with balls, his
head scalped, his skull broken with blows of hatchets, his mouth and eyes
filled with mud, the bones of his legs broken, and his limbs dreadfully
mangled. After having bathed his remains with their tears, they buried him
on the site of the chapel, that had been hewn down with its crucifix, with
whatever else remained of the emblems of idolatry." Such was the merciless
character of the invasion of Acadia; such the looming phantom of the
greater crime which was so speedily to spread ruin over her fair valleys,
and scatter forever her pastoral people.

[F] Charlevoix.

The tranquillity of entire subjugation followed these events in the
province. The New Englander built his menacing forts along the rivers, and
pressed into his service the labors of the neutral French. "The
requisitions which were made of them were not calculated to conciliate
affection," says the chronicler; the poor Acadian peasant was informed, if
he did not supply the garrison fuel, his own house would be used for that
purpose, and that neglect to furnish timber for the repairs of a fort,
would be followed by drum-head courts martial, and "military execution."

To all these exactions, these unhappy people patiently submitted. But in
vain. The very existence of the subjugated race had become irksome to
their oppressors. A cruelty yet more intolerable to which the history of
the world affords no parallel, remained to be perpetrated.

CHAPTER XVIII.

On the road to Windsor--The great Nova Scotia Railway--A Fellow
Passenger--Cape Sable Shipwrecks--Seals--Ponies--Windsor--Sam Slick--A
lively Example.

A dewy, spring-like morning is all I remembered of my farewell to Halifax.
A very sweet and odorous air as I rode towards the railway station in the
funereal cab; a morning without fog, a sparkling freshness that twinkled
in the leaves and crisped the waters.

So I take leave of thee, quaint old city of Chebucto. The words of a
familiar ditty, the memory of the unfortunate Miss Bailey, rises upon me
as the morning bugle sounds--

"A captain bold in Halifax, who lived in country quarters,
Seduced a maid, who hung herself next morning in her garters;
His wicked conscience smoted him, he lost his spirits daily,
He took to drinking ratifia, and thought upon Miss Bailey."

While the psychological features of the case were puzzling his brain and
keeping him wide awake--

"The candles blue, at XII. o'clock, began