Yet I Cannot But Stay,
Though The Train Should Leave Us, To Pay My Respectful Homage To One
Of The Most Heroic Of Women, Whose Name Recalls The Most Romantic
Incident In The History Of This Region.
Out of this past there rises
no figure so captivating to the imagination as that of Madame de la
Tour.
And it is noticeable that woman has a curious habit of coming
to the front in critical moments of history, and performing some
exploit that eclipses in brilliancy all the deeds of contemporary
men; and the exploit usually ends in a pathetic tragedy, that fixes
it forever in the sympathy of the world. I need not copy out of the
pages of De Charlevoix the well-known story of Madame de la Tour; I
only wish he had told us more about her. It is here at Port Royal
that we first see her with her husband. Charles de St. Etienne, the
Chevalier de la Tour, - there is a world of romance in these mere
names, - was a Huguenot nobleman who had a grant of Port Royal and of
La Hive, from Louis XIII. He ceded La Hive to Razilli, the
governor-in-chief of the provinces, who took a fancy to it, for a
residence. He was living peacefully at Port Royal in 1647, when the
Chevalier d'Aunay Charnise, having succeeded his brother Razilli at
La Hive, tired of that place and removed to Port Royal. De Charnise
was a Catholic; the difference in religion might not have produced
any unpleasantness, but the two noblemen could not agree in dividing
the profits of the peltry trade, - each being covetous, if we may so
express it, of the hide of the savage continent, and determined to
take it off for himself.
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