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Lanaudiere, was born in the old Lanaudiere home- 

 stead, at the top of Mountain hill, Quebec : this antique 

 dwelling, well remembered yet by many Quebecers, 

 disappeared about 1843, to make room for the present 

 roomy and solid structure now known as the Cardi- 

 nal's Palace. " After three months' incessant infantile 

 music of a very lively nature, writes the author of 

 the Canadians of Old, I was transferred to the modest 

 manor of Saint Jean Port-Joly, the new manor, built 

 on the site of the sumptuous one which Messieurs 

 les Anglais had so ruthlessly burnt to the ground in 

 1759." Here M. de Gaspe spent the blissful hours of 

 his childhood, on the shores of the great river, with 

 a stretca of water before him, illimitable like his 

 thoughts, extending to the stormy waves of the gulf. 

 His parents sent him at the age of nine years to learn 

 in the city, the first lessons, in a boarding-hi>use kept 

 by two prim, old ladies of the name of Cholette. He 

 was soon. promoted to the blue coat of a Quebec Semi- 

 nary boy ; bright and mischievous, he went through 

 his course of studies in this hoary seat of learning, was 

 indentured as a law student to Attorney General 

 Jonathan Sewell, subsequently our respected Chief 

 Justice, practised his profession a few years, at the 

 Quebec bar, and was then offered and accepted the 

 responsible office of High Sheriff of the Quebec District. 

 Alas ! had he been able to read in the future, what it 

 had in store for him, or rather what the neglect of his 

 official duties entailed on him, he would have shunned 

 it, shunned it to the last ! Ample means inherited, a 

 strong love for manly sports and social life soon sur- 

 rounded him with congenial spirits. Advantage Was 

 taken of his confiding and generous nature ; fair 

 weather friends won his confidence ; more than one 

 applied to him for temporary loans ; their I. 0. U., 

 bearing his endorsation, went to protest ! Loss of office, 

 followed by law proceedings and something much worse, 

 overtook the open-handed, heedless sheriff. 

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