Part 8 (1/2)

And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen: Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken-- The ice was all between

The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound

At length did cross an Albatross,-- Thorough the fog it came; As if it had been a Christian soul, We hailed it in God's name

It ate the food it ne'er had eat, And round and round it flew

The ice did split with a thunder-fit; The hel up behind; The Albatross did follow, And every day, for food or play, Came to the mariners' hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud, It perched for vespers nine; Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white Moon-shi+ne”

”God save thee, ancient Mariner, Froue thee thus!-- Why look'st thou so?”--”With e

AT THE CLOSE OF THE FRENCH PERIOD IN CANADA

When the flag of France departed from Canada, it left a people destined to find under the new rule a fuller freedom, an ampler political development, a far more abundant prosperity It left a people destined to honour their new allegiance by loyalty and heroic service in the hour of trial

This people, which thus becan and a treaty, was destined to forrow the vast Confederation of Canada But for them there would now, in all likelihood, be no Canada By their rejection of the proposals of the revolted colonies, the northern half of this continent was preserved to Great Britain The debt which the ereater than we at present realize Let us examine the characteristics of the small and isolated people which was to exercise such a deep influence on the future of this continent

The whole population of Canada when she ca was about sixty thousand This hardy handful was gathered chiefly at Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal The rest trailed thinly along the shores of the St Lawrence and the Richelieu The lands about the Great Lakes, and the western country, were held only by a few scattered forts, buried here and there in the green wilderness At Detroit had sprung up a scanty settlement of perhaps one thousand souls In these remote posts the all-important question was still that of the fur-trade with the Indians The traders and the soldiers, cut off from civilization, frequently took wives from the Indian tribes about therew as lawless as their adopted kinsfolk They were a weakness and a discredit to the country in ti were the frontier's best defence

Quebec had seven thousand inhabitants Most of thereat cliff whose top was crowned by the citadel Where the shoulder of the promontory swept around toward the St Charles, the slope becaan to cla too precipitous had a way, then as now, of changing suddenly into flights of stairs The city walls, gris across the face of the steep in a way to daunt assailants Down the hillside, past the cathedral and the college, through the heart of the city, clattered a noisy brook, which in ti streets Part of the city ithin walls, part without Most of the houses were low, one-story buildings, with large expanse of steep roof, and high dor down to the St Charles stretched populous suburbs On the high plateau where now lies the stately Nen, there was then but a bleak pasture-land whose grasses waved against the city gates

Montreal, after its childhood of awful trial, had greatly prospered Its population had risen to about nine thousand The fur-trade of theand tireless wood-rangers, had poured its wealth into the lap of the city of Maisonneuve The houses, soives dignity to the city, were usually of but one story They were arranged in three or four long lines parallel to the river The towers of the Seminary of St Sulpicius and the spires of three churches, standing out against the green of the statelyup the river from Quebec

The city was inclosed by a stone wall and a shallow ditch, once useful as a defence against the Indians, but no protection in the face of serious assault At the lower end of the city, covering the landing-place, rose a high earthwork croith cannon

The houses of the _habitants_, tillers of the soil, were s eaves, and consisting at most of two rooms The partition, when there was one, was of boards Lath and plaster were unknown The walls within, to the height of a ainst them Solid wooden boxes and benches usually took the place of chairs A clumsy loom, on which the women wove their coarse homespuns of wool or flax, occupied one corner of the , stood beside the a, black arh the ”bake-kettle” sometimes relieved its labours, and the brick oven was a standby in houses of the rich _habitants_, as well as of the gentry For the roasting of ridiron with legs, to stand on the hearth, with a heap of hot coals raked under it The houses even of the upper classes were seldoenerally furnished with a good deal of luxury; and in the cities they were sometimes built of stone

A typical country neur on his own do fashi+on The ht but perhaps a hundred feet long, was surables and a very steep roof, built thus to shed the snow and to give a roohted by nu the expanse of the roof This s Around it clustered the wash-house (adjoining the kitchen), coach house, barns, stable, and woodsheds This homelike cluster of walls and roofs was sheltered froirdled cheerily by orchard and kitchen-garden On one side, and not far off, was usually a village with a church-spire glea a little fortress rather than a peaceful aid to industry

This structure, where all the tenants of the seigneur were obliged to grind their grain, had indeed been built in the first place to serve not only as a e from the Iroquois It was furnished with loopholes, and was i cannon

The dress of the upper classes was like that prevailing aant The long, wide-frocked coats were of gay-coloured and costly ht be richly eold or silver Knee-breeches took the place of our unsightly trousers, and were fastened with bright buckles at the knee Stockings were of white or coloured silk, and shoes were set off by broad buckles at the instep

These, of course, were the dresses of cererand receptions Out-of-doors, and in the winter especially, the costumes of the nobility were more distinctly Canadian Overcoats of native cloth orn, with large, pointed hoods Their pattern is preserved to the present day in the blanket coats of our snow-shoers

Young htened the desolate winter landscape Gay belts of green, blue, red, or yellow enriched the waists of their thick overcoats Their scarlet leggings were laced up with green ribbons Their eously embroidered with dyed porcupine quills Their caps of beaver or martin were sometimes tied down over their ears with vivid handkerchiefs of silk The _habitants_ were rougher and ings, gray woollen cap, heavy htened by a belt or sash of the liveliest colours The country-women had to content themselves with the same coarse hoot the gay colours which they loved in kerchiefs for their necks and shoulders

In war the regulars were sharply distinguished from those of the British army by their uniforms The white of the House of Bourbon was the colour that iments, as scarlet ht in their ordinary dress,--or, occasionally, with the object of terrifying their enele-quills of the Indians The muskets of the day were the heavy weapons known as flint-locks When the trigger was pulled the flint ca into a shallow ”pan” of powder called the ”priulars carried bayonets on the ends of their ers had little use for these weapons They depended on their ulars fired breast high in the direction of their ene to the steadiness and closeness of their fire; but the colonials did not waste their precious bullets and powder in this way They had learned froht fro down, and to surprise their eneh the underbrush At close quarters they fought, like the Indians, with knife and hatchet, both of which were carried in their belts Fro the leathern bag of bullets, and the inevitable tobacco-pouch; while froether with his cherished pipe inclosed in its case of skin Very often, however, the ranger spared hi a bowl in the back of his to it with a hollow handle Thus the same implement became both the comfort of his leisure and the torment of his enemies In winter, when the Canadians, expert in the use of the snow-shoe and fearless of the cold, did , they wore thick peaked hoods over their heads, and looked like a procession of friars wending through the silent forest on some errand of piety or mercy Their hands were covered by thick ed their provisions and blankets on sleds or toboggans At night they would use their snow-shoes to shovel a wide, circular pit in the snow, clearing it away to the bare earth In the centre of the pit, they would build their cahs, secure from the winter wind The leaders, usually members of the nobility, fared on these expeditions as rudely as their e and endurance Soers were scions of the noblest faes, were able to shi+ne by their graces and refinement in the courtliest society of the day

Charles G D Roberts: ”History of Canada”