Fleurs De Lys, and Other Poems Part 12

Of double depth they made her grave, And covered it with ma.s.sive stone, And there, where silvery birches wave, They left her sleeping all alone.

These words were chiselled on her tomb: "This grave, bought for eternity, Even to and through the day of doom, And ever, shall unopened be."

For years the pa.s.sing stranger saw The epitaph of Caroline, And wondered, with a shuddering awe, That it could dare the wrath divine.

Time is of G.o.d. He does not need To work his purpose in an hour: Years came and went, and then a seed, Borne downwards by a summer shower,

Fell gently on the scanty earth.

Among the heaped-up stones that lay, And soon a tiny birch had birth, And grew in stature day by day.

The sun, the shower, the pa.s.sing wind, All helped the youthful tree to grow; Its little roots ran far to find Subsistence in the depths below.

Years pa.s.sed, until at last the tree Sundered the stones, and made the grave Yawn wide, that hoped eternally The ravages of Time to brave.

Vain was the exercise of skill To seal the grave of Caroline; And vain is every human will That strives to break the law divine.

A MOTHER'S JEWELS.

The daughter of a hundred earls, No jewels has with mine to mate, Though she may wear in flawless pearls The ransom of a mighty state.

Hers glitter for the world to see, But chill the breast where they recline: My jewels warmly compa.s.s me, And all their brilliancy is mine.

My diamonds are my baby's eyes, His lips, sole rubies that I crave: They came to me from Paradise, And not through labors of the slave.

My darling's arms my necklace make, 'Tis Love that links his feeble hands, And Death, alone, that chain can break, And rob me of those priceless bands.

NOTES.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.

THE CAPTURED FLAG.

The incident described in these verses took place during the unsuccessful siege of Quebec by Admiral Sir William Phipps, in 1690.

Admiral Phipps, after capturing Port Royal, now Annapolis, Nova Scotia, sailed up the St. Lawrence, in October, arriving at Quebec on the 5th.

Frontenac, then Governor of New France, was taken almost by surprise, yet, when summoned to surrender, he haughtily refused to do so, using the words attributed to him in the ballad. Phipps was beaten off, leaving with the French the cannon of his troops and this flag, which had been shot away, and which was picked up by a Canadian, who swam out after it. A medal was struck in France, and a church erected in Quebec, in honor of this victory.

PeRE BROSSE.

A full account of this pious legend will be found in Mr. J. Lemoine's _Chronicles of the St. Lawrence_, pages 242, 243, and 244. Father de La Brosse was, at the time of his death, a priest at Tadousac, at the mouth of the Saguenay, and about seventy miles below the Isle aux Coudres, where he celebrated the first ma.s.s, in 1765. He died at midnight, on the 11th April, 1782, and, so says the legend, his death was preceded and followed by miraculous occurrences. He is said to have foretold it, and to have bidden his people seek Pere Compain on the Isle aux Coudres, and bring him to perform the funeral offices. There would be a storm, which they were not to heed, for he guaranteed them against harm, and they were to find Pere Compain awaiting them. All came true: Pere Brosse was found dead at midnight with his head on the altar of his chapel; the men set out, and though the waves rolled mountains high on every side, there was peace where their canoe floated. They found Pere Compain awaiting them, for he had been supernaturally informed of his colleague's death, and he went with them to Tadousac. All the bells of the missions where Pere Brosse had labored are said to have been rung without hands that night.

L'ORDRE DE BON TEMPS.

This company of _Bon Vivants_ was formed in 1606, during the sojourn of Champlain and de Poutrincourt at Port Royal. An account of its organization and doings will be found in Parkman's _Champlain and His a.s.sociates_, Chapter iv.

CHAMPLAIN.

This poem is a _resume_ of the life of him whom Parkman calls "The aeneas of a destined people." "Yon fair town" alludes to Quebec, which Champlain founded July 3rd, 1608. His defiance of Admiral Kirkt took place in 1628, and was successful for a season, but a second summons from Kirkt next summer led to the first surrender of Canada to England.

Champlain died on Christmas Day, 1635, after twenty-seven years of labor for the country in which his name can never be forgotten.

THE PRIEST AND THE MINISTER.

In the opening paragraphs of the third chapter of Parkman's _Champlain and His a.s.sociates_, will be found an account, of which these verses are little more than a paraphrase. When de Monts was commissioned to settle New France, the Roman Catholic clergy insisted that they be given charge of the souls of the heathen in the new land.

De Monts was, himself, a Huguenot, and brought his own ministers with him, so that the ship that sailed to Acadia in 1604 bore with it clergy of both sects. This was the cause of ceaseless quarrels. "I have seen our _cure_ and the minister," says Champlain, "fall to with their fists on questions of faith. I cannot say which had the more pluck, or which hit the harder; but I know the minister complained to the Sieur de Monts that he had been beaten." Sagard, the Franciscan friar, gives an account of the death of two of the disputants and of their burial in one grave. I have taken the liberty of making them the central figures of the dispute, though, actually, they were subordinates.

PILOT.

Pilot was one of a number of dogs sent from France to Montreal shortly after its foundation, in order to a.s.sist the brave colonists in their warfare with the savages. She and her offspring were invaluable in detecting ambuscades. An account of her useful life will be found in Parkman's _Jesuits in North America_, chap. xviii.

THE SECRET OF THE SAGUENAY.

Although one legend, and, perhaps, the best substantiated one, a.s.serts that Roberval was a.s.sa.s.sinated in Paris, there is another to the effect that, fired by the recitals of Cartier of untold wealth to be found in the Saguenay district, he sailed up the river of that name, and was never heard of again. This legend will be found in the _Ill.u.s.trated History of Canada_.

JULES' LETTER.

The date of this letter would be about 1670. From 1665 to 1673, bachelors in Canada underwent a martyrdom of great severity, and Jules'

fear lest he find himself married in spite of himself is hardly an exaggeration. From 1665 to 1673, about one thousand girls were sent out from France to find husbands in Canada. Each couple married was given an ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two barrels of salted meat, and eleven crowns in money. Girls under sixteen and youths under twenty were given twenty livres when they married, and were encouraged to marry at fourteen and eighteen respectively. To such an extent was this rage for marriage carried that, it is said, a widow was married before her first husband's body had been consigned to the grave. Large bounties were paid to parents having from ten to fifteen children, and the slightest sign of courtship between the unmarried officers and ladies of Quebec and Montreal, was chronicled in official doc.u.ments and transmitted to France. For further particulars, the reader is referred to Parkman's _The Old Regime in Canada_, chapter xiii.

THE OAK.

The two villages referred to are Hochelaga and Ville Marie, now Montreal. The latter place was founded by Maisonneuve in 1642. In Sir William Dawson's _Fossil Men_ is a picture of Hochelaga as seen by Cartier, with an oak tree near it. This oak is sketched from one in the McGill University grounds, and it needs but a little stretch of the imagination to consider them identical, though actually this is not so.

The poem traces the history of Montreal from its foundation up to the present time. Jacques Cartier's visit was made in October, 1535, when he was well received by the Hochelagans. When Champlain came, in 1611, Hochelaga had disappeared. The reference to the flood occurs again in "Nelson's Appeal for Maisonneuve." The incident took place in 1642, and Maisonneuve actually fulfilled his vow and bore a heavy cross to the mountain top, where it was planted. Dollard, with seventeen Frenchmen and fifty Indians, by heroic self-sacrifice, in 1660, saved Canada from destruction by the Iroquois. Vaudreuil surrendered Canada to the English on September 8th, 1760. He had been driven to Montreal, and was surrounded by 17,000 men, under General Amherst. The Americans took Montreal in 1775, and were defeated at Chateauguay, October 26th, 1813, and at Chrysler's Farm, November 11th, of the same year. In both cases, the Canadians were greatly outnumbered.

NELSON'S APPEAL FOR MAISONNEUVE.

This is supposed to be spoken by Horatio, Lord Nelson, whose statue, standing on Jacques Cartier Square, by the magnificent river St.

Lawrence, is, with the exception of the bronze image of our Queen, the only one in the city of Montreal. In five years, Montreal will see its 250th anniversary. Shall it be said that we have forgotten its founder, when that day comes? The pages of Parkman may again be referred to for an explanation of any points in this poem. _The Jesuits in North America_, chapter xv., contains a long account of the foundation of Montreal, and subsequent pages chronicle the life of Maisonneuve.

THE SPIRIT WIFE.

This is a free paraphrase of a prose tale by Israel G. Owen.