Shall we venture to assert that Sillery equals in size some of the German principalities, and that, important though it be, like European dynasties, it has had its periods of splendor succeeded by eras of medieval obscurity. From 1700 down to the time of the conquest, we appeal in vain to the records of the past for any historical event connected with it; everywhere reigns supreme a Cimmerian darkness. But if the page of history is silent, the chronicles of the _ton_ furnish some tit-bits of drawing- room chit-chat. Thus, as stated in Hawkins' celebrated _Historical Picture of Quebec_, [197] the northern portion of the parish skirting the St. Foye road "was the favorite drive of the Canadian belle." In these few words, of Hawkins is involved an intricate question for the salons, a problem to solve, more abstruse than the one which agitated the Grecian cities respecting the birth of Homer. Who then was the Canadian Belle of former days? The Nestors of the present generation still speak with admiration of a fascinating stranger who, close to the end of the last century, used to drive on the St. Foye road, when a royal duke lived in the city, in what is now styled "The Kent House," on St. Louis street. The name of this distinguished traveller, a lady of European birth, was Madame St. Laurent; but, kind reader, have patience. The Canadian belle who thus enjoyed her drives in the environs of Quebec was not Madame St. Laurent, as it is distinctly stated at page 170 of Hawkins that this occurred before the conquest, viz., 1759. Might it have been that vision of female loveliness, that spotless and beautiful Mrs. De Léry, whose presentation at court, with her handsome husband, shortly after the conquest, elicited from His Majesty George III. the expression which history has preserved, "If such are all my new Canadian subjects, I have indeed made a conquest;" or must we picture to ourselves as the Canadian belle that peerless beauty, that witty and aspiring Madame Hughes Pean, Intendant Bigot's fair charmer, mysteriously hinted at, in all the old Quebec guide books, as "Mrs. P----." Madame Hughes Pean, [198] whose husband was Town Major of Quebec, owned a seigniory in the vicinity of the city--some say at St. Vallier, where Mons Pean used to load with corn the vessels he dispatched elsewhere; she also was one of the gay revellers at the romantic Hermitage, Bigot's shooting lodge at Charlesbourg. Old memoirs seem to favour this version. Be this as it may the St. Foy road was a favorite drive even a century before the present day; so says Hawkins' historical work on Quebec--no mean authority, considering that the materials thereof were furnished by that accomplished scholar and eminent barrister, the late Andrew Stuart, father of the present Judge Stuart, and compiled by the late Dr. John Charlton Fisher, one of the able joint editors of the New York _Albion_, and father of Mrs. Ed. Burstall, late of Sillery. Who