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"Father Chiniquy was fa," said the Chief "He wanted to save alcoholics To do that he went to where he’d find them In the Québec of the 1860s that was rue du Petit-Champlain, directly below us"

Indeed, if he could throw hih force he’d sail over the Dufferin Terrace and land on rue du Petit-Cha, cobbled street filled with lace stores and cafés and tourist shops, but back then it was the notorious Basse-Ville Filled with drunks and blackguards and prostitutes, filled with sewage and disease

Filled with poor French workers and Irish irants And a fallen priest deter Chiniquy was in a bar scouting souls when he overheard a conversation between two Irishers in the Upper Town to hack out a base There were more than twenty laborers on the site, but it was Patrick and O’Mara who ht be valuable"

Despite themselves the rown interested A few still looked annoyed and i Only É? Ga, knoas co?

But it didn’t matter It was too late

"Chiniquy listened to the two rewwho Chiniquy eren’t overly welco at first but once the priest offered to buy them drinks they warmed up And after a few more drinks they told him what they’d found

"It was a coffin At first Chiniquy was disappointed Old Quebec City was practically built on coffins, built on bones Not finding one would have been unusual Surely these workers knew that But this one was different, they said, it was heavy

"The two ured this was not only unusual but perhaps even valuable They’d dragged it from the work site down the hill to Patrick’s home His wife refused to have it inside He insisted, but knew he couldn’t keep it there for long The home was little more than a shack, and already croith Patrick, his wife and six kids Now there was also a deadnow, including Émile They could see the scene, as could Ga survived the harrowing voyage to her New World, she’d found it even worse than the huh life wasn’t difficult enough, her husband had brought a corpse ho it, carefully prying the sealed lid off," Ga why it was so heavy It old, with jewelry, with silver This must be the coffin of a very rich person But once opened, they were sorely disappointed There was nothing inside except a ratty old book, a bible, and so It was heavy because it was lead-lined"

There was a small stir in the room Did they knohere this was headed?

"Patrick and O’Mara had been in the bar discussing how best to strip the lead, sell it then dump the body into the river, the bible with it They couldn’t read, so it was useless Chiniquy asked to see the bible At that stage the reary Then the priest tried another tack If they would bring the coffin and the bible to the Literary and Historical Society the next night, Chiniquy could promise them a small reward

"Why? thehistoric, especially books This coffin ht be old, Chiniquy reasoned

"Patrick and O’Mara were already half drunk and didn’t really care If there was ht they showed up and were las"

"Is there a point to this?" one of the members of the Société Champlain asked

"Please, Benoît," René Dallaire looked pained "Civility"

"I’ll be civil when he stops wasting my time"

"There is a point, monsieur, and we’re al but couldn’t very well look at it now "I’las?"

There were nods

"He opened the coffin and examined the contents while Father Chiniquy looked at the bible Then Jalas made a mistake He offered Patrick and O’Mara five hundred dollars each Chiniquy was furious, but said nothing The workers i was up That was a suy and a ratty old bible