rmy, Marshalls, and Generals have covered
themselves with indelible Disgrace and shewn themselves, what I
always thought them, the most perfidious and perjured traitors and
miscreants that the world ever produced, and the rest of the French
Nation are a set of the most unprincipled Knaves and Cowards that
ever were recorded in history. I trust however that their
punishment is at hand and that the Almighty will speedily hurl
vengeance on their guilty heads. Among other evils, a new tax on
Property, with additions, is said to be in immediate contemplation
and God knows how we shall bear all the accumulating Burdens to
which this Country must be subjected.

Just at this time came old Malcolm Fraser's end. At the age of 82 he
died on June 17th, 1815, the day before the battle of Waterloo. He had
entered the army in 1757 and apparently was still serving in the
Canadian militia at the time of his death so that his military career
covered well nigh sixty years. One instruction given in his will is
characteristic; it is that his body might "be committed to the earth or
water, as it may happen, and with as little ceremony and expense as may
be consistent with decency." His removal was a heavy blow to the family
at the Manor House. It was Christine who kept most in touch with the
outside world and to her the letters of the period are nearly all
addressed. They contained the gossip of Quebec,--how in December, 1814,
a Mr. Lyman--"a bad name for a true story to come from,"--had brought
word of peace negotiations at Ghent; news of General Procter's Court
Martial and of a fee of L500 paid to Andrew Stuart, one of the lawyers
in the case. The letters are few and in 1817 they cease altogether.
During the spring of the year Christine had been ailing. On a June day
she drove out for an airing and, as she alighted from the carriage,
expired instantly. The feeling of the Protestant family towards the
Roman Catholic Church is shown in the fact that she left a small legacy
to the cure, Mr. Le Courtois.

There now remained but two daughters. In May, 1821, "Polly" died in
Quebec at Judge Bowen's house. Her old mother followed in 1828. Of
Colonel Nairne's large family but one child remained, Mrs. McNicol. Her
husband, Peter McNicol, appears to have been a quiet and retiring man
and of him we hear little. He was an officer in the local militia and,
in 1830, became a Captain in the second Battali