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An episode in connection with the attack on St Denis left a dark stain on the Patriote escutcheon and embittered greatly the relations between the two races in Canada. This was the murder, on the morning of the fight, of Lieutenant Weir, a subaltern in the 32nd regiment, who had been sent with dispatches to Sorel by land.
In many respects the Parti Rouge was the continuation of the Patriote party of 1837. Papineau's later days were quiet and dignified. He retired to his seigneury of La Petite Nation at Montebello and devoted himself to his books. With many of his old antagonists he effected a pleasant reconciliation.
He is variously described as having been a Swiss, an Alsatian, and a native of Louisiana. According to his own statement, he had been at one time a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry in Mexico. He was well educated, could speak fluently several languages, had a bold and plausible manner, and succeeded in imposing, not only upon the Patriote leaders, but upon the people of St Eustache.
This petition, drawn up by Brissot, author of the Patriote Francais, and president of the Comite des Recherches of Paris, was carried, on the 17th of July, to the altar of the country in the Champ de Mars: an immense crowd flocked to sign it. The assembly, apprized of what was taking place, summoned the municipal authorities to its bar, and directed them to preserve the public tranquillity.
A general election followed soon after the passing of the Ninety-Two Resolutions and revealed the strength of Papineau's position in the country. All those members of the Patriote party who had opposed the Resolutions Neilson, Cuvillier, Quesnel, Stuart, and two or three others suffered defeat at the polls.
In order to afford the Tonnerre and Patriote an opportunity to get out of her reach, an attempt had been made to drown the magazine, but the flow of water was too slow for the purpose. In the efforts to clear the fire-ships upwards of fifty men fell into the sea and were drowned, the boats saving others.
The committee made a report very favourable to the Patriote cause; recommended that 'the French-Canadians should not in any way be disturbed in the exercise and enjoyment of their religion, their laws, or their privileges'; and expressed the opinion that 'the true interests of the provinces would be best promoted by placing the collection and expenditure of all public revenues under the control of the House of Assembly. The report was not actually adopted by the House of Commons, but it lent a very welcome support to the contentions of Papineau and his friends.
He, of course, was no longer trusted as a spy, and therefore turned a Jacobin, and announced himself to Brissot as a persecuted patriot. All the calumnies against this Minister in Brissot's daily paper, Le Patriote Francois, during January, February, and March, 1792, were the productions of Mehee's malicious heart and able pen.
Brissot, as yet obscure, wrote Le Patriote Français. A politician, and aspiring to leading parts, he only excited revolutionary passions in proportion as he hoped one day to govern by them. At first a constitutionalist and friend of Necker and Mirabeau, a hireling before he became a doctrinaire, he saw in the people only a sovereign more suitable to his own ambition.
When news of the defeat spread over the countryside, the Patriote forces immediately disbanded, and their leaders sought safety in flight. Papineau and O'Callaghan, who had been at St Hyacinthe, succeeded in getting across the Vermont border; but Wolfred Nelson was not so fortunate.
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