God had heard the poor widow's prayer.
A few days after the priest had taken our cow she received a letter from each
of her two sisters, Genevieve and Catherine.
The former, who was married to Etienne Eschenbach, of St. Thomas, told her to
sell all she had and come, with her children, to live with her.
"We have no family," she said, "and God has given us the good
things of this life in abundance. We shall be happy to share them with you and
your children."
The latter, married in Kamouraska to the Hon. Amaable Dionne wrote: "We
have learned the sad news of your husband's death. We have lately lost our only
son. We wish to fill the vacant place with Charles, your eldest. Send him to
us. We shall bring him up as our own child, and before long he will be your
support. In the meantime, sell by auction all you have, and go to St. Thomas
with your two younger children. There Genevieve and myself will supply your
wants."
In a few days all our furniture was sold. Unfortunately, though I had carefully
concealed my cherished Bible, it disappeared. I could never discover what became
of it. Had mother herself, frightened by the threats of the priest, relinquished
that treasure? or had some of our relatives, believing it to be their duty,
destroyed it? I do not know. I deeply felt that loss, which was then irreparable
to me.
On the following day, in the midst of bitter tears and sobs, I bade farewell
to my poor mother and young brothers. They went to St. Thomas on board a schooner,
and I crossed in a sloop to Kamouraska.
My uncle and aunt Dionne welcomed me with every mark of the most sincere affection.
Having soon made known to them that I wished to become a priest, I begun to
study Latin under the direction of Rev. Mr. Morin, vicar of Kamouraska. That
priest was esteemed to be a learned man. He was about forty or fifty years old,
and had been priest of a parish in the district of Montreal. But, as is the
case with the majority of priests, his vows of celibacy had not proved a sufficient
guarantee against the charms of one of his beautiful parishioners. This had
caused a great scandal. He consequently lost his position, and the bishop had
sent him to Kamouraska, where his past conduct was not so generally known. He
was very good to me, and I soon loved him with sincere affection.
One day, about the beginning of the year 1882, he called me aside and said:
"Mr. Varin (the parish priest) is in the habit of giving a great festival
on his birthday. Now, the principal citizens of the village wish on that occasion
to present him with a bouquet. I am appointed to write an address, and to choose
some one to deliver it before the priest. You are the one whom I have chosen.
What do you think of it?"
"But I am very young," I replied.
"Your youth will only give more interest to what we wish to say and do,"
said the priest.
"Well, I have no objection to do so, provided the piece be not too long,
and that I have it sufficiently soon to learn it well."
It was already prepared. The time of delivering it soon came. The best society
of Kamouraska, composed of about fifteen gentlemen and as many ladies, were
assembled in the beautiful parlours of the parsonage. Mr. Varin was in their
midst. Suddenly Squire Paschal Tache, the seigneur of the parish, and his lady
entered the room, holding me by each hand, and placed me in the midst of the
guests. My head was crowned with flowers, for I was to represent the angel of
the parish, whom the people had chosen to give to their pastor the expression
of public admiration and gratitude. When the address was finished, I presented
to the priest the beautiful bouquet of symbolical flowers prepared by the ladies
for the occasion.
Mr. Varin was a small but well-built man. His thin lips were ever ready to smile
graciously. The remarkable whiteness of his skin was still heightened by the
red colour of his cheeks. Intelligence and goodness beamed from his expressive
black eyes. Nothing could be more amiable and gracious than his conversation
during the first quarter of an hour passed in his company. He was passionately
fond of these little fetes, and the charm of his manners could not be surpassed
as the host of the evening.
He was moved to tears before hearing half of the address, and the eyes of many
were moistened when the pastor, with a voice trembling and full of emotion,
expressed his joy and gratitude at being so highly appreciated by his parishioners.
As soon as the happy pastor had expressed his thanks, the ladies sang two or
three beautiful songs. The door of the dining-room was then opened, and we could
see a long table laden with the most delicious meats and wines that Canada could
offer.
I had never before been present at a priest's dinner. The honourable position
given me at that little fete permitted me to see it in all its details, and
nothing could equal the curiosity with which I sought to hear and see all that
was said and done by thuds guests.
Besides Mr. Varin and his vicar, there were three other priests, who were artistically
placed in the midst of the most beautiful ladies of the company. The ladies,
after honouring us with their presence for an hour or so, left the table and
retired to the drawing-room. Scarcely had the last lady disappeared when Mr.
Varin rose and said:
"Gentlemen, let us drink to the health of these amiable ladies, whose presence
has thrown so many charms over the first part of our little fete."
Following the example of Mr. Varin each guest filled and emptied his long wine
glass in honour of the ladies.
Squire Tache then proposed "The health of the most venerable and beloved
priest of Canada, the Rev. Mr. Varin." Again the glasses were filled and
emptied, except mine; for I had been placed at he side of my uncle Dionne, who,
sternly looking at me as soon as I had emptied my first glass, said: "If
you drink another I will send you from the table. A little boy like you should
not drink, but only touch the glass with his lips."
It would have been difficult to count the healths which were drank after the
ladies had left us. After each health a song or a story was called for, several
of which were followed by applause, shouts of joy, and convulsive laughter.
When my turn to propose a health came, I wished to be excused, but they would
not exempt me. So I had to say about whose health I was most interested. I rose,
and turning to Mr. Varin, I said, "Let us drink to the health of our Holy
Father, the Pope."
Nobody had yet thought of our Holy Father the Pope, and the name, mentioned
under such circumstances by a child, appeared so droll to the priests and their
merry guests that they burst into laughter, stamped their feet, and shouted,
"Bravo! bravo! To the health of the Pope!" Everyone stood up, and
at the invitation of Mr. Varin, the glasses were filled and emptied as usual.
So many healths could not be drunk without their natural effect intoxication.
The first that was overcome was a priest, Noel by name. He was a tall man, and
a great drinker. I had noticed more than once, that instead of taking his wine
glass he drank from a large tumbler. The first symptoms of his intoxication,
instead of drawing sympathy from his friends, only increased their noisy bursts
of laughter. He endeavored to take a bottle to fill his glass, but his hand
shook, and the bottle, falling on the floor, was broken to pieces. Wishing to
keep up his merriment he began to sing a Bacchic song, but could not finish.
He dropped his head on the table, quite overcome, and trying to rise, he fell
heavily upon his chair. While all this took place the other priests and all
the guests looked at him, laughing loudly. At last, making a desperate effort,
he rose, but after taking two or three steps, fell headlong on the floor. His
two neighbours went to help him, but they were not in a condition to help him.
Twice they rolled with him under the table. At length another, less affected
by the fumes of wine, took him by the feet and dragged him into an adjoining
room, where they left him.
This first scene seemed strange enough to me, for I had never before seen a
priest intoxicated. But what astonished me most was the laughter of the other
priests over that spectacle. Another scene, however, soon followed, which made
me sadder. My young companion and friend, Achilles Tache, had not been warned,
as I had, only to touch the wine with his lips. More than once he had emptied
his glass. He also rolled upon the floor before the eyes of his father, who
was too full of wine to help him. He cried aloud, "I am choking!"
I tried to lift him up, but was not strong enough. I ran for his mother. She
came, accompanied by another lady, but the vicar had carried him into another
room, where he fell asleep after having thrown off the wine he had taken.
Poor Achilles! he was learning, in the house of his own priest, to take the
first step of that life of debauchery and drunkenness which twelve or fifteen
years later was to rob him of his manor, take from him his wife and children,
and to make him fall a victim to the bloody hand of a murderer upon the solitary
shores of Kamouraska!
This first and sad experience which I made of the real and intimate life of
the Roman Catholic priest was so deeply engraved on my memory that I still remember
with shame the bacchic song which that priest Morin had taught me, and which
I sang on that occasion. It commenced with these Latin words: -
.
Ego, in arte Bacchi,
Multum profeci:
Decies pintum vini
Hodie bibi.
I also remember one sung by Mr. Varin. Here it is: -
Savez-vous pourquoi, mes amis, (bis)
Nous sommes tous si rejouis? (bis)
Amis n'endoutez pas,
C'est qu'un repas
N'est bon.
Qu' apprete sans facon,
Mangeons a la gamelle.
Vive le son, vive le son,
Mangeons a la gamelle,
Vive le son du flacon!
When the priests and their friends
had sung, laughed, and drank for more than an hour, Mr. Vain rose and said,
"The ladies must not be left along all the evening. Will not our joy and
happiness be doubled if they are pleased to share them with us."
This proposition was received with applause, and we passed into the drawing-room,
where the ladies awaited us.
Several pieces of music, well executed, gave new life to this part of the entertainment.
This resource, however, was soon exhausted. Besides, some of the ladies could
well see that their husbands were half drunk, and they felt ashamed. Madam Tache
could not conceal the grief she felt, caused by what had happened to her dear
Achilles. Had she some presentiment, as may persons have, of the tears which
she was to shed one day on his account? Was the vision of a mutilated and bloody
corpse the corpse of her own drunken son fallen dead, under the blow of an assassin's
dagger, before her eyes?
Mr. Varin feared nothing more than an interruption in those hours of lively
pleasure, of which his life was full, and which took place in his parsonage.
"Well, well, ladies and gentlemen, let us entertain no dark thoughts of
this evening, the happiest of my life. Let us play blind man's bluff."
"Let us play blind man's bluff!" was repeated by everybody.
On hearing this noise, the gentlemen who were half asleep by the fumes of wine
seemed to awaken as if from a long dream. Young gentlemen clapped their hands;
ladies, young and old, congratulated one another on the happy idea.
"But whose eyes shall be covered first?" asked the priest.
"Yours, Mr. Varin," cried all the ladies. "We look to you for
the good example, and we shall follow it."
"The power and unanimity of the jury by which I am condemned cannot be
resisted. I feel that there is no appeal. I must submit."
Immediately one of the ladies placed her nicely-perfumed handkerchief over the
eyes of her priest, took him by the hand, led him to an angle of the room, and
having pushed him gently with her delicate hand, said, "Mr. Blindman! Let
everyone flee! Woe to him who is caught!"
There is nothing more curious and comical than to see a man walk when he is
under the influence of wine, especially if he wishes nobody to notice it. How
stiff and straight he keeps his legs! How varied and complicated, in order to
keep his equilibrium, are his motions to right and left! Such was the position
of priest Varin. He was not very drunk. Though he had taken a large quantity
of wine he did not fall. He carried with wonderful courage the weight with which
he was laden. The wine which he had drank would have intoxicated three ordinary
men; but such was his capacity for drinking that he could still walk without
falling. However, his condition was sadly betrayed by each step he took and
by each word he spoke. Nothing, therefore, was more comical than the first steps
of the poor priest in his efforts to lay hold of somebody in order to pass his
band to him.
He would take one forward and two backward steps, and would then stagger to
the right and to the left. Everybody laughed to tears. One after another they
would all either pinch him or touch him gently on his hand, arm, or shoulder,
and, passing rapidly off, would exclaim, "Run away!" The priest went
to the right and then to the left, threw his arms suddenly now here and then
there. His legs evidently bent under their burden; he panted, perspired, coughed,
and everyone began to fear that the trial might be carried too far, and beyond
propriety. But suddenly, by a happy turn he caught the arm of a lady who in
teasing him had come too near. In vain the lady tries to escape. She struggles,
turns round, but the priest's hand holds her firmly.
While holding his victim with his right hand he wishes to touch her head with
his left, in order to know and name the pretty bird he has caught. But at that
moment his legs gave way. He falls, and drags with him his beautiful parishioner.
She turns upon him in order to escape, but he soon turns on her in order to
hold her better.
All this, though the affair of a moment, was long enough to cause the ladies
to blush and cover their faces. Never in all my life did I see anything so shameful
as that scene. This ended the game.
Everyone felt ashamed. I make a mistake when I say everyone, because the men
were almost all too intoxicated to blush. The priests also were either too drunk
or too much accustomed to see such scenes to be ashamed.
On the following day every one of those priests celebrated mass, and ate what
they called the body and blood, the soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, just
as if they had spent the previous evening in prayer and meditation on the laws
of God! Mr. Varin was the arch-priest of the important part of the diocese of
Quebec from La Riviere Ouelle to Gaspe.
Thus, O perfidious Church of Rome, thou deceivest the nations who follow thee,
and ruinest even the priests whom thou makest thy slaves.