QUEBEC, 1635.
Tis the Fortress of St. Louis,
The Church of Recoverance;
And hang o'er the crystal Crosses
The silver Lilies of France.
In the fortress a knight lies dying,
In the church are priests at prayer,
And the bell of the Angelus sweetly
Throbs out on the crimsoned air.
The noblest knight is dying
That ever served a king;
And he looks from the fortress window
As the bells of the Angelus ring.
Old scenes come back to his vision;
Again his ship's canvases swell
In the harbor of gray St. Malo,
In the haven of fair Rochelle.
He sees the imparadised ocean
That he dared when his years were young;
The lagoons where his lateen-sail drifted
As the Southern Cross over it hung;
Acadie; the Richelieu's waters;
The lakes through the midlands that rolled
And the Cross that he planted wherever
He lifted the Lilies of gold.
He lists to the Angelus ringing,
He folds his thin hands on his breast,
And, lo, o'er the pine clouded forests
A Star verges low in the West:
[Extract]
Samuel de Champlain, who founded the city of Quebec, died on December 25, 1635.