CHAPTER XVII.  A DOUBLE TRAGEDY.
1819.
Hull was en fête. There was not a mill, shop, or dwelling but had its display of bunting and evergreens, for the new Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada, Charles, fourth Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny, had sent a courier through the woods from Richmond to inform the Chief of his intention of spending an afternoon and night in Hull, before embarking on the steamer for Montreal.
The announcement had thrown the whole population into a state of great excitement, for there were not many places in the backwoods settlement in which a duke could reasonably expect hospitality. It therefore fell to Mr. Wright's lot to have the honor of entertaining His Grace, and great and costly had been the preparations.
An hour before the time appointed for meeting him, a flotilla of bark canoes, with gay pennants floating in the breeze, drew up before the Richmond Landing to await his arrival. They waited and waited, but he came not.
"Is he a Scotchman or an Irishman?" asked one.
"He is a Scotchman by birth and an Irishman by nature, I believe," replied the Chief. "He has the frank, benevolent, open-hearted manner so characteristic of the Irish, is a lover of fast men and fast horses, and enjoys a midnight carouse occasionally."
"Whatever induced him to take such a trip at this time of the year? Why did he not come up the Rideau in a canoe instead of walking overland from Kingston?" asked another.
"Surely he was not after big game at this time of the year," said Caleb Bellows, who kept a small shop at the Landing.
"He could have chosen a much more pleasant route and a more pleasant time of the year, when there were fewer mosquitoes and less heat, if it was a pleasure trip he wanted," said Bearie.
"I guess he reckoned on makin' a pilgrimage on foot to the Holy City of Richmond to atone for his sins, for I hear he's no saint," ventured Billy Snickel, who presented a grotesque appearance in his grandfather's velvet coat, knee-breeches and silk hat. Billy never was prepossessing in appearance, even when dressed in velvet. His face had numerous creases and puckers, and resembled in color the foot of a goose, which indicated defective secretion on the part of the liver, and which was probably caused by excessive use of gin and tobacco. The hairs of his head were very coarse and wiry, and stood on end quite independently of each other, which gave him much the appearance of a porcupine.
"The Holy City of Richmond," as Snickel called it, was a settlement which had sprung up on the River Jock, about ten miles distant, a year previously. The settlers were all officers and soldiers of the 99th and 100th regiments, who had received grants of land from the Government, and who had decided to call the settlement Richmond, in honor of the new Governor, who, on his arrival at Quebec on H.M.S. Iphigenia, ordered a Royal salute to be fired from the Citadel guns as they left for their new home in the wilderness. They landed at a point south of the Chaudiere Island, where the women and children remained until the men cut a road through the woods to their grants, where they proceeded to erect temporary dwelling-places. Their landing-place at the beginning of the Richmond Road was known as Richmond Landing, and it was there that they had all gathered to await the coming of the Duke.
"It is whispered in political circles," said one, "that the Duke of Wellington—realizing the blundering policy of his predecessors, thirty-seven years ago, in submitting without a word to our friends over the border taking so large a stretch of the south shore of the St. Lawrence within their boundaries—has decided to establish a new route to the West, in order to avoid the possibility of the only means of communication between Montreal and Upper Canada being cut off in case of any further trouble that might arise. It would not be surprising if the new Governor had an idea of recommending to the Iron Duke the old Iroquois route from the St. Lawrence, near Kingston, to the Grand River, by way of the Rideau River and lakes. The whole route could be made navigable by means of a series of canals."
"Why was it called the Iroquois route?" interrupted a lean, lanky individual, with hands thrust deep into his pockets, who shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"Because the Iroquois found it much shorter and more direct in coming from New York State on their incursions into the Algonquin country," replied the Chief. "But why, why does not the Governor come?" he continued, consulting his watch for the forty-second time. "It is now three o'clock, and he said he would be here about ten."
"How are our military friends getting on," asked Captain Le Breton, who had a small farm in the neighborhood of the Landing.
"Shure, it was bad luck to thim," interrupted a ruddy, good-natured-looking Irishman. "Before some of thim military gintlemen could get a house built, the weather got so cold that no wonder two of the children died."
The speaker was a young man named Nicholas Sparks, who with two of his friends, named Daniel Byrne and Thomas Bedard, had been engaged by Rug as farm laborers at Quebec, in September, 1816; his friends having deserted at Montreal.
Sparks was still in the employ of the Chief, and though illiterate, possessed great common sense, rare practical cleverness, boundless energy, and was respected by all who knew him.
"I went out to see Captain Monk recently," replied the Chief, "and found that they have secured grants of land ranging from one hundred to one thousand acres, and as no survey had ever been made of the township, they chose their sites and commenced building. The Government recently made a survey, and the Monks discovered that they had built on Lieutenant Read's land, so they are going to build a large............