University of Virginia Library

Chapter XLVIII.

MY VISIT TO CHICAGO IN 1851—BISHOP VANDEVELD—HIS
PREDECESSOR POISONED—MAGNIFICENT PRAIRIES OF THE
WEST—RETURN TO CANADA—BAD FEELINGS OF BISHOP
BOURGET—I DECLINE SENDING A RICH WOMAN TO THE
NUNNERY TO ENRICH THE BISHOP—A PLOT TO DESTROY
ME.

THE journey from Detroit to Chicago, in the month of June,
1851, was not so pleasant as it is to-day. The Michigan
Central Railroad was completed then only to New Buffalo. We
took the steamer there and crossed Lake Michigan to Chicago,
where we arrived the next morning, after nearly perishing in a
terrible storm. On the 15th of June, I first landed, with the
greatest difficulty, on a badly wrecked wharf, at the mouth of
the river. Some of the streets I had to cross in order to reach
the bishop's palace were almost impassable. In many places
loose planks had been thrown across them to prevent people
from miring in the mud and quicksands.

The first sight of Chicago was then far from giving an idea
of what that city has become in 1886. Though it had rapidly
increased in the last ten years, its population was then not much
more than 30,000. The only line of railroad finished was from
Chicago to Aurora, about forty miles.

The whole population of the State of Illinois was then not
much beyond 200,000. To-day, Chicago alone numbers more
than 500,000 souls within her limits. Probably more grain,
lumber, beef and pork are now bought and sold in a single day
in Chicago than were then in a whole year.

When I entered the miserable house called the "bishop's
palace," I could hardly believe my eyes. The planks of the
lower floor, in the dining-room, were floating, and it required a
great deal of ingenuity to keep my feet dry while dining with

him for the first time. But the Christian kindness and courtesy
of the bishop, made me more happy in his poor house than I
felt, later, in the white marble palace built by his haughty successor,
C. O'Regan.

There were then in Chicago about 200 French Canadian
families, under the pastorate of the Rev. M. A. Lebel, who, like
myself, was born in Kamouraska. The drunkenness and other
immoralities of the clergy, pictured to me by that priest, surpassed
all I had ever heard or known.

After getting my promise that I would never reveal the fact
before his death, he assured me that the last bishop had been
poisoned by one of his grand vicars in the following way. He
said, the grand vicar, being father confessor of the nuns of
Loretto, had fallen in love with one of the so-called virgins, who
died a few days after becoming the mother of a still-born
child.

This fact having transpired, and threatening to give a great
deal of scandal, the bishop thought it was his duty to make an
inquiry and punish his priest, if he should be found guilty. But
the grand vicar, seeing that his crime was to be easily detected,
found that the shortest way to escape exposure was to put an
end to the inquest by murdering the poor bishop. A poison very
difficult to detect was administered, and the death of the prelate
soon followed, without exciting any surprise in the community.

Horrified by the long and minute details of that mystery of
iniquity, I came very near returning to Canada, immediately,
without going any further. But after more mature consideration,
it seemed to me that these awful iniquities on the part of the
priests of Illinois was just the reason why I should not shut my
ears to the voice of God, if it were His will that I should come
to take care of the precious souls He would trust to me. I spent
a week in Chicago, lecturing on temperance every evening, and
listening during the days to the grand plans the bishop was
maturing, in order to make our Church of Rome the mistress
and ruler of the magnificent valley of the Mississippi, which
included the States of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Mississippi,
etc. He clearly demonstrated to me, that once mistress

of the incalculable treasures of those rich lands, through the
millions of her obedient children, our church would easily command
the respect and the submission of the less favored states of
the east.

My zeal for my church was so sincere that I would have
given, with pleasure, every drop of my blood, in order to secure
to her such a future of power and greatness. I felt really happy
and thankful to God that He should have chosen me to help the
pope and the bishops realize such a noble and magnificent project.

Leaving Chicago, it took me nearly three days to cross the
vast prairies, which were then a perfect wilderness, between
Chicago and Bourbonnais, where I spent three weeks in preaching
and exploring the country extending from the Kankakee
river to the south-west towards the Mississippi.

It was only then that I plainly understood the greatness of
the plans of the bishop, and that I determined to sacrifice the
exalted position God had given me in Canada to guide the steps
of the Roman Catholic emigrants from France, Belgium and
Canada towards the regions of the west, in order to extend the
power and influence of my church all over the United States.

On my return to Chicago, in the second week of July, all
was arranged with the bishop for my coming back in the autumn,
to help him to accomplish his gigantic plans.

However, it was understood between us that my leaving
Canada for the United States would be kept a secret till the last
hour, on account of the stern opposition I expected from my
bishop.

The last thing to be done, on my return to Canada, in order
to prepare the emigrants to go to Illinois, rather than any other
part of the United States, was to tell them through the press the
unrivaled advantages which God had prepared for them in the
west. I did so by a letter, which was published not only by the
press of Canada, but also in many papers of France and Belgium.
The importance of that letter is such that I hope my
reader will bear with me in reproducing the following extracts
from it.

It is impossible to give our friends, by narration, an idea of what we
feel, when we cross for the first time the immense prairies of Illinois. It
is a spectacle which must be seen to be well understood.

As you advance in the midst of these boundless deserts, where your
eyes perceive nothing but lands of inexhaustible richness, remaining in the
most desolating solitude, you feel something which you cannot express by
any words.

Is your soul filled with joy, or your heart broken with sadness? You
cannot say. You lift up your eyes to heaven, and the voice of your soul is
chanting a hymn of gratitude. Tears of joy are trickling down your cheeks,
and you bless God, whose curse seems not to have fallen on the land where
you stand: "Cursed is the earth in thy work; thorns and thistles shall it
bring forth to thee."

You see around you the most luxuriant verdure; flowers of every kind,
and magnificence above description.

But, if in the silence of meditation, you look with new attention on
those prairies, so rich, so magnificent, you feel an inexpressible sentiment
of sadness, and addressing yourself to the blessed land, you say: "Why
art thou so solitary? Why is the wild game alone here to glorify my God?"

And if you continue to advance through those immense prairies, which,
like a boundless ocean, are spreading their rolling waves before you, and
seem to long after the presence of man, to cover themselves with incalculable
treasures, you remember your friends in Canada, and more particularly
those among them who, crushed down by misery, are watering with the
sweat of their brow a sterile and desolated soil, you say:

"Ah! if such and such of my friends were here, how soon they would
see their hard and ungrateful labors changed into the most smiling and happy
position."

Perhaps I will be accused here, of trying to depopulate my country, and
drive my countrymen from Canada to the United States.

No! no. I never had so perverse a design. Here is my mind about
the subject of emigration, and I see no reason to be ashamed of it, or to
conceal it.

It is a fact that a great number (and much greater than generally believed)
of French Canadians are yearly emigrating from Canada, and nobody
regrets it more than I do; but as long as those who govern Canada
will not pay more attention to that evil, it will be an incurable one, and
every year Canada will lose thousands and thousands of its strongest arms
and noblest hearts, to benefit our happy neighbors.

With many others, I had the hope that the eloquent voice of the poor
settlers of our eastern townships would be heard, and that the government
would help them; but that hope has gone like a dream, and we have now

every reason to fear that our unfortunate settlers of the east will be left to
themselves.

The greatest part of them, for the want of roads to the markets of
Quebec and Montreal, and still more by the tyranny of their cruel landlords,
will soon be obliged to bid an eternal adieu to their country, and with an
enraged heart against their haughty oppressors, they will seek in the exile
to a strange land the protection they could not find in their own country.

Yes! If our Canadian government continues a little longer to show the
same incomprehensible and stupid apathy for the welfare of its own subjects,
emigration will increase every year from Canada to swell the ranks of the
American people.

Since we cannot stop that emigration, is it not our first duty to direct it
in such a way that it will be to the poor emigrants as little injury as possible?

Let us do everything to hinder them from going to the large cities of
the United States.

Drowned in the mixed population of American cities, our unfortunate
emigrating countrymen would be too much exposed to losing their morality
and their faith.

Surely there is not another country under the heavens where space,
bread, and liberty are so universally assured to every member of the community,
as the United States. But it is not in the great cities of the United
States that our poor countrymen will soonest find these three gifts. The
French Canadian who will stop in the large cities, will not, with a very few
exceptions, raise himself above the unenviable position of a poor journeyman.

But those among them who will direct their steps towards the rich and
extensive prairies of Bourbonnais, will certainly find a better lot.

Many in Canada would believe that I am exaggerating, were I to publish
how happy, prosperous and respectable is the French Canadian population
of Bourbonnais.

The French Canadians of Bourbonnais have had the intelligence to
follow the good example of the industrious American farmers in the manner
of cultivating the lands.

On their farms as well as those of their neighbors, you will find the
best machinery to cut their crops, to thresh their grain.

They enjoy the just reputation of having the best horses in the country,
and very few can beat them for the number and quality of their cattle.

Now, what can be the prospects of a young man in Canada, if he has
not more than $200? A whole life of hard labor and continued privation
is his too certain lot. But, let that young man go directly to Bourbonnais,
and if he is industrious, sober and religious, before a couple of years he will
see nothing to envy in the most happy farmer in Canada.

As the land he will take in Illinois, is entirely prepared for the plow,
he has no trees to cut or eradicate, no stones to move, no ditch to dig, his

only work is to fence and break his land and sow it, and the very first year
the value of the crop will be sufficient to pay for his farm.

Holy Providence has prepared everything for the benefit of the happy
farmers of Illinois.

That fertile country is well watered by a multitude of rivers and large
creeks, whose borders are generally covered with the most rich and extensive
groves of timber of the best quality, as black oak, maple, white oak,
burr oak, etc.

The seeds of the beautiful acacia (locust), after five or six years, will
give you a splendid tree.

The greatest variety of fruits are growing naturally in almost every part
of Illinois; coal mines have been discovered in the very heart of the country,
more than snfficient for the wants of the people. Before long, a railroad
from Chicago to Bourbonnais will bring our happy countrymen to the most
extensive market, the Queen city of the west—Chicago.

I will then say to my young countrymen who intend emigrating from
Canada: "My friend, exile is one of the greatest calamities that can befall
a mau.

"Young Canadian, remain in thy country, keep thy heart to love it,
thy intelligence to adorn it, and thine arms to protect it.

"Young and dear countrymen, remain in thy beautiful country; there
is nothing more grand and sublime in the world then the waters of the
St. Lawrence. It is on those deep and majestic waters that, before long,
Europe and America will meet and bind themselves to each other by the
blessed bonds of an eternal peace; it is on its shores that they will exchange
their incalculable treasures. Remain in the country of thy birth, my dear
son. Let the sweat of thy brow continue to fertilize it, and let the perfume
of thy virtues bring the blessing of God upon it.

"But, my dear son, if thou hast no more room in the valley of the
St. Lawrence, and if, by the want of protection from the Government, thou
canst not go to the forest without running the danger of losing thy life in
a pond, or being crushed under the feet of an English or Scotch tyrant, I
am not the man to invite thee to exhaust thy best days for the benefit of the
insolent strangers, who are the lords of the eastern lands. I will sooner tell
the, `go my child,' there are many extensive places still vacant on the
earth, and God is everywhere. That Great God calleth thee to another
land, submit thyself to His Divine Will.

"But, before you bid a final adieu to thy country, engrave on thy heart
and keep as a holy deposit, the love of thy holy religion, of thy beautiful
language and of the dear and unfortunate country of thy birth.

"On thy way to the land of exile, stop as little as possible in the great
cities, for fear of the many snares thy eternal enemy has prepared for thy
perdition.

"But go straight to Bourbonnais. There you will find many of thy
brothers, who have erected the cross of Christ; join thyself to them, thou

shalt be strong of their strength; go and help them to conquer to the Gospel
of Jesus those rich countries, which shall, very soon, weigh more than is
generally believed, in the balance of the nations.

"Yes, go straight to Illinois. Thou shalt be not entirely in a strange
and alien country. Holy Providence has chosen thy fathers to find that
rich country, and to reveal to the world its admirable resources.

"More than once, that land of Illinois has been sanctified by the blood
of thy ancestors.

"In Illinois, thou shalt not make a step without finding indestructible
proof of the perseverance, genius, bravery and piety of thy French forefathers.

"Go to Illinois, and the many names of Bourbonnais, Joliet, Dubuque,
La Salle, St. Charles, St. Mary, etc., that you will meet everywhere, will
tell you more than my words, that that country is nothing but the rich
inheritance which your fathers have found for the benefit of their grandchildren."

I would never have published this letter, if I had foreseen its
effects on the farmers of Canada. In a few days after its appearance,
their farms fell to half their value. Every one, in some
parishes, wanted to sell their lands and emigrate to the west.
It was only for want of purchasers that we did not see an emigration
which would have surely ruined Canada. I was frightened
by its immediate effect on the public mind. However,
while some were praising me to the skies, for having published
it, others were cursing me, and calling me a traitor. The very
day after its publication, I was in Quebec, where the bishops of
Canada were met in council. The first one I met, was my Lord
De Charbonel, Bishop of Toronto. After having blessed me,
he pressed my hand and said:

"I have just read your admirable letter. It is one of the
most beautiful and eloquently written articles I ever read. The
Spirit of God has surely inspired every one of its sentences. I
have, just now, forwarded six copies of it to different journals of
France and Belgium, where they will be republished and do an
incalculable amount of good, by directing the French-speaking
Catholic emigrants towards a country where they will run no
risk of losing their faith, with the assurance of securing a future
of unbounded prosperity for their families. Your name will be
put among the names of the greatest benefactors of humanity."

Though these compliments seemed to me much exaggerated
and unmerited, I cannot deny that they pleased me, by adding to
my hopes and convictions that great good would surely come
from the plan I had of gathering all the Roman Catholic emigrants
on the same spot, to form such large and strong congregations;
that they would have nothing to fear from heretics. I
thanked the bishop for his kind and friendly words, and left him
to go and present my respectful salutations to my Bishop of
Montreal, my Lord Bourget, and give him a short sketch of my
voyage to the far west. I found him alone in his room, in the
very act of reading my letter. A lioness, who had just lost her
whelps, would not have looked upon me with more angry and
threatening eyes than that bishop did.

"Is it possible," he said, "Mr. Chiniquy, that your hand has
written and signed such a perfidious document? How could you
so cruelly pierce the bosom of your own country, after her dealing
so nobly with you? Do you not see that your treasonable
letter will give such an impetus to emigration that our most
thriving parishes will soon be turned into solitude? Though
you do not say it, we feel at every line of that letter, that you
also will leave your country, to give help and comfort to our
natural enemies."

Surprised by this unexpected burst of bad feelings, I kept
my sang froid, and answered:

"My lord, your lordship has snrely misunderstood me, if
you have found in my letter any treasonable plan to run our
country. Please read it again, and you will see that every line
has been inspired by the purest motives of patriotism, and the
highest views of religion. How is it possible that the worthy
Bishop of Toronto should have told me that the Spirit of God
Himself had dictated every line of that letter, when my good
bishop s opinion is so completely opposite?"

The abrupt answer the bishop gave to these remarks, clearly
indicated that my absence would be more welcome than my
presence. I left him, after asking his blessing, which he gave
me in the coldest manner possible.

On the 25th of August, I was back at Longueuil, from my

voyage to Quebec, which I had extended as far as Kamouraska,
to see again the noble-hearted parishioners, whose unanimity in
taking the pledge of temperance, and admirable fidelity in keeping
it then, had filled my heart with such joy.

I related my last interview with Bishop Bourget to my faithful
friend Mr. Brassard. He answered me:

"The present bad feelings of the Bishop of Montreal against
you, are no secret to me. Unfortunately the low-minded men
who surround and council him, are as unable as the bishop
himself, to understand your exalted views in directing the steps
of the Roman Catholics towards the splendid valley of the
Mississippi. They are beside themselves, because they see that
you will easily succeed in forming a grand colony of French-speaking
people in Illinois. Now, I am sure of what I say,
though I am not free to tell you how it came to my knowledge;
there is a plot somewhere to dishonor and destroy you, at once.
Those who are at the head of that plot, hope that if they can
succeed in destroying your popularity, nobody will be tempted
to follow you to Illinois. For, though you have concealed it as
well as you could, it is evident to every one now, that you are
the man selected by the bishops of the west to direct the uncertain
steps of the poor emigrants towards those rich lands."

"Do you mean, my dear Mr. Brassard," I replied, "that
there are priests around the Bishop of Montreal, cruel and vile
enough to forge calumnies against me, and spread them before
the country in such a way that I shall be unable to refute
them."

"It is just what I mean," answered Mr. Brassard. "Mind
what I tell you; the bishop has made use of you to reform his
diocese. He likes you for that work. But your popularity is
too great, to-day, for your enemies; they want to get rid of you,
and no means will be too vile or criminal to accomplish your
destruction, if they can attain their object."

"But, my dear Mr. Brassard, can you give me any details of
the plots which are in store against me?" I asked.

"No! I cannot, for I know them not. But be on your
guard; for your few, but powerful enemies, are jubilant. They

speak of the absolute impotency to which you will soon be
reduced; if you accomplish what they so maliciously and falsely
call your treacherous objects."

I answered; "Our Saviour has said to all His disciples; `In
the world, ye shall have tribulations. But be of good cheer, I
have overcome the world.' I am more determined than ever, to
put my trust in God and fear no man."

Two hours after this conversation, I received the following
from the Rev. M. Pare, secretary to the Bishop:

Apostle of Temperance.

My Dear Sir:—My lord Bishop of Montreal would like to see you
upon some important business. Please come at your earliest convenience.

The next morning I was alone with Monseigneur Bourget,
who received me very kindly. He seemed at first to have entirely
banished the bad feelings he had shown in our last interview
at Quebec. After making some friendly remarks on my
continual labors and success in the cause of temperance, he
stopped for a moment, and seemed embarrassed how to resume
the conversation. At last he said:

"Are you not the father confessor of Mrs. Chenier?"

"Yes! my lord. I have been her confessor since I lived in
Longueuil."

"Very well, very well," he rejoined, "I suppose that you
know that her only child is a nun, in the Congregation Convent."

"Yes! my lord, I know it," I replied.

"Could you not induce Mrs Chenier to become a nun also?"
asked the bishop.

"I never thought of that, my lord," I answered, "and I do
not see why I should advise her to exchange her beautiful cottage,
washed by the fresh and pure waters of the St. Lawrence,
where she looks so happy and cheerful, for the gloomy walls of
the nunnery."

"But she is still young and beautiful; she may be deceived
by temptation when she is there, in that beautiful house, surrounded
by all the enjoyments of her fortune," replied the
bishop.

"I understand your lordship. Yes, Mrs Chenier has the
reputation of being rich; though I know nothing of her fortune,
she has kept well the charms and freshness of her youth. However,
I think that the best remedy against the temptations you
seem to dread so much for her, is to advise her to marry. A
good Christian husband seems to me a much better remedy
against the dangers, to which your lordship alludes, than the
cheerless walls of a nunnery."

"You speak just as a Protestant," rejoined the bishop, with
an evident nervous irritation. "We remark that, though you
hear the confessions of a great number of young ladies, there is
not a single one of them who has ever become a nun. You
seem to ignore, that the vow of chastity is the shortest way to a
life of holiness in this world and happiness in the next."

"I am sorry to differ from your lordship, in that matter,"
I replied. "But I cannot help it, the remedy you have found
against sin is quite modern. The old remedy offered by our
God Himself, is very different and much better, I think."

" `It is not good that man shall remain alone, I will make a
help-mate for him,' said our Creator in the earthly paradise.
`And to avoid fornication, let every man have his wife, and let
every woman have have her husband,' said the same God,
through His apostle Paul.

"I know too well how the great majority of nuns keep their
vows of chastity, to believe that the modern remedy against the
temptations you mention, is an improvement on the old one
found and given by our God!" I answered.

With an angry look, the bishop replied:

"This is Protestantism, Mr. Chiniquy. This is sheer Protestantism."

"I respectfully ask your pardon for differing from your
lordship. This is not Protestantism. It is simply and absolutely
the `pure word of God.' But, my lord, God knows that it is

my sincere desire, as it is my interest and my duty, to do all in
my power to deserve your esteem. I do not want to vex nor
disobey you. Please give me a good reason why I should advise
Mrs. Chenier to enter a monastery, and I will comply with
your request the very first time she comes to confess."

Resuming his most amiable manner, the bishop answered me:

"My first reason is, the spiritual good which she would receive
from her vows of perpetual chastity and poverty in nunnery.
The second reason is, that the lady is rich; and we are in need
of money. We would soon possess her whole fortune; for her
only child is already in the Congregation Convent."

"My dear bishop," I replied, "you already know what I
think of your first reason. After having investigated that fact,
not in the Protestant books, but from the lips of the nuns themselves,
as well as from their father confessors, I am fully convinced
that the real virtue of purity is much better kept in the
homes of our Christian mothers, married sisters, and female
friends, than in the secret rooms, not to say prisons, where the
poor nuns are enchained by the heavy fetters assumed by their
vows, which the great majority curse when they cannot break
them.

"And for the second reason, your lordship gives me to
induce Mrs. Chenier becoming a nun, I am again sorry to say,
that I cannot conscientiously accept it. I have not consecrated
myself to the priesthood to deprive respectable families of their
legal inheritance in order to enrich myself, or anybody else. I
know she has poor relations who need her fortune after her
death."

"Do you pretend to say that your bishop is a thief?" angrily
rejoined the bishop.

"No, my lord! By no means. No doubt, from your high
standpoint of view, your lordship may see things in a very different
aspect, from what I see them, in the low position I occupy
in the church. But, as your lordship is bound to follow the dictates
of your conscience in everything, I also feel obliged to give
heed to the voice of mine."

This painful conversation had already lasted too long. I was

anxious to see the end of it; for I could easily read in the face
of my superior that every word I uttered was sealing my doom.
I rose up to take leave of him, and said: "My lord, I beg your
pardon for disappointing your lordship."

He coldly answered me:

"It is not the first time, though I would it were the last, that
you show such a want of respect and submission to the will of
your superiors. But, as I feel it is a conscientious affair on your
part, I have no ill-will against you, and I am happy to tell you
that I entertain for you all my past esteem. The only favor I ask
from you, just now, is that this conversation may be kept secret."

I answered: "It is still more to my interest than yours to
keep this unfortunate affair a secret between us. I hope that
neither your lordship, nor the Great God, who alone has heard
us, will ever make it an imperious duty for me to mention it."

"What good news do you bring me from the bishop's palace?"
asked my venerable friend, Mr. Brassard, when I returned, late
in the afternoon.

"I would have very spicy, though unpalatable news to give
you, had not the bishop asked me to keep what has been said
between us a secret."

Mr. Brassard laughed outright, at my answer, and replied:

"A secret! a secret! Ah! but it is a gazette secret; for the
bishop has bothered me, as well as many others, with that matter,
frequently, since your return from Illinois. Several times he
has asked us to persuade you to advise your devoted penitent,
Mrs. Chenier, to become a nun. I knew he invited you to his
palace, yesterday, for that object."

"The eyes and the heart of our poor bishop," continued Mr.
Brassard, "are too firmly fixed on the fortune of that lady.
Hence, his zeal about the salvation of her soul, through the monastic
life. In vain I tried to dissuade the bishop from speaking
to you on that subject, on account of your prejudices against our
good nuns. He would not listen to me. No doubt you have
realized my worst anticipations; you have, with your usual stubbornness,
refused to yield to his demands. I fear you have added
to his bad feelings, and consummated your disgrace."

"What a deceitful man that bishop is," I answered indignantly.
"He has given me to understand that this was a most
sacred secret between him and me; when I see, by what you say,
that it is nothing else than a farcical secret, known by the hundreds
who have heard of it.

"But please, my dear Mr. Brassard, tell me, is it not a burning
shame that our nunneries are changed into real traps, to steal,
cheat and ruin so many unsuspecting families? I have no words
to express my disgust and indignation, when I see that all those
great demonstrations and eloquent tirades about the perfection
and holiness of the nuns, on the part of our spiritual rulers, are
nothing else, in reality, than a veil to conceal their stealing
operations. Do you not feel that those poor nuns are the victims
of the most stupendous system of swindling the world has ever
seen?

"I know that there are some honorable exceptions. For
instance, the nunnery you have founded here, is an exception.
You have not built it to enrich yourself, as you have spent your
last cent in its erection. But you and I are only simpletons, who
have, till now, ignored the terrible secrets which put that
machine of the nunneries and monkeries in motion. I am more
than ever disgusted and terrified, not only by the unspeakable
corruptions, but also by the stupendous system of swindling
which is their foundation stone. If the cities of Quebec and
Montreal could know what I know of the incalculable sums of
money secretly stolen through the confessional to aid our bishops
in building the famous cathedrals and splendid palaces, or to
cover themselves with robes of silk, satin, silver and gold; to live
more luxurious than the Pashas of Turkey, they would set fire to
all those palatial buildings; they would hang the confessors who
have thrown the poor nuns into these dungeons, under the pretext
of saving their souls, when the real motive was to lay hands
on their inheritance and raise their colossal fortunes. The
bishop has opened before me a most deplorable and shameful
page of the history of our church. It makes me understand
many facts which were a mystery to me till to-day. Now I
understand the terrible wrath of the English people in the days

of old, and of the French people more recently, when they so
violently wrenched from the hands of the clergy the enormous
wealth they had accumulated during the dark ages. I have condemned
those great nations till now. But, to-day, I absolve
them. I am sure that those men, though blind and cruel in their
vengeance, were the ministers of the justice of God. The God
of heaven could not, forever, tolerate a sacrilegious system of
swindling, as I know, now, to be in operation from one end to
the other, not only of Canada, but of the whole world, under
the mask of religion. I know that the bishop and his flatterers
will hate and persecute me for my stern opposition to his rapacity.
But I do feel happy and proud of his hatred. The God of truth
and justice, the God of the gospel, will be on my side, when
they attack me. I do not fear them; let them come. That
bishop surely did not know me, when he thought that I would
consent to be the instrument of his hypocrisy, and that, under
the false pretext of a delusive perfection, I would throw that
lady into a dungeon for her life, that he might become rich with
her inheritance."

Mr. Brassard answered me: "I cannot blame you for your
disobeying the bishop, in this instance. I foretold him what has
occurred; for I knew what you think of the nuns. Though I
do not go as far as you in that, I cannot absolutely shut my eyes
to the facts which stare us in the face. Those monkish communities
have, in every age, been the principal cause of the calamities
which have befallen the church. For their love of riches, their
pride and laziness, with their other scandals, have always been
the same.

"Had I been able to foresee what has occurred inside the
walls of the nunnery I built up here, I never would have erected
it. However, now that I have built it, it is the child of my
old age; I feel bound to support it to the end. This does not
prevent me from being afflicted when I see the facility with
which our poor nuns yield to the criminal desires of their too
weak confessors. Who could have thought, for instance, that
that lean and ugly superior of the oblates, Father Allard,
could have fallen in love with his young nuns, and that so many

would have lost their hearts on his account. Have you heard
how the young men of our village, indignant at his spending
the greater part of the night with the nuns, have whipped him,
when he was crossing the bridge, not long before his leaving
Longueuil for Africa? It is evident that our bishop multiplies
too fast those religious houses.

"My fear is that they will, sooner than we expect, bring
upon our Church of Canada the same cataclysms which have so
often desolated her in England, France, Germany and even in
Italy."

The clock struck twelve just when this last sentence fell
from the lips of Mr. Brassard. It was quite time to take some
rest. When leaving me for his sleeping room, he said:

`My dear Chiniquy, gird your loins well, sharpen your sword
for the impending conflict. My fear is that the bishop and his
advisers will never forget your wrenching from their hands the
booty they were coveting so long.

"They will never forgive the spirit of independence with
which you have rebuked them.

"In fact, the conflict is already begun; may God protect you
against the open blows, and the secret machinations they have
in store for you."

I answered him: "I do not fear them. I put my trust in
God. It is for His honor I am fighting and suffering. He will
surely protect me from those sacrilegious traders in souls."