In the midst of ruin and decay, the sweet tokens of hope,
love and harmony! What cared the child of song if her innocent offspring
were reared amidst these mouldering relics of the past, mayhap a guilty
past? Could she not teach them to warble sweetly, even from the roof which
echoed the dying sighs of the Algonquin maid? Red alder trees grew rank
and vigorous amongst the disjointed masonry, which had crumbled from the
walls into the cellar; no trace existed of the wooden staircase mentioned
by Mr. Papineau; the timber of the roof had rotted away or been used for
camp fires by those who frequent and fish the elfish stream which winds
its way over a pebbly ledge towards Beauport. It is well stocked with
small trout, which seem to breed in great numbers in the dam near the
Chateau - a stream, did we say?
"A hidden brook,
In the leafy mouth of June,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune"
"Enough! enough! cried my poetic companion. The fate of the fair maid, the
song of birds, the rustling of groves, the murmur of yonder brook, - does
not all this remind you of the accents of our laurel-crowned poet, he who
sang of Claribel?"
Those who wish to visit the Hermitage, are strongly advised to take the
cart-road which leads easterly from the Charlesbourg church, turning up.
Pedestrians prefer the route through the fields; they may, in this case,
leave their vehicle at Gaspard Huot's boarding-house - a little higher than
the church at Charlesbourg, - and then walk through the fields, skirting,
during the greater part of the road, the trout stream I have previously
mentioned; but by all means let them take a guide with them.
