Two of them fainted, and came very near dying from excess of surprise and joy. The others, unable to contain their emotions, were crying and weeping for joy. They threw their arms around me to press me to their bosom, kiss my hands and cover them with their tears of joy. I knelt with them and thanked God, after which I told them how they must promise to God to serve him faithfully, after such a manifestation of his mercies. I read to them the 100th, 101st, 102d, and 103d Psalms, and I left them after twelve o’clock at night to go and take some rest. I was in need of it after a whole day of such work and emotions.
The next day, I wanted to see my dear prisoners early, and I was with them at 7 A. M. As the whole country had been glad to hear that they were to be hanged that very day, the crowds were beginning to gather at that early hour to witness the death of those great culprits. The feelings of indignation were almost unmanageable, when they heard that they were not to be hanged, but only to be exiled for their life to Botany Bay. For a time, it was feared that the mob would break the doors of the gaol and lynch the culprits. Though very few priests were more respected and loved by the people, they would have probably torn me into pieces when they heard that it was I who had deprived the gibbet of its victims, that day. The chief of police had to take extraordinary measures to prevent the wrath of the mob from doing mischief. He advised me not to show myself for a few days, in the streets.
More than a month passed before all the thieves and murderers in Canada, to the number of about seventy, who had been sentenced to be exiled to Botany Bay, could be gathered into the ship which was to take them into that distant land. I thought it was my duty, during that interval, to visit my penitents in gaol every day, and instruct them on the duties of the new life they were called upon to live. When the day of their departure arrived, I gave a Roman Catholic New Testament, translated by DeSacy, to each of them to read and meditate on their long and tedious journey, and I bade them adieu, recommending them to the mercy of God, and the protection of the Virgin Mary and all the saints. Some months, later, I heard that, on the sea, Chambers had cut loose his chains and those of some of his companions, with the intention of taking possession of the ship, and escaping on some distant shore. But he had been betrayed, and was hanged on his arrival at Liverpool.
I had almost lost sight of those emotional days of my young years of priesthood. Those facts were silently lying among the big piles of the daily records, which I had faithfully kept since the very days of my collegiate life at Nicolet, when, in 1878, the Rev. George Sutherland, Presbyterian minister, of Sydney, invited me in the name of the noble-hearted Orangemen and many other Christians of that great country, to go and lecture in Australia. They accompanied their invitation with a check of £100 for the traveling expenses from Chicago to that distant land, and I accepted their kind invitation.
Some time after my arrival, when I was lecturing in one of the young and thriving cities of that country, whose future destinies promise to be so great, a rich carross, drawn by two splendid English horses, driven by two men en livre, stopped before the house where I had put up for a few days. A venerable gentleman alighted from the carriage and knocked at the door, as I was looking at him from the window. I went to the door, to save trouble to my host, and I opened it. In saluting me, the stranger said: “Is Father Chiniquy here?”
“Yes, sir,” I answered. “Father Chiniquy is the guest of this family.”
“Could I have the honor of a few minute’s conversation with him?” replied the old gentleman.
“As I am Father Chiniquy, I can, at once, answer you that I will feel much pleasure in granting your request.”
“Oh, dear Father Chiniquy,” quickly replied the stranger, “is it possible that it is you? Can I be absolutely alone with you for half an hour, without any one to see and hear us?”
“Certainly,” I said; “my comfortable rooms are upstairs, and I am absolutely alone there. Please, sir, come and follow me.”