Humours of '37, Grave, Gay and Grim: Rebellion Times in the CanadasLizars, Robina
History
Humours of '37, Grave, Gay and Grim: Rebellion Times in the Canadas
Lizars, Robina
Canada -- History -- Rebellion, 1837-1838
So also did Robert Nelson say that feudal nonsense was abolished
forever, and the Church of not much more account. He and his brother
Wolfred had their own interpretation of their relative’s saying that
“England expects every man to do his duty.” Mrs. Wolfred Nelson’s
grandfather, le Marquis de Fleurimont, was one of the French officers
wounded in September, 1759; afterwards he took the oath of allegiance,
and was again wounded in the repulse of Montgomery before Quebec. These
Frenchified Englishmen seem to have been born for something better
than treason, stratagem and spoils; they took none of the last and
found the first two meant prison and expatriation. Wolfred Nelson was
by far the best looking of the leaders, tall, with handsome features,
and had moreover a brave and manly disposition. His proclamations were
wonderfully worded, his Athanasian rendering declaring the Canadian
Republic to be “one and indivisible.” Colonel Gore sought to take these
prominent men, having heard that they were secreted at St. Hyacinthe.
Accordingly a young officer and a picked party were told off, their
sleighs without bells being timed to arrive after dark at the house
where the leaders were supposed to be. The guide brought the sleighs
there somewhere near midnight, and they found the usual comfortable
French quarters, solid barns with yards and outbuildings. A chain of
sentries was posted round the place and through the buildings; a knock
brought madame, a most charming old lady, to the window; they were very
welcome, and she showed them not only over the house, but she kept
them seeking in many corners they would not have found for themselves,
in cellars where stores of winter vegetables and fruit lay in rows,
cupboards full of treasures, in cavernous depths beyond rafters which
promised a reward for search, but only revealed much bacon and ham,
flitches “the manifest product of a high-caste gramnivorous pig.”
But Papineau, on the watch, had had time to get to a deep ditch which
ran back into the fields, whence he made his way to a small bush near
by. From there he escaped to the States; but Nelson was taken and
lodged in Kingston gaol. Years afterwards, at an evening party, after
his return from France, the charming, white-haired Papineau said to a
gentleman who had been the soldier so prominent in the search, “I hear
you are the officer who came to call on me at Madame ----’s, in ’37.
You little know how nearly you took me.... You did your work admirably,
for, though we were on the watch, I had only just time to run away down
that wet ditch before your sentries met.” Among the effects then seized
were many papers of value to the captors, one of them a letter from
Papineau, finishing, “Continue to push it (the rebellion) as vigorously
as you can,” and another, a schoolboy letter from Nelson’s son, a lad
of fourteen, somewhat after the manner of Tom Sawyer: “I wish that it
(the rebellion) will do well and without any noise, which I hate very
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account