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place the proud title of the " Gibraltar of America." 

 Indeed, it is hardly possible to conceive of a more aerial 

 or commanding site than the one it occupies, and look- 

 ing up from the river, which, nearly 200 feet below, 

 rushes onward to the sea, it seems to cling like an 

 eagle's nest to the side of the great rocks above, and to 

 fittingly complete its military and picturesque appear- 

 ance. And then the ground upon which it stands is 

 historic, and invested as such with a deep and abiding- 

 interest for the world at large. Where Quebec's new 

 palace hotel now rears its stately proportions, once stood 

 the old Chateau or Castle of St. Louis, the very men- 

 tion of whose name recalls so many thrilling memories, 

 carrying the mind back to the very infancy of the 

 colony, and reanimating, so to say, the illustrious dead, 

 Jacques Cartier, DeMontmagny, D'Ailleboust, LaBarre, 

 Frontenac, Laval, Talon, Begon, Tracy, LaG-alissonniere, 

 Saint-Castin, Iberville, LaSalle, Joliette, LaVerendrye, 

 Montcalm, Levis, Bougainville, Wolfe, Murray, Nelson, 

 Cook, Champlain, Haldimand, Arnold, Montgomery, 

 Carleton, Eichmond, Prescott, Dorchester, Craio- Dal- 

 housie, Aylmer, Durham, etc. One by one their ghostly 

 figures rise up before the mind's eye in the presence of 

 the splendid pile, which to-day replaces the old Castle 

 of St. Louis, and which has been so appropriately called 

 the " Chateau-Frontenac," after the sturdy old French 

 governor, who, over two hundred years ago, from the 

 same spot hurled his defiance at the English invader, 

 telling Phip's envoy that he would answer his master's 

 impertinent summons to surrender, " by the mouths of 

 his cannon." Hawkins has glowingly sketched the 

 glories of the ancient Castle of St. Louis. He says : 



" The history of the ancient castle of St. Louis, or Fort of 

 Quebec, for above two centuries the seat of government in 

 the province affords subjects of great and stirring interest dur- 

 ing the several periods. The hall of the old iFort, during the 

 weakness of the colony was often a scene of terror and des- 

 pair at the inroads of the persevering and ferocious Iroquois, 

 who, having passed, or overthrown, all the French outposts, 



