— 84 — 



This is wrong. Dabbling in trade, speculating in fur and 

 provisions is not the thing for an official whose status is only 

 second to that of the governor ot the colony, and whose palace 

 and surroundings is far more luxurious than the Chateau St. 

 Louis, the Vice-regal residence in Quebec. Bigot robs the 

 French Treasury and has done so for years. A successful 

 scheme has been concocted by our worthy Intendant to 

 further this object. 



He has formed a partnership with his Secretary, Dechenaux, 

 his Commissary (reneral, Cadet, and the Town Major, Capt. 

 Hughes Pean, the Treasurer of the Province ; Imbert, seconds 

 them. Pean, however, pays a higher price than an honorable 

 man should for the gold he pockets; so say the scandal 

 mongers, and his beautiful spouse is much too intimate with 

 the gay bachelor Intendant. 



Vaudreuil, in his stately chateau, overhanging the St. 

 Lawrence, is quite a secondary object of attraction for the 

 giddy crowd of fashion and elegant vice, which weekly sit 

 down to cards and suppers at Bigot's palace, facing the St. 

 Charles, on the north side of the capital. 



It is there you will see the jolly intendant, pirouetting in 

 a dance round the festoned walls and gilt awnings which 

 decorate this fairy abode, whilst the people are starving in 

 the streets. I myself was more than once asked to partake of 

 those luscious petits soupers where pate's aux foies gras and 

 Burgundy wine lit up more than one youthful face ; my 

 poverty alone shielded me from the dangers of ecarte, piquet 

 and vingt-et-un. Bigot, 'tis said, in one season lost as much as 

 200,000 livres, equal to £10,000. 



Major Pean's duties often take him away from the city. In 

 1753, he was selected to explore our frontier ; he owns large 

 flour mills at Beaumont, which he frequently visits; he either 

 does not know or does not care what Madame does to beguile 

 the tedium of his absence. 



Madame Pean occupies a spacious dwelling in St. Louis 

 street, where her entertainments are much sought after. 

 There is not a young French Lieutenant, not a Commissary 

 Clerk, who would not fight a dozen of duels if her fame 

 required it. 



The Intendant is a constant visitor at her house. Place and 

 patronage, from the highest to the lowest in the colony, is 

 bestowed at her recommendation. She quite beats poor Lady 

 Yarmouth, who merely sold a bishopric for £500. More than 

 one old family refuses to visit her. 



Brassard Dechenaux, Bigot's Secretary, is of low degree. 

 His father was a poor shoemaker ; he was born in Quebec and 

 received the rudiments of his education from a notary, who 

 had boarded at his father's house. 



