THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP.
"Dans quelle terre a borderez-vous qui vous soit plus chere que celle ou vous etes ne?"
--PAUL ET VIRGINIE.
When I reached home my father took me to Dormilliere. "The purpose is very special," he said, so gravely that I trusted his wisdom and hastily despatching to Alexandra a brooch of Roman mosaic, which I had bought for her in Italy, I left with him.
Life had another offer now to extend to me--Dormilliere, and the power thereof. As we approached the pier, and I beheld its three green terraces one over another; the grove of pines on the hill-top above the terraces; and cottages, white, red and grey, appearing among the pines;--dear home unvisited so long;--and the spires of the Church in the sky glinting the light of the setting sun, and on the sh.o.r.e and pier familiar faces of old men and young men changed; boys grown into stalwart fellows, and babes into boys and girls; many quiet visions of youth rose and mingled with my thoughts, and this spell began its working, as those of Society and Art had done.
"V"la Monseigneur!" called out Pierre, our coachman, on the pier, the lineaments of whose face half seemed a memory suddenly grown vivid and real.--"Mon Dieu!" he cried laughing and crying, as he looked at me closely, "It"s M"sieu Chamilly! My dear child, it was painful to have you absent so long. Why did you not come even to see us?--Please give me your hand again. But how you are loaded! Come, where is your valise? Let me do something for you, M"sieu Chamilly."
"Les v"la!"
"V"la Monseigneur!"
"V"la M"sieu Chamilly!" the shouts went up.
"It"s the young Seigneur! the young Seigneur!" spread among the villagers,--they welcomed, they addressed us, the kind spirit of French Canadians took us to itself, and I was drawn to my people, as I had not been even during the conversation of the delightful Madame Fauteux. My father received them with both hands and all sorts of gay remarks, "How do you like this, Chamilly?" he laughed, with the satisfaction of an Archduke returned to his dominions.
"Are you come to fish, Monsieur?" asked Pierre, in affectionate garrulity, as he took up the reins.
"No, good Pierre, I do not know what I am coming for."
"You will troll as formerly? Our magnificent maskinonge are polite as guests for a wedding. Yesterday I took one of ninety-seven pounds!"
The good hearted fellow kept talking as we drove.
One familiar scene after another! The village street of which I knew every doorstep. Ah!--a new wayside across in front of Widow Priedieu"s--and the gay mast before the Captain Martinet"s--the blacksmith"s dusty shop--the inn-keepers" poles holding out their oval hotel-signs--the merry little c.o.c.ked house where they had that famous jollification immortalized in the song:
"Au grand bal chez Boule."
But my friends! my friends!--to see my old friends was the great enjoyment. "Hola," deliberate Pierre; and you three Jeans--gros Jean, grand Jean and pet.i.t Jean; "Monsieur le Notaire, bon jour!" the faces at the panes and the heads at the door!
And lo, the gardens,--the broad fields so generous of harvest--the Manoir trees in the distance!
And as of yore,--driving up the road those merrymen in the carts singing that well remembered "En roulant":
"Le fils du roi s"en va cha.s.sant En roulant, ma boule."[E]
And with sympathetic exhilaration, I swing into the old life again on the current of the jovial chorus:
"En roulant, ma boule roulant: En roulant, ma boule!"
[Footnote E: "The Dauphin forth a hunting goes.
Roll, roll on, my rolling ball."
--OLD CHANSON.]
CHAPTER XV.
THE LIFE OF LEADERSHIP.
.... "Pourvu qu"ils vivent n.o.blement et ne fa.s.sent aucun acte derogeant a n.o.blesse."
PATENTS OF n.o.bLESSE.
"Light the lamps," my father ordered.
Tardif, the butler, did so with alacrity.
"Tardif, thou canst withdraw," added my father.
"Oui, monseigneur," replied Tardif, bowing respectfully, and went.
The room and its antiquated splendors looked ancestral to me. Its size struck me. It was larger than any in our town house. The family portraits and furniture revived lifelong memories. We had a fine collection of forefathers.
"Chamilly"--began my father, walking up before the picture of one who was to me childhood"s holy dream. He stopped for some moments, gazing up to her face with intense affection, and then turning to me, said in a broken voice--"Never forget your mother."
"No, sir," I replied, bending my head.
In a moment he went on to the other portraits, and his manner altered to more of pride.
"Your grandfather, the Honorable Chateauguay, this. This is his Lady, your grandmother. Here is her father, a LeGardeur de Repentigny. There is the old Marshal in armor. Here is Louise d"Argentenaye, of the time of Henry IV., who married a Montcalm. Here is the Count d"Argentenaye in armor." And thus he took me about on a singular round, and informed me concerning the whole gallery.
He stopped at an old, solid wood cabinet, with spiral legs, bent over and opened it with a key.
"Now," thought I, "these mysteries are going to be explained."
"This is a dress sword," he went on, "worn in France, at the court of Louis XIII. It was worn by one of your forefathers. Here are two decorations--Crosses of St. Louis--what beautiful little things they are. They belong to two of us who were Chevaliers."
I was only still more mystified.
"Come into the office, my son," said he, leading me into a room used for collecting the feudal rents and other business.
"It is coming now," I exclaimed to myself.
My father lifted out an iron box, ornamented with our arms in color, and handed to me a parchment, having an immense wax seal, which I took and read.
Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, Councillor of the King in his Councils of the State and Privy Council, Governor and Lieutenant-General of His Majesty in Canada, Acadia, and other countries of Septentrional France. To All Those who shall see these present letters: HIS MAJESTY having at all times sought to act with "zeal proper to the just t.i.tle of Eldest Son of the Church, has pa.s.sed into this Country good number of his subjects, Officers of his troops in the Regiment of Carignan and others, whereof the most part desiring to attach themselves to the country by founding Estates and Seigniories proportionate to their force; and the Sieur JEAN CHAMILIE D"ARGENTENAY, Lieutenant of the Company of D"Ormilliere, having prayed us to grant him some such: WE, in consideration of the good, useful, and praiseworthy services he has rendered to His Majesty as well in Old France as New, do concede to the said Sieur Jean Chamilie D"Argentenay, the Extent of Lands which shall be found on the River St. Lawrence from those of Sieur Simon de la Lande to those heretofore granted to the Sieur de Bois-Hebert, to enjoy said land _en Fief et Seigneurie_ at charge of the Faith and Homage, the said Sieur Jean Chamilie D"Argentenay his heirs and representatives shall he held to render at Our Castle of St. Louis at Quebec.
"DE FRONTENAC."
I laid down the parchment.
"This is the original grant of the seigniory?"