Chapter 34 –
Believe it or not, I finally get married
The next morning I got a speeding ticket driving back to Green Bay. It was pretty expensive since I was going pretty fast, but I had to laugh watching the cop try to pull up behind me in a pathetic Peugeot. He had to have his engine topped out, and I was just cruising. He put a serious hit on my credit card, but I really didn’t care. I was in a real car – American steel – and I was headed home. To her credit, Elise must have felt the same way, because she never said a word.
Back in town, Elise was immediately swallowed up by her ministry, and I was back at the university. I was really angry with LeBeck. All the other professors wanted to see where I had been shot, but it was so high on my leg, I would have had to drop my pants, and I wasn’t about to do that. In the movies guys are always shot in the shoulder. That would have been so much cooler. I could have just unbuttoned my shirt and shown the scar to the world. Oh well.
We of course went to the funeral. People who count these things say there were twenty three heads of state in attendance, and there was a performance from some famous singer, and all the right things were said. But to me, it was an after thought. We had said good bye in the hospital, and we had carried on his work at the gathering. Elise was a bit of a celebrity now, and people stood and talked with her forever after the service. But it felt somehow forced now. Famous people who hadn’t known her before, now wanted to speak with her. She was courteous, but I could read her face, and I saw very different feelings than those she had when speaking to the people in Lafayette. She did what was expected, said what was necessary, stood as long as required, and then we got to leave.
Sunday turned out to be a great day. It didn’t start all that well. Of course I drove us to mass in my Ford, and I got another speeding ticket, this one just in front of National Cathedral. It appeared all the world could see us as they arrived for church. Elise was not amused.
Things got better after mass. We went over to her parents’ house as we always did for Sunday dinner, and before her sisters could say a word, Elise said, “Saturday, October 24.” There was a brief pause as the girls (and her parents) grasped what she was saying. The reply from one sister was “well finally” while the other complained “We don’t have any October colors!” Meanwhile, Elise and her mother hugged, while her father shook my hand.
At dinner I think Elise’ parents would have liked to know more about the gathering and about Jolliet, but that would have to wait. The girls were in full preparation mode. They barely had a month to visit florists and cake decorators, and when would they get to the napkin rings? What about a dress? There was not nearly enough time for all the fittings. The older of the two actually left the table to retrieve a checklist she had created over the past year. I looked over and saw it continued over two pages. Could anybody really do all that stuff in a month? I ate my dinner and let the girls solve the many problems they had listed.
Later that night Elise and I sat in the back yard enjoying an evening free of mosquitoes and free of snow. I had my arm around her, and we watched the sun go down.
“I hope you don’t mind that I picked the date. I called Father yesterday, and he said he could give me that date. There had been a cancellation. Otherwise we would have to use a chapel, or wait until spring.”
“I am excited it is finally going to happen. But. And I want you to think about this before you answer. I have been watching how people react to you, and I watched how you handled the gathering. You could be a future President of Canada. I really think that could happen. But how would voters react to someone married to a foreigner?”
“You are a pretty disappointing historian. Don’t you recall that European nobility always married foreigners? It was the best way to cement alliances.”
All right. I challenge you. What do you say to that? I certainly couldn’t think of anything.
So, let me finish the story.
Is the war over? No one is too sure, but the signs are good. Arkansas decided it would not send any new delegates to the constitutional convention. Their legislature voted that such a convention was inappropriate “at this time.” Colorado was willing to send delegates to anything that seemed troublesome, but Louisiana gave that gift horse a very good look and decided to pass. All the efforts in the province went into the November elections. Polls show the Heritage Party way down and another party backed by the Huguenot Business League doing very well. We shall see. By the way, Andrees was found and arrested by a new attorney in the Provincial Prosecutor's Office -- a guy named Goulet. The trial is months off, but it looks like Andrees will be seeing serious jail time.
Here in Green Bay, my classes are going about the same as always. My undergraduates think I am prejudiced against Canada, and my graduate students think I should spend more time around the office guiding their research. The first group is wrong (I hope), but the second group is probably right. I do need to stay on campus more, and I have another book to write - this one on Claude Jolliet. He deserves my time and attention.
Back in the U.S., the Foster's companies are under siege from the IRS and cranky shareholders. They have billions of dollars for attorneys, but I hear they are also spending plenty on personal security. They saw what happened to Tilden, and they worry they might be next. All we know for certain is they seem to be too busy to bother with our company any more. Suddenly our trucks have stopped being hijacked or vandalized.
The wedding finally occurred. I think the little sisters were satisfied. Obviously the napkins, floral arrangements, center pieces, and all the other stuff they were worried about looked fine to me -- as if my opinion mattered. More importantly, an endless stream of adult women told them how beautiful the cathedral and reception hall were decorated, so every time I looked their direction, I saw smiles. I was doing a lot of smiling myself. Obviously Elise was beautiful; she really did light up the cathedral when she walked down the aisle. But I was happy with my part. I managed the three things men have to get right. I did not drop her ring, I managed to get her veil up so I could kiss her, and when we got up from kneeling in front of the priest, I did not step on her skirts. I suspect my brothers were shocked I could manage all that, but I did.
Speaking of brothers, I think if a census had been taken that Saturday, it would have found half the Murphies on planet Earth were in Green Bay that weekend. If you were a bar that served Guinness or Jamisons, you had the best weekend of your year. We didn't quite fill our side of the National Cathedral, but we were close. As for the DuPry side - they filled every pew and were standing in back. In the reception line Elise introduced me to the current and three former Canadian presidents, plus several senior officials from France. All that was nice, but well back in the line I also got a chance to shake the hand of both Jouberts and Henri Jiroux, the manager of our hotel in New Orleans. I was touched they made the effort to attend.
After the wedding I asked a colleague to cover my classes so Elise and I could have a short honeymoon. Where did we go? We drove up to Mackinac Island and stayed at the Iroquois Hotel. What else would you expect from a history professor?
What's fiction, What's real?
There have been many fine books written about the battle for Quebec. My favorite is Wolfe and Montcalm by Joy Carroll (Firefly books, 2004). It covers the personality of the leaders as well as the actions on the various battle fields. Governor Vaudreuil comes off as a martinet and coward while both Wolfe and Montcalm are praised. Since both generals were willing to die for their country, the general characterization seems appropriate. To me, the real heroes were the British soldiers who stood in a line and not only fired their muskets but stood before enemy fire while they reloaded, fired again, reloaded, and fired a third time. The idea of standing forty yards from men with guns and reloading while under fire is amazing to me.
There was no second battle of Quebec as I describe. Reinforceme
nts from the south never arrived. General Nevis did have several skirmishes with the British, but he was unable to dislodge them. As for the Huguenot troops, French authorities never allowed Protestants to land in Louisiana, so there were no troops to recruit. Virginia accepted the Huguenots, so their skills and work went into developing that colony instead.
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