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The Young Seigneur Or, Nation-Making

The Young Seigneur Or, Nation-Making

Wilfrid Chateauclair
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Literature
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The Young Seigneur Or, Nation-Making by Wilfrid Chateauclair

Chapter 1 THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIèRE.

In the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy odd, about six years

after the confederation of the Provinces into the Dominion of Canada, an

Ontarian went down into Quebec,-an event then almost as rare as a

Quebecker entering Ontario.

"It's a queer old Province, and romantic to me," said the Montrealer with whom old Mr. Chrysler (the Ontarian) fell in on the steamer descending to Sorel, and who had been giving him the names of the villages they passed in the broad and verdant panorama of the shores of the St. Lawrence.

In truth, it is a queer, romantic Province, that ancient Province of Quebec,-ancient in store of heroic and picturesque memories, though the three centuries of its history would look foreshortened to people of Europe, and Canada herself is not yet alive to the far-reaching import of each deed and journey of the chevaliers of its early days.

Here, a hundred and thirty years after the Conquest, a million and a half of Normans and Bretons, speaking the language of France and preserving her institutions, still people the shores of the River and the Gulf. Their white cottages dot the banks like an endless string of pearls, their willows shade the hamlets and lean over the courses of brooks, their tapering parish spires nestle in the landscape of their new-world patrie.

"What is that?" exclaimed the Ontarian, suddenly, lifting his hand, his eyes brightening with an interest unwonted for a man beyond middle age.

The steamer was passing close to the shore, making for a pier some distance ahead; and, surmounting the high bank, a majestic scene arose, facing them like an apparition. It was a grey Tudor mansion of weather-stained stone, with churchy pinnacles, a strange-looking bright tin roof, and, towering around the sides and back of its grounds a lofty walk of pine trees, marshalled in dark, square, overshadowing array, out of which, as if surrounded by a guard of powerful forest spirits, the mansion looked forth like a resuscitated Elizabethan reality. Its mien seemed to say: "I am not of yesterday, and shall pass tranquilly on into the centuries to come: old traditions cluster quietly about my gables; and rest is here."

"That is the Manoir of Dormillière," replied the Montrealer, as the steamer, whose paddles had stopped their roar, glided silently by.

Impressive was the Manoir, with its cool shades and air of erect lordliness, its solemn grey walls and pinnacled gables, the beautiful depressed arch of its front door; and its dream-like foreground of river mirroring its majestic guard of pines.

"I knew," said Chrysler, "that you had your seigniories in Quebec, and some sort of a feudal history, far back, but I never dreamed of such seats."

"O, the Seigneurs[A] have not yet altogether disappeared," returned the Montrealer. "Twenty years ago their position was feudal enough to be considered oppressive; and here and there still, over the Province, in some grove of pines or elms, or at some picturesque bend of a river, or in the shelter of some wooded hill beside the sea, the old-fashioned residence is to be descried, seated in its broad demesne with trees, gardens and capacious buildings about it, and at no great distance an old round windmill."

[Footnote A: The old French gentry or noblesse]

"Who lives in this one?"

"The Havilands. An English name but considered French;-grandfather an officer, an English captain, who married the heiress of the old D'Argentenayes, of this place."

"Mr. Haviland is the name of the person I am going to visit."

"The M.P.?"

"Yes, he is an M.P."

"A fine young fellow, then. His first name is Chamilly. His father was a queer man-the Honorable Chateauguay-perhaps you've heard of him? He was of a sort of an antiquarian and genealogical turn, you know, and made a hobby of preserving old civilities and traditions, so that Dormillière is said to be somewhat of a rum place."

The Ontarian thanked his acquaintance and got ready for landing at the pier.

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Latest Release: Chapter 47 NOT THE END.   08-13 19:01
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1 Chapter 1 THE MANOIR OF DORMILLIèRE.
06/12/2017
2 Chapter 2 THE YOUNG SEIGNEUR.
06/12/2017
3 Chapter 3 HAVILAND'S IDEA.
06/12/2017
4 Chapter 4 THE MANUSCRIPT.
06/12/2017
5 Chapter 5 CONFRERIE.
06/12/2017
6 Chapter 6 ALEXANDRA.
06/12/2017
7 Chapter 7 QUINET.
06/12/2017
8 Chapter 8 THE TOBOGGAN SLIDE.
06/12/2017
9 Chapter 9 ASSORTED ENTHUSIASMS.
06/12/2017
10 Chapter 10 THE ENTHUSIASM OF SOCIAL PLEASURE.
06/12/2017
11 Chapter 11 THE CAVE.
06/12/2017
12 Chapter 12 LA MERE PATRIE.
06/12/2017
13 Chapter 13 SOMETHING MORE OF QUINET
06/12/2017
14 Chapter 14 THE ENTHUSIASM OF LEADERSHIP.
06/12/2017
15 Chapter 15 THE LIFE OF LEADERSHIP.
06/12/2017
16 Chapter 16 A POLITICAL SERMON.
06/12/2017
17 Chapter 17 ZOTIQUE'S RECEPTION.
06/12/2017
18 Chapter 18 THE AMERICAN FRANCE.
06/12/2017
19 Chapter 19 A DISAPPEARING ORDER.
06/12/2017
20 Chapter 20 HUMAN NATURE.
06/12/2017
21 Chapter 21 CHEZ NOUS.
06/12/2017
22 Chapter 22 DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE.
06/12/2017
23 Chapter 23 THE MANUFACTORY OF REFLECTIONS.
06/12/2017
24 Chapter 24 THE STATESMAN'S DREAM.
06/12/2017
25 Chapter 25 THE INSTITUTE.
06/12/2017
26 Chapter 26 THE CAMPAIGN PLAN.
06/12/2017
27 Chapter 27 THE LOW-COUNTRY SUNRISE.
06/12/2017
28 Chapter 28 THE IDEAL STATE.
06/12/2017
29 Chapter 29 JOSEPHTE.
06/12/2017
30 Chapter 30 GRANDMOULIN.
06/12/2017
31 Chapter 31 CHAMILLY.
06/12/2017
32 Chapter 32 AN ORATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
06/12/2017
33 Chapter 33 LIBERGENT.
06/12/2017
34 Chapter 34 MISéRICORDE.
06/12/2017
35 Chapter 35 BLEUS.
06/12/2017
36 Chapter 36 THE FREEMASON.
06/12/2017
37 Chapter 37 THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE.
06/12/2017
38 Chapter 38 ZOTIQUE'S MISGIVING.
06/12/2017
39 Chapter 39 A CRIME!
06/12/2017
40 Chapter 40 THE PASSING OF THE HOST.
06/12/2017
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