over a locality, very familiar to every Quebecer, where stood a massive stone mansion, razed, in 1871, to make room for the present city post-office, on Buade street. Over its chief entrance was, and is still visible, the mysterious inscription, in old French, under a crouching dog gnawing a bone, the whole in gilt characters: "Je suis un chien qui ronge l'os, En le rongeant, je prends mon repos ; This inscription and tablet, which was an enigma to Capt. John Knox, of the 43rd, and was noticed in his Diary of the Siege of Quebec in 1759, has been a hard nut to crack to all our local antiquaries (1). Instead of viewing it as a legend, some attempted to clothe it in all the majestic drapery of history. The other incident embodied in this historical romance relates the lawless amours of one of the most notorious high officials, in the days of the Bourbon lily, François Bigot, eleventh and last Intendant in Canada of the French king. The story ends tragically. How did the novel originate, as the author is not a Quebecer, but an active Collector of H. M.'s Customs at the town of Niagara. I am proud to say that two sketches in my Maple Leaves for 1863, according to a letter from Mr. Kirby, in my possession, furnished the frame-work of this entrancing tale: The sketch of the Golden Dog, a legend; and also the History of Chateau-Bigot, where the Canadian Lovelace immured his "fair Rosamond." Mr. Kirby, as an author, has met with the same fate as many of his confrères in Canada; his volume has been remorselessly pillaged, especially by United States writers. (1) The history of the Golden Dog appears in full in the History of an old House, at p. 89 of MAPLE LEAVES for 1873. The first edition was published by John Lovell, at Rouses Point, N. Y., an elegantly bound volume advertised at $3 a copy. Five or six subsequent editions have sprung up since, in coarse, cheap, paper-covered books, sold at 40 cents each. I know of one pleasant set-off against the unjustice of authors, for the genial, whole-souled novelist the appreciation of his charming work by one whom, above all others, he respects. Of the following I have a personal knowledge : In the month of May, 1883, the usual annual general meeting of the Royal Society of Canada took place. at Ottawa. An "At home" had been ordered in honor of the members, at Rideau Hall, by His Excellency the Marquis of Lorne, the founder of the society, to whom Canadian letters owe a substantial debt of gratitude. Wm. Kirby, F. R. S. C., was one of the honored guests. When the presentation of the members was over, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Louise, sent one of the A. D. C.'s to Mr. Kirby, intimating her wish to speak to him. The retiring author of "The Golden Dog" respectfully came forward, when Princess Louise conveyed to him publicly the thanks of her royal mother for the pleasure she had felt in perusing the brilliant Canadian novel. The genial author, is now engaged collecting into a volume his detached poems, published in magazines and reviews. Let him accept, among the greetings and compliments of the season, this pleasant souvenir of other days.--(The Metropolitan.) J. M. LEMOINE. Quebec, Christmas eve, 1892. [From The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record.] GENERAL R. MONTGOMERY AND HIS DETRACTORS (1) BY J. M. LEMOINE, F. R. S. C. The following is a short summary of what was done in Quebec to rescue from unmerited censure the name of the brave but ill-fated commander, Richard Montgomery, who fell at Près-de-ville, at Quebec, on 31st December, 1775. Several years have now elapsed since I undertook to vindicate the memory of Brig.-Gen. Richard Montgomery, unjustly aspersed by several of our leading French historians in Canada, who had confounded him with his barbarous brother, Capt. Alexander Montgomery. As some writers have still persisted in holding Richard responsible for the acts of Alexander, notwithstanding the convincing proof I adduced in the Saturday Reader, in 1866, it may not be amiss to recapitulate, the salient points in my memoir. The charge of atrocious cruelty, brought by French writers against R. Montgomery, rests on the supposition that he was the "barbarous Captain Montgomery, who commanded us" (the 43rd Foot)-alluded to in Lieutenant Fraser's Diary of the Siege of Quebec, in 1759; the entry runs thus: "23rd August, 1759—there were several of the enemy (the French) killed and wounded, and a few prisoners taken, all of whom the barbarous Captain Montgomery, who commanded us, ordered to be butchered in the most inhuman and cruel manner, (1) For an article on the ancestry of General Montgomery, see Record for July, 1871, vol. II, p. 233.—Editor. particularly two who I (Lieutenant Fraser) sent prisoners by a serjeant, after giving them quarter, and engaging that they should not be killed, were one shot, and the other knocked down with a tomakawk and both scalped in my absence by the rascally serjeant neglecting to acquaint Montgomery, that I wanted them saved, as he, Montgomery pretended when I questioned him about it; but even that was no excuse for such an unparalleled piece of barbarity. After this skirmish, we set to burning the houses with great success setting all in flames, till we came to the church of Ste. Anne." (Siege of Quebec, 1759, Fraser). I also for a time accepted the version promulgated by my respected seniors, until the discovery, in the archives of the Literary and Historical Society, of documents which the Society, at my suggestion, printed. I allude to a dry-as-dust MS. letter which I found one day in ransacking among some old papers. It bore date, "Quebec, 15th June, 1776 ", was addressed to a general officer in England, the writer's friend; the latter part of the letter was missing, and so was the signature. In comparing date with context, it was easy for me to fix on the writer; evidently it was Major H. Caldwell, unbosoming himself to his old commander, Brig.-Gen. James Murray. At p. 7 occurred the following, in alluding to the city blockade of 1775: "General Montgomery (brother of him you might remember at Quebec, and lately a Capt. in the 17th Regt. "). There was a luminous flash in these few words; two Montgomerys, then, I said, served King George II, in America, in the summer of 1759, Richard Montgomery of the 17th foot and Capt. Alexander Montgomery of the 43rd, the regiment detailed to ravage with fire and sword St. Joachim, Ste. Anne, etc., near Quebec, the commanding officer of the detachment connected with the Ste. Anne butchery, as stated by his subaltern, Lieutenant Fraser. Being then in correspondence with the late George Coventry, of Cobourg, who had been charged by the Honorable Wm. Merritt to transcribe MSS. on our late wars, I induced him to help me to clear up this point, and to write to the War Office, in London, to ascertain what regiment, and how many Montgomerys, had served in the campaign of 1759, at Quebec. On the 22nd September, 1866, Lieutenant-General Peel, Secretary at War, instructed his secretary, Ed. Lugard, to furnish Mr. Coventry with full particulars in reply to his inquiry. This courteous letter was sent me by old Mr. Coventry. It established conclusively that Alexander was the name of the Captain Montgomery of the 43rd; and the Montgomery of the 17th. a lieutenant in 1759-was named Richard. We all know that the name of the luckless leader of the storming party, at Près-de-ville, Quebec, on the 31st December, 1775, was Richard Montgomery. My memoir, with the documents on which it rests, appeared first in the Saturday Reader, published in Montreal in 1866, a French version was put forth in the Album du Touriste, p. 3–6, printed at Quebec in 1872, and is referred to in detail in the Report of the Centenary Anniversary of the repulse of Montgomery and Arnold before Quebec in 1775. See Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society, of Quebec, for 1876. Spencer Grange, Quebec, 1890. |