The Young Seigneur Part 18

THE STATESMAN'S DREAM.

As they went down the village, he continued to banter.

"You great Ontarians believe too firmly that there is no progress here.

According to you there is no being to be met in these forsaken wastes, except a superst.i.tious peasant, clothed all the year in 'beefs' and homespun, capped with the tuque, girded with the sash, and carrying the capuchin hood on his shoulders, like the figure on some of our old copper _sous_;--who sows, after the manner of his fathers, a strip of the field of his grandfathers, and cherishes to his heart every prejudice of his several great, great-grandfathers."

"I do not think so," interrupted Chrysler laughing, "I might put you fifty years behind the age, but no further."

"Yes, but you, sir, have seen us. Why do not more of you come and see?"

"For some of the same reasons perhaps why you do not know us."

Some distance past the Church northward, the village, obscured by the great, irregularly-occurring pines, takes a turn and a sudden dip. The dip and the pines, which are thick at that end, obscure a section of the village known locally as La Reveilliere.

As they came to the high ground where the dip occurs, the vista appeared below of a s.p.a.cious avenue, down whose centre ran a straight and smooth road-bed, and on either side twice its breadth of lawn, rolled and cut, forming a sort of common, ornamented by a sparing group or two of the ubiquitous pines of the neighbourhood. Along the edges of this avenue or common, lay what could only be called a sort of _transfigured French-Canadian village_, looking, in the quiet light of evening, as if pictured by some artist out of studies of the places in the country about. The dwellings were larger, better drawn, their windows, attics and wings more varied in design, but amid their picturesque variety could be discerned in several, a suggestion of the chimney of a certain wild little cot in a dell near the Manoir; in others, of the solid stone home of Jean Benoit; in many the chalet-eaved pattern of the ordinary cottage. Perhaps the latter were made prettiest of all--they were at least the airiest looking. It was in the colors and stainings applied to the gables and other parts that the greatest care had been taken. These were selected out of the ordinary red, yellow, white, and sage-green washes in common use, with such taste as to effect a deeply harmonious and ideal issue. Again, the plan of the village was peculiar. It was simply an improvement on that of the local villages in general, the dwellings being upon the border of the street and not far apart, with their little, foot-wide flower-gardens close against the front. The circular fan of a patent windmill lifted itself lightly, the most prominent object in the settlement, and a charming Gothic schoolhouse crouched farther down on the opposite side. Behind the houses, growths of trees formed an enclosing background, according to the tastes of the owners, but guided by some harmonizing supervision like the colors. And at a short distance the avenue was crossed by a white poplar grove, which brought the scene to a limit, and separated this dream of a rural statesman from the common world.

"V'la, monsieur," said Zotique, who had joined them, stretching his hand, "Behold the cherished work of our young seigneur."

Upon the galleries, the verandahs, the green lawn, the picture moved with life. A half-haze, precursive of the twilight, lent scenic softness to the forms of old men puffing their pipes before the doors, a maiden listlessly strolling on the sward, a swarm of children playing near the road, a distant toiler making his way home, bearing his scythe. The visitors went down into the place and Chrysler saw that the artistic shapes and ideal colors were worn with daily use, the men and women, serene-looking, were still the every day mortals of the region.

"I think I have gained a great step in the houses and street," said Haviland.

"And the Reveilliere is proud of its founder," added l'Honorable.

"We have a little newspaper--_Le Coup d'Oeil_,"--cried Zotique.

Chrysler congratulated Chamilly on his felicity of design in the dwellings.

The greater size of the houses was chiefly for better ventilation. The windmill was part of a simple water-works system, which supplied the village with draughts from the bottom of the river. The school was a gift of Chamilly's.

"If we had some great architect among us," replied he, "he would trans.m.u.te for our country a national architecture."

A little house, conspicuous for the delicacy of its architecture, stood near them, and a young man--the schoolmaster--who was on the verandah, reading, in his shirtsleeves, threw down his newspaper at the call of Zotique, came forward and entered eloquently into the work of information about the Reveilliere, flinging his cotton-clad arms recklessly towards the winds of heaven.

"The Inst.i.tute--the fountain of all--the gentleman has not seen the Inst.i.tute?" inquired he, looking to the two Frenchmen.

"I believe not," Zotique said. "Have you seen it, sir?"

"Not that I know of."

"Monsieur, you must see the Inst.i.tute."

"What is this Inst.i.tute?"

"The _enfant perdu_ of Liberalism, the mainspring of Dormilliere, the hope of French America!"

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE INSt.i.tUTE.

"The battle for the sway, Of liberty, Fraternity, And light of the new day"

--MARY MORGAN.

"About eighteen hundred and fifty," explained the Honorable, "L'Inst.i.tut Canadien was our national thinking Society, and the spark of an awakening of great promise."

"Under the French regime, our people received no education. They knew the forests, the rapids, the science of trapping beaver, and when to expect the Iroquois, and sow grain. The English, conquest came next and cut us off from the new birth, of modern France, and the Church, our only inst.i.tution, was very willing to ignore that stimulation of ideas.

We lived on; we read little; we labored much.--But, monsieur," said l'Honorable, with his quiet dignity, "we were of the race of Descartes."

"We slept. At last the awakening! Our griefs and our grievances forced the Rebellion; they brought our thoughts together and made us reason in common; we demanded a new Canada, relieved of bureaucracy, of political disabilty, of seignioral oppression, some said even of abuses of the Church--a Canada of the People, in which every citizen should stand up equal and free."

"The first result demanded--and obtained--was responsible government.

Among others came preparations for the abolition of feudal tenure, making a va.s.sal population freeholders!"

"The next cry was Education! The French-Canadians were delighted with the opening world of knowledge and ideas, and there is no race which ever rose with greater enthusiasm to pursue progress and science. A few young men of Montreal were banded into a Society for mutual advancement, to hold debates at which all races were to be free to contribute opinions, to open a library of useful books, and to seek truth without any conditions. That was the Inst.i.tut Canadien!"

"These n.o.ble young enthusiasts soon attracted chosen spirits, a precious essence of the race. They sprang into fame;--fourteen were returned to Parliament in one year. They called all the world freely to their discussions, and created eclat by the brillancy of their programme. The province kindled--every village had its Inst.i.tute!" "But 'sa-a-a-cr!'"

savagely e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Zotique, and his eyes grew intense in their fierceness."

"The Inst.i.tut Canadien gradually excited the jealousy of certain ecclesiastics by its free admissions and the liberality of its researches. What is known as the "Struggle" commenced. A series of combined a.s.saults by episcopal summons, a pulpit crusade, excommunication, refusal of burial, encouragement of dissensions, and the establishment of rival Inst.i.tutes bearing names such as "Inst.i.tut Canadien Francais," most of which existed only on paper, finally succeeded in crushing the movement."

"Ac"--e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Zotique.

"The Inst.i.tute at Dormilliere is the insignificant sole survivor."

"I understand now your Reveilliere," Chrysler said.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE CAMPAIGN PLAN.

On Sat.u.r.day evening of Chrysler's first week at the Manoir, they went to the Inst.i.tute. It was a house down the Dormilliere Street, that held its head somewhat higher, and tipped it back a little more proudly than the rest,--a long old fashioned wooden cottage, of many windows, and some faded pretensions to the ornamental: still elegant in the light curve of its capacious grey roof, the slender turned pillars of its gallery, separated by horizontal oval arches, its row of peaked and moulded dormer windows, its ornaments, its broad staircase climbing up to the doorway, and the provincial-aristocratic look of its high set-back position in its garden. The name of a rich money-lender, who had been feared in days gone by--"Cletus the Ingrate,"--was mentioned under breath in the stories about it. But ever since his death, many years before, it had been the faded outer sh.e.l.l into which the intellectual kernel of Dormilliere life withdrew itself, and in the pa.s.sage as one entered, the sign "INSt.i.tUT CANADIEN," which had once had its place on the front, might be seen resting on the floor,--a beehive and the motto "Altius Tendimus," occupying the s.p.a.ce between the two words.

The interior was a very great contrast to the outside. Its fittings were in the pleasantest of light-hued paints and varnished pine: maps, casts, and pictures enlivened the walls and corners; a handsome library and nucleus of a museum, with reading tables, opened to the left, and a large debating hall to the right--together occupying the whole of the princ.i.p.al floor.

That evening the row of front windows shone with particular illumination for a meeting of Chamilly's supporters, and as Chrysler entered with Haviland and Zotique, they caught from De La Lande the fragmentary a.s.sertion, "It is France that must be preached!"

"Aux armes, citoyens!" roared Zotique, entering like a captain on the stage. "Give me my battalion! Write me my letters of marque:" Then throwing one hand in air: "Allons! what has been done?"

The audience sitting around on tables and windowsills, as well as on groups of chairs, laughed boisterously and thumped the floor, and recalled to the proper work of the meeting, commenced a cry of "l'Honorable!"