elected it might have been necessary for Laurier to do something for
him, but now that he had fallen upon the glacis of the impregnable
fortress he had elected to assail, who were they to repine over the
doings of fate? "The Moor has done his work; the Moor can go!"
Moreover, had he not been for long an inveterate Bleu? Had he not
actually been the organizer of Bleu victory when Laurier experienced
his memorable defeat in Drummond-Arthabaska in 1877? His defeat made
it possible to have a simon-pure Rouge contingent from Quebec.

While they were thus indulging in roseate day-dreams the actual
business of cabinetmaking was going forward, with Tarte at Laurier's
right hand as chief adviser from Quebec. The writer has a very clear
recollection of a long conversation which he had at that time with
Tarte. Much of it was given up to picturesque and forthright
denunciation by Tarte of the means by which he had been defeated in
Beauharnois. The mill-owners at Valleyfield, he said, had lined up
their operatives and had given them the option of voting for
Bergeron or getting out. The worth to a country of an industrial
system which makes political serfs of its workmen was vigorously
challenged in language which had little resemblance to the harangues
which led to Tarte's undoing six years later. From this he went on
to speak of Laurier's qualities and the amazing ignorance of them
shown even by his intimates of his own race. There had been much
speculation in Montreal as to who should be the new high
commissioner for Canada in London. Sir Donald A. Smith, who had been
appointed in the last weeks of Conservative rule, would be, it was
assumed, dismissed. Tarte scouted the idea that Smith would be
disturbed. Laurier was not that kind of a man. He would not dismiss
Smith; he would make friends with him. Sir Donald was a man of
affairs, and so was Laurier; they would co-operate with one another.