like fire and left only ashes in his heart. He
had buried his wife on the memorable day that Murray made his triumphal
entry into Quebec, and within three years after that event, he laid
three babes beside their mother. Had Pauline died, he too should have
died, but as that lovely flower continued to blossom in the gloom of his
isolation, he consented to live, and at times even to hope a little for
her sake. Fortunately large remnants of his fortune remained to him.
Indeed, he was accounted one of the wealthiest men of Quebec. As his
daughter grew to womanhood, he used these riches to beautify his home
and make existence more enjoyable to her. He was also a generous friend
to the poor, especially those French families whom the war of 1759 and
1760, had reduced to destitution. Those who could not abide the altered
forms of British rule and who desired to emigrate to France, he assisted
by every means in his power, while those whom circumstances forced to
remain in the vanquished province always found in him a patron and
supporter. As time wore on, his friends induced him occasionally to
withdraw from his solitude and take a feeble part in public affairs. But
this interest was purely civic or municipal, never political. He
persistently kept aloof from legislative councils and his loyalty to
England was strictly passive. The ultra-British did not like him, always
putting him down in their books as a malcontent.

When the news of the revolt of the Thirteen Colonies reached Quebec, it
had at first no perceptible effect upon him. It was only a quarrel of
Englishmen with Englishmen. The casting of tea chests into the waters of
Boston Bay he scoffed at as a vulgar masquerade. The musketry of Concord
and Lexington found no echo in his heart. But when one day he read in
his favorite _Gazette de France_ that _la patrie_ had designs of
favoring the rebels, a flash of the old fire rose to his eyes, and he
tossed his head with a show of defiance. Then came the thunders of
Bunker Hill, and he listened complacently to their music. Then came
rumors of the rebel army marching into Canada with a view of
fraternizing with the conquered settlers of its soil. There was
something after all then in this revolution. It was not mere petulant
resistance to fancied oppression, but underlying and leavening it, there
was a germinating principle of freedom, a parent idea of autonomy and
nationality. He read the proceedings of the Congress at Philadelp