— 116 — 



it is indeed the veritable building, in which they together 

 plotted their nefarious schemes, or whether the real 

 Bigot Mansion was totally consumed by the fire of 1796, 

 and the present building altogether another and different 

 one, although built upon the same spot and sprung, 

 Phoenix-like, from the same as his. " 



Ever yours truly 



W. H. Forrest. 



Col. Forrest's letter, among other valuable informa- 

 tion, furnishes a clew, to the oft' debated origin of the 

 old Military Hospital, where judges, jury and lawyers 

 have had to do penance for nearly twenty years — 

 sweltering during the dog-days amidst the tainted 

 atmosphere of those dark hospital walls — reeking with 

 the fever microbes and bacilli of 60 summers. It was 

 indeed, a relief, to remove to the new Court House ! 



I was here interrupted by my genial friend. You 

 have omitted one not unimportant episode. Here also, 

 added Mr. Kirby, lived and flourished the beautiful 

 Angelique de Meloises, Madame Hughes Pean, Inten- 

 dant Bigot's charmer. In the rosy days of my youth 

 and romance, when Quebec appeared to me like a poem, 

 I described it as follows : " The family mansion of the 

 des Meloises was a tall and rather pretentions edifice, 

 overlooking the fashionable Eue Saint Louis, where it 

 still stands, old and melancholy, as if mourning over 

 its departed splendors. Few eyes look up nowadays to 

 its broad facade. It was otherwise when the beautiful 

 Angelique sat of summer evenings on the balcony, sur- 

 rounded by a bevy of Quebec's fairest daughters, who 

 loved to haunt her windows, where they could see and 



