Down the River to the Sea

he little town of Brockville. The banks of the river, as they approached, varying from a high table-land to a low, rocky shore, were lined

beheld the white man's "winged canoes." A ferry boat was busily plying up and down, embarking and disembarking passengers at the little piers that fringed the shore, and an air of holida

hboring windmill elicited some historic reminiscences from Mrs. Sandford concerning the time when poor rash Von Schultz held his extemporized fortress aga

. Sandford retired to her state-room to make up for her lost morning slumber, and the three girls drowsed over the books they were professing to read. May had brought out her cherished copy of "The Chance Acquaintance," which she had with her, but had kept in reserve till now, that she might revive her recollections of its fascinating pictures, and enjoy in advance the grey old city, which she had already seen so often in imagination; and was now, at length, to behold with her bodily eyes. As she dropped the book at last, overcome by the sleepy influence of the afternoon, Hugh took it up, and had become much interested in its fascinating pages, when the whistle of the steamer, on arriving at Coteau Du Lac, startled the girls out of their nap, and woke them up, laughing over the oblivion which had swallowed up the last two hours. The little French village of "The Coteau," with its long pier, and the little brown houses and big church, gave the travellers a first glimpse into French Canada, quite in keeping with the spirit of the little book; and the succeeding scenery, growing every moment more picturesque, was to May idealized with a touch of poetry reflected from Mr. Howells' charming little romance. After leaving the Coteau village, they passed the short Coteau Rapids, and then the drowsy old village of Beauharnois, with a pastoral landscape o

was grandly exciting to see the steamer, like a living thing, dart shuddering by them, and rush at headlong speed through the boiling surges, with the long wooded stretch of Nun's Island nestling, as it seemed, amid the tossing waves, while the long spans of the Lachine and Victoria bridges loomed up in front of them, and the bold mountain summits of Bel?il and Boucherville assumed exquisite violet hues under the magic touch of the rapidly setting sun, which also lighted up the massive city before them. There was hardly time to take in the full beauty of the coup d'?il before the steamer was under Victoria Bridge, the height of which they could not realize till they saw that the tall masts could pass under it without being lowered. Presently they were in the Canal Basin, amid what seemed a forest of masts and shipping, and May, to her delight, could distinguish the great black hulls of some ocean steamers lying in port. The long lines of massive grey store-houses and docks also much impressed her una

gh the old-fashioned French streets, past Notre Dame and the old Gray Nunnery and the Bonsecours market, and the point where the first settlement of Ville Marie was inaugurated, as Parkman has so graphically described it. They looked at the old Bonsecours chur

agnificent views, from the Mountain Park drive, of plain and river and distant hills, quite as much as did Champlain, who could not see, even in a vision, the stately city that now replaces the Indian wigwams and maize-fields, which then bore the name of Hochelag

'clock dinner, in order to be ready to leave for Quebec at seven. When at last they drove off, Kate gave the

-en route for Murray Bay, or Métis, or some other watering-place on the Gulf. Quebec was to them an everyday affair, and they talked of it

gan to talk of Mr. Winthrop, and to express her regret at his inability to come on with them. "It was too bad," she adde

't have waited f

Kate, whose ear had been caught by the w

hrop," replied Flora, "and his vexation with

let Hugh get before

tion, doing ample justice to Mr. Winthrop. Kate listened attentively, and though she was very quiet all the rest of the evening, May fancied that her face was cleared of a s

Flora, "that Kitty sent

torted Kate. "If he only had done that, a few days after, Kitt

, dogmatically. "I mean to write a sequel to it som

dland after headland, each opening a fair, new vista beyond. Soon a glittering church steeple gleamed out from the southern shore, rising protectingly over white villages nestling at their feet. Cur

ere the old Jesuit residence was,-tha

oric grey rock of Quebec, with its mural-crowned rampart and bastions, and the houses and convents

el!" exclaimed May, br

calèche drivers, and the junior members of the party were soon perched on their high seats, while Mrs. Sandford and the luggage went up more comfortably in a commonplace cab. As they rattled over the rough pavements and through the tortuous narrow streets, which-as Kate remarked to Flora-"are just like Europe, I'm sure," they drove up Mountain Hill, passing the spot where Prescott Gate used to be of old, and catching a glimpse of the

nd could follow, for some distance, the city wall without. The back window commanded a glorious picture. Across a dusky mass of brown, steep-roofed houses, only half lighted up yet by the morning sun, they looked out on a green, undulating champaign country, flecked with patches of deep green woodland, and little white villages clustering here and there round their great church spires; while, for background, rose a grand range of hills, stre

re you see it twisted like a silver loop, is the place where stood t

atched log cabin and where they used to be half frozen in winter, when they were trying to learn the Indian lang

y suppose Jacques Cartier laid up his ships, when he fi

rigging were all cased in ice, like ghostly ships at the North Pole, and when the cold and the scurvy were killing them off

edged the blue St. Lawrence, studded with white sails, and winding away between the Island of Orleans and the northern shore; while, far down the high river bank, they could just distinguish the dark purple cleft of the Montmorency Falls. But they were presently reminded that

old fortifications just outside the walls, and thought the fine new Parliament buildings did not by any means make up for it. "One could see new buildings any day, but that wasn't what one came to Quebec for," she remarked. They passed by the Esplanade and the winding ascent to the Citadel, and the sedate old-fash

here there used to be state receptions of the Indians, when treaties were concluded; and here, t

tcalm. And then they came out on the long promenade, now known as Dufferin Terrace, and stopped to take in the magnificent panorama, the wide river, with the picturesque heights of Lévis immediately opposite, an

w," Kate replied-"that open space with all the market-carts

imself away from the fascinating scene. But Kate was determined to keep them up to "schedule time," and she and her watch were relentless, so they reluctantly tore themselves away, being promised a still finer view from above, and mounted a long steep stair rising from the end of the Terrace. They could not resist the temptation of looking around from time to time as the view widened at every step, till at last, drawing a deep breath, they stood at the top of the glac

saluted the ladies and put them under the charge of a soldier guide. He led them first across the wide court-yard to the King's Bastion by the flagstaff, from whence they could feast their eyes on such a view as May, at least, had never seen before. All about them lay the city, mapped out with its walls and ramparts, its church towers and steeples; at their feet, far below them, the Terrace on which they had been recently standing; and be

s feather, carved in stone on the wall, marks the spot where the Prince of Wales once laid his hand when visiting Quebec. From it they could see, far away to the south, rank after rank of distant blue hills, some of them in Maine and Vermont. To westward they could follow the river till it was hidden behind a green projec

s picture, and gazed on in silence, while light mists floated away from the summits o

before the inner eye; and returned along the walls, past little piles of cannon balls and gun-mounted embrasures, till they came down agai

ed academy boys in their trim gray uniforms;-pretty French nurse-maids and British orderlies, hurrying along laden with packages of official papers, all just as it had been described in "A Chance Acquaintance." T

of its history, in those stormy old times, when the French colonists used to come here to p

o recall in imagination the great bare-raftered building of those old days, and found much satisfact

-at the tablet to the memory of Montcalm, whose skull is still preserved there;-and then, with still more interest at the tiny jet of flame in the glass chandelier, kept alight, for a hundred and fifty years, in memory of a young French girl who took the veil all those years ago, and whose brothers made provision to pr

te visiting Quebec on her wedding tour. As they were about to part,-after a h

aintance,' stayed; and if you will just come with me you shall look from the very wind

and Flora declared that it did not look quite so poetical as in Mr. Howell's pages, but May would not entertain the idea of disappointment, and tried to see all Kitty saw, though encroaching buildings have a g

along the Grand Battery and quiet Esplanade, and penetrated into the quaintly picturesque grounds of the Artillery Barracks, and looked from the weather-beaten old arsenal on t

f the old Chateau Bigot, where the wicked Intendant had his pleasure-parties and c

ramparts as far as the new "improvements," then in progress, would let them and sighed over the ruthless demolition of the old gates-Prescott Gate and Palace Gate, and the picturesque old Hope Gate, so graphically described by Mr. Howells, and even over the renovation of the others, which had lost all their historic interest. They spent some hours in diving into the recesses of the old town, its marketplace and churches and curious old alleys, dignified by the name of streets, and walked along the Saulx Aux Matelot

girls of course called chateaux, and then down the long village street of Beauport,-the steep-roofed little houses in bright variety of color succeeding each other for several miles, with their long garden-like strips of farm extending down to the river on one side, and upwards towards the hills on the other. Bright

carriages wait, and they had only to pass through a gate and walk along the high river bank to the dizzy stair down the cliff, from whence they could see to the best advantage the beautiful fall, plunging in one avalanche of foam fr

as the fast descending sun warned them that it was time to return to the inn where they had left the carriage, and drive home past the bright little gardens and picturesque cottages of Beauport-brighter in the sl

e root of Cape Diamond, crowned by the Citadel, on the rocky side of which they could distinctly read the inscription: "Here Montgomery Fell;" past the long street of French houses that lines the shore below the plains; past fine wooded heights with stately white country houses gleaming through the deep green foliage; till, on turning a point of the leafy cliff, they saw before them the curve of Sillery Bay, with its fringe of many colored cottages and yellow rafts and lumber piles; while opposite, the great stone church w

ebec." They all stood for a little while, looking at the shabby old cottage, trying to imagine what that first Canadian hospital looked like; and then they walked up the quaint old-fashioned street, with its gambrel-roofed hous

ld Jesuit residence! And that square opposite is the place wh

ty years ago; and the other dedicated to the memory of the first missionary who died there-Père Enemond Massé-the Père utile, as he was called, because he could do anything, from saying mass to ship-building, or even tending the pigs of the establishment, thinking nothin

e substantial inner framework was built, and tried to imagine the strange solitary life that its inmates must have

e more to look at the rather forlorn-looking monument which commemorates Wolfe's death, and the victory for Great Britain, which secured half a continent; and tried to trace the lines of advance up the rugged cliffs by which the hero had surprised the unsuspecting French. This was, appropriatel