— 41 — 



English chronicler (Knox) — whose name heads this 

 communication. A priest massacred, by the English, 

 — a convent of nuns burned by them : that is the only 

 true portion of the English writer's record. 



" Twenty years ago, at the foot of the cape on which 

 the Chateau-Richer Church is built, the blackened and 

 crumbling walls of this convent could yet be seen : 

 there they stood, a silent but eloquent monument of 

 the horrors of a war in which buildings sacred to 

 religion and to science, were ruthlessly destroyed by 

 the hands of a civilized nation. Eebuilt through the 

 exertions of the Eev. Mr. Baillargeon, when he had the 

 spiritual charge of the Chateau-Richer parish, this edifice 

 w r as in part restored to its original destination : it is 

 now T the parish school. 



" 'T was on the evening of the 23rd June, 1759, a 

 number of women and some old men w^ere standing in 

 groups in front of the church of Chateau-Richer ; close 

 by a bonfire, in honor of thc> patron saint of Canada, 

 St. Jean Baptiste, was slowly flickering out. Gaiety 

 was the order of the day; several children, with live 

 coals in their hands which they agitated high in the 

 air, were trying to imitate an Indian war-dance, such 

 as they had seen performed by a band of Ottawas which 

 had visited the place a few days previously, at the 

 invitation of the governor of Canada, the great Onontio, 

 as they called him. It was evident the older folks 

 entered little in the innocent fun and frolic which 

 occupied the mind of the juveniles ; surrounding the 

 cure of the parish, the Rev. J. F. Duburon, who at this 

 moment was standing on the point of the cape on 

 which the parochial church is erected, some old people 

 appeared in earnest conversation ; the respected pastor 

 had rested his telescope on the twig of one of the stunted 

 cedar trees which grow in the crevices of the cape, and 

 was scanning the horizon in the direction of the Tra- 

 verse, just then lighted up by the last rays of the setting 

 sun, whilst his parishioners were surveying the majestic 



