— 6*2 — 



the three ladies in the Hue du Parloir, and I am flat- 

 tered by their remembrance, especially by that of one 

 of them, in whom I find, at certain moments, too much 

 wit and too many charms for my tranquility. " More 

 than once in his correspondence, allusion is made to 

 these charmers, who were nigh making him for a time 

 forget the absent Marquise, his olive trees, and the 

 chesDUt groves of his beloved Condiac. 



The Abbe thus describes Parloir street — a narrow 

 thoroughfare which skirts the very wall of the Ursu- 

 lines Chapel, where the gallant rival of Wolfe has 

 slumbered for 13o years in the grave scooped out by an 

 English shell : " Little Parloir street was one of the 

 chief centres, where (in 1758-59) the beau monde of 

 Quebec assembled; two salons were id special request : 

 that of Madame de la Naudiere and that of Madame 

 de Beaubassin; both ladies were famed for their wit 

 and beauty. Montcalm was so taken up with these 

 salons that in his correspondence he went to the 

 trouble of locating the exact spot which each house 

 occupied ; one, says he, stood at the corner of the street 

 facing the Ursuline Convent; the other, at the corner of 

 Parloir and St. Louis street. Madame de la Naudiere, 

 n4e Genevieve de Boishebert, was a daughter of the 

 Seigneur of Eiviere-Ouelle, and Madame Hertel de 

 Beaubassin, nde Catherine' Jarret de Vercheres, was a 

 daughter of the Seigneur of Vercheres. Their husbands 

 held commissions as officers in the Canadian militia. It 

 was also in Parloir street that Madame Pean, often 

 referred to in Montcalm's letters, held her brilliant 

 court." 



The charm of Madame de Beaubassin's conversation 

 seems to have particularly captivated Montcalm, as he 

 frequented her salon the most of the three. " At the 

 Intendance, or at Madame Pean's house, he managed to 

 forget his exile and troubles; at Madame de la Naudiere's, 

 he was interested in what he saw ; but at Madame de 

 Beaubassin's, he was under a spell." Notice is also 



