Locations

Fort Frontenac, commanded by M. Payan de Noyan, was situated where Lake Ontario flows into the St. Lawrence valley in the vicinity of the Thousand Islands. It commanded the lake and valley entrance, just as Louisbourg commanded the Hudson Bay and the valley exit.

M. de Noyan surrendered Fort Frontenac to Lieutenant-Colonel John Bradstreet, whose forces had come from Oswego, on 27 August 1758, although the taking of the fort was not exploited until the summer of 1760. The surrender of the fort, the retreat of the amnestied force and the panic which resulted in the river communities is described in the novel (Chapter XVI). De Noyan’s unwillingness to land at Fort Amitié (Levis) resulted from the conditions of the surrender (Chapter XVI).

John à Cleeve observed the dismantled fort after leaving Fort Amity with the Ojibway chief, Menehwehna, following the passing of de Noyan’s flotilla in September 1758 (Chapter XVII).

La Gallette (or Gallette at La Presentation) was a mission station situated where the River Oswegatchie enters the St. Lawrence River. It was founded by the Jesuit Fr. Piquet (the Fr. Launoy of the novel). Piquet intended converting the Indians to Catholic Christianity and the culture of France. A number of mission stations were established on the shores of the Great Lakes, including one, abortive in its nature, the Ojibwas of Lake Huron. La Gallette possessed a fort, with a Governor, a squad of soldiers and five small cannon (Parkman, 1884, pp. 65-70). Amherst took possession of the station at La Presentation on the 15th August, 1760, nearly two years after the fall of Fort Frontenac.

Fort Levis, the Fort Amity of the novel, lay between La Presentation and Montreal. It was constructed in 1759, presumably in response to the fall of Frontenac. In the novel it possessed a Governor, a squad of soldiers and six small cannon (Chapter XIV).

Q combines Fort Levis with the fort at La Gallette so as to claim a history dating back to the time of the fort builder Frontenac. Fort Levis was taken by Amherst, in an operation very similar to that described in Chapter XXIV of the novel, on the 26th August, 1760 (Parkman, 1884, pp. 369-70).

The Seigniory of Boisveyrac is within easy reach of Montreal. It is situated on the northern bank of the St. Lawrence River shortly before it is joined by the Ottawa River. To the west lie the Cedars or Cèdres and to the east the Cascades and Pointe-des-Cascades, with the Isle Perrot and Lake Louis beyond.

It is inhabited by the Seigneur, who is also the Commandant of Fort Amitié, M. Etienne, the Seigneur’s brother, second-in-command at Fort Amitié, M. Armand, the Seigneur’s son, who is killed by Iroquois Indians in July 1758, and M. Diane, the Seigneur’s daughter, who has just returned from being educated at the Ursuline convent in Quebec.

Below them is the farming and trading family of Guyon, namely the elder brother, Dominique, who is in love with M. Diane, and Bateese, a hunchback who at the start of the novel is in the employ of the military. Below them again are the peasants. The Indian guards hold an indeterminate position. The Seigneur’s dead wife possessed Indian blood through the marriage of a certain Raoul de Tilly to a Wyandot squaw from Lake Huron (Chapter XV).

The Seigneur’s family hold to the standards and beliefs of the Ancien Régime, which proves irksome to the entrepreneurial Guyons. They appear to be of the family of Noel-Tilly (Chapter XV). Boisveyrac has been held by them for at least five generations, which puts it back to about 1660 (Chapter X).

Quebec and Montreal are the two most important cities of New France. Quebec is the civil, military and religious centre of New France, with Montreal as the second city. From 1750 to 1752 M. le Marquis de la Jonquière et Bigot was the governor, but was replaced by Marquis Duquesne, after whom Fort Duquesne, built in 1754, was named. In 1755 the Marquis de Vaudreuil took office, with neglect and corruption following. Parkman states that Vaudreuil was corrupt and protected others from the charge of corruption (1884, p. 31). Having brought New France to a deplorable state he panicked in the face of British aggression.

Vaudreuil’s corruption was only outdone by that of François Bigot, the Intendant of Canada from 1753 to its fall in 1760. He was not only corrupt himself but he corrupted others, with Parkman taking a chapter to enumerate his follies (1884, Chapter XVII).

What we hear in the novel from the mouths of Fr. Launoy and Diane reflects Parkman’s account. M. Armand, the Seigneur’s only son, had been sent to the Governor at Chateau Saint-Louis but had become increasingly under the influence of Bigot at the Intendant’s Palace, where youths, young women and government officials were corrupted. M. Armand, with all the naivety of youth, soon amassed considerable gambling debts, which the Seigneur could only liquidate by mortgaging Boisveyrac to the moneylenders in Quebec through Dominique Guyon. M. de Vaudreuil made the Seigneur Commandant of Fort Amitié in the expectation of the position facilitating profits through peculation and vouchers – only the Seigneur was too honourable to be seduced (Chapter XV).

With the fall of New France imminent, Fr. Launoy points the finger of blame directly at Vaudreuil and Bigot, who between them had rotted the heart out of the colony, making themselves rich and the hardworking colonists poor (Chapter XXI). Q contrasts the nobility and the integrity of the Noel-Tilly family, the Seigneur giving his life and Diane wishing to do the same for the sake of New France, against the materialism and sensualism of the governing class in Quebec. The Noel-Tilly family are not above criticism as they followed the stagnant and antiquated practices of a past generation, but they acted more in ignorance than in anything else. And at the centre of their integrity was a transcendent belief.

 

Key Figures

  • Seigneur Noel-Tilly of Boisveyrac, Commander of Fort Amitié (died, Chapter XXIII)
  • Wife of Seigneur (dead, Chapter XV)
  • M. Etienne, brother of Seigneur, deputy at Fort Amitié but Commander from Chapter XXIV
  • M. Armand, only son of Seigneur, soldier (dies, Chapter VIII and death mentioned in Chapter XV)
  • M. Diane, only daughter of Seigneur
  • Jeremie Tripier of Boisveyrac, Marechal des Logis at Fort Amitié
  • 25 militiamen at Fort Amitié including Polyphile Cartier
  • Boisveyrac, farmers and traders
  • Bonhomme Guyon, father, deceased, May 1758 (Chapter X)
  • Dominique Guyon, senior figure at Boisveyrac and lover of Diane
  • Baptiste or Bateese Guyon, younger brother, hunchback (Chapter XV). Also called La Chameau or the camel (Chapter IV).

Harvestors and Guards

  • Old Damase Juneau & La Marmite (wife)
  • Jo Lagasse, single
  • Pierre Courteau
  • Telesphore Courtreau and Leelinau or Lelie (mixed race, wife)
  • Corporal Chretien
  • Etchemin Indians

Religious

  • Father Launoy of La Galette, Jesuit
  • Father Joly, chaplain of Fort Amitié and priest of Boisveyrac (Chapter XXIII)
  • Fort Amitié (Chapter XV)
  • Sergeant Bedard, Corporal Sans Quartier