1737

Most people worshipped here in the Chapel. Yet even this room was not safe from scandal. One day in February 1737, when the priest was saying Mass, a young couple approached the altar and knelt, holding hands, in front of the altar rail. They said something and rose. The priest, alarmed by this unorthodox behaviour, siezed the chalice and hurried out of the Chapel into the sacristy. The couple was arrested on the charge of scandal. It turned out that the young man couldn't get parental consent to marry the girl, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. 

In the marriage ceremony, the couple marries each other with the priest as witness, so the couple felt they had carried out the letter of the law. No one had sympathy: the young man served a month in the guardroom as prisoner, while the girl was banished to the convent. All was not lost however, for they were given a dispensation and were married in this Chapel the following July. [R. J. Morgan, Gossips' Tour of Louisbourg, Unpublished Report H F 30 (Fortress of Louisbourg, July, 1975), p. 10]

The chapel was the scene of two rather dramatic incidents which had their resolution in the courts. The first occurred in February, 1737. At about 10:30 in the morning, while the priest was saying mass, a young couple approached the front of the church and knelt holding hands on the first step of the sanctuary in front of the altar rail. They then rose and said something to each other. The priest, surprised by this unorthodox behaviour, seized the chalice and hurried out of the chapel into the sacristy. The couple was arrested and accused of having caused a scandal in church.

As the story unfolded it appeared that the young man, Jean Le Large, had promised to marry the girl three or four years previously but his mother had refused her consent. His personal appeals to the parish priest were ignored so he decided to take matters into his own hands by following the letter of the law. In the marriage ceremony it is the couple which marries each other, and this has to be done in the presence of a priest and witnesses, so the couple went to the front of the church, exchanged their vows while the priest was still there, and had the congregation as witnesses. The court took a dim view of this irregular procedure; the young man was sentenced to the guard-room as a prisoner for a month and the girl was sent to the convent. The story did have a happy ending, however, for on July 8th with the dispensation of the bishop, the couple returned to the chapel and were legitimately married ... [Blaine Adams, The Construction and Occupation of the Barracks of the King's Bastion, Unpublished Report H A 13 (Fortress of Louisbourg, July 1971), The Chapel]

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