AN EPISODE OF THE WAR OF THE CONQUEST. 



" We burned and destroyed upwards of fourteen hundred 

 fine farm houses." — Journal quoted by W. Smith, the historian 

 of Canada. 



" A priest with about four score of his parishioners have 

 fortified themselves in a house, a few miles to the eastward 

 of our camp, on the north side of the river, where they indis- 

 creetly pretend to brave our troops... The priest who fortified 

 himself on the north side of the river, sent a written invita- 

 tion to an officer who commanded in a house in his neigh- 

 borhood "to honor him with his company to dinner, with an 

 assurance that he, and any officer of his detachment who 

 would be kind enough to accompany him, should return with 

 the greatest safety ; " he added, " that as the English officer 

 fought for his king and for glory, he hoped he himself would 

 be excused for fighting for his poor parishioners and defending 

 his country." 



" The unfortunate priest is defeated 5 a detachment of light 

 troops laid an ambuscade in the skirts of the wood near his 

 fortified house, and as soon as the field-piece was brought up 

 and began to play, he with his men sallied out, when, falling 

 into the ambush, thirty of them with their leader were 

 surrounded, killed and scalped : the reason of their being 

 treated with such cruelty, proceeded from the wretched 

 parishioners having disguised themselves like Indians. In 

 this rencontre we had five men wounded. 



li The parish of Eichet, with the stately house lately occu- 

 pied by the indiscreet priest, called Chateau Kicher, are now 

 in flames." — Knox's Journal, of the siege of Quebec, Vol. II. 



Canada, like England, was conquered ; in one case an 

 Anglo-Saxon kingdom was overrun by Norman inva- 

 ders : in the other, a Norman colony was wrested by the 

 descendants of Anglo-Saxons from its French masters ; 

 both invasions left behind them a " Memory of 

 sorrow." In both countries the conquest was a boon, 

 the means of extending public liberty. In the first, the 

 Saxon and Norman blended and formed a composite 



