of the Montreal
Court House; with its long list of autographs of Governor, Intendant,
and high officials, civil and military, scions of the nobility of the
country, appended thereto. The annals of the family tell us that some of
them died in infancy, several met violent and untimely deaths, two of
the sisters took conventual vows in the cloisters of Quebec, two
married, having descendants now living in France and Canada, and two
remained unmarried.

De Ramezay came over as a captain in the army with the Viceroy de Tracy,
and was remarkable for his highly refined education, having been a pupil
of the celebrated Fenelon, who was said to have been the pattern of
virtue in the midst of a corrupt court, and who was entrusted by Louis
the Fourteenth with the education of his grandsons, the Dukes of
Burgundy, Anjou and Berri. Had the first named, who was heir-presumptive
to the throne, lived to practice the princely virtues, the seeds of
which his preceptor had sown in his heart, some of the most bloody pages
in French history might never have been written.

De Ramezay, for many years being Governor of Montreal, held official
court in the Council chamber to the right of the entrance hall of the
Chateau, which is now a museum of rare and valuable relics of Canada's
past.

The Salon was the scene of many a gay rout, as Madame de Ramezay,
imitating the brilliant social and political life as it was in France in
the time of _Le Grand Monarque_, transplanted to the wilds of America
some reflection of court ceremonial and display as they culminated in
that long and brilliant reign. From the dormer windows above, high-bred
French ladies looked at the sun rising over the forest-clothed shores of
the river, on which now stands the architectural grandeur of the modern
city. How strange to the swarthy-faced dwellers in the wigwam must the
old-time gaieties have appeared, as the lights from the silver
_candelabres_ shone far out in the night, when the old Chateau was _en
fete_ and aglow with music, dancing and laughter.

What a contrast to the burden-bearing squaws were the dainty French
women in stiff brocade and jewels, high heels, paint, patches and
tresses _a la Pompadour_, tripping through the stately measures of the
minuet to the sound of lute or harpsichord!

"O, fair young land of _La Nouvelle France_,
With thy halo of olden time romance,
Back like a half-forgotten dream
Come the bygone days of the old _Regi