The whole parish was on the spot long before me, partly to show their friendly sympathy for their late pastor, and partly to see their new curate. I was not long in the crowd without seeing that my small stature and my leanness were making a very bad impression on the people, who were accustomed to pay their respects to a comparatively tall man, whose large and square shoulders were putting me in the shade.
Many jovial remarks, though made in half-suppressed tones, came to my ears, to tell me that I was cutting a poor figure by the side of my jolly predecessor.
“He is hardly bigger than my tobacco-box,” said one not far from me; “I think I could put him in my vest pocket.”
“Has he not the appearance of a salted sardine!” whispered a woman to her neighbor, with a hearty laugh.
Had I been a little wiser, I could have redeemed myself by some amiable or funny words, which would have sounded pleasantly in the ears of my new parishioners.
But, unfortunately for me, that wisdom is not among the gifts I received from nature. After a couple of hours of auction, a large cloth was suddenly removed from a long table, and presented to our sight an incredible number of wine and beer-glasses, of empty decanters and bottles of all sizes and quality.
This brought a burst of laughter and clapping of hands from almost every one. All eyes were turned toward me, and I heard from hundreds of lips: “This is for you, Mr. Chiniquy.”
Without weighing my words, I instantly answered: “I do not come to Beauport to buy wine glasses and bottles, but to break them.”
These words fell upon their ears like a spark of fire on a train of powder. Nine-tenths of the multitude, without being very drunk, had emptied from four to ten glasses of beer or rum, which Rev. Mr. Begin himself was offering them in a corner of the parsonage. A real deluge of insults and cursings overwhelmed me; and I soon saw that the best thing I could do was to leave the place without noise, and by the shortest way.
I immediately went to the bishop’s palace to try again to persuade his lordship to put another curate at the head of such a people.