We will not afflict the reader with all the complexities of a dispute
which for months exercised the Press, the people, and the Government of
Lower Canada; which led to a terrible tragedy, and the invasion of a
quiet country by an armed force which exercised powers of domiciliary
visitation and arrest resorted to only under proclamation of martial
law; and which, setting a price upon a man's head, resulted in an
outlawry as romantic and adventurous as that of Sir Walter Scott's Rob
Roy.
Certain large features, necessary to the development of the story, will
be recapitulated.
Poverty has few alleviations. Where it exists at all it takes a
malevolent delight in making its aspect as hideous as possible. Donald's
father had got into difficulties. Donald had helped him more than
once when he was in the West, and when he came home he advanced him a
considerable sum. A time came when Donald wanted his money back. His
father was unable to give it to him. There was a dispute between them.
Recourse was had to a money-lender in Lake Megantic.
The latter advanced a certain sum of money upon a note. In the
transactions which occurred between Donald and the money-lender the
former alleged over-reaching.
An appeal was made to the law.
In the Province of Quebec the law moves slowly. Its feet are shod with
the heavy irons of circumlocution. It is very solemn, but its pomp is
antiquated. It undertakes to deal with your cause when you have
long outgrown the interest or the passion of the original source of
contention. Time has healed the wound. You are living at peace with
your whilom enemy. You have shaken him by the hand, and partaken of his
hospitality.
Then the law intervenes, and revives passions whose fires were almost
out. Before Donald's case came on, he sold the farm to the money-lender.
Donald claimed that the latter, in the transaction of a mortgage prior
to the sale, and in the terms of the sale itself, had cheated him out of
$900.
The sale of the farm was made in a moment of angry impetuosity. Donald
regretted the act, and wanted the sale cancelled upon terms which would
settle his claim for the $900.
The money-lender re-sold the farm to a French family named Duquette.
Popular sympathy is not analytical. It grasps large features. It
overlooks minutiae.
Donald had been wronged. He had been despoiled of his farm. His years of
toil in the West had gone for nothing, for the money he had earned had
been put into the land which was now occupied by a stranger. This was
what the people said. The young men were loud in their expressions of
sympathy. The older heads shook dubiously.
"There would be trouble."
"Donald had a determined look. Duquette made a mistake in taking the
farm. The cowboys in the North-West held life rather cheap."
So the old people said.