoes consist of socks, with plaits around the toe, covering the foot. All this has its charm in their eyes: they are as vain of dress as any Frenchman.

"The pagan tribe, whenever any love is felt, marry without any ceremonial. The pair will discover whether they love one another in silence—Indian-like. One of the caresses consists in throwing the loved one a small pebble, or grains of Indian corn, or else some other object which cannot hurt. The swain, on throwing the pebble, is bound to look in the opposite direction, to make believe he did not do it. Should the adored one return it, matters look well, else the game is up.

"The Christianized Indians are married before the church, without contract of marriage and without stipulations, because an Indian cannot hold real estate and cannot bequeath to his children. The wealthiest is the mightiest hunter. This favored individual in his village passes for a grand match.

"Bravery and great warriors they think much of—they constitute them their chiefs. Poverty is no disgrace at the council board, and an orator in rags will speak out as boldly, as successfully, as if he were decked out in gold cloth. They come thus badly habited in the presence of the governor, indulge in long harangues and touch his hand fearlessly. When ladies are present at these interviews, they honour them thus—seize their hand and shake it in token of friendship. Before I was a nun, I was present at some of these ceremonies and, having won their good opinion, they would extend to me a hand which was disgusting in the extreme, but which I had cheerfully to accept for fear of offending them. They are sometimes asked to dine at the governor's table. Unlucky are their neighbours, especially when they happen to be ladies,—they are so filthy in their persons." [177]

Gilles Hocquart no doubt struck terror into the hearts of some of the defaulters at Montreal on July 22, 1730, when he ordered all the merchants and other business men without exception to repair immediately to the Governor of Montreal to have their weights and measures reformed, verified, sealed and marked with the fleur de lis. Although there had been legislation before, still complaints had been brought to him that there was wanting uniformity in the city on this hand, some giving too short measure and others, strangely, too long. Two years later, on August 9, 1732, Hocquart did the same good turn for Quebec. In business methods Montrealers like to be pioneers and it is to be noticed that the preamble of this ordonnance Hocquart gives as a reason for the new move, the success at Montreal, "ainsi que nous l'avons pratiqué pour la ville de Montréal."

In 1731 Montreal traders sent out the Chevalier Varennes de la Vérendrye to hunt, trade and to find the Pacific. In 1735 he built Fort Rouge, on the site of the City of Winnipeg and in 1743 he and his sons were the first white men to see the Rocky Mountains.

A decree of February 19, 1732, strikes a blow at the system of religious asylum being granted to fugitives from justice. "We forbid all curés, ecclesiastics, and secular and regular communities of either sex, harbouring or giving asylum to all deserters, vagabonds and persons charged with crimes, under penalty of loss of our favour, and of the seizure of their property and of deprivation of their privileges."

About 1736 the first sailing vessel on Lake Superior was constructed and furnished through Montreal commercial enterprise. [178]

In a letter, dated October 22, 1730, it is mentioned that Governor Beauharnois had that spring sent orders to the officer commanding Chouamigon (La Plante) to make an examination of the copper mine alleged to have been discovered in the vicinity. Nothing very satisfactory eventuated. The Sieur Denys de la Ronde, who succeeded as commandant, had faith, however, in the mines and had obtained a concession to work copper mines at Lake Superior. In 1736, a son of de la Ronde, visited an isle in search of copper. De la Ronde, the father, in 1740, on his way to La Pointe, was taken sick at Mackinac and returned to Montreal, but he did not despair of finding valuable copper mines. The colonial officers, in a dispatch, wrote as to de la Ronde, that "this officer has been ordered with his son to build at the River Ste. Anne, a house of logs 200 feet long, with a fort and curtain, which he assures us he has executed. He has had other expenses on account of the mines, such as the voyage and presents for the Indians. He has constructed, at his own expense, a bark of forty tons on Lake Superior, and was obliged to transport the rigging and materials for the vessel as far as Sault Ste. Marie in canoes. The post of Chouamigon was given to him as gratuity to defray expenses. A merchant of Montreal, named Charley St. Ange, furnished de la Ronde with goods, and miners named Forestier were employed in prospecting."

To the date of 1742 belong the following sidelight of the methods of execution of justice:

"Under the title of 'The Outraged Crucifix,' in the 'Choses et Autres,' of M. Faucher de St. Maurice, an interesting historical sidelight is given of the first half of the eighteenth century, of a charge of sorcery, magic and sacrilege in Montreal against a soldier named Flavart de Beaufort, then belonging to the garrison. He was a "farceur," who had only wished to amuse himself at the expense of the credulity of the poor. But as the good Montrealers of the period did not suffer any ridicule of holy things, the affair had a tragic ending.

On August 27, 1742, the King's procurator brought him in guilty under the three heads of accusation,—sorcery, magic, and sacrilege,—and demanded that in fitting reparation Charles François Flavart de Beaufort should be condemned "in his shirt, the rope round his neck, holding between his hands a torch of burning wax of the weight of two pounds, bare-headed and on his knees, before the great door and the principal entrance of the parish church of this town, on the first day of the market, to say and to declare aloud and intelligibly, that wickedly and ill advised he had profaned the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified for the purposes of divination ... and moreover he is condemned to be beaten and whipped with rods, through the squares and public thoroughfare of this town and to be banished from the boundaries of this jurisdiction for three years and be held to keep his ban.

"On the 30th these conclusions were ratified by the judgment of the court of Montreal, which further added that "Flavart de Beaufort should be conducted by the hangman, the 'executeur de haute justice,' bearing the inscription in front and behind—'Profaner of Holy things,'—This done, we have condemned him to serve as a convict in the galleys of the King for the space of five years.

"(Signed) Guiton de Monrepos."

Flavart, however, appealed against this sentence to the sovereign council at Quebec, which but confirmed the above sentence, remitting, however, two years from his services in the galleys. The above sentence was carried out as a certificate bears out, dated Friday, October 5, 1742, and signed by M. Fr. Daine, councillor, and M. Porlier, greffier.

The incident left a lasting impression, for the clergy was shocked at the sacrilege. By a mandement of September 10, 1742, the bishop, Monseigneur de Pont Briand, ordered an amende honorable and a procession from the parish church to that of Bonsecours. Two years later, having obtained the cross from the authorities, the bishop instituted the feast of the Outraged Crucifix. This was to be celebrated the first Friday in March, each year; and in 1804 Monseigneur du Plessis changed the day to the first day of October, attaching to this a day of plenary indulgence, obtained by a papal brief, dated March 28, 1802.

The legend of The Red Cross, illustrating further the methods of civil punishment of this period, may be here told. Over one hundred and fifty years ago, this part of the island, from the summit of the mountain to the pebbly shore of the St. Lawrence, was a thickly wooded forest. Where Dorchester Street exists today, there was then a narrow path, beaten by the feet of the passers-by from Lachine, St. Laurent and the environs. It bore, however, the high sounding title of: "The King's Highway." Here and there, at irregular distances, a few farms bordered the simple thoroughfare. At the point where today Guy Street crosses Dorchester lived an honest farmer, Jean Favre and his wife, Marie-Anne Bastien. Being an industrious couple, they were supposed to have realized a good sum from the produce of their prosperous farm, which sum, in all probability, they hoarded away in some corner of their dwelling. In the same spot where now stand the iron gates, which open on the avenue going up to the Convent Church, was a small house occupied by a petty farmer, named Belisle. The demon of covetousness had taken hold of his soul and the unfortunate man brooding constantly over his neighbour's supposed wealth, resolved to become its possessor.

The month of May, 1752, had again decked nature in its garb of green. The sun, his daily course over, had sunk behind the mountain and the last echoes of the evening Angelus bell had ceased to vibrate on the air. Peace and security seemed to reign throughout the colony, as the shades of night crept over the island, lulling its inhabitants to slumber and to rest.

Alas! an unholy shadow lured on by the evil one, glided through the darkness, with the tread of the panther to seize its prey, and drew near the dwelling of Favre. Suspecting no ill, the honest man sat quietly smoking near the hearth, from whence a brisk fire cast a mellow light through the room, showing the table, with its two covers set for the evening meal. Finally rising, the farmer took from his pocket a key with which he opened a cupboard near at hand,—drew forth a small well filled sack and added to its contents the proceeds of the day's sale. Through the open shutter, from outside, the wretched Belisle, with glaring eyes, watched every movement of Favre, while his hands kept spasmodically clutching the knife he held. Wresting from his bosom the pistol, hid therein, he burst, like a wild beast, into the dwelling and fired at the old man, then finished him with the knife. The wife, terrified by the unusual noise, rushed in from an adjoining room and was at once attacked by the murderer, who plunged the knife repeatedly into her breast, and then crushed in her skull with the blow of a spade which he found near by. Side by side lay the unfortunate husband and wife, victims of man's cupidity. For a moment the murderer contemplated his work, then, like another Cain, he fled from the spot, haunted by the dread spectre of the "Lex talionis."

The absence of the old couple gave rise to surmises. Search was made and the horrible crime discovered. Suspicion rested on Belisle, who was soon after arrested, tried and convicted. The following copy of the "Réquisitoire du Procureur du Roi," dated 6th June, 1752, shows that the terrible punishment of "breaking alive" was then in force under the French régime in Canada. Belisle was condemned to "torture ordinary and extraordinary," then to be broken alive on a scaffold erected in the market place (the present Custom House Square) in this city.

This awful sentence was carried out to the letter, his body buried in Guy Street, [179] and the Red Cross erected to mark the spot, as fully described in the following document historically valuable:—

Extract from the Requisition of the King's Attorney

"I require for the King that Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle be arraigned and convicted of having wilfully and feloniously killed the said Jean Favre by a pistol shot and several stabs with a knife, and of having similarly killed the said Marie-Anne Bastien, wife of the said Favre, with a spade and a knife; and of having stolen the money that was in their house; for punishment of which that he be condemned to have his arms, legs, thighs and backbone broken at noon, he alive, on a scaffold which shall be erected for that purpose in the market place of this city: then, on a rack, his face turned towards the sky, he be left to die. The said Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle, being previously put to the torture ordinary and extraordinary, his dead body shall be carried by the executioner to the highway which lies between the house lately occupied by the said accused and the house lately occupied by the said Jean Favre and his wife. The goods and chattels of the said Jean Baptiste Goyer dit Belisle confiscated to the king, or for the benefit of those who may have a right to them, or of those not liable to confiscation, the sum of 300 livres fine being previously set apart, in case that confiscation could not be made for the benefit of His Majesty.
"Done at Montreal this 6th June, 1752.

"(Signed) Foucher."

An ordonnance with respect to the care of the foundlings of Montreal was issued by Intendant Hocquart on March 12, 1748. It allows us to see how the government undertook the preliminary cost of child rearing by providing nurses for the first eighteen months; after that the children should be "hired out" to good habitants of town or country until the age of eighteen to twenty years. Hocquart notices with surprise that of the bastards, who survived the first eighteen months, there were four born in 1743, six in 1744, ten in 1745, who are still being cared for in 1748 at the expense of the King; they were to be soon "hired;" and the Sieur Foucher, then procureur du roi, who seems to have been responsible for the great delay, is informed that if the like occurs again he will have to pay out of his own purse the expense incurred during the long time intervening.

Students following the story of explorations from Montreal will find that in September, 1748, a Sulpician, M. l'Abbé Picquet, began a fort at La Présentation (Ogdensburg). He is to be found early in the summer of 1751 with six Canadians and five Indians, beginning the circuit of Lake Ontario. On June 26th he reached Toronto, where he found a band of Messessagas. On June 28th he reached Niagara and on July 12th the mouth of the Genessee, where he visited the falls.

Two of Intendant Bigot's [180] earliest ordonnances are of interest in that the first, issued on December 24, 1748, evidently in view of the Christmas and New Year season, forbids sliding or skating on the streets, which, "it has come to our knowledge," is practiced by children and even grown-ups; the reason alleged being danger to the passers by, who are not able to get out of the way quick enough; children who are caught will be put into prison until their parents or guardians have paid the fine of 10 livres. The second is leveled against fast drivers, who are to be fined 20 livres for galloping their horses in the street. This is dated December 28th. These, however, mostly concerned Quebec, as far as we know, but probably similar regulations were needed at Montreal.

NOTE I

THE DISCOVERIES OF LA VERENDRYE

Sieur Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Vérendrye was born in Three Rivers, the home of Radisson, in 1686. He was the son of René Gaultier de Varennes and Marie Boucher, daughter of the governor of Three Rivers, who was married as a young girl of twelve years on September 12, 1667. At the age of fourteen he, too, determined to be a discoverer. At eighteen he was fighting in New England, at nineteen in Newfoundland and at twenty-three in Europe at the battle of Malplaquet, where he was carried off the field with nine wounds. In his twenty-ninth year he returned to Canada and was relegated to the obscure fur posts in the north, eating his heart out till between 1728-1730 at Nepigon, a lonely post north of Michilimackinac. He heard of a "great river flowing west." Perhaps this was the great western sea which Russia and France both wished to secure. Accordingly he descended to Quebec and in the winter of 1730-1731 he placed his dreams of discovery before the Governor, the Marquis Charles de Beauharnois. He obtained the government prestige and patronage and a monopoly of the fur trade in the countries he might discover.

He turned to Montreal traders for the goods to trade and a company was formed. On June 8, 1731, he left Montreal with his three sons, Jean Pierre, François and Louis, the eldest only being eighteen years of age, among the band of fifty adventurers, coureurs de bois, voyageurs and Indian interpreters, to discover the fabled western sea and so acquire great glory and probably wealth. He reached familiar ground at Michilimackinac and then after seventy-eight days from Montreal he touched Kaministiquia after a month's coasting from the Straits of Mackinaw. As he went onward he established fur posts and sent east cargoes of furs but not enough for his partners so that in the winter of 1734-35 Vérendrye was back in Montreal, leaving his party up-country. He managed to get credit and back he went with the Jesuit Aulneau to his search. Little fur could he send to redeem his debts. Instead he was to meet misfortune in the loss of his eldest son, Jean, the Jesuit Aulneau, and a party of voyageurs who were treacherously slaughtered by the Sioux on Massacre Island on the night of June 8, 1736, five years after most of the party had left Montreal. In September, 1738, Vérendrye entered, the first white man, the Red River for the forks of the Assiniboine. But he found not the western sea but the great western Canadian prairie lands. On December 3, 1738, he entered the village of the Indians. There he learned vaguely of a people in the west who lived on the shores of water bitter for drinking. After that his sons went on courageously for the western sea, while he went back to Montreal for supplies and to contest the lawsuits of his partners who had seized all his posts and properties to meet his creditors. But his sons found only a sea of prairie, a sea of mountains and two great rivers, the Saskatchewan and the Missouri, and reached the foothills of the northern Rockies on New Year's Day, in 1743. At the end of July they were back again at the Assiniboine River.