rs ago
they found a resting-place in a new tomb in Mount Hermon Cemetery. On a
lovely autumn day in 1907 I made my way in Quebec to the spot where the
Nairnes are interred. In the fresh cool air it was a pleasure to walk
briskly the three miles of the St. Louis road to the cemetery. One
crossed the battle field of the Plains of Abraham where, within a few
months, a century and a half ago, Britain and France grappled in deadly
strife. The elder Nairne saw that field with its harvest of dead on
September 13th, 1759, and, in the following April, he saw its snow
stained with the blood of brave men who fell in Murray's battle with
Levis. In May, 1776, he marched across it in victorious pursuit of the
fleeing American army. At Mount Hermon I readily found the Nairne tomb.
It lies on the slope of the hill towards the river. Through the noble
trees gleamed the mighty tide of the St. Lawrence. A great pine tree
stands near the block of granite that marks the Nairne graves and a
gentle breeze through its countless needles caused that mysterious
sighing which is perhaps nature's softest and saddest note. One's
thoughts went back to the brave old Colonel who wrought so well and had
such high hopes for his posterity to the soldier son, remembered here,
who died in far distant India; and to the other soldier son who fell in
Canada upon the field of battle. He was the last male heir of his line.
The name and the family are now well-nigh forgotten. The inscriptions on
the tomb, reared by a friend, connected with the Nairnes by ties of
friendship only, not of blood, are themselves the memorial of the rise
and extinction of a Canadian family.[36]

[Footnote 25: He must have been a Roman Catholic for he was buried in
the churchyard at Murray Bay.]

[Footnote 26: We have seen (_ante_ p. 49) how at Malbaie Colonel Nairne
expected that a Protestant missionary would soon make the community
Protestant.]

[Footnote 27: Professor Barrett Wendell, France of To-day, New York,
1907.]

[Footnote 28: Roy, Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon, IV: 169, 170.]

[Footnote 29: The Abbe H.R. Casgrain: _Une Paroisse Canadienne au XVII.
Siecle_. _Oeuvres_, Vol. I, pp. 483 _sqq._]

[Footnote 30: Roy, La Seigneurie de Lauzon, IV: 247.]

[Footnote 31: M. Leon Gerin in "L'Habitant de Saint-Justin", p. 202.]

[Footnote 32: Roy, La Seigneurie de Lauzon IV: 245.]

[Footnote 33: De Gaspe, _Memoires_, p. 533, 4.]

[Footnote 34: Mr. Nairne claimed as compen