beach, miles
from the dykes, and as the tide comes in with a _bore_, a sudden influx,
wave above wave, the risk is imminent.

I passed two days in this happy valley, sometimes riding across to the
dykes, sometimes visiting the neighboring villages, sometimes wandering on
foot over the hills to the upper waters of the rivers. And the Gasperau in
particular is an attractive little mountain sylph, as it comes skipping
down the rocks, breaking here and there out in a broad cascade, or
rippling and singing in the heart of the grand old forest. I think my
friend Kensett might set his pallet here, and pitch a brief tent by Minas
and the Gasperau to advantage. For my own part, I would that I had my
trout-pole and a fly!

But now the sun sinks behind the cliffs of Blow-me-down. To-morrow I must
take the steamer for home, "sweet home!" What shall I say in conclusion?
Shall I stop here and write _finis_, or once more trim the lamp of
history? I feel as it were the whole wrongs of the French Province
concentrated here, as in the last drop of its life blood, no tender dream
of pastoral description, no clever veil of elaborate verse, can conceal
the hideous features of this remorseless act, this wanton and useless deed
of New England cruelty. Do not mistake me, my reader. Do not think that I
am prejudiced against New England. But I hate tyranny--under whatever
disguise, or in whatever shape--in an individual, or in a nation--in a
state, or in a congregation of states; so do you; and of course you will
agree with me, that so long as the maxim obtains, "that the object
justifies the means," certain effects must follow, and this maxim was the
guiding star of our forefathers when they marched into the French
province.

The peculiar situation of the Acadians, embarrassed the colonists of
Massachusetts. The French _neutrals_, had taken the oath of fidelity, but
they refused to take the oath of allegiance which compelled them to bear
arms against their countrymen, and the Indians, who from first to last had
been their constant and devoted friends. The long course of persecution,
for a century and a half, had struck but one spark of resistance from
this people--the stand of the three hundred young warriors at Fort Sejour.
Upon this act followed the retaliation of the Pilgrim Fathers. They
determined to remove and disperse the Acadians among the British colonies.
To carry out this edict, Colonel Winslow, with five transports and a
suffici