altogether at a loss to know for what he had been beaten; and I am happy to say that the politeness of the peasant seemed to restore our military friend to consciousness, and a fear that he had behaved like a brute. At the next stage he provided himself with a Canadian cap, and on resuming his seat overwhelmed us with apologies; so that we were compelled to forgive the aberration, which was doubtless, as he said, attributable solely to his loyal concern for the health of his Majesty, and to an overflow of spirits at finding himself once more in the pale of the British empire. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at Laprairie, that little old Canadian town on the St Lawrence, where passengers take the steamer to Montreal. Here was celebrating some kind of fête which had brought a procession of nuns into the street, around whom were congregated groups of smiling children in their holiday dresses. I entered a church, which I found nearly deserted. A few of the poorer sort of persons were at prayer, saying their _aves_ and _paters_ by the rosary—not, as is sometimes supposed, through voluntary devotion, but in performance of appointed penances, which they make haste to get through. Some funeral ceremony seemed to be in preparation; for the church was dark, and a _catafalque_ near the entrance gave me a startling sensation of awe. All that Laprairie could show us was soon beheld; but our usual fortune had attended us to the last, and we were again too late for the steamer. It would not cross again till the morrow; yet there was the city of Montreal distinctly visible before our eyes. From the quay we could discern, down the river, the tin roof of the convent of Grayfriars, glittering brightly in the descending sun. In fact, the whole city was glittering, for every where its spires and roofs shone with a sheeting of the Cornish material, which somehow or other, in this climate, seems to resist oxidisation. In other respects, the scene was not remarkable, except that there was the river—the broad, free, and magnificent St Lawrence, with its rapids and its isles. Nuns’ Isle was above us, and abreast of the city, with its fortress, was the green St Helen’s, _said to be_ musical with the notes of birds, and fragrant with its flowers and verdure.