QUEBEC 17 



his companions. An outer hoarding, loopholed for 

 musketry, with a gallery all round, was the chief 

 defence. Further precautions against surprise were 

 provided by a moat, and a few small cannon that 

 commanded the river from a raised platform. 

 Within the fort was a courtyard and a dovecot, 

 and in close vicinity a magazine and a garden. 

 Where the chimes of Notre-Dame now ring their 

 measured peals, Champlain listened to the details of 

 the plot against his life from a ship's pilot, who 

 turned informant. In the harbour, where the waters 

 lap the cliff lower down, floated the ship where the 

 traitors were arrested. It was on the highest 

 pinnacle of that primitive fort, that the head of the 

 arch-conspirator was spiked as a lesson and a 

 warning to all whom it might concern. 



The Hotel Dieu, founded by the Duchesse d' 

 Aiguillon, a niece of Cardinal Richelieu, dates from 

 1639 and is the oldest convent and hospital on the 

 continent. The fine works of art that it contains, 

 by Leseur, de Zurban, Stella and others, take a 

 second place in the estimation of students who have 

 walked the paths of history with Breboeuf and 

 Lallemant, the high-souled missionaries of the Cross, 

 of whom the world was not worthy. In 1626 these 

 followers of Loyola landed in Quebec. The shelter 

 of Champlain's fort was denied, and traders refused 

 them admission to their houses. They wandered 

 about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, 

 c 



