Within the last few years there has come a glorious reaction. Every one
sets his hand to the work and the Canadian can now say with Francis I,
"All is lost save honor." I am far from believing, however, that all
is lost. The cession of Canada was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise;
for the horrors of '93 failed to touch this fortunate colony which
was protected by the flag of Britain. We have gathered new laurels,
fighting beneath the banner of England and twice has the colony been
saved to England by the courage of her new subjects. In Parliament, at
the bar, upon the field of battle, everywhere in his small sphere, the
French Canadian has proved himself inferior to none. For a century have
you struggled, O my countrymen, to preserve your nationality, and you
behold it yet intact. The future perhaps holds for you another century
of effort and struggle to guard it. Take heart and stand together,
fellow-countrymen.
Two detachments of the English army were disembarked at Rivière Ouelle,
at the beginning of June, '79. Some of the _habitants_ of the parish,
concealed in the skirts of the wood, received them with a sharp fire
and killed several men. The commander, exasperated at this loss,
resolved to take signal vengeance. The two detachments ascended the
river and encamped toward evening beside a brook which empties in Bay
Ste. Anne, southwest of where the college now stands. On the following
morning the commander ordered one of the companies to get ready to
march, and summoning the lieutenant gave him the following orders:
"Every house you come across belonging to these dogs of Frenchmen, set
fire to it. I will follow you a little later."
"But," said the young officer, who was a Scotchman, "must I burn the
dwellings of those who offer no resistance? They say there is no one
left in these houses except old men, women, and children."
"I think, sir," replied Major Montgomery, "that my orders are quite
clear. You will set fire to every house belonging to these dogs of
Frenchmen. I had forgotten your weakness for our enemies."
The young man bit his lips till they bled, and marched his men away.
The reader has, doubtless, recognized in this young man none other
than Archie de Lochiel, who, having made his peace with the British
Government, had recovered possession of his estates and had obtained
a lieutenancy in a regiment which he had himself recruited among the
Highlanders of his own clan. Archie marched off groaning and muttering
all the curses he could think of in English, Gaelic, and French. At the
first house where he stopped a young woman flung herself weeping at his
feet, crying piteously:
"Good sir, do not kill my poor old father. Do not shorten his days. He
has but a little while to live."
A little boy eleven or twelve years old grasped him about the knees and
exclaimed:
"Mister Englishman, do not kill grandpapa! If you only knew how good he
is!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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