[206] At Quebec, the people took more kindly to the new fare. Montcalm was the first to give a good example. He had it served up at his own table in every form except as soup, and he enumerates some of them: "Petits pâtés de cheval à l'espagnol: cheval à la mode; escaloppe de cheval; filet de cheval à la broche avec une poivrade bien liée; semelles de cheval au gratin; langue de cheval au miroton; frigoussé de cheval; langue de cheval boucanée, meilleure que celle d'orignal; gâteau de cheval, comme les gâteaux de lièvre."
[207] Cf. "Jugement rendu souverainement et en dernier resort dans l'Affaire du Canada, 10 Decembre, 1763." Dussieux, p. 169.
CHAPTER XLI
1758
THE VICTORY OF CARILLON
A WINTER OF GAYETY AND FOREBODING
SIXTY LEAGUES ON THE ICE—SHIPS ARRIVE—FAMINE CEASES—ENGLISH MOBILIZATION—TICONDEROGA (CARILLON)—MILITARY JEALOUSIES—SAINT-SAUVEUR—RECONCILIATION OF MONTCALM AND VAUDREUIL—ENMITIES RENEWED—WINTER IN MONTREAL—HIGH COST OF LIVING—THE "ENCYCLOPEDIA"—AVARICE AND GRAFT—MADAME DE VAUDREUIL.
In the last week of February, 1758, Montcalm returned to Montreal. Writing on February 22d, he adds: "I have just arrived at Montreal, having made sixty leagues on the ice, a delightful though cold manner of traveling." Evidently Montreal was much quieter than Quebec, for Montcalm was now able to attend steadily to his correspondence and to his military preparations until the opening of navigation. Meanwhile the famine still continued; yet we find the spoilers, Varin and Bréard, returning to France, Péan about to do the same, to put their booty in safety, already sensing the impending crisis which will end this period of sad memories in the last days of the French régime. At length, on the evening of May 19th, eight vessels, laden with 7,500 quarts of flour, arrived at Quebec, with news of some more to come, and the spectre of famine ceased to haunt the colony.