84 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



J'avais douze ans lorsqu'en Bretagne 

 On me l'apprit sur Ja montagne. 



Avec un aîr, une parole, 

 Toujours l'exilé se console. 



Ce chant, qui de mon ecour s'élève, 

 D'où vient qu'en pleurant je l'achève? 



Hélas ! je sais un chant d'amour 

 Triste ou gai tour à tour. 



'• Triste ou gai tour à tour," that is just what Canadian folksongs are ; 

 but the general burden of the folksong all the world over is more nearly 

 sad than gay. Though, perhaps, it was not in sadness that the Highland 

 reaper sang, yet, " whate'er the theme," the melancholy undertone was 

 there, and that the listening poet caught its meaning we know well from 

 his haunting lines : 



Will no one tell me what she sings ? 

 Perhaps the plaintive numbers tlow 

 For old, unhappy, far-off things. 

 And battles long ago : 

 Or is it some more humble lay. 

 Familiar matter of to-day ? 

 Some natural sorrow, loss or pain, 

 That has been, and may be again ! 



Sympathy, truth and melancholy, these three priine qualities give a 

 mighty power to the folksong, alike in the world of action or of art. It 

 is said ''^ that at the battle of St. Cast, as a Breton regiment was advanc- 

 ing to the attack, it suddenly halted in amazement ; the opposing 

 regiment of the British army was a Welsh one and the men were singing 

 a song heard daily in Brittany itself ! The order to tire was given ; but 

 both sides gave it in the same tongue ! In a wild transport of enthu- 

 siasm discipline was thrown to the winds, the ranks were broken, and the 

 long-lost Celtic kinship was renewed upon the tield of battle ! hven the 

 faithful Swiss Guards were not proof against the intense longing aroused 

 in them by the sound of their native airs, and it was found necessary to 

 Ibrbid the playing of the lianz des Vaches altogether. The folksong 

 is everywhere the home of fancy in a far-off land, and Canadians have 

 never been without it wherever they have been. It went out to the new 

 Far West in the pioneering days when the Eed Eiver Settlement seemed 

 to be at the end of the Earth, and it went in (nir own day with the same 

 hardy class of voyageurs to the banks of the ancient JSTile. It was 

 taken into exile b}^ the Acadians ; it was sung into battle by the heroes 

 of Châteauguay ; and the story is told of the quick response made by the 

 65th Battalion in the late Northwest campaign to General Strange who, 

 on hearing a soldier complain of the weary march, said Ah ! mes braves 1 



Malbroucke s'en va-t-en guerre, 

 Ne sait quand reviendra : 



