On the spot on which the General Hospital Convent was erected, in 1691, the four first Franciscan Friars, Pères Jamay, D'Olbeau, LeCaron and Frère Pacifique Du Plessis, who had landed at Quebec on the 2nd June, 1615, soon set to work to erect the first Church, the first Convent and the first Seminary in New France, and on the 3rd June, 1620, Father d'Olbeau, in the absence of Father Jamay, the Superior of the Mission, placed the first stone of the church, under the name of Notre Dame des Anges, on the 25th May, 1625. This was on the bank of the river which Jacques Cartier had called the River Ste. Croix, because he had landed there on the 14th September, 1535, the day of the exaltation of the Holy Cross: the Friars changed the name to that of St. Charles, in honor of "Monsieur Charles de Boues, Grand Vicaire de Pontoise," one of the most distinguished benefactors of their Order.
St. Vallier street, leading to ancient and Indian Lorette, over the Little River Road, at present so well built up and echoing to the shrill whistle of the Q. M. O. & O. Railway, until a few years back was a lone thoroughfare, beyond the toll-bar, lined with bare, open meadows. Here, also, has been felt the march of progress.
In the genial summer months passers-by are admonished by a pungent, not unhealthy, odor of tannin, an effluvia of tamarac bark, that tanners and curriers have selected their head-quarters in St. Vallier street. History also lends its attractions to the venerable thoroughfare.
Our forefathers would tell of many cosy little dinners, closed, of course, with whist or loo—of many recherché pic-nics in days of yore, kept up until the "sma' hours" at two renowned hostelries, only recently removed—the BLUE HOUSE and the RED HOUSE,—chiefly at that festive and crowning season of the year, when
"The snow, the beautiful snow,"
called forth the City Driving Club and its silvery, tinkling sleigh bells.
A steward—once famous as a caterer—on closing his term of service at the Château, with a departing Governor, more than a century back, was the Boniface at the Blue House: Alexandre Menut. A veritable Soyer was Monsieur Menut. During the American invasion, in the autumn of 1775, Monsieur Menut, owing to a vis major, was forced to entertain a rather boisterous and wilful class of customers: Richard Montgomery and his warlike Continentals. More than once a well-aimed ball or shell from General Carleton's batteries in the city must have disturbed the good cheer of the New York and New England riflemen lounging about Menut's, a great rebel rendezvous in 1775-6, we are told, visible from afar, [131] "with its white flag flying on the house.
Arnold's head-quarters being close to the St. Charles, where Scott's Bridge was since built, the intervening space between the city and the General Hospital was daily swept by Carleton's artillery. The Page Diaries abound with details of the casualties or narrow escapes of the invading host. A few quotations will suffice:
"8th December, 1775. Mr. (Brigadier-General) Montgomery visited Menut's to-day; a few minutes after he got out of the cariole, a cannon ball from the city walls killed his horse.
"18th December. Some shells were thrown in to-day, and we threw some into St. Roch's: very few of the enemy seen anywhere to-day. A man was shot through the head from St. Roch; would it were destroyed; it serves as a secure cover to the rebels.