abandoned our homes to emigrate to Louisiana, to
seek there, under the protection of the French flag, the quiet and
peace and happiness we have enjoyed here.'

"The officer who had listened with folded arms to the noble words of
Rene Leblanc, replied with a scowl of hatred: 'To Louisiana you wish
to go? To Louisiana you shall go, and seek in vain, under the French
flag, that protection you have failed to receive from it in Canada.
Soldiers,' he added, with a smile that made us shudder, 'escort these
worthy patriots to the seashore, where transportation will be given
them free in his majesty's ships.'

"These words sounded like a death knell to us; we saw plainly that our
doom was sealed, and that we were undone forever, and yet, in the
bitterness of our misfortune, we uttered no word of expostulation,
and submitted to our fate without complaint. They treated us most
brutally, and had no regard either for age or for sex. They drove us
back through the forest to the seashore, where their ships were
anchored, and stowing the greater number of our party in one of their
ships, they weighed anchor, and she set sail. The balance of our
people had been embarked on another vessel which had departed in
advance of ours.

"Is it necessary, petiots, that I should speak to you of our despair
when thus torn from our relatives and friends, when we saw ourselves
cooped up in the hull of that ship as malefactors? Is it necessary
that I should describe the horror of our plight, our sufferings, our
mental anguish during the many days that our voyage on the sea lasted?

"This can be more easily imagined than depicted. We were huddled in a
space scarcely large enough to contain us. The air rarefied by our
breathing became unwholesome and oppressive; we could not lie down
to rest our weary limbs. With but scant food, with the water given
grudgingly to us, barely enough to wet our parched lips; with no one
to care for us, you can well imagine that our sufferings became
unbearable. Yet, when we expostulated with our jailers, and complained
bitterly of the excess of our woes, it seemed to rejoice them. They
derided us, called us noble patriots, stubborn French people and
papists; epithets that went right to our hearts, and added to our
misery.

"At last our ship was anchored, and we were told that we had
reached the place of our destination. Was it Louisiana? we inquired.
Rude scoffs and sharp invectives were their only answer. We were
di