ix natural aptitude of discrimination had received an additional impulse by the intelligence which he had imbibed, and as he expressed it—" After my eyes were once opened, I maintained a sleepless watch upon the proceedings of every per· · son with whom I was obliged to become acquainted. To that most uncomfortable suspiciousness of all mankind, in which for some years I lived, I am indebted for the temporal comfort which I enjoy ; and I passed through one-half of my earthly course, before I fully comprehended the meaning of a solitary exercise combined with the charities of domestic life; except in connection with the affair of Lorette and Chretien! When eating my solitary meal, or roaming alone around the city; often have I vented my dreary feelings and morbid disquietude in this homely couplet Father, mother, sister, brother, friend Wife!-Ah! what do those dear names intend?” Diganu however had survived all his forced and unnatural misanthropy. He displayed tenderness and affection of the highest order, commingled with a charming sincerity, that rendered communion with him increasingly delightful. The arcana of Canadian society he unfolded in its minutest features; and however perplexing some of his statements appeared; he affirmed them to be all true, and vanquished incredulity by evidence which no scepticism could deny. In the following narrative, some of the contents of my own port-folio are conjoined with Diganu's details. To specify the distinctions is superfluous. All the circumstances are part of those annals which represent man as he is, not as fiction describes him. 1* X A flattering portrayer of Canada delineates the habitans upon the banks of the river Lawrence, as a gallant, high principled, enlightened, and dignified race of mortals, of superior mental elevation and moral worth. To assume this standard of any nation, en masse, is over-stepping the boundaries of veracity, and that it is totally inapplicable to the Gallic population of Lower Canada, is known to every individual who has not continued in a dead sleep, while making the grand northern tour. The ensuing pages depict Canadian personages, not in the imaginative embellishments of romance, but in the unadorned drapery of truth. Who of Diganu's actors strutted on the theatre of life, anterior to the capture of Quebec by Wolfe's army, and who are of a subsequent period, there is no clue to discover. His descriptions of the natural scenery are very correct and some of his individual portraits and narratives of events, I have frequently heard attested as matters of common notoriety.. This explanation contains all that is necessary as an intro ductory notice to Lorette. You, my friend, I trust, will unite in judgment with the opinion of several clergymen who examined the manuscript, before it was sent to press that the perusal of this narrative will enhance the love of freedom, intelligence, purity and truth; and also render that triple unholy alliance, ignorance, error and corruption, more odious and repugnant.. **** LORETTE. * Amid the crowd, the hum, the shock of men, And roam along, the world's tired denizen, On the twenty-first day of December, 17, Digant and Chretien devoted the hours to a circuitous ride around Quebec, for the purpose of arranging the most agreeable mode to dissipate the approaching Christmas, in conformity with the Canadian customs. This is a season of festivity, in which every species of sensual indulgence is admitted without restriction. Considerable preparation and expense and all possible ingenuity are impressed into the service to render the close of the year a period of jollity, a carnaval; when folly and vice rule in all plenitude of sway. High Mass having been chanted; it seems, that the people think the Savior is honored in exact proportion to the extent of their criminal revelry. . " |