THE CAMPAIGN OF 1657

THE SIEGE OF WILLIAM HENRY—WINTER GAYETY AND GAUNT FAMINE

SHIPS ARRIVE—NEWS OF GREAT INTERNATIONAL WAR—RED ALLIES IN MONTREAL—STRONG LIQUOR—PREPARATIONS FOR WAR—FORT WILLIAM HENRY FALLS—ARRIVAL OF SAVAGES AND TWO HUNDRED ENGLISH PRISONERS—CANNIBALISM—THE PAPER MONEY—FEAR OF FAMINE—MONTCALM'S LETTER TO TROOPS ON RETRENCHMENT—A SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE—GAMING AMID SOCIAL MISERY—HORSE FLESH FOR THE SOLDIERS—DE LEVIS PUTS DOWN A REVOLT—THE "HUNGER STRIKE"—THE LETTERS OF MONTCALM—BIGOT AND LA GRANDE SOCIETE—"LA FRIPONNE" AT MONTREAL—MURRAY'S CRITICISM. NOTE: THE PECULATORS.

The ships brought news of grave changes in France. The result of the alliance between Austria and France, concluded on May 1, 1756, had been that France had now become embroiled in a great international war. There had also been an attempt of assassination on the life of Louis XV. But what particularly affected the government of Montreal was the information that the minister of war, d'Argenson, and of marine, de Machault, had been succeeded respectively by M. de Paulmy and M. de Mauras—due to the influence of Madame de Pompadour. These changes were not looked upon with too much favour by those responsible for Canada in the critical period it was now in. To Montcalm the serious loss of his patron, d'Argenson, was somewhat mitigated by the knowledge that M. de Paulmy, the minister succeeding, was d'Argenson's nephew. The change of M. de Machault, with whom Montcalm had had less relations, was less distasteful, as the new minister, de Mauras, was the brother-in-law of Madame HÉrault, the protectress of his first aide-de-camp, Bougainville; moreover, there were common ties between the de HÉrault family and that of Montcalm.

The vessels from France had lightened the strain of provisioning the army, but the needs of the army and the gatherings at Montreal of a vast number of redskins, attracted by the success at Oswego to take up the axe against the English and share in the campaign, caused Vaudreuil, acting on a suggestion made by Montcalm as early as March, to send Martel, the storekeeper, around the Montreal district to commandeer rations for a month for 12,800 men. On June 22d, more than eight hundred of these wild allies were encamped around Montreal, and 300 more were expected from DÉtroit. According to the enumeration in Montcalm's journal there were: 400 Ottawans, [201] 100 PoutÉouatamies, about four hundred Puants, SakÉs, Folles-Avoines and Iowas. The latter had never been seen before at Montreal and their language was unknown.

The streets and public places saw an incessant passing to and fro of dusky braves, armed for the warpath, with lances, bows and arrows, with bodies almost entirely naked, or loosely draped in their beaver or buffalo coverings, vividly painted in red or blue or black, with their heads shaven except for the topknots, in which were stuck the tufts of multicoloured feathers. A great number were of colossal stature; and these copper-coloured giants, fierce in aspect, guttural in speech, and strikingly tattooed, moved around the town, ight to the citizens, and mingled with the French officers and soldiers, whose brilliant European uniforms produced a strange contrast with their barbaric but picturesque accoutrements. Sometimes they would be seen wending their way, with their interpreters, to the ChÂteau de Vaudreuil to pay their respects to the governor, whose inexhaustible patience offered no rebuff to their interminable deputations. Now, they would go in a band to carry on their Indian dances before the houses of the chief officials.

Montreal with its bronzed soldiery, who had warred beyond the Rhine, crossed the Alps and braved the suns of Italy, presented in this meeting of two races, two civilizations so widely divergent, a wonderfully moving and dramatic spectacle. But there was a pitiable reverse to this picture. At times when the strong liquors had seized them, their camps became veritable pandemoniums, and revolting scenes were enacted. Already presentiments of horrible extravagances were experienced by the officers from France, such as Bougainville, who wrote of his fierce, drunken and bloodthirsty allies to Madame de HÉrault on June 30th: "I will tell you that we count on two sieges and a battle, and your child trembles at the horrors he will be forced to witness. There will be difficulty in restraining the savages from up country, who are the fiercest of men and great cannibals. Listen to what their chiefs said just three days ago to M. de Montcalm, 'My father, do not count upon our giving quarter to the English. We have with us young men, who have not yet drunk of this broth (blood). This fresh flesh has led them hither from the ends of the universe. They have to learn to wield the knife and to plunge it into an English heart.' Such are our companions, ... what a spectacle for a human heart!"

Everything was now ready for the campaign. By the 18th of June Montcalm was with de LÉvis at St. John; thence he proceeded to Chambly to inspect the troops, and the military roads, and suitable places for camping. By the end of June the troops were ordered to move, and on July 2d de LÉvis went to take command of the troops at Carillon. On July 9th Vaudreuil gave his instructions to General Montcalm. He was to take Fort George (or Fort William Henry) and then, on its fall, he was to go to the siege of Fort Lydius (or Fort Edward), situated fifteen miles from Fort George and from Lake St. Sacrement. That same day Montcalm with Bougainville went to the Lake of Two Mountains to join in the war song with the Algonquins and the Nipissings of the district and he returned to Montreal on July 11th, having received the name of Goroniatsigoa, that is to say, the "Great Sky in Anger." On the 12th, Montcalm departed for Montreal for St. John, which he left on July 15th with the colonial officers, de Rigaud, Dumas, de St. Ours, de Bonne and many others under the escort of the Guyenne grenadiers and a small detachment of Ottawans. Three days afterwards he arrived at Carillon.

Meanwhile Vaudreuil remained at Montreal, directing the war from his cabinet. We cannot follow this campaign in detail, but we may pursue the fortunes of Montcalm somewhat. On July 29th he found himself, with 7,819 men, advancing to Fort William Henry, his force composed of 2,570 land troops; colonials and militia, 3,470; gunners, 180; and Indian allies, 1,599. On August 1st he began the siege of William Henry, held by Colonel Monroe with 2,200 men. On August 9th Colonel Monroe perforce capitulated, having hung out the white flag at 7 a. m. that morning. It was a glorious victory, but marred by the shameful extravagances, feared by Montcalm and the others, of the Indians, who, glutted with victory, broke the capitulation agreement.

This event may be summed up in the account given in Bancroft's "History of the United States," II, p. 467:

"To make the capitulation inviolably binding on the Indians, Montcalm summoned their war chiefs to council. The English were to depart under an escort with the honors of war on a pledge not to serve against the French for eighteen months; they were to abandon all but their private effects; every Canadian or French Indian captive was to be liberated. The Indians applauded; the capitulation was signed. Late on the 9th the French entered the fort and the English retired to their entrenched camp. Montcalm had kept all intoxicating drinks from the savages; but they obtained them of the English, and all night long were wild with dances, songs and revelry. The Abenakis of Acadia inflamed other tribes by recalling their sufferings from English perfidy and power. At daybreak, they gathered round the entrenchments, and as the terrified English soldiers filed off, began to plunder them, and incited one another to use the tomahawk. Twenty, perhaps even thirty, [202] persons were massacred, while very many were made prisoners. Officers and soldiers, stripped of everything, fled to the woods, to the fort, to the tents of the French. To arrest the disorder LÉvis plunged into the tumult, daring death a thousand times. French officers received wounds in rescuing the captives, and stood at their tents as sentries over those they recovered. 'Kill me,' cried Montcalm, using prayers and menaces and promises, 'but spare the English who are under my protection,' and he urged the troops to defend themselves. The march to Fort Edward (Fort Lydius) was a flight; not more than six hundred reached there in a body. From the French camp Montcalm collected together more than four hundred, who were dismissed with a great escort, and he sent Vaudreuil [203] to ransom those whom the Indians had carried away."

Bougainville's journal tells how "the savages (those from up country) arrived in a mob at Montreal with about two hundred English. M. de Vaudreuil reprimanded them for having violated the capituion treaty; they excused themselves and threw the blame on the domiciliated tribes settled with the French. It was announced that they must give up the English prisoners unjustly captured and they would be paid two barrels of eau-de-vie apiece for them." Even with this shameful ransom the savages released their prisoners only with reluctance, "for," says Bougainville, "on the 15th, at two o'clock in the afternoon, in the presence of the whole town, they killed one of them, put him into the kettle and forced his unfortunate compatriots to feed on him."

On the same evening, at Lake George, the columns of smoke from the heaps of cinders and the last flickering flames from the dying fires were the only indications of the site where eight days before the bastions of Fort William Henry had stood. The campaign was virtually over and Montcalm returned to Montreal at the beginning of September, a victorious general. But he had not attempted to take Fort Edward or Lydius, much to the chagrin of Vaudreuil. The reasons for this, as given by his aide-de-camp, in a letter to the minister of war on August 18th, seem sufficient. "The extreme difficulty of making a portage of ten leagues without oxen or horses, with an army almost worn out with fatigue and want of food, the lack of ammunition, the necessity of sending the Canadians back to gather in their harvests, already ripe, the departure of all the redskins from the upper countries, as well as nearly all of the more civilized ones nearer home: such are the invincible obstacles which did not permit us to march immediately to Fort Edward." Grave reasons, enough, but they did not satisfy the governor general, who had watched the situation from the comfortable quarters of Government House, eighty leagues from the theatre of war, and he did not hesitate to send his complaints to France, insinuating the inefficiency of Montcalm, his strained relations with the colonial officers and want of consideration for the home forces and unwise treatment of the savages. On the other hand, the letters of Bougainville go to show the extreme popularity of the general with all classes. We cannot enter into a discussion of the rights and wrongs of their bitter controversy; we quote it as a sidelight, illustrating the division in the highest circles of Montreal during this period—the prÉjugÉ colonial and the prÉjugÉ mÉtropolitain, over again! [204]

When Montcalm went to Quebec in September after the victory of William Henry he tells us that he found the air of the town "very commercial and stock jobbing." It was the time of the year when the card money was exchanged for letters of exchange on the treasurer of the marine department in France. The same activity would therefore be engaging Montreal. From September 1st to September 20th the people were bringing in to the treasurer the card money and the money orders which, besides the current coinage, which was very scarce, constituted the monetary system of the colony. The card money, created by the Intendant de Meulles, was equivalent to our bills on the government of Canada. But with the increase of the public expenditures, it was thought fit to have recourse to another instrument of exchange, and the intendants had sent out, under their sole signatures, "ordonnances" bearing an order number and an indication of their nominal value, inscribed in figures and in writing. These cards and ordonnances had currency only in the limits of Canada. It was necessary, therefore, that they should be transformed into other values, for commercial needs of importation and the financial relations between the colony and France. Thus, every autumn the treasurer exchanged them for paper negotiable outside the country. From the 1st of September to the 20th he gave "bonds" or their equivalent, and these were taken from the 1st of October to the 20th to the bureaux of the intendant, who gave in return the letters of exchange on the marine deparment of France. Thus the colony paid its bill to the mother country. The system worked well till 1753. But afterwards, owing to the deplorable financial conditions and the growing expenditures in Canada, the ministers adopted a system of delayed payments in three terms. Montcalm, in his journal, alludes to this practice. "The intendant regulates the terms of payments. Last year they were made payable during the year in three payments. This year they are made payable in three years, viz., a quarter in 1758, a half in 1759, and another quarter in 1760." [205]

In the middle of October, news came to the garrison of Montreal by an open letter of Montcalm on October 14th, sent through de LÉvis, to the lieutenant colonels of his regiments, of the retrenchments ordered in the food supplies owing to the harvests having been ruined by frosts and rains that year, and to the provisions expected from France not having been sent through error. "We are about to find ourselves," ended the letter in an eloquent and soldierly appeal, "in most critical circumstances for want of good supplies. We are in need of bread this year; the means that they are about taking to supply it will make us in need of meat next year. Whatever difficulties the troops in the country experience in living with the habitants, their soldiers will have less to complain of than will those who are in the town garrisons. The times are going to be harder than at Prague in certain respects. I am, at the same time, persuaded that this is going to be the finest opportunity of glory for the land troops, as I am sure, in advance, that they will lend themselves to it entirely in the best taste, and that we shall hear no complaints or jeremiads on the rarity of supplies, seeing there is no remedy. Thus we are ready to give the example of frugality necessary by the retrenchment of our table fare and expenses, and I venture to say that that officer, who in place of priding himself on his good cheer, on spending and entertaining, like every French officer accustomed to notions of rank and liberality, will live the most meanly, will give the surest marks of his love for his country, for the king's service, and will be worthy of the greatest praise."

This letter, which did honour to the general, was written in consequence of a meeting called in Quebec on October 13th by Vaudreuil, at which Montcalm, Bigot, PÉan and the commissary general, Cadet, were present to consider the terrible question of failing provisions. The Intendant Bigot submitted an exposÉ of the situation. The commissariat department contained only 1,500 quarts of flour; the quests in the southern districts had only returned 2,000 hundredweights; the government of Montreal could only furnish 600, to that of Quebec.

It was then decided that, commencing from November 1st, each soldier would receive the following rations every eight days: a half pound of bread every day, and a quarter pound of peas, six pounds of beef and two pounds of codfish for the eight days. In December they would begin to be given horseflesh—this to continue in January and February; pork was to be kept for the autumn. Montcalm made several judicious propositions, one being that soldiers should be dispersed into those villages where none were as yet quartered, and that the example of frugality, and retrenchment should be immediately set by himself, the governor general, the intendant and the others. This self-denying ordinance was at once generously acted upon. Writing to de LÉvis next day, enclosing the open letter as above, Montcalm, speaking of the new rÉgime of retrenchment, says: "All the colony applauds; the intendant not so much. He loves display."

Yet, sad to relate, in spite of these noble resolutions, the gayeties among the rulers of the colony, were soon revived at Quebec, while misery and famine were gnawing at the vitals of the common people. Bigot continued giving his luxurious receptions; music, sumptuous fÊtes, dances and balls, illicit amours and gaming, went on fast and furiously in his house, with Vaudreuil complacently assisting. Even Montcalm was present at the great banquets and lost his money at the gaming tables like the rest. Many of his officers were becoming ruined. At times he would get qualms of conscience and he would write in his journal: "We are amusing ourselves and thinking of nothing; all is going and will go to the devil!" Again: "In spite of the public misery, balls and fearful gaming!" Then he would write to the batallions that if they played in any but the privileged houses (such as those of the intendant "out of the consideration due to him") he would punish them, adding that even in this case, he would expect them to play discreetly. Then he would make a resolution only to go to the intendant's house in the morning. "The tone of decency, of polite manners, of good society is banished from the home where it ought to be." Yet he frequented the house of Bigot and that of his paramour, La PÉan, as at Montreal de LÉvis was the constant visitor of Madame PÉnisseault.

Meanwhile misery reigned in the colony. The people in Quebec continued to have no bread. In the country places wheat was rare, and an ordinance was passed to prevent the inhabitants from milling the grain necessary for seeding purposes.

From October 19th the rations of the troops had been reduced to a pound of bread, a quarter pound of pork and four ounces of peas. On November 1st, they were further reduced. Finally in December the troops and the people had to eat horseflesh. At Montreal when the first distribution of this was made it was perceived that a revolt was fermenting among them and that they had been incited by the people to make resistance. Being warned that the soldiers were refusing the rations and were leaving the canteen, de LÉvis ran thither, ordered the company to be reassembled and in their presence made them cut some horseflesh for himself and commanded the grenadiers also to take some. These wished to make some representations, but he checked them, enjoining on them obedience and threatening to hang the first man that flinched, adding that he would listen to them after the distribution.

The grenadiers, thus subdued, took their meat and their example was followed by all the companies. Then they had the liberty to air their grievances. After having listened to them, de LÉvis harangued them, disabusing them of the popular prejudice being aroused against horseflesh. "Horse meat was a healthy dish; that it was often eaten in besieged towns; that he would have an eye to it that the animals slaughtered should be in good condition; that he himself dined on it daily; [206] that the land troops ought to give a good example, etc." There were no more difficulties. They seem even to have taken to the dish, according to the following incident related in de LÉvis' journal: "On 'the day of the Kings' (January 6), 1758, eight grenadiers of the BÉarn regiment brought M. de LÉvis a dish of horse meat prepared in their own fashion, which was very good. The chevalier made them sit down and dine, and ordered them some wine and two dishes of horse prepared by his own cooks, who proved to be not as good as theirs. In addition he gave them four louis, so that the company should celebrate the feast and drink to his health."

The ladies of Montreal were among the first to stir up resistance. When the first partial substitution of horseflesh for beef was made, they trouped tumultuously to the doors of the ChÂteau Vaudreuil. The governor allowed four of them to enter and asked them what they wanted. They replied that they wanted bread. Vaudreuil told them that he had none to give them; that even the troops were on short rations, but that he was going to kill horses and cattle to assist the poor in this time of misery. They replied that horseflesh was repugnant to them; that the horse was the friend of man; that religion forbade it to be killed, and that they would rather die than eat it. The governor then told them that this was mere nonsense; that horse was good meat, and he dismissed them, affirming that if they created any more disturbance he would put them in prison and hang half of them.

Thus was the "hunger strike" of 1757 dealt with.

The letters of Montcalm from Montreal, which have been carefully studied by M. Thomas Chapais in his "Montcalm," published in 1911, reveal to us a sad state of corruption and venality in high places at Quebec and Montreal. We may quote M. Chapais' estimate of the situation. In answer to the charge that Montcalm hated the Canadians he says: "This is not so; he loved our people and appreciated their real qualities at their true value. He wrote to M. Moras (the minister of marine) on July 11, 1767: 'What a colony! What a people!... They are all thoroughly men of character and courage!' He had sympathy for the 'Canadian simple habitant,' who for his part loved and respected him, and Montcalm had reason to believe, as he said, that he was popular. But he had little esteem for a great number of the Canadian high functionaries and officers of the country. He criticized their vanity, their spirit of boastfulness, their duplicity and their unscrupulousness. We believe that he was too inclined to generalize to the point of pushing his antipathies too far. He did not guard himself against the anti-colonial prejudice, with which the troops of the line were certainly affected and which, in spite of himself, made his judgment err at times. A Canadian historian is wounded in his national 'amour propre' in reading the journal and letters of Montcalm. The allusions to Canadian insincerity, Canadian braggadocio, Canadian rudeness, occurred too frequently for our liking. And we rightly find that the spirit of ill-humour and caustic carping is too easily indulged in, to the detriment of the sons of the soil. But we must not, for this reason, tax with injustice and with blind prejudice all the severe strictures passed by Montcalm. HÉlas! We are forced to agree that he had under his eyes spectacles of a nature calculated to ruffle an honest soul and a clear-sighted mind, pretentious incapacity, insatiable cupidity, shameless indelicacy and dishonesty. And we ought not to be astonished that bitter expressions had been ready to mount from his heart to his lips. Doubtless distinctions have to be made and Montcalm knew how to make them. Thus we find frequently from his pen eulogiums on de Villiers, de Contrecoeur, de Ligneris, de la NaudiÈre, de Langy, Marin and many other Canadian officers. But when he denounces the robberies of Cadet, of PÉan, of Duchesneau and of so many other peculators, can we accuse him with injustice because these were born in Canada?"

This leads us to speak of the "grande sociÉtÉ" of functionaries who were waxing rich at the public expense at Quebec and Montreal. The chief of these was Bigot, the intendant, a Frenchman; with him were the Canadians, Cadet, PÉan, Duchesnaux; and acting in concert with them at Montreal was the Frenchman Varin, in charge of the commissariat department, who had associated with him Martel, the keeper of the stores, and the Sieur de PÉnisseault, whom they placed in charge of a store to monopolize the commerce of Montreal. This is known as "La Friponne," or "The Cheat," after the parent one at Quebec.

This notorious group of men, with whom were others less conspicuous, were then in the very height of their successful efforts to "get rich quick," in the system of peculation and robbery established by Bigot.

Bigot was a type of the adventurer that helped to ruin Canada. His great objective was to make his fortune as quickly as possible. Eager for pleasure, a dissolute gamester, fastidious in his tastes, pushing his love of luxury to incredible excesses, he had need to make money quickly to satisfy his craving for the enjoyments of life. Withal, he was an intelligent, active worker, full of resources and address, clever to surmount obstacles and even to render great services to the country in difficult situations.

From his arrival in Canada he had joined illicitly in commerce with the Gradis, shipowners of Bordeaux, as well as with BrÉard, controller of the marine at Quebec, whom he had interested in his business affairs in order to buy his complicity.

The intendant juggled away the rights of His Majesty's customs in declaring the merchandise brought in by his Bordeaux accomplices, as that of the king. The royal stores were always found to be needing just those articles, which their vessels always had in abundance. The sales were concluded under fictitious names or of those who lent them for the nefarious purpose. The controller, BrÉard, complacently signed the invoices and marked fictitious prices. Finally Bigot bought these goods for the king at an extravagant rate. Others became associated with the embezzlers and soon it became a public scandal. Among those daring speculators were the infamous triumvirate, of whom two were men of low extraction but of undoubted ability, Duchesneau, Bigot's secretary, the son of a Quebec shoemaker; Cadet, the son of a butcher and himself once a cattle watcher of a Charlesbourg habitant; the third was Hugues PÉan, Sieur de LevandiÈre, son of a former adjutant at Quebec.

The illicit liaison of this man's wife with Bigot and the complacent acquiescence of PÉan in the arrangement was public property. Like Louis XV, Bigot had his Pompadour and her influence was considerable.

The extent of misery to which these schemers drove the common people seems almost incredible. These associates, with whom Bigot and the triumvirate were popularly connected and whom the public designated "la grande sociÉtÉ" soon came to lay their hands on all "le grande commerce." A spacious building was constructed near the intendancy, on ground belonging to the crown. Vast storehouses were built there. The ostensible object was to sell goods by retail, but in reality the design was to warehouse all the goods habitually needed by the government stores. Each year Bigot had to send to the court a list of the goods necessary for government purposes for the coming year. This was always left incomplete. Hence in a short time there was a dearth, and then it was found by the luckiest of chances that the stores of the associates always had just the desired articles in stock. Thus retail merchants were excluded by this monopoly and prices were raised, and the privileged establishment was baptized by the long-suffering public under the name of "La Friponne" (the cheat).

It has been thought useful to describe the methods of "La Friponne" of Quebec in order to explain the similar one, set up in Montreal by Varin, the head of the government commissariat here. He is described as born in France, of low extraction, small in figure and of an unattractive appearance, a liar, arrogant, capricious, headstrong and a libertine. In order to become rich, in imitation of the Quebec monopolists, he laid violent hands on the supplies for the posts above Montreal, and not to compromise himself personally he associated with himself Martel, the king's storekeeper of the town. Varin and Martel equipped the camps and did large business. They set up a store on similar lines to those at Quebec, which also the people were not slow in nicknaming "La Friponne." Over this was placed the Sieur de PÉnisseault, an able manager, but who had the reputation of having left France under a cloud. The newsmongers of the salons of this period say that PÉan stood in well with Madame PÉnisseault regardless of consequences until he gallantly yielded his place to a more brilliant star in the person of the dashing Chevalier de LÉvis. The morals of Paris and Versailles were being reflected in the humbler salons of Quebec and Montreal.

Before leaving PÉnisseault it may be added that he was the appointed agent at Montreal of Cadet, who had been appointed in 1756 commissary general of the stores in Canada. Herein was a new opportunity for battening on the treasury which was exercised to its utmost. PÉnisseault was assisted in Montreal by the hunchback, Maurin, deformed in mind as in body, but a clever and avaricious trader, though at times ostentatiously generous. These two had been terribly scourged by the pen of the annalist of the period. ("MÉmoires de Sieur de C.," p. 87.)

Another source of illicit revenue came to these latter in conjunction with the associates of "La Grande SociÉtÉ," which is attested in the final judgment rendered in Paris in 1763, when tardy justice meted out more or less adequate reward to this ring of embezzlers. We may conclude this chapter with General Murray's criticism as follows:

"The small salaries given by the French government to the civil officers in general made them neglect their duty and wreck their invention to cheat and trick both king and people. This was carried to such a length that many instances may be cited of clerks and men in petty offices with yearly salaries of only six or eight hundred livres, raising to themselves, in the compass of three or four years, fortunes of three or four hundred thousand." (Observation in General Murray's Report in 1762 on the State of the Government During the French Administration.)

NOTE

THE PECULATORS

The number of those afterwards accused of peculation [207] was fifty-five, including the governor, Pierre de Rigaud; Marquis de Vaudreuil and his secretary, Saint-Sauveur; the intendant, Bigot; Varin, his sub-delegate; and Duchesneau, his secretary; BrÉard, controller of the marine department; EstÈbe, the keeper of the king's stores in Quebec; Cadet, commissary general of supplies for Canada; Corpron, merchant, and his agent; PÉan, captain and aide-major of the marine troops in Canada; Le Mercier, the commander of artillery in Canada. All these were well known at Montreal, but we may add to them the following who were stationed here and who acted as the associates of the peculators whose headquarters had been at Quebec before the change of government to Montreal; Martel de Saint-Antoine, La Barthe, Fayolle, keepers of the king's stores at Montreal; Maurin, PÉnisseault, merchants, partners and agents of Cadet in his offices here; Le Moyne-Despins, a merchant employed in furnishing provisions to the army; Martel, of the marine commissariat; and Salvat, employed in the stores department. The rest were either commandants of forts or storekeepers.

Of the fifty-five accused, twenty-one, and these the chiefs, alone appeared, having undergone a long imprisonment in the Bastille; the rest were judged in their absence. The final judgment was pronounced on December 10, 1763, of which the following is a partial rÉsumÉ:

Bigot—Perpetual banishment; property confiscated; 1,000 livres of fine and 1,500,000 livres restitution.

Varin—Perpetual banishment; property confiscated; 1,000 livres of fine and 800,000 livres restitution.

Cadet—Nine years' banishment; 500 livres of fine and 600,000 livres restitution.

Duchesnaux—Five years' banishment; 50 livres of fine and 300,000 livres restitution.

PÉnisseault—Nine years' banishment; 500 livres of fine and 600,000 livres restitution.

Maurin—Nine years' banishment; 500 livres of fine and 600,000 livres restitution.

Corpron—Condemned to be admonished in parliament; 6 livres to the poor and 600,000 livres restitution.

Martel de Saint-Antoine—Six livres to the poor and 100,000 livres restitution.

EstÈbe—Six livres to the poor and 30,000 livres restitution.

With incarceration of the offenders until the amounts should be paid.

The Marquis de Vaudreuil, Le Mercier and Fayolle were acquitted; La Barthe, hors de cours, or "not proven." PÉan's sentence was not pronounced till June 25, 1764; he was then declared hors de cours, but in view of his illegitimate gains he was condemned to restore 600,000 livres and to be kept in the Bastille until restitution had been made.