A few hours before my leaving Canada for the United States, I went to ask your benediction, which you gave me with every mark of kindness. I then asked your lordship to tell me frankly if I had to leave with the impression that I was disgraced in his mind? You gave me the assurance of the contrary.
Then I told you that I wanted to have a public and irrefutable testimony of your esteem, written with your own hand, and you gave me the following letter:
Montreal, Canada, October 13, 1851.
Sir:—You ask me permission to leave my diocese to go and offer your services to the bishop of Chicago. As you belong to the diocese of Quebec, I think it belongs to my lord the archbishop to give you the exeat you wish. As for me, I can not but thank you for your labours among us, and I wish you in return, the most abundant blessings from heaven. You shall ever be in my remembrance and in my heart, and I hope that divine providence will permit me, at a future time, to testify all the gratitude I owe you.
Meanwhile, I remain your very humble and obedient servant,
✠Ignatius, Bishop of Montreal.
Mr. Chiniquy, Priest.
I then asked you to give me some other tangible token of your esteem, which I might show everywhere I should go.
You answered that you would be happy to give me one, and you said: “What do you wish?” “I wish,” I said, “to have a chalice from your hands to offer the holy sacrifice of the mass the rest of my life.”
You answered: “I will do that with pleasure,” and you gave an order to one of your priests to bring you a chalice, that you might give it to me. But that priest had not the key of the box containing the sacred vases; that key was in the hands of another priest, who was absent for a few hours.