"This was the common belief at the time," says Dollier de Casson, who arrived in Montreal in the sixth year after this event and whose relation is the basis of all modern accounts of this magnificent disaster, "for otherwise the country would have been swept away and lost, which leads men to say that even if the establishment of Montreal had only had the advantage of having saved the country in this adventure, and of having served as a public victim in the persons of seventeen of its sons who then lost their lives, it ought, for all posterity, if ever Canada comes to anything, to be accounted as of some considerable importance since it has saved it on this occasion, without mentioning others."[86]
"What though beside the foaming flood entombed their ashes lie, All earth becomes the monument of men who nobly die."
We must now descend from the poetic to the commonplace of prose. In doing so, we shall have an insight into the customs of the time.
The inventory of the belongings of Adam Dullard, then in the possession of his partner, Picoté de Bélestre, is preserved in the city archives dated October 6, 1660, as well as the record of the sale by auction which took place November 9, 1661, before the door of the house of Jean Gervaise. Every item is recorded, belonging to the deceased down to his night cap. Such things as a sword with a broken handle; a baldric, of English cow leather, with iron buckles; a poor jerkin of gray with a poor lining in the same colour; a little packet of poor linen; a poor black hat; a bad pair of Indian racquettes, and so on. The most valuable article was a jerkin with breeches and white hose, the whole of superior material, estimated at eighteen _livres_. But this apparel, according to the note adjoined, was returned by order of the governor to Sieur de Brigeac, to whom they belonged.
[Illustration: INVENTORY OF DOLLARD'S EFFECTS]
[Illustration: DOLLARD'S PROMISSORY NOTE]
In the inventory is added the following unpaid bill:
"Declared by Jacques Beauchamp, fourteenth September, 1660. Seven days' work in the winter at 30 _sols_ a day, 10 _livres_ 10 _sols_; plus 2 days and a half at 40 _sols_, 5 _livres_; plus for his washing during six months, 7 _livres_ 10 _sols_; plus for the making of 4 shirts and other smaller linens 4 _livres_; plus the sale of a black hat 4 _livres_."