em on ships which sail immediately for unknown lands. They
spare only such as become traitors to their Faith and to their King.
They raided our village at dusk yesterday, and have perpetrated there
the same wanton outrages and cruelties. They reduced it to ashes, and
the least expostulation on our part exposed us to be shot down like
outlaws. They have driven its inhabitants to the seashore like cattle,
and when through sheer exhaustion, one of their victims fell by the
road side, I have seen the fiends compel him with the butts of their
muskets, to rise and walk. I have escaped, in the darkness of night,
with an arm shattered by a random shot, and I have run exhausted by
the loss of blood, I fell where you have found me. They will overrun
Acadia, and they will not spare you, my friends, if you show any
hostility to them. Your town will be raided shortly, and you cannot
resist them, my friends. Abandon your homes, and seek safety
elsewhere, while you have the time and chance to do so.'

"You may well imagine, petiots, that our trouble was great when we
heard this terrible news. We stood there, not knowing what to do,
although time was precious, and although it was necessary that we
should devise some plan for our safety and protection. In our
predicament and in so critical an emergency, our only alternative
was to apply to our old curate for advice.

"He gave us words of encouragement, and withdrew with our elders to
his room. We remained in the churchyard, grouped together and speaking
in whispers, our souls harrowed by the most gloomy and despairing
thoughts.

"Ah! Petiots, we often speak of a mortal hour, but the hour that
passed away while these men were holding counsel in the curate's room,
seemed to encompass a year's duration. Our happiness, our all, our
life itself, in fact, were at stake and turned on their decision,
and we awaited that decision in dreadful suspense. At last our
elders, accompanied by our old curate, sallied out of that house with
sorrowful countenances, but with steady step and firm resolve written
on their brows."

Chapter Five

The Acadians Resolve to Leave
Acadia as Exiles

_Rather than submit to English rule--Before leaving
St. Gabriel, they apply the torch to the houses,
and it is swept away by the flames._

"Their countenance bespoke the gravity of the situation, far more
serious, indeed, than we then realized, and as they approached us, in
the deathlike silence t