The Seats of the Mighty

Gilbert Parker

Description

From the pen of Gilbert Parker comes one of the most popular Canadian novels of the late nineteenth century. First published simultaneously in Canada and the United States in 1896, The Seats of the Mighty is set in Quebec City in 1759, against the backdrop of the conflict between the English and the French over the future of New France. Written and published after Parker's move to England, the novel attempts to romanticize French Canada without alienating his English and American readership. The novel’s enduring popularity led to a stage version in 1897 and a silent film in 1914.

Sujets

• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 05 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781771120463
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Seats of the Mighty
Early Canadian Literature Series
The Early Canadian Literature Series returns to print rare texts deserving restoration to the canon of Canadian texts in English. Including novels, periodical pieces, memoirs, and creative non-fiction, the series showcases texts by Indigenous peoples and immigrants from a range of ancestral, language, and religious origins. Each volume includes an afterword by a prominent scholar providing new avenues of interpretation for all readers.
Series Editor: Benjamin Lefebvre
Series Advisory Board: Andrea Cabajsky, D partement d anglais, Universit de Moncton Carole Gerson, Department of English, Simon Fraser University Cynthia Sugars, Department of English, University of Ottawa
For more information please contact:
Lisa Quinn
Acquisitions Editor
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
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The Seats of the Mighty
Gilbert Parker
Afterword by Andrea Cabajsky
Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through its Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Parker, Gilbert, 1862-1932, author The seats of the mighty / by Gilbert Parker.
(Early Canadian literature series) Reprint. Originally published 1896. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-1-77112-044-9 (pbk.).-ISBN 978-1-77112-046-3 (epub).- ISBN 978-1-77112-045-6 (pdf).
1. Canada-History-To 1763 (New France)-Fiction. 2. United States-History-French and Indian War, 1754-1763-Fiction. 3. Historical fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Early Canadian literature series
PS8481.A59S4 2015 C813 .4 C2014-906857-3 C2014-906858-1
Cover design and text design by Blakeley Words+Pictures. Cover photo: Sir Gilbert Parker, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right (c. 1914), by Pirie MacDonald, photographer-of-men, New York, from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs.
2015 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.
This book is printed on FSC certified recycled paper and is certified Ecologo. It is made from 100% post-consumer fibre, processed chlorine free, and manufactured using biogas energy.
Printed in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free: 1.800.893.5777.
Contents
A Note on the Text by Benjamin Lefebvre
The Seats of the Mighty
Appendix: Gilbert Parker s Introduction to the Imperial Edition of The Seats of the Mighty
Afterword by Andrea Cabajsky
A Note on the Text
G ilbert Parker s The Seats of the Mighty was published by the Copp Clark Company (Toronto) and by D. Appleton and Company (New York) in 1896, both editions using the same plates. Parker s Prefatory Note mentions a number of illustrations appearing in the text, but in fact they appeared on tipped-in pages in the Appleton edition only. This Early Canadian Literature edition uses the Copp Clark edition as its copytext, which is why the twelve illustrations are not reproduced here. The text was reprinted, with a number of textual emendations, as Volume 9 of The Works of Gilbert Parker, Imperial Edition , published by Charles Scribner s Sons in 1913; that edition contained a new introduction by Parker, which is reprinted here as an appendix. The present edition also corrects obvious typographical errors, but it lets stand a number of archaic and inconsistent spellings.
BENJAMIN LEFEBVRE , Series Editor
Works Cited
Parker, Gilbert. The Seats of the Mighty . Toronto: Copp Clark Company, 1896. Print.
---. The Seats of the Mighty . New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896. Print.
---. The Seats of the Mighty . 1896. New York: Charles Scribner s Sons, 1913. Print. Vol. 9 of The Works of Gilbert Parker, Imperial Edition .
The Seats of the Mighty
Being the Memoirs of Captain Robert Moray, Sometime an Officer in the Virginia Regiment, and Afterwards of Amherst s Regiment
Contents
Prefatory Note
Prelude
I An Escort to the Citadel
II The Master of the King s Magazine
III The Wager and the Sword
IV The Rat in the Trap
V The Device of the Dormouse
VI Moray Tells the Story of His Life
VII Quoth Little Garaine
VIII As Vain as Absalom
IX A Little Concerning the Chevalier de la Darante
X An Officer of Marines
XI The Coming of Doltaire
XII The Point Envenomed Too!
XIII A Little Boast
XIV Argand Cournal
XV In the Chamber of Torture
XVI Be Saint or Imp
XVII Through the Bars of the Cage
XVIII The Steep Path of Conquest
XIX A Danseuse and the Bastile
XX Upon the Ramparts
XXI La Jongleuse
XXII The Lord of Kamaraska
XXIII With Wolfe at Montmorenci
XXIV The Sacred Countersign
XXV In the Cathedral
XXVI The Secret of the Tapestry
XXVII A Side-Wind of Revenge
XXVIII To Cheat the Devil Yet
XXIX Master Devil Doltaire
XXX Where All the Lovers Can Hide
To the Memory of Madge Henley
Prefatory Note
T his tale would never have been written had it not been for the kindness of my distinguished friend Dr. John George Bourinot, C.M.G., of Ottawa, whose studies in parliamentary procedure, the English and Canadian Constitutions, and the history and development of Canada have been of singular benefit to the Dominion and to the Empire. Through Dr. Bourinot s good offices I came to know Mr. James Lemoine, of Quebec, the gifted antiquarian, and President of the Royal Society of Canada. Mr. Lemoine placed in my hands certain historical facts suggestive of romance. Subsequently, Mr. George M. Fairchild, Jr., of Cap Rouge, Quebec, whose library contains a valuable collection of antique Canadian books, maps, and prints, gave me generous assistance and counsel, allowing me the run of all his charts, prints, histories, and memoirs. Many of these prints, and a rare and authentic map of Wolfe s operations against Quebec are now reproduced in this novel, and may be considered accurate illustrations of places, people, and events. By the insertion of these faithful historical elements it is hoped to give more vividness to the atmosphere of the time, and to strengthen the verisimilitude of a piece of fiction which is not, I believe, out of harmony with fact.
G ILBERT P ARKER
Prelude
T o Sir Edward Seaforth Bart., of Sangley Hope in Derbyshire, and Seaforth House in Hanover Square .
D EAR N ED You will have them written, or I shall be pestered to my grave! Is that the voice of a friend of so long standing? And yet it seems but yesterday since we had good hours in Virginia together, or met among the ruins of Quebec. My memoirs-these only will content you? And to flatter or cajole me you tell me Mr. Pitt still urges on the matter. In truth, when he touched first upon this, I thought it but the courtesy of a great and generous man. But indeed I am proud that he is curious to know more of my long captivity at Quebec, of Monsieur Doltaire and all his dealings with me, and the motions he made to serve La Pompadour on one hand, and, on the other, to win from me that most perfect of ladies, Mademoiselle Alixe Duvarney .
Our bright conquest of Quebec is now heroic memory, and honour and fame and reward have been parcelled out. So I shall but briefly, in these memoirs (ay, they shall be written, and with a good heart), travel the trail of history, or discourse upon campaigns and sieges, diplomacies and treaties. I shall keep close to my own story; for that, it would seem, yourself and the illustrious minister of the King most wish to hear. Yet you will find figuring in it great men like our flaming hero General Wolfe, and also General Montcalm, who, I shall ever keep on saying, might have held Quebec against us, had he not been balked by the vain Governor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil; together with such notorious men as the Intendant Bigot, civil governor of New France, and such noble gentlemen as the Seigneur Duvarney, father of Alixe .
I shall never view again the citadel on those tall heights where I was detained so barbarously, nor the gracious Manor House at Beauport, sacred to me because of her who dwelt therein-how long ago, how long! Of all the pictures that flash before my mind when thinking on those times, one is most with me: that of the fine guest-room in the Manor House, where I see moving the benign maid whose life and deeds alone can make this story worth telling. And with one scene therein, and it the most momentous in all my days, I shall begin my tale .
I beg you convey to Mr. Pitt my most obedient compliments, and say that I take his polite wish as my command .
With every token of my regard, I am, dear Ned, affectionately your friend ,
R OBERT M ORAY
Chapter I
An Escort to the Citadel
W hen Monsieur Doltaire entered the salon, and, dropping lazily into a chair beside Madame Duvarney and her daughter, d