the Quebec Barracks being unsuited for the accommodation of a lady
of her station, and round the house on every hand evidences might be
seen of both wealth, taste and refinement. Mrs. O'Grady was a
beautiful woman of about twenty-two, and had only been married about
a year; her husband, who was an Irishman, loved her passionately,
and gave me particular charges concerning her, bidding me spare
neither trouble nor expense to render her illness as little irksome
as possible. After her baby (a fine boy) was born I attended her
regularly every day, and, as she had travelled in her youth and
lived for some time in Germany, she invited me to come and see her
in the evenings whenever I was at leisure, so that we might converse
in the beautiful language of Schiller and Goethe, and chat about
that beautiful far-off land. Captain O'Grady quite approved of this
arrangement, and often used to join in the conversation; it was in
Germany he had met his wife, and he had a great fancy for the soft
German language, although speaking it but imperfectly himself.

Shortly after the birth of his child, Captain O'Grady's regiment was
ordered to Chambly, and he was obliged to separate from his wife for
a time. He used to drive in occasionally to Montreal to visit her,
but at this season of the year the roads were very bad, and, as the
thermometer sometimes fell 20 or even 30 degrees below zero, the
journey was usually attended with much discomfort and even some
danger. On Christmas Day, Mrs. O'Grady wished her husband to remain
at Chambly and dine at the mess, but he insisted on coming into
Montreal and dining with his family. He accordingly set out about
eleven o'clock in the morning, accompanied by a brother officer named
Churchill, a lieutenant in the same regiment.

It was a bitterly cold day, and the snow, which had been falling