The day following was the feast of St. John the Baptist. Mass was said
in the church, all the parish attending; and Valmond was present, with
Lagroin in full regimentals.
Plates of blessed bread were passed round at the close of mass, as was
the custom on this feast-day; and with a curious feeling that came to him
often afterwards, Valmond listened to his General saying solemnly:
"Holy bread, I take thee;
If I die suddenly,
Serve me as a sacrament."
With many eyes watching him curiously, he also ate the bread, repeating
the holy words.
All day there were sports and processions, the habitants gay in rosettes
and ribbons, flowers and maple leaves, as they idled or filed along the
streets, under arches of evergreens, where the Tricolor and Union Jack
mingled and fluttered amiably together. Anvils, with powder placed
between, were touched off with a bar of red-hot iron, making a vast noise
and drawing applausive crowds to the smithy. On the hill beside the
Cure's house was a little old cannon brought from the battle-field of
Ticonderoga, and its boisterous salutations were replied to from the
Seigneury, by a still more ancient piece of ordnance. Sixty of Valmond's
recruits, under Lajeunesse the blacksmith, marched up and down the
streets, firing salutes with a happy, casual intrepidity, and setting
themselves off before the crowds with a good many airs and nods and
simple vanities.
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