"Other Ruins Existed In 1684, In The Commercial Centre Of The
Lower Town; These Ruins Consisted Of Blackened And Dilapidated
Walls.
Champlain's old warehouse, which, from the hands of the Company
(Compagnie de la Nouvelle France), had passed into those
Of the
King (Louis XIV.), had remained in the same state as when left after the
great fire which, some years previously, had devastated the Lower Town."
In 1684 Monseigneur de Laval obtained this site or emplacement from
M. de la Barre for the purpose of erecting a supplementary chapel for the
use of the inhabitants in the Lower Town. This gift, however, was ratified
only later, in favor of M. de St. Valier, in the month of September, 1685.
Messieurs de Denonville and de Meules caused a clear and plain title or
patent of this locality to be issued for the purpose of erecting a church
which, in the course of time, was built by the worthy Bishop and named
"Notre Dame de la Victoire." The landing for small craft, in the vicinity
of the old market (now the Finlay [94] Market), was called "La Place du
Debarquement," or simply "La Place."
It is in this vicinity, a little to the west, under the silent shade of a
wood near the garden which Champlain had laid out, that the historical
interview, in 1608, which saved the colony, took place. The secret was of
the greatest importance; it is not to be wondered at if Champlain's trusty
pilot, Captain Testu, deemed it proper to draw the founder of Quebec aside
into the neighbouring wood and make known to him the villanous plot which
one of the accomplices, Antoine Natel, lock-smith, had first disclosed to
him under the greatest secrecy.
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