"It sometimes happened
in those days, when a gentleman possessed a very handsome wife, that the
husband was sent to take charge of a distant post, where he was sure to
make his fortune. Bigot's chere amie was Madame P - - in consequence of
which as a matter of course, Mr. P - - became prodigiously wealthy. Bigot
had a house that stood where the officers barracks in St Louis street, now
(1851) stands. One New Year's Day he presented this house to Madame P - -
as a New Year's gift."
Mr. Kirby, in his "Chien d'Or," a historical novel of rare Merit,
thus recalls this house - "The family mansion of the des Meloises was a
tall and rather pretentious edifice overlooking the fashionable rue St
Louis where it still stands, old and melancholy as if mourning over its
departed splendors. Few eyes look up now-a-days to its broad facade. It
was otherwise when the beautiful Angelique de Meloises sat of summer
evenings on the balcony, surrounded by a bevy of Quebec's fairest
daughters, who loved to haunt her windows where they could see and be seen
to the best advantage exchanging salutations, smiles and repartees with
the gay young officers and gallants who rode or walked along its lively
thoroughfare."
The novelist has selected this historic house for the meeting of the
lovers, on Christmas Eve 1748. Here Le Gardeur de Repentigny, the loyal
and devoted cavalier was to meet the fascinating, but luckless Cleopatra
of St Louis street a century ago and more.
