corted from Yamaska to St Denis by a numerous retinue,
and it is said that 200 or 300 carriages accompanied him on his route.
He has attended five public meetings lately; and at one of them La
Valtrie, a priest, was insulted in his presence. The occurrence at St
Denis was certainly {71} a political affair, a family at St Antoine
opposed to the proceedings of W. Nelson, having been annoyed by the
same mob that destroyed the house of Madame St Jacques a few hours
before the shot was fired from her window.

Special animosity was shown toward the Chouayens, those French
Canadians who had refused to follow Papineau's lead. P. D. Debartzch,
a legislative councillor and a former supporter of Papineau, who had
withdrawn his support after the passing of the Ninety-Two Resolutions,
was obliged to flee from his home at St Charles; and Dr Quesnel, one of
the magistrates of L'Acadie, had his house broken into by a mob that
demanded his resignation as magistrate.

On November 6 rioting broke out in Montreal. The Doric Club, an
organization of the young men of English blood in the city, came into
conflict with the French-Canadian _Fils de la Liberte_. Which side
provoked the hostilities, it is now difficult to say. Certainly, both
sides were to blame for their behaviour during the day. The sons of
liberty broke the windows of prominent loyalists; and the members of
the Doric Club completely wrecked {72} the office of the _Vindicator_
newspaper. It was only when the Riot Act was read, and the troops were
called out, that the rioting ceased.

Up to this point the _Patriotes_ had not indulged in any overt acts of
armed rebellion. Some of their leaders, it is true, had been laying
plans for a revolt. So much is known from the correspondence which
passed between the leading _Patriotes_ in Lower Canada and William Lyon
Mackenzie, the leader of the rebellion in Upper Canada. Thomas Storrow
Brown, one of Papineau's lieutenants, wrote to Mackenzie asking him to
start the ball rolling in Upper Canada first, in order to draw off some
of the troops which Sir John Colborne had massed in Lower Canada. But
all calculations were now upset by events which rapidly precipitated
the crisis in the lower province.

Soon after the fracas in the streets of Montreal between the Doric Club
and the _Fils de la Liberte_, a priest named Quibilier waited on
Papineau, and advised him, since his presence in Montreal had become a
source of disturbanc