— 186 — 



Another notable character in the Memoirs, is Father 

 de Berey, Superior of the Franciscan Monastery, which 

 stood partly on the site of the Anglican Cathedral, and 

 was destroyed by fire on the 6th Sept., 1796. 



The Superior, a descendant of a noble French house, 

 was a brusque, quick-witted, convivial old soul, who 

 never forgot that at one time he had been a captain in 

 the French Dragoon guards. I reserve for an other 

 chapter some of his excentricities as related by M. de 

 Gaspe. 



The author of the Canadians of Old, respecting the 

 cession of Canada by France to England, remarks : 

 " I never knew one of the people charge its loss to the 

 " French King. 'Twas all the work of La Pompadour ; 

 " she sold the country to the English ; " this was a 

 " frequent and a bitter saying." 



Graphic is the passage, descriptive of the painful 

 impression, caused by the news of the decapitation of 

 Louis XVI. " In 1793," says he, " though' aged but 

 seven, a family occurrence impressed me so that the 

 scene seems as of yesterday. It took place in the 

 winter season. My mother, my aunt, her sister, Marie 

 Louise de La Naudiere, were seated at a table chatting, 

 my father was just opening out his newspaper. The 

 family was trying to read in his face the tenor of the 

 foreign intelligence, French affairs having of late been 

 of a saddening nature. 



All at once my father, bounding from his seat, his 

 great black eyes flashing fire, whilst a deadly pallor 

 spread over his features usually so full of color, yelled, 

 raising both hands to his head : " The monsters ! they 

 have guillotined their King ! ! " 



My mother and her sister burst into tears and both 

 leaning long on the sash, I could see the steam of their 

 warm breath on the frosted panes. From that day I 

 realised the horrors of the French Eevolution. A wave 

 of profound sorrow swept over Canada ; all were 

 deeply grieved, except a few rabid democrats. Some 



