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The following diagrams illustrate the methoJ: Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul cliche sont film6es A partir de Tangle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la mdthode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 lie drew me down m as to .speak three words in my ear. (P. m.) "> ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN BY W. J. GORDON AUTHOR OF THE CAI'TAIN-cihNERAL, ETC. ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1892 c/', Copyright, 1892, By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. Printed at the Appleton Press, U. S. A. P H E F A C E . HIS is the story of Louisbourg, that Key of 3 Empire, whicli, owing to the consequences of its fall, is one of the most notal)le of the world\s (lead cities. Like a nightmare the elaborate stronghold lay upon Englishman's Haven, and like a nightmare it vanished. Founded, forti- fied, captured, and destroyed all within a lifetime, its history would be sufficiently remarkable even without the prospect of the new town's future. W. J. G. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. Aa. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. PAGE (treenook 2 The Mystery g The Fort jg The Block-house 3^^ The Crusade ^g The Cajh^ -^ The Legend gQ The Battery (^g The Triuiuph ^^ The Snare ^gg The Alarm 150 The Treaty ^73 The Capture jg^ The Prison 207 The Escape 027 The Landing 240 The Second Siege 257 The Farewell 278 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FACINO PAGE He drew ine down so as to speak three words in my ear Frontispiece " Please, your honor, there is an Indian at the gate " 21 " One ! " And he pointed his finger at the sergeant 77 I scrambled in ^q^ With many a caution from Angel, off I went 165 He stood at the door and smoked, while I wrote home 214 "Sir, here's a new Father Neptune come up to you out of the set?. " 236 Down came the lilied ensign ; up went the cross of St. George 273 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. CHAPTER I. GREENOCK. >TAND clear there ! " "Time enough, man, time enough!^ said a voice in the crowd. And there was a loud laugh of the guffaw variety. " Obstinate as a mule, say you ? Obstinate as a sheep, say I ! " said one man. "It^s no' so pleasant landing for the shambles ! » said another. The men had driven the sheep to the side of the boat, but there was no getting them off. If one could be persuaded on to the straight road, all would be well. 1 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ii " Stand clear there ! " shouted a sailor from the deck. It was a grand contest of strength. Pull man, pull mutton ! The man had gripped the sheep by the neck, and the crowd roared at the struggle, which for a minute or so was equal. It was a real tug-of-war. " One ! two ! three ! " And at the " three " the sheep was hauled out on to the gangway, resisting its utmost notwithstanding. Suddenly the animal bounded forward, and the man, stumbhng back- ward, missed his footing and fell into the water. On went the sheep with a run up the gangway on to the wharf. " Whoo ! " said a soldier. And the sheep sprung high in the au* as it passed him to rush down the gap made by the crowd, which divided to give a clear passage. There was a laugh as the sheep jumped, and a louder laugh rose as the second sheep noisily clattered up the gangway in pursuit of the first and jumped exactly at the same spot. Sheep after sheep came clattering up at irregular intervals, each ii GEEENOCK. one jumping as the first had done, though there was nothing to cause it to do so but an irresistible impulse to behave as the others did. And at every leap we roared with delight. Meanwhile the man was being dragged out of the water, a miserable, half -drowned object, whom the rough sailors laughed at hugely. The laughter was contagious : we laughed at the man and laughed at the flock, which came up out of the ship, jump, jump, as if bewitched. Looking across the wharf, I saw a dressy, fop- pish creature hurrying towards us. Evidently he could not see the sheep jumping, and felt angiy at his direct road to one of the boats being blocked by the laughing mob. Elbowing his way through the people, he found himself in the lane just where the sheep were giv- ing their curious leap. A sheep came up at a run and jumped. The dandy jumped to avoid it, and while both were in the air they bumped against one another. Down went the sheep on its back, with its legs in full kick. Down went the man on his back, with his hat 4 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. bounding along the gi'ound in one direction and his bag in the other. Loud laughed the crowd, and louder than all laughed the three soldiers. And when the next sheep jumped over the fallen one and knocked down the man again, just as he was rising to his hands and knees, the merriment reached its height. The soldier who roared the heartiest was a big, smart-looking sergeant, evidently an Irishman ; and his prolonged ha! ha! ha! ha! proved to be un- bearably offensive to the fallen individual, who, as soon as he had regained his hat and bag, strode up to the good-natured-looking fellow and shook his fist in his face. An angry man was the discomfited one ; his face was dark with rage and his eyes gleamed danger- ously as he passed out. *^ If I had you in the — " Where, I did not hear, for I was laughing so, and so were the crowd, for a minute, more or less. But then a strange thing happened. They suddenly began to change sides completely, and take the man's part, resenting his enjojTnent of what I sup- Kin f GREENOCK. posed they considered to be their own particular entertainment. Excessive mirth had led to trouble. "At him! at him!'' I heard shouted. "We'll stand with you ! " " Send them to London ! " " Send tliom to Hanover ! " The mob grew shriller each moment. The soldiers had to retreat and do their best to keep off their hustlers. It seemed to me to be shameful. I liked the look of the unarmed soldiers, and the attack on them was most unfair. Who could help laughing at what they laughed at? Who was this ill-tem- pered loon who had caused so much mischief by his clumsiness! As I thought, so apparently did the sailors, who had climbed the masts to see what was going on, and were cheering the soldiers. By a swerve of the crowd I found myself in the thick of it, next to the sergeant. An idea occurred to me. "Make for the boat the sheep came from," I said to him. . " Ha ! Right ! That's sense," said the Irishman. 6 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. The straight line of retreat became a curve ; and, completing a half-circle, the soldiers reached the gangway to the cattle boat. As we did so, for I was with them, I saw the crowd in confusion, thrown hither and thither ; and a patrol, headed by a young officer, dashed through to our help. Little good did they do, or rather no good. They only angered the crowd the more, and they were all forced backwards down the gangway, the very young officer covering the retreat. " Unship the gangway ! " I heard some one say ; and longing to do something to distinguish myself, I gave it a push just as the officer left it, and over- board it went, and with it three men who were fol- lowing us on board. They had a ducking — that was all. On the other side of the vessel was a boat, into which we hurried at the skipper's orders, and off we pulled into the Clyde. A brigantine was in the fairway bound up stream, and her we hailed and boarded. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit I** asked the master. GREENOCK. "H'm!'' said the soldier-officer, hesitatingly, " that is not easy to say. The riotous mob you see ashore at Greenock made it advisable for us to re- treat to the river. Any cost you may be put to on our account shall be paid by me personally, if not otherwise." "Ah! that is candid, Mr. P " Tarling," said the officer—" Ensign Tarling, at your service." "Well," said the sailor, "and where can I put you ashore 1 I am bound to Port Glasgow." " That will suit us well." " And what are you, my lad ! " asked the sailor. " Are you one of this regiment ? " " No, sir," said I ; " but I came on board with them. I live at Greenock, and will return with them, if they will allow me." " Certainly," said the ensign. " If you had not broken the bridge so opportunely we should have been in a pretty pickle. What is your name ? " " Ardyne — Felix Ardyne." And that was my first meeting with Richard Tar- ling, who was to be my friend from that day to this. 8 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. That night we returned to Greenock and found all quiet. The tumult had subsided as quickly as it had arisen, and nothing was said about it offi- cially, it being deemed wisest to treat it as an out- burst of popular humor, arising and subsiding in loud laughter. But as far as I am concerned it is one of the best remembered illustrations in my book of life, and with it I often think my boyhood ended. My father had been much concerned at my ab- sence. Thinking I had strayed away, he had offered a reward for me. Right glad was he when I walked into his room, and merrily he laughed when I told him how it had all happened. It was a long time before he laughed again. The next day he had news from Glasgow, and for months afterwards we were adrift in a troubled sea. ^ CHAPTER II. THE MYSTERY. M [ELL do I remember the day my father came home from bmying my uncle. I had been left alone at the inn in a long, low, dark room, my only occupation being to keep up the fire. There I sat, scorching my knees in front of it, on a high-backed chair, wondering why people died, and with a parched throat and wet eyes, thinking of another funeral not long since, when in the showering snow my mother's coffin had been carried to its place. Why, I wondered, should people die, to make little boys unhappy? I can see that dark room now ; it was a gloomy room, and mine were gloomy thoughts, occasionally broken in upon by other thoughts I did my best to strive against as being frivolous. It was a cold, Glasgow day, gray and cheerless, soft above and greasy underfoot — such a day as comes to be made the best of; but it is mere waste of time to talk I 10 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. I ■ » I, if'. r 1 about weather, for that no one can alter ; and is it not the weather that has made us what we are? Let it be granted, then, that it was a very miserable day, and that all the surroundings were most mis- erable. My father, Peter Ardyne, had had his troubles, as I knew then, and knew better afterwards, and this death of his brother had much affected him. Everything seemed to be against us; could some other misfortune have happened? He had been out so long that I thought he was never coming back. Could I be going to lose my only friend? For he was my only friend and almost my only playmate. I had been backward and forward between the chair and the little window at least a dozen times before he passed on his way to the door. He had a friend with him whom I soon knew to be Adam- son the writer, or lawyer, as you would call it. " Well, Felix, did you think I was not return- ing?'' he said. " Well, laddie, you have the true look of your father," said the lawyer. T THE MYSTERY. 11 " You had best go out of tlio room for awhile," said my father. And I did for a few minutes, which seemed to me a long time ; and then I went back, and finding them talking I came out again, and then I re- turned and stayed longer, and at last I remained in the room altogether, and they took no notice of me ; and this, as far as I recollect, was how the conver- sation went : " It is not pleasant," said Adamson, " to be lis- tening to a will that leaves you legatee to less than it makes out." "Indeed, no." "You see," said Adamson, "you are left with £7000, and the £5000 trust money of Mrs. McRae ; but where that tinist money is invested there is nothing to show." "Have you made much inquiry?" asked my father. " I have. Every inquiry I can think of, and I have gone through every scrap of paper and account- book your brother left, and nowhere can I find it. In fact, my dear Ardyne, I do not think — you must 12 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. excuse my plainness of speech — I do not think the money exists." " You think that Andrew spent it ? " "Ahem! Not exactly. I think it exists in £5000 of what your brother left you." That was one spell of talk I heard, or rather as much of it as I remember, and the sense of it all. When I came back into the room again, not inten- tionally to listen but merely on account of being alone, I found that the subject had either been continued or returned to. As Adamson warmed his hands at the fire he looked up at the ceiling and said, " It is a strange coincidence, Ardyne, that soon after he accepted of this trust your brother became rich. And there is no trace of what he did with McRae's money, or how he became possessed of his own." " He paid interest regularly ? " " Always. There is an unbroken series of en- tries and acknowledgments. And Mrs. McRae I know has his acknowledgment that he took over the trust, for I have at times been consulted by her. In short, she is a client of mine." THE MYSTERY. 13 !r "Then there is no doubt that my brother had the money, and that I, as his rei)resentative, am responsible for it." " None whatever. That is clear enough. " " Then my course as an honest man is also clear enough. I had no hope of inheritance from An- drew. All I can say is that it is welcome — ^but it is not so gi'eat as it seems. There is £7000; of that £5000 must be looked upon as Mrs. McRae's until we find the equivalent amount that has gone missing. That leaves me £2000 to take. Am I right ! " "Very nearly," said the lawyer. "From the £2000 you must deduct the charges. It will have a hole made in it by them, but we can keep the hole within reason." "Now, Adamson, you are a man I know as thoroughly as you know me. See to this matter. Find another use for the McRae money. Hand her over the £5000 and release me. Keep your eye open as time goes on, and if ever you have a hint that Andrew was not as you thought him, do your best for me. Will that do ? " 14 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. " It is not every man who would take a disap- pointment so coolly." " It is not a disappointment, I tell you. It is a surprise having the £2000, or whatever it may be. So set to work and clear me of the trust. And now, how about this land in America ? Where is it I What is it worth ?" " It is in Nova Scotia, at a place called Che- bucto ; and it is worth five pounds." " And how much land can you get at Chebucto for five pounds ? " " As much as you like ; no more and no less." " And how do you arrive at its value ? " " By thinking of a number : just that ! " " I do not understand you." " Easy enough to understand. The land is forest land, uncleared, probably costing more to clear than to buy — and yet certainly worth something. I say for the purposes of this account of your brother's estate that it is worth just five pounds sterling. Contradict me who can ! " "Well, Adamson, I think I will go to Che- bucto." THE MYSTERY. 15 I I Tlio lawyer gave a long, scarcely audible whistle, aud raised his eyebrows. " Yes, to Chebucto ! " said Peter Ardyne. "There seems tc bo some charm in the name. Why?" "Well, Adamson, you are an old friend and a wise one; and I'll tell you. You know I don't like the way things are going on in this coun- try. I should like to see the king have his own again; but ho never will. There is news from Franco that a certain exalted personage is about to visit the north of Scotland. Am I right ? " " So they report." " Well, Adamson, he will do no good. There will be many to follow, but it will be in vain. I wish him well — and I wiU go away from here." " It is my turn not to understand. " " It is a losing cause, you see. I cannot fight for a losing side." "Then why not fight for the other?" asked Adamson. " Impossible. I fight for no side merely because ?^^ . I'!!: 1"!| II i i 1 f 1 1, ir ii il I 1 16 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. I expect it to win. I am not one of the mob. Wliat do you take me for ? " " And you fight for no cause that you think will lose ? " asked the lawyer. " That is it. It is hopeless. Why have needless bloodshed? "What good will it do! None! My friends will be beaten, I am sure; I cannot fight against them to profit by their misfortunes, and so I go to — what did you say that place was I ^ " Chebucto." " That's it. I go to New Scotland, to Chebucto. It will be safer for me and safer for the laddie." " And are you going to leave me with no one to look after me in charge of your affairs I " " All my affairs — few as they are. Release me as soon as you can. I will realize what I have, and with the money you hand over Felix and I will make a fresh start in a new world. I have never cared for this one since my wife died." " I wish you prosperity," said the lawyer. " But all the same, Adamson, I do not believe Andrew spent the widow's money." " Nor did I, till I could not find it, and I think J :l ■ '5R THE MYSTERY. 17 « ill er ve it now against my better feelings. But what are we to do!" " Well, Adamson, I know not. I leave it in your hands. The widow must not suffer.** " No, nor must Peter Ardyne, if I can help it. Of that be sure." And tho lawyer rose to go. At the door he stopped to notice me. "Well, sandy- wig, you look hungry, and your blue eyes look tired. How old are you I " " Twelve," I said. " And one day you will be laird of Chebucto." " Where is Chebucto ! " I asked. " Ah, tellings ! " said he. " Do you mean to say you learn geography and cannot tell us that ! Have you no knowledge of the Latin tongue ! Did you never hear of a Mantuan who said : Etj penitus toto divisos orhe, Chehuctosf^ ^^ I have heard something like that," I said, " but I thought it was BritannosP " They are all akin," said Adamson ; " if not, they will be ! Good-e'en to you, Chebucto ! ** 4 1 I m I I II.. ! ::i. 'l!! I . Mill ! CHAPTER III. THE FORT. T was in the summer of 1744 that we landed at Boston, in Massachusetts, on our way to Nova Scotia, to claim possession of the mys- terious patch of land left to my father in Uncle Andi'ew's will. Our voyage to Boston was long, stormy, and disagreeable, but oui* experiences were nothing out of the ordinary, and so similar to those of other voyagers that I need not stop to detail them. Our ship was the Loo, a small brigantine of Boston, which on this occasion made her first and only return journey across the Atlantic. My father's reasons for going in so small a vessel were that the charge was moderate, and the master, Bezek Angel, a fine, broad-shouldered fellow, took my father's fancy as he had done mine, he being the skipper to whom I had fled on the day of the sheep landing; also — and this was the deciding reason — the Loo ,1 THE FORT. 19 of ind :lie ?t's to I was going on to Annapolis Royal after touching at Boston. Annapolis Royal was then the chief British set- tlement in Nova Scotia. Chebucto, we had ascei- tained, was the name of a bay due east of Annapolis, on the Atlantic coast. At Annapolis our adventures, and I may truly say our perils, began. My father had brought with him a letter of introduction to the Governor ; and immediately on landing we set off to the fort which was Colonel Mascarene's headquarters. The settlement was much smaller than I had ex- pected. We entered a gap in some very high cliffs and sailed up a narrow channel between walls of rock a hundred feet high, capped by stunted fir woods. The settlement was a long distance up the estuary of the river, on a sort of peninsula ; and it consisted of a wharf and a few huts. At one end of the huts was a block-house ; at the other was a fort, with a flag flying in its centre. My father thought little of the fort and less of the huts A few men were working at the fort, apparently I Hi r ! ! 11 ■!'ll il 11 I I 20 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. repairing it ; and it looked as though it could stand a good deal of repair. It was a square on a low hill, which we after- wards found to be artificial, and the ramparts were of sandy earth faced with timber. There was a bastion or battery at each corner ; and it had a gate, a drawbridge, two barriers, and a dry ditch with palisades along the middle. It lay westward of the huts and the pine woods came down close to it, although there was a wide glacis. And on the op- posite side of the river was a thick forest. On reaching the gate we were challenged by a sentry, who handed us over to the sergeant of the guard, whom I at once recognized as the man I had seen at Greenock. " Father," said I, " that is the man who laughed about the sheep,'' "The sheep is it!" said the sergeant. "Ah! I thought I knew your face. Of course it is. Glad to meet you, sir, in these wilds. This way." We were in the Governor's presence the next moment. He was a Huguenot Frenchman by birth, and was most polite, or rather he would have been t ■iAi- B m II I i t II i "Please, i/onr honor, there t-s (in Jiidian at the gate."' THE FORT. 21 had he not been so quickly interrupted. In fact, the colonel had not finished reading the letter handed him by my father before there was a sharp knock at the door. " Come in." The sergeant entered. " What is the matter, Sergeant ? " " Please, your honor, there is an Indian at the gate with great news." " Let him wait." "Please, sir, the news is urgent. The French are on the march to attack us. The savages — " " What?" said Colonel Mascarene, folding up the letter. "Excuse me, Mr. Ardyne. You are wel- come. Anything I can do for you I will. Pray be my guest as long as may suit your convenience. O'Brien ! " " Yes, sir." " Send a man or two down to the wharf to get Mr. Ardyne's baggage up." " I had no intention — " began my father. " Oh, it is all right," said the colonel. " All right. You would do the same if you were in my I !l 22 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ii :1 < i i I position. Pray, no thanks ; give me no credit I do not deserve ; it may be a case of must. If this news be true you will have to be my guests whether you like it or not. The whole colony must come within these rampai'ts ; there is no other protection against an invasion. Our force is not strong enough to do otherwise. The country is indefensible. If you would not object to going with the men to the wharf and bringing up at once any weapons and ammunition you may have, it would be well. Ex- cuse me." The Governor was off to interview the Indian. My father and I, attended by four men, went down to the ship. We had not been long aboard when a gun was fired from the fort. A drum was heard beating an alarm. A second flag was run up on the north- eastern bastion. A flag appeared on the block-house at the other end of the village. A few men came running in out of the woods. I stood on the taffrail and gazed in wonder. Men on foot and a few on horseback were madly busy in all directions. The cattle and sheep were THE FORT. 23 excitedly rounded up and driven on to and along the rough road, which soon became alive with so strange a line of families removing with bag and baggage, by hand, horse, cart, wheelbarrow, and everything that could hold anything, that I thought I must be dreaming. The whole settlement seemed to be on the run, the walk, or the stagger into the fort. " Quick's the word, sir," said the corporal to my father, "and hurry's the countersign. Look alive there ! Stop that cart. " The cart was passing the end of the wharf half empty. One of the soldiers ran to the driver and brought the cart near the ship. Into it was thrown about half of our belongings. " Any ammunition ! ^ asked the corporal. " Yes," said the skipper ; " some." " Better hand over what you don't want for your own use," said the corporal. " Make out an account, that we may see what we take — Oh ! here is Mr. Tarling." " Yes, here is Mr. Tarhng. Ensign Tarling, at your service " — with a bow to my father — " and at yr 'I i h :\ »! ( 24 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. yours, sir," with a nod and a shake of the hand to me. " I heard you were here, much to my astonish- ment. The Governor's compliments to you, Mr. Ardyne ; affairs have become so urgent as to admit of no delay. The men are to get back to the fort at once with what they have. This vessel is bound to Boston instantly, unless the master is blind to his own interests. Whatever there may be of yours on board she will bring back with her when she re- turns with reinforcements. Wliat have you to say to that, Mr. Angel ! " and he handed him a paper, which the skipper unfolded and began to read. " That will suit you, if I am not mistaken ? " The skipper ran his eye, and his finger, along the lines. , " Ah-h-h ! " he said. " Well, I'll sign. Angel's visits are never long in Nova Scotia. Come below. sir." And he disappeared in company with the young officer. In a minute or so he was on deck again. " Now then, Mr. Ardyne, if you please. Good- by, Felix. Your goods, sir, will be safe with me. I hope you will be in the land of the living with a • If-- I 4 THE FORT. 25 scalp on wlien I return. The same to you, Mr. Tar- ling." " Well," said the ensign, " if I am not, I shaU have joined your family." " How so ? " " An angel, of course." " That's possible," said the skipper, dubiously. There was a puff of white smoke and a report from the fort. " ThexC goes the second gun," said Tarling. " We must hasten back." " What is it all about 1 " asked I. " The French are coming, that is all. They have broken into our territory from Louisbourg. Mon- sieur Duvivier has taken Canso and Chebucto and is on the march here, and his vanguard of Souri- quois are close at hand." " But there has been no declaration of war, has there?" " Oh, there's nothing in that. That is mere de- tail. The point is that the French are here, and will turn us out if they can, » li Did the one Indian tell you all this I " 26 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. f 1 !! Ul t ■ I '■ft I'i '1 " Well, no. "Wo heard a rumor three days ago that the French were coming, and the Governor be- gan to get things ready, as you see," and he nodded at the men at work near the gate. "But the Indian saw them on the march and brought defi- nite news. Canso capitulated on the 13th of May. It is not much loss, except in reputation. It is only a miserable block-house built by the fisher- men." " Like that one ? " " Not so good as that one. That is better than it looks, and will give a good account of itself." We were within fifty yards of the fort when we heard the distant sound of a gun. " Just in time," said Tarling, turning round to see the wreath of smoke floating away from the block-house. "Angel's off!" he continued. "Thank good- ness ! Look." The LoOy with about a third of her sail fully set, and the rest being sheeted home, was just heeling to the breeze, and heading down the river between the frowning cliffs. THE FORT. 27 le I " And there," further continued the ensign, " is the enemy." A few figures could bo seen moving from tree to tree on the fringe of the forest. " The sooner wo are in shelter the better," said my father. " Quite so," said Tarling. And we entered the gate. "Within, the confusion was gently subsiding. There was a place for every- body and everything, for all had been prepared, and the people knew what they were about. In the barrack and storehouse and casemates and on the central gi*een the goods were stored, and the cattle and their owners found quarters. As soon as the fugitives had been accommodated the men reported themselves at the guard-room as ready for garrison duty, and were sent to join the soldiers on the ram- parts. Of soldiers under his command, all told. Colonel Mascarene had eighty ; the inhabitants he was shel- tering numbered among them about a hundred men and boys who could be trusted with fire-arms ; and as was the custom then, each had his own weapons. !!': ! I 28 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. and looked to tlie government only for powder and lead. They were a roughish lot of farmers and frontiersmen, most of them Yankee born, many of them Scotch, a few English, a few Acadians, half a dozen half-breeds, and three Indians ; but every one of them could be trusted, knowing that he would receive no mercy from the French or their Indian allies. ' We were lodged close to the Governor, and as soon as we arrived were invited to his table. I found myself seated by the side of young Tar- ling, who from the first seemed anxious to make friends with me. " What do you think of Annapolis Royal ? '^ he asked. " Is it often like this ? " I answered, in the Scot- tish manner. **This is my first experience of this kind of thing. I have not been here a month.'' "Yes, of course. It is different to what I ex- pected." " You did not expect to come among savages ? " "Indeed, no. It is all so strange. Now," and THE FORT. 29 Ix- h> I sank my voice almost to a wliisper, " why don't you boil your lobsters in this country ? ^ " Boil our lobsters ! "Wha' do you mean ! " "Why, those things a^"i not cooked — ^look!'' And I nodded at the dish near me. " Oh ! " said Tarling, with a quiet laugh. " They are all right. Lobsters do not tui'n red in this country when they are boiled ; they turn green." I looked incredulous. "Really it is so,'' said Tarling. "Have some! May I trouble you for the lobster, please ? Thank you." I tasted and was convinced. "The gi'een uniform suits the country better, you see," said a stranger seated opposite us. " You are glad of the red when you can get it, though," said Tarling. "In times like these, most certainly," said the stranger. " But tastes may change, anyhow." "Ah!" said Tarling, "there's no pleasing you provincials, though to put a red coat on a man in the backwoods is to make a target of him, I admit." Here an orderly brought in a slip of paper to the 111 1^1 ^A i» 111 t> ii II 'tliiii i i :i 30 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. Governor, who read it and immediately went ont. The others followed. "Come with me," said Tarling. And in a few minutes we were in the southeast battery looking out over the deserted village. The Souriquois had gathered in the woods on the east and west and south of the fort. On the north side ran the river; on it and on the high wooded gi'ound on the opposite bank there was no sign of an enemy. The Indians had come down from the woods on the centre of the village and were in possession of some of the huts. But not a shot had been fired as yet. Up the rough road, along which the crowd had hurried into the fort, came three men bearing a white flag and a green bough. One of the men was an Indian in full war paint ; another was a Canadian, in skin jacket and moccasins ; the other was a priest. The priest halted and waited, while the two men came on, and by their gestures announced they were under a flag of truce. The stranger who had spoken to Tarling at the table went out of the fort to meet them. He brought back a letter from the ■H M n: ..vir. THE FOKT, 31 len ey lad )rt Ihe priest asking for an interview. A few minutes afterwards the Governor appeared in the road, at- tended by two of his men, and the priest came for- ward to join him. The interview was not a long one. It ended in a loftily polite leave-taking, in the departure of the priest and his companions down the road, the return of the Governor, and the raising of the drawbridge. A few minutes after- wards Mascarene appeared on the ramparts. " A summons to surrender," ho said to my father. " So I thought. Who is the priest ? " " The biggest rascal under the French flag — and that is saying much. He is the missionary Le Loutre. We shall hear some of his preaching to- night." "Which was the leader of the enemy's forces? The Indian ? " "No, no! Le Loutre. He is missionary and fury and firebrand and general and scalper and am- bassador all in one ! Ask any one in the fort for his character ; the one I have given him is the best you will hear. See ! Vespers have begun ! " A sheaf of flame and smoke rose from one of the i.! ! iu \ :i i f' 32 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. huts ; then from another ; then from another. The village was on fire. "Will the whole place be destroyed I" asked Peter Ardyne. " Yes," said Mascarene. " To fire on the scoun- di-els would be mere waste, and I cannot afford to waste ammunition. We shall want it all to-night." Not a shot was fired that afternoon. The Somi- quois drew closer to the fort and coolly burned the houses one by one. There were three hundred Indians under Le Loutre, and Duvivier was coming with sixty sol- diers, four hundred militia, and as many Indians. And two frigates from Louisbourg, with soldiers on board, were due in the river. Such was Le Loutre's tale, as repeated to us by the Governor. Le Loutre also informed the Governor that France had de- clared war as far back as the 15th of March, and that he ought to have known it, if he did not ; and that no Frenchman would now rest until the British were driven out of America. As far as Nova Scotia was concerned, Annapolis was all that was now left to us. 'f THE FORT. 33 The Governor wasted neither his ammunition nor his time. Out of sight of the keenly watching Souriquois, every man that could be spared was at work strengthening the defences and preparing for the storm. Night fell : a dark night made darker by the glare of the last of the burning houses. All was quiet and still outside. The preparations for the inevitable were complete, and the men were under arms at their posts. I went to sleep. I was awakened by a loud noise. I had been sleeping in my clothes. I leaned up and listened. I heard the crackle of musketry, and amidst it I dis- tinguished the report of one of the fort cannons. I ran out and saw the faint flush of dawn overhead, while the flashes around me lighted up the dark, misty morning. The weather was cold and raw. I found my way to the southeast battery and watched the battle. At the northeast and southwest angles of the fort the Governor had built a pile of tar barrels and brushwood, and these he had hghted by trains of powder as soon as the alarm was given. 3 34 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. Many of tlie Indians had nearly crossed the glacis before they were discovered, but the watch had detected them and at once fired the train, and the bonfires burned merrily and the enemy's force was revealed. The cannon, loaded with bags of bullets, spread out a terrible rain. In vain the Indians, looking like demons in their paint and feathers, in the glare and shadow of the leaping fiames, tried to hold their own on the glacis. They were soon driven into cover, from which their arrows and bullets had no effect. The assault was a failure. The battle lasted in strength but an hour, and lazily dwindled away as the morning drew on. In the fort only one man was hurt — a mere flesh wound. Of the Indians we knew not how many, as it is their custom to fall down at each discharge, and then rise to return it. This is a famous device in fighting in the woods, but in attacking a fort, Mr. Tarliug said, he could not see how it could pay ; nor could I. Night after night the Souriquois attacked An- napolis Royal, and each time they were brushed off with ease. During the day they lay in ambush in THE FORT. 35 the woods, and in the deserted houses and barns, and endeavored to pick off any of Mascarene's men who showed their heads above the ramparts. And as they attacked the fort so did they the block-house, which was held by the sergeant and a small guard. It was more of a blockade than a siege, for Le Loutre was waiting for Duvivier before he began serious work, and Mascarene was waiting for the return of the Loo, CHAPTER IV. THE BLOCK-HOUSE. JHE boats had all been captured by the Souri- quois except one which was under the pro- ty^ tection of the fort. Both fort and block- house were on the water-side, and commu- nication between them was kept up by means of this boat, which journeyed backward and forward each night as soon as darkness had set in. During one night's attack an arrow was shot into the fort, on which was a letter addressed to the Governor from some traitor among the Indians. It informed him that the next night the attack on the fort was to be a feint, and that " the priest of the new religion," who openly acted as leader, intended to do his best to capture the block-house. All next day the colonel carefully noted the Indian proceedings, and, being convinced of the truth of the message, decided to reinforce the block- ■■:«V THE BLOCK-HOUSE. 37 Dt It le le 3d be "i • '■-' he fi m k- 1 i house garrison at least for the night. At six o'clock Ensign Tarling, who was anxious to distinguish himself in a separate command, and had volunteered through his captain for special service, was told to hold himself in readiness. Ten men were placed under his orders ; and, as adviser and real head of the detachment, he was given the stranger who had moralized on the color of lobsters, and whom I now knew to be Simon Harcourt, an Acadian or Anglo- French colonist. I asked to be one of the party. "You!" said Tarling. "You had better stay where you are. It will probably end in nothing, and you will be cooped up with us and see nothing. It is none of your business, my boy ! " Now I did not think so, and the next time the colonel noticed me I boldly asked him to let me go. " Go ! You volunteer for active service, do you ? " " Yes, sir." " Ah ! well, you are not old enough, you would be in the way." " I could be of use in passing the word, sir." 38 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. j' " You have a good opiniou of yourself. I ^ ill ask your father." And the end of it was that father and I went in the boat. The twilight had faded into misty gloom when we started. With muffled oars we slipped off si- lently athwart the river, and all went well until we were crossing back again to the light in the block- house. There was no sound now but the gentle sough of the boat, and the least bit of a rub and shiver as the oars were pulled through the water. I was in the boat, armed with a large pistol, which I was soon to learn kicked painfully. Peering out into the darkness I caught sight of a strange ripple ahead, and in the centre of it was a round object. Almost immediately I saw another ; then another. " The stream is full of foot-balls ! " I whispered. "Foot-balls!" said Harcourt, who was by my side. " What is that ? " And he looked out ahead. "Ah! ah! Messieurs les Souriquois are swim- ming out to welcome us." " Cease rowing ! " said Tarling. I' THE BLOCK-HOUSE. 39 The men stopped. At the same moment a flare shot up from the fort. It oast a feeble light at the distance, but enough to show the block-house black and threatening ; and between the block-house and the boat were some thirty Indians in the water. The nearest was not a dozen yards away. "Row on!" said the ensign, putting the helm a-starboard. The boat headed oif to the left up stream, and continuing the curve swept round to the opposite bank, coasted it for a minute or so, and then crossed the river in a wide semicircle and approached the block-house on the side of the village. The result of this manoeuvre was to bring her up in the rear of the swimming brigade, who had lost sight of her in the darkness. Twenty yards from the shore there came a " sip " and a " thlung " close to my ear, and an arrow stood quivering in the wood six inches below me. Almost simultaneously there was a flash from the shore, and a buUet or two went " whooing " overhead. "Fire where that flash was, those that are not rowing. In oars, all ! " 40 englishman's haven. Tliero was a straggling volley from half a dozen in the boat, including Tarling and Harcourt. In re- ply came a flare from the block-house. Along the shore could be seen a line of Indians ; in the river was the dotted brigade of swimmers returning; between the two was the boat. There was a big "bong'* and then a bigger "bong" from the block- house ; and right and left of the boat, over a wide space, and " fitching " into the river on one side and "crickling" up the shingle on the other, came a spreading shower of langrage. The boat grated on the beach. " Hurroo ! " Sergeant O'Brien was heard shout- ing in the block-house. " Load briskly now ! " There was a sputtering volley, and then a dis- charge from the cannon, and ar he firing the boat was run up into shelt^ ^ the relief was safe. No time was lost. The reinforcement was soon at the upper loopholes busily firing at the Indians returning to the shore, who swam revealed in the light of a second flare that the thoughtful Irishman had lighted ; while on the wooden walls there dwelt i THE BLOCK-HOUSE. 41 a steady pattering of bullets and arrows in reply from the besiegers on land. The block-house had three floors. It was square, and built of roughly squared baulks. The lower story was twenty feet on the side, the second was twenty-two feet, the upper was twenty-four feet. In each side of the four faces of the second floor was a porthole for the two cannons, which were six- pounders on ship carriages. The upper floors ex- tended over the lower ones, as I have said, and in the part projecting were many round holes, eight inches in diameter, through which to fire musketry, or whatever might be convenient. Besides these there were loopholes all round the walls. The flare had been out but a short time when there was an alarm on the eastern face. A flight of arrows aflame with burning rags hurtled harmlessly on to the roof. The fire at which these had been lighted was pointed out by Harcourt in a small clump of trees. " Could you di-op a shot there ? " he asked the ensign. " We can try. Sergeant, aim at that clump." 42 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. O'Brien laid the gun, looked along it, shut one eye, then shut the other, then shut both eyes, then opened both eyes and squinted horribly, and then said to me ; "Here, manikin^ have a bang! You can say you fired a gun in action.^ The ball seemed to plump right into the fire, for there was a scattering of flame in all directions. The flight of flaming arrows ceased ; but the attack continued on the southern and western sides. On the southern sides a few points of fire came into view and zigzagged about towards the defenders. The ensign, giving a glance through an eastern loophole, exclaimed: " That clump is on fire ! " " And there goes the wind to help it," said Har- court. A dull red glow brightened into flame on the hillock. The flames soon burst up furiously among the resinous trees. The entire field of strife lay in flickering light and shadow. The Souriquois' plan of battle lay discovered. A hundi'ed yards from the block-house, on the THE BLOCK-HOUSE. 43 southern side, stood Lo Loutre urging on a band of redskins, who, torch in hand, were now running straight for the southwestern angle. They did not reach it. vOne by one they dropped or turned back. The wood burned clearer and brighter, and soon the moon rose above the tree- tops. There was no chance that night for either surprise or open storm. " A lucky aim that of yours, O'Brien," said Tar- ling. " The shot must have scattered the fire up on to the trees." " Ay, sir. We've been in luck's way to-night, both on land and sea. We settled the water party by getting in under the guard, and we countered the land attack by a straight one from the shoulder. It's Providence it is we ought to thank for that same." Next morning more Indians appeared. They were of a different tribe, being probably Abenakis, but the matter is of no moment. They kept us wide awake all through the day, and so keen was their watch at night that we could not send the boat back. It was wonderful how they kept on for days and days maintaining such a spying on us that 44 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. fil' ¥: every time a face appeared at a loophole there was a shot to follow its appearance. This was not my idea of war. It was tedious and most melancholy to be cooped up in a rough, wooden room and know that death was round the corner of every hole ; and I became too weary of the thing to get used to it. The foes were of course watching each other. The Indians could do nothing against the strongholds ; and the garrisons could do nothing against the Indians. All depended on Du- vivier. Sometimes it was the fort that was attacked, some nights it was the block-house, sometimes both together were assaulted in a spasmodic way, but nothing came of it. Each time the Indians were brushed off with ease. At last Le Loutre sickened of the game that did him no credit, and after a last desperate attempt he retired. In the morning there was not an Indian to be seen, and advantage was taken of the circumstance to send back the boat with some of the block-house garrison ; and father and I went with them. But where was Duvivier ? Duvivier was a com- THE BLOCK-HOUSE. 45 mander mucli inclined to secrecy. He had attacked Canso secretly. He had captured Chebucto se- cretly. His plan foi the capture of Annapolis was a secret; and the manner of his advance was a secret even from Le Loutre. The day after Le Loutre had slunk off with his Indians Duvivier marched into view from the southwest, at the head of nine hundred men, regulars, militia, and Micmacs, as the Cape Breton branch of the Souriquois are called. The Governor looked serious when the French were descried coming out of the wood, but we were all very cheerful. We had beaten back Le Loutre, and help from Boston ought to be nigh. Duvivier proceeded scientifically. He threw up entrenchments, and Mascarene amused him by giv- ing him an occasional cannon-ball. He wasted days with his earthworks, and also in endeavoring to find Le Loutre. At daybreak one morning, supposing that the garrison had been overstated, he attempted to storm. We were prepared for him. As soon as he was well within range we let him have all we could give him, and we drove him back. I fired two guns at 3 * 46 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. him, myself. Father was one of our best marks- men. The French attacked us again at eight o'clock. They came again at eleven, and they tried to get at us all the afternoon until the darkness. Each time we brushed them off the glacis as if they had been flies. Meanwhile the Governor was getting anxious. If Le Loutre returned and the French frigates came, he would have to surrender. But though the enemy might be twenty to one, he had made up his mind to hold out till food failed. That night, expecting an assault at dawn, he sent out secretly from the fort and built two more bonfires, one at the northwest and the other at the southeast angle. The storm came as expected. Du- vivier, now joined by a few of the Souriquois, at- tacked on two sides at once. The fires shot up, and in the firelight the fighting was close and desperate. Again^ and yet again, the French made a rush across the clear ground, only to be driven back. The day dawned on the death-struggle. The light gi^ew on the hill-tops. The French gathered for one last effort. We saw them forming. We saw the command THE BLOCK-HOUSE. 47 given. All togetlier, from the east and south sides, they came towards us. I was in the southeast bas- tion, and we gave them a scattering volley right and left. But some of them passed the glacis and got into the ditch, and were climbing the palisades, when suddenly there was a shout from the river- side. Coming up the stream was Bezek Angel with the ioo, and behind her were two larger vessels. The French saw the ships were British, and sent every man to carry our position before the new- comei's could help. But they never got beyond the palisades — neither whiteskin, yellowskin, nor redskin. Amid all the roaring and raging several boats put off from the ships; the Boston men coming ashore attacked the French on the flank; Mr. Tarling and a de- tachment from the block-house came up the road into their rear; the Governor, charging out of the gate with a hundred of us, cleared the cause- way ; and Monsieur Duvivier went to the left wheel in double quick march, as if he had had quite enough of Annapolis Royal, which was not to be French that time ; nor will it ever be. \U[ 1 ; 1; m 1 CHAPTER Y. THE CRUSADE. EXT morning came the weary burying after this Nova Scotian Harlaw. Many of the people wept at the ruin the Indians had wrought. It was as though a child trans- ported with passion had set to work to burn and destroy in mere spite. Of the greater things I say nothing ; but the mean, petty things that were done simply to annoy and cause misery gave me no high notion of those with whom we had to deal. Immediately after breakfast, my father was asked by the Governor if he would take despatches to Governor Shirley of Massachusetts, and tell him the story of the siege. "You have seen it all," said Mascarene, "and you can tell him all. I expect the frigates will come, and we shall have another attack, which I am strong enough to repel. But some person of trust THE CRUSADE. 49 must go to Mr. Shirley, and I can spare none of the army people. If any forces are to be raised against the French, he may give yon a commission. I will, if you think fit, suggest as much to him. If you really intend to settle at Chebucto, it would be of use to you as giving you a standing in the colonies. It is merely a suggestion, of course." " But how about my belongings 1 " asked my father, very naturally. The Governor laughed. "I'll answer for what are here. You cannot possibly take them to Chebucto, for that is now oc- cupied by the French. If you go back with Angel, you had better ship the lot again so as to have them under your control." And that afternoon we were off again back to Boston. The brigantine had a narrow escape as she came out of the narrow gorge into the bay. Two large ships were coming up from the south- ward before the wind, and were about a couple of miles away when we sighted them. Angel promptly continued his westerly course right out off the shore from Roger's Point, and the ships, probably not 4 p (T ii Is ones. "We shall have to change them at the mint," said Angel. " I have eight more that went to pulp in my pocket when I got wet through last night." The " mint " was visited. The two clerks were quite busy making things pleasant all round, ex- changing new tickets for damaged and tattered ones. Angel fared quite as well as the rest. The clerk exchanged the broken " coins " for new of the same value, and he also exchanged the pulped ones, but one of the greasy ones he demurred to as not being shabby enough. " Pay it out," he said, " and let it have another turn before it comes in." Captain Ardyne was inclined to be sarcastic re- garding this currency ; but what he said need not be quoted. The currency served its turn because the people were honest. That such box-bottoms would be appreciated in Glasgow or the south of Lanark was not to be expected. THE CKUSADE. 63 I At last, in the mystic time of seven times seven days, everything was ready for this armada. There were four thousand three hundred troops, inckiding officers, ready to be embarked in the fleet of ninety transports at anchor among the islands in the bay. But Boston was in a ferment on another matter. In October there had arrived the great Mr. George Whitefield, at whose funeral a few years ago all the black cloth in Georgia was used up. Much was made of Mr. Whitefield, who had been at Boston before, and given offence to many and comfort to others. Pepperrell had gone out in a boat to wel- come him and invite him to his house, but the min- ister was so prostrated after a stormy voyage of eleven weeks across the Atlantic, that it was only with difficulty ho could be brought ashore. Once ashore, a certain section of the people would not let him rest. They crowded in front of the house in which he lodged, and they prayed and sang hymns in the roadway, and thus by their thronging and noise made themselves a nuisance to those whose opinions on religious matters were of the older school, or who were insincere in all such matters. :(, !l!w ll !^)^ 64 englishman's haven. When at last lie was able to preach, the enthu- siasm was so great that the crowds went in thou- sands, yes, really in thousands, to listen to him. So energetic was he that he held services as early as six o'clock, and in the cheerless gloom of a winter's morning, and often amid falling snow, people of all ranks, but mostly of the lowest, would go thronging into the hall which held two thousand, and pack it so closely that the only way in for the preacher was through the window. Mr. Whitefield always made a collection for his orphanage, which, according to those who are fond of scandal, meant his own pocket. I do not think so meanly of him. He may have lived on the best of everything, and I believe he did; but surely a man who could make the poor think of something else than money for even a few minutes in a morn- ing was worth all it cost to feed him well ! Besides, he really had an orphanage — which ended miser- ably after his death. This religious fervor was strange to me. There were all the vagabonds in the street asking each other if they were ^' convicted," which meant if they THE CKUSADE. 65 had no doubt whatever concerning their everlasting happiness ; and many of the self-styled " convicts ^ strutted about with laughable airs of superiority. They thought themselves so very much better than the rest of us. But even the strut was not un- healthy, for it at least showed they had hope of themselves. I wished to hear Mr. Whitefield, but my father thought six o'clock on a week-day morning was an uncomfortable hour for such a purpose, and we did not go. One afternoon, however, Bezek Angel and I went to hear another preacher, who was only second to Whitefield in the stir he made. This young man's trade had been to make the sticky papers on which flies are caught, and on being " convicted," he had, in his own words, " left off catching flies to catch souls," and he gloried in his name of Catch-em-alive-oh. Catch-em-alive-oh had a strong pulpit, and he used it mercilessly. He banged it with his hands, and he kicked it with his knees and feet ; he slapped his thighs, and shook his fists at the congregation, and he actually put one of his knees on to the top 5 f}^ 06 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. Ill 1 of his pulpit, and pretended to struggle in the air, to, as he said, " save the souls and catcli-em-alive- oh!" One minute he would draw himself up to the full length of his lanky person and appear to be toppling over, the next ho would have his chin down on the pulpit so that we could only see his head. His discourse was merely scraps of Scripture, with ungi'ammatical and incomplete sentences as connective tissue. He laughed ha! ha! and he yelled ho ! ho ! and showed in pantomime how all the unconvicted would writhe and sputter as they roasted everlastingly; but, as it was a very cold day. Angel and I were not as much terrified at the j)rospect as we might have been in summer. Catch-em-alive-oh, who would have done well in the tropics, was said to be an exact copy of White- field ; but he had only copied the objectionable ges- ticulations, as I afterwards discovered. His visit was only a brief one. It was said there was not room for him and Whitefield in Boston at the same time ; and he returned to Connecticut, where he was held in greater esteem. Frankly, I thought him THE CRUSADE. 67 absurd, but even his work did more good than harm, as many who were deaf to more reverent expostula- tion were led to give less trouble to the magistrates. So great was Mr. Whitefield's influence among the recruits that Pepperrell asked him to accompany the expedition as one of the chaplains. But whether it was that he did not choose to be one among many, or that he did not care for the dangers of the seat of war, I know not ; anyhow, he refused. He, how- ever, did much to encourage the expedition, and publicly promised to pray three times a day for its success. One of the commissaries, a Mr. Sher- burne, thereupon asked him " to sanctify a standard for the troops," and in response to this request he gave one of the regiments a handsome flag bearing Nil desperandum^ Christo duce as a motto. After the enthusiastic reception of this flag by all parties in the State, he helped on the expedition by every means in his power; and so combined religious enthusiasm with our warlike politics as to make us all believe we were engaged in a holy war. Even the most peaceable of the " convicted " gave us their prayers and talked about Sabaoth. J 'M ' .iiSi m 68 ENGLISHMAN S HAVEN. MJ mi The day before we embarked he offered to preach a sermon to the troops. The offer was a most wel- come one. " Here is Peter the Hermit come to life again ! " as Pepperrell said. I shall never forget that sermon. I had never seen Whitefield before, nor have I seen him since. His face was not handsome. He had a long upper lip and projecting teeth, and he squinted badly with the left eye. His gesticulation was simply gro- tesque ; and he was this, and he was that, and every- thing we could find fault with — but his voice was wonderful. Garrick said Whitefield could make men weep or laugh or quake according to the way in which he chose to pronounce the one word Mesopotamia, only the one word; and I have heard the great actor ring the changes on that word by way of example, but his voice was nothing like so fine as the preach- er's, who could be heard clearly at a distance of a quarter of a mile. Not that he bawled, but that he sent his voice travelling without effort. Angel said he would be useful in a gale of wind, but Angel at this time was inclined to say more frivolous things THE CRUSADE. G9 than he really thought. Of that wonderful voice, sweet as a flute, and always musical, pleading, wheedling, threatening, taunting, cheering us on, I heard every word. My father said it was a fine sermon, and was pleased with it ; but it would not be much admired in these days. At first I thought the preacher was slyly poking fun at the congregation. His text was, to say the least of it, an unexpected one : " And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented gathered themselves unto him : and he became a captain over them." I saw the men look at each other as Whitefield solemnly gave this out, and some looked angry and some smiled, for indeed there was a certain amount of truth in the suggestion. It was so strange a text that all remembered it, and sat wondering how the preacher would get on. That he meant well we all believed, but how a text which was practically an insult was to be developed complimentarily was a puzzler. It soon appeared that "Whitefield was a master of the discursive style, and that it mattered little m ' ■ ^' i . ■■:■ 1" ^ > . ■Fijpvavv^,- ^ ■ ^i .f> 70 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ft* :': 1^ iii how he started. In a few miuutes he had left David at AduUam, aud was in Boston with Pej^per- rell, and then was off again to Josliua and the Jor- dan. It seemed that the distress and the debt and the discontent were all owing to the French, and mainly to our great enemy Le Loutre, the Jesuit. And at the mention of Le Loutre Whitefield became suddenly most eloquent, and told how the poor savages were misled as to the character of our countrymen ; how, as the price of conversion, they h.vi to swear to massacre us wherever they might find us, and v/ere kept supplied with arms and am- munition for doing so ; how the mass was denied to all who would not go to battle against us. And he spoke of many other dreadful things in plainer lan- guage than I had ever heard in plain-spoken Scot- land. Then he showed that the French and not the British were the enemies of mankind ; that popery and not Protestantism was pagan; and that the worship of the mass was no better than the super- stitious idolatry of the Micmacs. Louisbourg, he said, was a "flaunting outpost of the Satanic realm," and our armament was in the THE CEUSADE. 71 V-t ' ■ 'i ' service of the Lord, and would assuredly be " blessed with the meed of glorious victory, such as waited on the standards of faithful Israel in the Promised Land." We were the Israelites of our time. Our leader was the same sort of man. The Israelites of old had their Joshua ; we had our Pepperrell. Then the preacher "spiritualized," and the distress and the debt and discontent were shown to be due to our unconvictedness, and that unconvictedness was our cave of Adullam, from which, under a spiritual David, he accompanied us to victory. The sermon was the talk of the evening. It fanned the Protestant fervor to fever pitch, and crowds gathered in the streets to sing the one hun- dred and forty-fourth and other psalms, and march as they sang. Old and young, high and low, were there glorying in that strange combination of pa- triotism and fanaticism. Next day the hearts of the New Englanders beat high at the embarkation. As one of the regiments came down to the beach, it was noticed that there marched at its head its chaplain, who solemnly bore on his shoulder a great hatchet especially provided f 72 englishman's haven. by one of the congregation for " hewing Agag in pieces." Who was meant by Agag I could never discover. I beheve the hatchet was really intended for chopping down images in Catholic chapels — for which it was never used. There was a busy scene in the bay as the men and baggage were put on the ships. And bitter was the weeping on the part of the women and children left behind, when, after a long delay, the hundi'ed vessels set their sail, and in the favoring wind left Nantucket Roads on the New Englanders' Crusade. I CHAPTER VI. §m THE CAMP. [N account of her good sailing qualities the Loo had been appointed "packet" for the fleet, and with my father's permission I ac- cepted Captain Angel's invitation to take the trip to Canso in her. As we carried the mail we were the last to leave the quay. When we started the ships had formed into a long crescent and had sunk on the horizon, and when we reached them we were out of sight of land. The fleet did not long remain together. A storm came on which lasted for some days and dispersed us. Our orders were to rendezvous at Canso, in the extreme east of Nova Scotia, and we arrived there on the 4th of April, but some of the ships did not come in till six days afterwards. We found Canso deserted, and as soon as the General arrived the troops began to build a strong 74 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. li- fi M block-liouse aud arm it with eight guns. When the troops were landed they had lost somewhat of their freshness, and many of the fine coats were griev- ously stained, notwithstanding that they had been worn inside-out during the voyage to keep them in fair condition. There was much drilling every day, and it was much required. While the expedition was preparing Governor Shirley had applied to Colonel Mascarene to spare him a sergeant or so from Annapolis, to give the volunteers a notion of military drill, and among those sent was Sergeant O'Brien; and curiously enough there came as one of Mr. Pepperrell's aides Ensign Richard Tarling. The Annapolis men had reached Boston a few hours after our expedition had sailed, and had come on by the next ship. As a special favor Captain Ardyne secured Ser- geant O'Brien's first services. His company was a very mixed one, but as a stranger he had had no choice in the matter. O'Brien's astonishment at the material he was expected to bring into shape before the ice broke up at Louisbourg, I shall never forget. He stared m THE CAMP. 75 at the men for quite a minute before he could say a word. Tarling simply began to laugh, much to Captain Ardyne's annoyance, for my father's military ex- perience was not extensive, and he was not quite sure if the ensign were laughing at him or his men. It was really very rude of Tarling to laugh at our men, but somehow I liked him all the more for it, and I laughed too, whereat my father was more angry. The front rank consisted of ten farmers of dif- ferent heights, three fishermen, two storekeei^ers, a very squat rope-maker, an unusually tall, thin schoolmaster, a drayman, a blacksmith, a sawyer, and six half -civilized Passamaquoddy Indians. The lieutenant at the end of this remarkable line was a young gentleman in a scarlet coat with gold lace, who wore white smalls and a powdered periwig surmounted by a three-cornered hat. The beauti- fully varied effect may be imagined. The sergeant's first effort was to size the men. He put the schoolmaster at one end of the line, and the rope-maker at the other, with the Passamaquod- » 'J 76 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. dies dotted along at unequal intervals. Then O'Brien tried how the men would look with the In- dians all at one end, the farmers at the other ; but here again the centre was lamentably weak, and the schoolmaster towered above the rest like an obelisk. But it was the best that could be done. " Attention ! ^ said the sergeant. Four of the line, including the schoolmaster, looked straight in front; some of the others as- sumed an air of nonchalant alertness; the fisher- men hitched up their trousers ; two of the Indians, who were rather deaf, put their hands up to their ears so as not to lose the next word. The farmers simply bent forward to listen. "AiTah now!" said the sergeant, "stand up straight all of you, and don't look at me as if you thought I was weakminded! Number off! One! Say one ! " and he pointed to the first Indian. " One ! ^ said the Indian. " Two ! " said the sergeant, pointing to the sec- ond Indian. The Passamaquoddy shook his head. " Two ! " said the sergeant. If 4 lil'^l r) 'One.'" And he pouitid his Jbujer (it the .sergeant. THE CAMP. 77 ll " No ! One Indian ! " said tlie Passamaqiioddy. " No ! Two ! " said the sergeant. " You and your brother.'' " Ah ! Two ! " and the Indian nodded solemnly, as if that were quite a new view of the case. " Three ! " said the sergeant. The third Indian stolidly held up his left hand, and with his right turned down first the thumb, then the first finger, then the second. *' Four ! " said the sergeant, in disgust. The fourth Indian smiled at him exasperatingly. " Four," said the sergeant again. Still the Indian replied not. " Four, I siy ! '^ said the sergeant angi'ily. The Indx. n walked straight up to him, and to his utter bewilderment remarked : ^'What of iU You think Indian fool? Indian no fool! One," and he pointed his finger at the sergeant, " one fool ! " O'Brien, who was not a short-tempered man, could not keep his countenance, and the whole com- l)any, Indians and all, joined in, the Indian thinking that had been the object of the game from the first. (If! .M ' r i 78 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ■IS :1 '"i ii{.: " Drill them 1 " said the sergeant afterwards. " It is impossible until you sort them out ! " And a sorting out into races was attempted, which improved matters considerably. Captain Ardyne was relieved of his Indians and half-breeds and the schoolmaster, and filled up entirely with mechanics and countrymen. On the 22d of April His Majesty's frigate Eltliam joined us, having been sent on to us by Governor Shirley from Piscataqua. And next day we had an even more welcome surprise in the arrival of Com- modore Warren with three ships-of-war from the West Indies. The Commodore was soon off again to keep a watch on Louisbourg, which we heard was blocked with i(3e drifted from the St. Lawrence, and blown up on to the Cape Breton coast after passing Scatari by a south wind. It was not until the 29th that we heard that Louisbourg was clear; and on that day, although it was Sunday, we embarked and were off. The stay at Canso was most profit; uble for th^ success of the crusade. Mr. Pepperrell and his officers had managed to instil some notion of dis- THE CAMP. 79 cipline iuto the motley army — sueli an army ! even now I laugli as I think of it ! —and by exchange and oUmination had so organized the brigades that they would be of mutual help instead of mutual danger. The ice was of great advantage to us. It kept us at Canso to get our forces into order, and it kept all help out of Louisbourg. M IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I b^y^ 125 IL25 i 1.4 2,2 IM 1.6 ^^ :i!S'f| "p'im ^!i 'i&li 100 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. all as plain as a pikestaff. The only secret I know is as to what your uncle did with his money." "Would it not be surprising if that were found in Louisbourg?" " Surprising, indeed, but not impossible. Every- thing is possible.'' " Why is it," asked I, " that whenever I think of Louisbourg I think of the medicine-man and Eyes- that-weep, and when I think of them I think of that Indian at St. Peter's and our property at Che- bucto ? " " Because," said Tarling, " you thought of those things in that order once, and when you think of one of them now you encourage yourself to think of the rest." " But why should I have thought of them in that order once I Why I " " Echo answers why," said Tarling. " It is one of those why's that puzzle the foolish." " But is it not strange ? " " Eyes-that-weep is in Louisbourg, I understand," said Captain Ardyne. "That would account for the association of ideas." THE BATTERY. 101 "Otherwise," said Tarling, "it would be medi- cine, as the Indian says, and you might as well have recourse to his oorakin." " You look rather red for a blue locust," said I. " Silence, there, gentlemen ! " Colonel Vaughan was heard to say. " Mr. Tarling ! " " Yes, sir," said the ensign, obeying the summons. Soon all was quiet in the camp. The sentinels, changed every hour, gave no alann. At the first flush of daylight the bivouac was broken up, and the men prepared for their march to headquarters. The vanguard, with whom I went, consisted of a few Passamaquoddies. As they crossed a small gap in the woodland I was astonished to see Joe, the leading Indian, stand still, and hold his right arm aloft, and wave it gently outward once or twice. "What is Joe doing?" I asked of the nearest Indian. "He talking," said the Indian. "There is In- dian near and he asking what nation." I looked, and in the shadow of the trees I could see an Indian facing us and also gesticulating as if he were deaf and dumb. : -y'M ■tx m ^^ 102 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. " Micmac," said the Indian at my elbow. " He Micmac and PepperrelPs friend.'' " I should much doubt it," said I. " Why does he raise his hands to the sky I" " That means peace. See ! Now he says come near.'' That this was the case seemed evident from Joe's walking straight up to the stranger, who again be- gan to gesticulate. I followed, and soon discovered that the Micmac so strangely met with was the leader of the band who had attacked the French at St. Peter's. The Micmac took no notice of the Indians who passed him, but continued his manual conversation with Joe. I had never seen the sign language before, but now I watched it carefully, and I was amazed at the many gestures. The Indians who know not each other's dialects can in this mechanical lan- guage converse readily. Colonel Vaughan was soon on the scene. " Who is this?" he asked. " The Cormorant, a chief of the Micmacs," said Joe. If THE BATTERY. 103 " What docs he want ? " " He is enemy to Le Loutre.'' "AYhy has he come?'' " To give news.'' The Micmae, who could not or would not speak a word of English, or French, or Passamaquoddy, looked at Joe and gesticulated slowly and seriously. Ho struck the back of his right foot against his left palm; then he opened his hands, and holding the fingers spread and horizontal, he placed the ends of the right fingers behind and against the ends of the left ; then he separated them and moved them back and described a semicircle with each and brought their bases together. And then he pointed with his right hand into the wood. Joe turned to the colonel. " There is a fort on our left," he said. " Yes, sir," said Tarling. " That is the Grand Battery — what about it ? " The Micmae made further play with his fingers. " The French have run away from it ! " said Joe. " Nonsense ! " said Vaughan. " This is a trap ! ■'[i if HcU'\ m .;, ^1. ■.'v.'tti li ! i : il ii i il I I! i 104 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. But halt tho men, and let us find out what this fel- low has to say.'' Joe gesticulated, evidently in search of further information. The Micmac solemnly stepped back so as to be seen by all, and with his hands alone delivered an address, "^vhich was interpreted by Joe, phrase by phrase, as follows : " English from camp to great fortress came, then to gate on the west ; cheered three times ; into woods went out of sight ; marched with care ; river crossed ; harbor reached; houses, three burned; fire-water, rope, tar ; fire great ; French think English coming ; out of fort on hill run ; flag flying only left." " How d- ;es he know all that ! " asked Yaughan. The Micmac was now in the centre of a wide circle of that strange gathering of volunteers. Seem- ingly taking no notice of them, he continued his manual talk with Joe. " The strong place on the hill," said Joe slowly, as he interpreted, " is to the left, not far past that small tree: in line with the tree with black patch on the bark." THE BATTERY. 105 " That is about right," said Vaughau. " WeU ? " Tho Micmac worked his hands about a little, aud closed and extended tho fingers and thumbs of both hands twice ; then he shut down his right thumb and finger and held out his hands ; then he passed his hands quickly one over the other, and darted a finger downward. Here Joe htopi)ed him; ho had been following him, phrase by phrase as before, but this last gesture was a puzzler. " Fort has guns large, twice ten and eight ; guns smaller, two ; they are all — I do not know — " And Joe rapidly gesticulated that he did not understand. The Micmac repeated the gesture with elaborate emphasis. " What is that ! " asked Joe. " Do French nail up guns ? " " Spike them ! " said Tarling. " Right," said Colonel Vaughan. " Go on, Joe." "Shot in plenty; well, shot down the well; French all run ; flag flying ; no men ; no trap ; take the fort ; the Cormorant will show the way." The Micmac closed his fists, placed the left one ri 1 t" Si m ^. 106 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. 1 iiiii wi m m If MSI M'i ' i ui ■1' ill \ 1 1 ^^H^H 1 i r ^ ii ' II 1 ^^^Hi 1 1 J 1 1 i 1 near liis breast, and moved the right one over the left towards the left side. " The Cormorant is a brave man,** said Joe. The Micmac held out his hand flat, with the back upward, and solemnly described a horizontal curve outward. " And a good one," said Joe. Then there was another wave of the hands, end- ing in what was very like a snap of the fingers. " He will not lead you astray." There was a more elaborate spell of pantomime. " The French are his enemies, the English are his friends," said Joe. *^ We will try him," said Yaughan. " Walk warily," said Captain Ardyne. *' Lead on ! I'll follow thee ! " said the ensign to the Cormorant. Straight as a line he led us through the forest, and brought us out on to a hill, from which we could see the Grand Battery on the shore, with the white flag of France rippling its lilies over the battle- ments. Not a man was visible in either of the two towers, at the barrack windows, or on the ramparts. THE BATTEEY. 107 There was another interchange of manual pan- tomhne, and the Micmac led the way down the hill to the fort. There was no sound save that of our footsteps. Following the Micmac were Tarling, Vaughan, Captain Ardyne, Joe, and eight others. The Micmac did not hesitate for a moment, but walked boldly to the gate, which was found to be locked. There was another gesticulatory interlude, in which I saw I was in some way concerned. Joe interpreted — " Indian will lift the boy on his shoulder to top of wall." Without a thought of the risk I was running, I went up to the Micmac, who tucked in his head as if playing leap-frog and " gave me a back.'' I clambered on to tht Indian's shoulders, and was carried by him a little way along the wall round to the front. Then, for the first time, when I heard no sound from the others, I began to feel afraid ; and I could hear my heart beat ; and my knees seemed to be- come tied together. But when I touched the wall I was all right again. ■J : I 1 ^< -J m mi i ]>'i» ■ V ,-«i-«j «" i ! 108 englishman's ha\t:n. Hi ::*: i,llll: ;:l The Cormorant placed his right palm downward on his shoulder and I stepped on to it. And I saw the colonel looking about in search of the hidden enemy. But I had no fear as the powerful Micmac straightened his arms and lifted me well within reach of the embrasure. I scrambled in. The fort was deserted, as the Micmac had said. The garrison had been so frightened at the sight of the burning warehouses, that, supposing the whole New England army was attacking them, they had in a panic spiked their guns, thrown the ammuni- tion down a well, and fled for their lives. Running to the gate I slipped back its bar and opened it, and in >'ushed Colonel Vaughan and his men. \re found twenty-eight forty-two-pounders, and two eighteen-pounders, and three hundred and eighty shells, a great quantity of shot, and many odds and ends. The French had spiked the guns, but forgotten to break the trunnions and the car- riages ; and Major Pomeroy, who was a gunsmith by trade, soon had the guns ready for action, so that we pounded Louisbourg with its own cannon. 11 iif!; ;--^' 2;-.. ^ .^km *■ f - .■ ^ mi ^^ *Mm^ ■ ^ ^^ Ik^H ■S mMJ ^n J% W %<\ fx I4. •«r ■1I 'Hi' / scrnnihli'd in. frM i THE BATTERY. 109 1 m In their joy at their success the men forgot all about the Micmac. When Colouel Vaughan thought of him to reward him, he was gone. Vaughan marched in all his men, and I, who liad some nautical experience, was sent to shin up the flag-staff and cut down the French flag. What was to be put in its place? Colonel Vaughan had no flag with him. " I will tell you something in which you might oblige us, Mr. Tarling," said he. "If you could spare us that bright red coat of yours it would do very well for a time. What say you I " Tarling laughed and took off his coat. And with it in my teeth I again shinned up the pole, and tied it to it by the sleeves. Stiffly it blew out, red side towards the French. It was ten o'clock when General Pepperrell, in the camp, was astonished to receive this note from our colonel : " I have entered the Grand Battery, and am waiting for reinforcement and a flag." The reinforcement and the flag were sent. As Tarling resumed his coat after it was re- I. 4\^ I,- ■J';' i, ^■. 1 1 110 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. moved from the flag-staff, he said to Captain Ardyne : " Well, sir, and what do you think of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield and his walls of Jericho now ? " And the same question was triumphantly asked and answered by Parson Moody when on the fol- lowing Sunday he preached in the Grand Battery the first Protestant sermon heard in Cape Breton, taking for his text: "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His coui'ts with praise." CHAPTER IX. III THE TRIUMPH. ^^. UCH of my log-book regarding this Louis- bourg 'ned with the str; siege IS concernea witn me strange ^i)^ way in which the besiegers amused them- selves. Such a mixture of reckless audacity, pious enthusiasm, and exuberant boyishness I have never since read of as was there daily displayed. But of this more anon. The first night our men worked hard dragging the guns and ammunition on sledges up to the fascine battery. I went with them, and, like them, was over my knees in the mud. The French did not expect us to go that way. The gi'ound, if I may call it ground, was rough and brambly, and no better than a bog, or swamp, as we call it, being a greasy clay charged with water. To drag the heavily laden sledges over this in the dark required twelve or fourteen men to a sledge, besides f 'U k- it ;(■<■ >itij 112 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ! ':'il !; ■■ ; the boys like me who were holding the lanterns. And the bog, after one or two sledges had passed, was churned into black soft-soap, very difficult to deal with in the night-time. Many of the sledges tilted and stuck, and had to be lifted before they could be started again. Many of the men slipped right down. I saw one sink in up to his arm-pits, and he was rescued with difficulty. We strewed brushwood, of which there was plenty, over the bog, and at the battery we made fascines and hur- dles of it. This was the first battery ; it was on a hill fifteen hundred and fifty yards from the west gate. The general had neither enough men nor guns to cannonade the city all round with, so he decided to pound the walls on the western side, the most northerly post being the Grand Battery, and the most southerly one this Green Hill Battery; and the French were astonished at his presumption. The French were probably more astonished when a day or two afterwards, after more dragging of guns at night through morasses and weaving of brushwood into fascines, another battery opened on THE TRIUMPH. 113 them six hundred yards nearer, which proved the most dangerous of any, sending its balls against the barracks and into the town, where they traversed the streets from end to end and passed through the houses. And before we had been on shore a week we had another battery hammering away within a quarter of a mile of the wall, and covering the men at work on another battery within two hundred and fifty yards of the gate. "It is against all the rules of the art of war," said Bastide, the engineer, who arrived about this time. " Art of war ! " said Colonel Yaughan — " the art of war, as I understand it, is to beat your enemy ! " "But you should approach the works, so, and so," and Bastide drew a few zigzags on paper. "That is the art of zigzag," said Vaughan, " which the fortress was built to puzzle. There is no reason why we should oblige the Frenchman by playing according to the rules of his game. We can play another game. If we do not give him zig- zags, but go at him straight, he will not know what to make of us." 8 \l r,^^^ ::i V\ '■i!Ji^!) f.l f> 114 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ! I I I I i : M: And I do not think lie did. In fact, notwith- standing all the ruin we caused him, I do not think ho ever took our attack seriously. I learned after- wards that our whole proceedings were supposed to show audacious ignorance of all the proprieties. Such an army, I cannot help saying again, was never seen, even by a Frenchman. We were most in uniform when we were in our shirt-sleeves, or covered with mud. And such a cannonade from so few pieces would in these days be deemed impos- sible. " Keep the guns going," were the orders, and the men worked them in fury, only resting when the piece was too hot to be loaded. One day a gun split in the Grand Battery where I had gone with Tarling. " Split the lot," said Captain Bradstreet, " we shall not want them long." " But don't be in too much of a hurry," said Mr. Richard Gridley, who was chief of the artillery. And, by the way, as I am rewriting this I cannot help remarking that Captain Bradstreet was the afterwards unfortunate man of that name; and ii:i THE TRIUMPH. 115 long-headed Gridley was the nuiii wlio planned the redoubt on Bunker's Hill, from which we had to drive the Americans with so much trouble on a celebrated occasion. The guns were kept going all day, and every day, except one. That was the 31st of May, which was a day without daylight. On that morning I had to be awakened in what I thought was the middle of the night. Just before daybreak a fog had come rolling up from off the sea ; and so thick did it get that no man could see a yard around him. In that cold, pearly mist it seemed as though each of us was alone in a world of dreams. Sight failed us and sound failed us ; the lanterns were useless, and even the gun flashes could not be seen two yards away ; and much to our discontent the firing had to be abandoned. In darkness and silence the day passed into the night — a horrible day, of which I have never lost the recollection. We were all on the alert for a sortie, for if ever the French had a chance they had it then. Fortunately for us, the fog was in the city as well as in the camp, and Duchambon was. as I: 'f ihM ■vA i ■■ 'lift •i.:.[l it - }i 116 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. I il ■■■r 1 ,1 fi :i ii f li unprepared as wo were for the visitation. His guns also stopped — in fact, they stopped first — and the deathUke stillness lasted until midnight, when the fog rolled up like a curtain and vanished ; and the cannonade began in the bright, starlit morning. There had been no change in our positions. Noth- ing had been done, for both sides had taken a day's rest in the fog. ^Yith that one exception, we had one long spell of fine weather, and it was strange that in so good a light the enemy did so little dam- age. We were most favored by fortune. Their balls fell short, or went over, and stuck in the bog, either before or behind us. One or two would pitch into the batteries every now and then, but they would almost invariably hop out again, and then hop further, if they struck on hard ground, so that although there were very many shaves there were few hits. Every shot of ours plumped into the wall or over it into the town. But it was when the men were off duty that I enjoyed myself. It was indeed a delightful time. We had games of strength and skill and speed every day. Om's was a front of battle and a rear of frolic. \u I m- I ! ^ THE Tnrrirrn. 117 Tho seamen of the transports joined in the skylark- ing. There were flat races, and steeplechases, and jumping in sacks; and wrestling and pitching quoits, and a noisy development of scrambles, in which the men all stood in a lino and skurried after the hopping shot from tho enemy's guns. One day we had much sport at kicking a bladder about till it burst, when we blew out another, which endured the rough treatment for two hours. Next day the Indians played hockey or shinty, as we used to call it. The Indians call hockey la crosse^ which is the French name for it. Doubtless the French brought the game to Canada. In fact, we felt so sure we were going to win that we actually worked in watches, half the men on duty and half off, the half off being allowed to go anywhere they pleased, provided they were at their posts when the bugle called. One morning Tarling got leave from his colonel for the day ; and off he and I went, fulh' persuaded we were going to do something remarkable. It is a good many years ago now — I am getting on well into the sixties, though I do not intend to be old for another twenty It-. '^ 1 \ ill 1.1 . it 1% V: I ! i ! ( 1- • ! I 118 ENGLISHMAN S HAVEN. years — and as I write this, looking out from Point Pleasant over the beautiful harbor, I can hear Tar- ling's laugh, as, when firing at the first bird we came across, the flint of my pistol flew into a dozen pieces. " I have another," said he, dipping his hand into the pocket of the short blue coat he was wearing instead of his uniform, which he had left in his hut. " Let me fit it." And he did, while the bird kept his eye on us and took much interest in our proceedings. " Shall I have the shot or you I " " Oh, you can, if you like." " Tchick ! " That was all. And there stood the bird, as quiet as ever, for number two flint had gone to bits like number one. It was my turn to laugh now. But when number three flint behaved like the others, and the bird still kept his eye on us, it be- came no laughing matter. " What is the matter with these flints ? " I asked. '' Where did you get them from f " " Old Brown gave them to me out of the pack- '^i THE TRIUMPH. 119 age, the one I was telling you of — that with the writing on it." " What ! " said I. " Do you mean that pious ^ ^air, with * For the service of the Lord, the giver ♦laving no further use for them: with these shalt thou smite the Philistines ' ! " " That's it ! '' said Tarling. " But, I say ! Per- haps that bird is not a Philistine ! " The bird looked at us with his other eye. "Let us have another of those anti-Philistine flints," said I. And we did. But when I raised the pistol to fire, the bird had vanished. " Never mind," said Tarling. " You have got rid of three bad flints and saved the shot." " But if the fourth is as bad ? " " Come on. We must chance that." It was a fortunate thing for us ihat these flints had gone wrong ; for the report of the pistol would have probably lost us our lives. Skirting the woodland track, we had walked a few minutes in silence, when Tarling whispered to me to look at something moving among the trees a Ir-^?. PW m 120 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. mv- !l i l> ; i little ahead of us. It was an Indian, evidently re- turning from a voyage of discovery. " Let us follow that fellow," said Tarling. And we did — for about half an hour. He then struck off at a right angle, and in a few yards we marked him down into a low, leafy bush by the side of a stream. We watched this bush for a little, and then ap- proached near enough to hear two or three voices. Soon the Indian we had followed came out and looked around, and then went down the stream and forded it, and made his way up the hillside to the northward. When he was out of sight over the hill, we moved up closer and found the bush to be on the edge of a sort of pit, in which there seemed to be two men, very pleased with themselves. " How many are there ? " I asked, to make sure. " Two." " There may be a silent member." " Not if they are French," said Tarling. " Let us .^et up to the bush." We did, and listened. r I Mil m THE TRIUMPH. 121 ii But " Formez votre bouehe ! " said a voice. " Shut your mouth," translated Tarling. " All right, I know," said I. " Cert drole ! " said another voice. "Isn't it funny!" whispered Tarling. what is it all about ? " " Cannot you crane over that branch ? " Tarling cautiously peeped over. " Ma foi ! " said the first voice. " You rub hard ! " " It is necessary that it should be smooth and even," said the other voice. " Ah-h-h ! " Evidently the rubbing was over. " And now, in my turn ! " said the first voice. " Felix," whispered Tarling, looking down at me. " What ? " " Here's a game. Here are two Frenchies get- ting themselves up as Indians. You can look over there. They cannot see you. One fellow is paint- ing the nape of the other fellow's neck, and their backs are towards us." " Never ! " I rose very carefully and looked over the bushes. r>^li V ',T ■1 1 !-i .' I i ■i't liil 122 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. Below US were two men stripped to the waist, one of whom had been painted brown, and was indus- triously daubing over the other. " What does it mean ? " I said. " Cannot you see ? It is a disguise. They are sham Indians. That is the game." " The color, it is too flat," said the stoutest of the Frenchmen, critically ; "it is necessary that it should shine." " We will grease it, then, Alphonse." And taking up a lump of fat, he proceeded to give Alphonse the required gloss. When he had done so, and wiped his fingers on his own shoulders, Alphonse returned the compliment. " Ah ! It will not do, Jules, not yet," said Alphonse. " We are too clean ! " And he picked up a handful of dirt and began to rub it over Jules, while Jules did the same for him. " The neck should be dirty ! " said Jules. " And the cheek — not clean ! " said Alphonse. " And the nose ! " said Jules, beginning to laugh, as he gave his friend a daub down the bridge. " It is superb ! " THE TEIUMPH. 123 " Magnificent ! " said Alphonse, leaning back and rejoicing in his handiwork. And Jules also leaned back ; and the two great, ugly fellows laughed merrily at each other. " Fifth of November ! " whispered Tarling. If the Frenchmen had not been laughing they would have heard me laugh. " S-s-sh ! " said Tarling. '^ And now for the marks ! " said Alphonse. And from the back of the pit, where their guns and clothes were, he fetched a little bag with some bright red powder in it, which he worked up into a paste, while Jules employed himself in mixing some grease and gunpowder in the same way. " The blue first ! " said Jules. " No, together ! " said Alphonse. "A dot!" said Jules, dabbing his finger on Alphonse's forehead. "A line!" said Alphonse, drawing his thumb down Jules's cheek. " A little straight ! " " A curve ! " " Comme-ga ! " I Ml >?I I ht ill ^\: : . 1 '1' ■■il 1 '' 1 t J 1 1 ■ - i \ • . ; ■ 3 1 ' '!l 1 "i' i :''^!i| ills m 1 124 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. " Perfect ! " " In crescent ! " " Voyage in zigzag ! " " Peste ! that is too mncli ! '^ " Change colors ! '^ And they did ; and while Alphonse laid in the blue among the red marks, Jules filled in the red among the blue ones. The next step would prob- ably have been the sticking on of the feathers. But, unfortunately, this peaceful amusement of mutual decoration came to a sudden end. As Jules was streaking down Alphonse's nose, Alphonse gave a great yawn. The temptation was irresistible, and Jules popped his dirty red finger into his comrade's mouth. The liberty was promptly avenged by a sounding box on the ear. Up jumped Jules, up jumped Alphonse, snarling like a couple of cats. " Pardon ! " said Jules. "Ah! I will pardon you!" said the angry Alphonse, spluttering the dirty red stuff out of his mouth. And he rushed at Jules, who ran away down the side of the stream, with his decorator after him. THE TKIUMPH. 125 "Would you call tliose fellows Philistines I " asked Tarling quietly. "Yes," said I; "but if we got their guns we should be doubly sure." The Frenchmen had disappeared round a clump about fifty yards off, and from the scuffling we could hear it was evident that they were marking each other in blue and black instead of blue and red. " Good ! " said Tarling. " Down, and at them ! " In a few seconds we were in the pit, and in pos- session of the guns and ammunition, while Jules and Alphonse were proceeding with their decoration. "What shall we do!" asked Tarling. "Leave them ? " " I think so. "We can hardly manage two men. Let us get off with these things and make sure of them ! " ♦ And off we slipped, while Jules and his friend were knocking themselves back into friendliness. What they said when they found their weapons gone, I can imagine, but there is no need for me to wi'ite it. We ought to have captured them, I have been N *.»j Mm mm ■ ,1 ■! ■■(- ■ W: !li|]lM(*E;l MP ■ M ■ ■■'■•' v-'i I Jii l^ ^m ■\lf ' 'I Hi |):|l ^2. Wi i 'I 1 il'i ill' ^i II mi 126 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. told, but with our anti-Philistine flints we dared not attempt it ; and even if we could have caught them and brought them back in triumph, we should have been sorry to have done so, for really we had rather taken a fancy to the scoundrels. For our own protection we had to make sure of the guns — and very good guns they proved to be. Nearly every week the men would go out in shooting parties like this, not at the French, but at the birds. In order to keep their hands in, they also practised at mark shooting for sweepstakes. And in short, off duty time was spent as a general holiday, and in all the fine weather, beyond the noise of the firing, there was nothing to show we were engaged in a desperate siege. Allied with all this recreation there was much observance of religious duties. Every regiment had its chaplain, and there were several chaplains at large, all being under the advising control of Mr. Moody, of York, Mrs. PepperrelPs uncle, a pictur- esque, white-haired old man of great worth and humor, but peculiarly quick-tempered and prone to be prolix. THE TRIUMPH. men goinj? off dnf v if ^'''°''' "^ tho ">e Lord, and serve the g„„,„ ^^ZZ' -ould begin to shoot. AnTZ " *''^ -ould give thanks for tte^ ! " '""° "'^ ''"*>' to be alWod to serve a g! ,^17"°" '-'' ^^^ tlie morrow. ^ '""""^ *«"'Ke on the French. ^^''''^' ''^^''^i"st A remarkable armv w^a ^ cixiiiy was ours nnri fl,^ «a-aying that its luek was marvlCs '^ '^^ ^ne day a scout found tl,;,.f, under water, near theT "^ ''""'" ^'''''<^" «- fortress, whlupo;"^:'"""'^ ^^"''^ °PPo-te under a fierce iirer. ''""' "'''' ^'''"' »P --t .igr,::;:^'^:^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ into Louisbourg. ' """'"^ ^"^^ P°«»di„g Occasionally the French would <■ ^ith the direst results nTT ' " """' ''"* esults. Nearly every time they ^-1 i.i I) K!' i I ll 128 englishman's haven. were siglited at the start, and the besiegers came flying at tliem as if after hopping shot, and simply tumbled them back behind the walls. A hundred bravo Frenchmen came out the night the Lighthouse battery was being raised, landed at a cave a mile to the eastward, and in the morning made a dash at the works to meet with such a re- ception as killed half a dozen of them, secured sev- eral as prisoners, and drove the rest to escape in their shallops. A day or two after this the advanced battery was armed with guns from the Grand Battery. There was great labor in dragging these guns, which were two forty-two-pounders and two eighteen- pounders. Owing to the curve of the shore the men had to drag them for two miles, most of the way being under fire from the town. In this bat- tery trenches had to be dug, faced with a parapet of earth and fascines. Mr. Tarling said the French would soon yield to our fascination, which was a fairly good jest — for him. He always laughed at his own jokes. This time he straightened himself to laugh, and overbalancing THE TKIUMPH. 129 himself, fell backward into the ditch. At this he laughed the more. He had a narrow escape. Just as he fell a round shot swept past in the line where his head had been. " Lucky for you ! " said I. " You now see the advantage of a joke," he said, gathering himself up. " I see the advantage of the fall of the joker." " The same thing. Where could you get a joker without a joke ? " "Anywhere. If these fellows were to get the range as well as they have done the direction, there would not be much joking here." " That I doubt. There is always a laugh on the winning side." " Is all war like this ? " I asked. " Not that I know of," said he. "But don't you know? Don't your brother- officers talk about their campaigns 1 " " They do not touch on the shooting side of the question, as a rule : the foraging has more interest for them, as also the habits and want of morals of the inhabitants." 9 r 130 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ill V ! ii; ! ' ill' m iii " There is not much here of that. All the inhab- itants are in the fortress." " Not all. I expect an attack on our lines before we have done." "Micmacs?" " Perhaps, or Canadians." " They will fail, of course ? " "I think so. But Bastide says our defensive works are as ridiculous as our offensive works." " Poor man ! Does not this battery suit him 1 " " If he were at all reasonable it should do so." The first day the battery opened it shot down the drawbridge and part of the wall close by. Besieged and besiegers were now within range of small arms, and in the sharp musketry fire many on each side were killed or wounded. One man, '^ho had stood on the parapet to aim, fell, pip^ jy five bullets. He was carried past me < od with a flag. A thrill of horror glided down my back as he passed; and yet I should have liked to have gone into the advanced battery to see what the place was like, but I was not allowed within musket shot. We had all become r^'^ THE TRIUMPH. 131 so accustomed to the cannonade that we made no account of it. But I must make an end of this siege. Let my friends call up the scene for themselves. In the centre, on a craggy spit of land, surrounded by a deep, wide ditch, the many-angled fortress, van- dyked with notched and loophooled walls, and in shape an irregular seven-pointed star. Within it were two large buildings with two tall church- steeples, and around them were the lower roofs in clustering ridges hidden hero and there by the heavily drifting cloud of powder-smoke. Every now and then, by night and day, there were bursts of fire and explosion and ringing of bells and blar- ing of trumpets; in the hot, sulphurous air the women in the streets could be seen carrying the dying and the suffering; on the banquette and platforms stood the guns and the hard-worked, hag- gard soldiers, said to be on the verge of mutiny and really striving their truest for their country's honor. Round it all, over rampart, ditch, and glacis, hung a roaring, crackling ring of fire-flashes. Behind it lay the blue water, crowded, at a safe distance, with B(. <{' \m I ^ k: Hi mm tli [I I i ! ■ ■,!'l ."till 'I'M '!'!,'! J'l! ;'':':t i-s; 132 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. shipping. In front of it was tlio strip of debatable land over wliieli the balls and bullets crossed and whooed. Beyond that, on the blackened hillsides, floated a few patches of powder-cloud, with a broken line of fitful whitis flushed with momentary spurts of flame from the cannon and small-arms, that spoke in rolling thunder, as they were loaded and aimed by the determined men who were persuaded of vic- tory and religiously regarded the ruin of the strong- hold and the slaughter of its def(}nders as " a burnt- offering and grateful sacrifice to the Lord of Zion." Beyond that strip of trench and battery were the white Osnaburg tents and gi'cen arbors of the camp, with the men at rest and play among them. And beyond that again lay an extended line of scouts and outposts, bush-fighting with Indians and French countrymen and invariably keeping them at bay. At last the gan'ison's provisions began to fail; ammunition ran short ; there was no hope of help ; the trenches were close to the breach. The Light- house Battery had demolished the Island Battery ; THE TRIUMrH. 133 Warren's fleet was reinforced by the Newfoundland squadron and anchored in line off the town; and preparations were obviously being made for storm- ing in by land and sea. And then Duchambon, who had held his heart fairly all through, saw resistance hopeless and gave in. And at two o'clock on the 17th of June Warren brought his fleet into the har- bor; and at four o'clock Pepperrell, with colors flying, bugles blaring, and drums beating, marched through the South Gate. When we saw the strength of the fortress wo were amazed. I had no idea of the hugeness of its walls and earthworks until I was close to them. I had never seen a fortress before, except in a book ; and, from a distance, Louisbourg looked so much like a toy that that is, I believe, really the reason why the men pounded away at it as if in sport, and were so light-hearted in camp. In plans of fort- resses the lines are so finely drawn as to disguise the massiveness ; and the guns and necessary train are not shown. Here were all the things I had read about — trenches, parapets, cannon, broken wheels, caissons, gabions. nm '.I-: il mi' h i F." (i .»i 1 .lljll!,'.!. lif^ I I > 134 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. One thing struck us all. During the siege, which lasted just seven times seven days, the same time the army was preparing, the weather had been fine and diy, so as to help us and make camping quite enjoy- able. But as soon as we entered the fortress it began to rain, and it rained for ten days without ceasing. The night of our marching in the general gave a gi'and banquet in captured Louisbourg to his officers and prisoners. At that banquet Parson Moody caused considerable anxiety to the younger guests. The good parson's graces were, as a rule, so lengthy that the meat got cold. What was to bo done ? All were very hungry, all wanted to begin without delay, and no one wanted the late enemies who had been invited to b') bored. " Tell the parson to cut it short," was the sug- gestion. But who was to "tell the parson"? It was as risky as belling the cat, for the old man was unreasonably irascible. So no one told the parson, and in terror Pepperrell's guests saw him rise " to crave the blessing." Judge of the general relief when the old man quietly observed, in that thrilling voice of his : THE TKIUMPH. 135 "Good Lord: we have so many things to thank Thee for, that time will be infinitely too short to do it ; we must therefore leave it for the work of eternity. Bless our food and fellowship upon this joyful occasion, for the sake of Christ our Lord. Amen." m If II m 1% i! ! ! 'il ? '■ CHAPTER X. THE SNAKE. JHE next morning was one of the important mornings of my life. General Pepperrell sent Captain Bennet to Boston with the good tidings in the Loo ; and Captain Angel asked my father if he objected to my joining the ship. My father, finding there was nothing I desired so much, consented, and indeed aiTanged with the captain, at my request, for me to be taught the sea- faring. My father saw no harm in my learning a trade, which he said would always be useful, and which I might at any time resign if matters pros- pered with us. He had conceived a great esteem for Bezek Angel, and considered it fortunate I should have made so honest and trustworthy a friend ; and I was duly apprenticed that morning. I cannot say I have ever regretted it ; which is not exactly what is said by every apprentice to the rough life of a seaman in those days. THE SNAEE. 137 As we got under way that afternoon I can justly say that never before had I seen so fine a sight ; and in this my father and Mr. Tarhng, who had come to see me off, agreed with me. The har- bor was thick with shipping, and, though the rain was faUing heavily, right well they looked. On the town the Cross of St. George was flying at every prominent point, and waving from many of the windows. Boat-loads of the French prisoners were being conveyed to the ships, over four thousand men, women, and children being taken aboard to be kept in safety until, in accordance with the terms of capitulation, transports could be prepared to take them to France — the transports which were so scur- vily treated when they arrived there. Scurvily treated they were indeed ! The French were so furious and disgusted at having been de- feated by a handful of New Englanders that they claimed the transports as captured vessels, and ill- treated the masters and crews in a way that brought a lasting disgrace on the French name. Some al- lowance should, however, be made for King Louis. It must have been a very bitter pill to have these : ; 4 i,i^ t,' i ■'■' |. V-. i ii, Mm ;l 138 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. transports at Rochelle unloading French colonists returned without thanks by New England " boors " at the very moment there was such trumpeting in praise of Charles Edward, who, as French cat's-paw — according to French notions — was making old England shake in the slippers of its old age. To resume ; There were in the harbor eleven of the king's men-of-war, besides eighty-five transports, twenty armed vessels from New England, and many brig- antines, sloops, and snows. And as we passed through them with our colors flying, and saluting, they saluted us and gave us much pleasant cheering. Angel was not long on the voyage. On July 3d, at one o'clock in the morning, he landed Captain Bennet on Boston quay. At sunrise the people were roused in their beds to hear the news. They crowded into the streets and cheered ; and the rejoicing lasted all day and finished with an illumination in every house, which was so helped by bonfires and fire- works that the city seemed ablaze — ^when viewed from the water. That was all I saw of it, for though the captain went ashore, he gave me something to THE SNARE. 139 do on board, to keep me out of mischief, as he can- didly told me with one ot nis pleasant smiles. The rejoicing was kept up for days, and all along the Atlantic seaboard there was much praising and thanksgiving, and more or less pious jollifying. Even Philadelphia gave thanks for the satisfactory result of that thoughtful act of charity in supplying food for the so much deserving. The news went to England in the Mermaid^ and arrived there on July 20th; and when it reached London there was a great saluting of park guns, and illuminating and bonfiring, and a donating of five hundred guineas to Captain Montague, of the Mermaid, a promoting of Warren to a rear-admi- ralship, and even a " creating " in the person of General Sir William Pepperrell, Bart., colonel of one of His Majesty's regiments of the line, and Chief -justice of the Common Pleas of Massachusetts, to say nothing of the business, wholesale and re- tail, in fish, furs, and general sundries. On the 19th of July the Loo was back at Louis- bourg. As we approached the harbor we saw the French li' ~' • t:* f.! .« 142 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. W- '! I ,1 .11 a. 1 i)« m i m i ii 11 mm BiUliISi ■■ ■,:,ii I entered the room, where a new surprise awaited me. " This is Mary Kervan," said my father. " Mary, this is my son." I shook hands with a very nice girl, younger than myself, and I wondered who she might be. " Do you know who Mary is 1 " asked my father. " No." " Nor where she came from ? " " No." " Ask her." " I came from Chebucto," said Mary. "Yes," said Captain Ardyne. "The morning you went away I was ordered to explore the case- ments in the citadel, and in a corner of one of them I found Mary, very ill and weak from want of food. As we were moving her, who should come up but Eyes-that-weep, who had been smuggling food to her and doing her best for her generally during the siege. She and her father had been taken prisoners at Chebucto by Monsieur Duvivier, and she had been sent here, though what has become of her father we do not know. We must find out. He •: ?i! ip V 1 144 englishman's haven. ■=, 14 : f: a But Eyos-tliat-weep had gone. " Never mind," said father, " you can ask her this evening. She has gone to the parson's." " Is she a Protestant ? " asked I, astonished. "Oh yes!" said Captain Ardyne. "The man with the chopper secured her as his first convert. She is quite a distinguished character at present." " She is very good," said Mary. "Yes, my child. She would not be allowed to look after you if she were not," said the captain. "I am not smiling at Eyes-that-weep, but at the anxiety of a certain minister of the Gospel to secure a first convert at any price. Such haste ill beseems a serious change of life." " Is Eyes-that-weep any worse for the change ? " asked I. " No," said father, " and no better that I can see. She had been a papist for many years, and having been wise enough to follow example, she has im- proved considerably." " Then you do not think her teacher was such as Le Loutre ? " said I. " No," said father, " but . there are exceptions to i THE SNAEE. 145 every rule, and I did not say it was the teaching she profited by, but the example. But now tell mo about your voyage." And I did. But before I liad half ended Captain Angel called in, on his way from the citadel, and told me we were ordered off at once with despatches. So I returned to the brigantine, and in less than an hour the despatches were aboard, and we had set sail. The voyage need not detain me. On the return we sighted Louisbourg at sunrise, and out at sea we noticed a large ship approaching. As we neared the harbor we saw the French flags still flying, but knowing this to be a ruse we felt no concern. Our danger rather seemed to be from the strange ship, which was steered as though to cut us off. At half- past six o'clock Captain Angel made her out to be a French frigate. We were in a difficult position, as only a few of our fishing-boats were outside Light- house Point, and it would not do to be captured by the Frenchman, or scare him away, so we held on. At seven o'clock Angel astonished his crew by ordering them to stand by the gun. 10 .(1 146 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ijs " "We must have a shoot of some sort," said he to me. " That ship means the needful ; if we can only fire a few times at her we can claim prize money. She has come too far now ; the wind will prevent her getting away." ''There goes her ensign, sir," said the man at the helm. " White, with the golden lilies, of course," said Angel. " Let us give her a salute." And in a few minutes, with much effort, the gun amidships was discharged. " Let us have another," said Angel. Three shots in all were fired, and the Frenchman came rolling on unharmed, for the shot all fell short. The Loo had, however, given the alarm, and came slipping through the fishing-boats into the harbor, crowded with canvas, as if closely chased. At once Angel reported the ship, and in a few minutes off went the Sunderland and Chester to fight her. As they sailed out they had French colors flying, and it was only when they were alongside, and when the Chester had fired i. shot and brought down the Frenchman's foretopsail, that the true colors ''I u THE SNARE. 147 were shown, and then the ship immediately sur- rendered. I heard the story of her capture a day or two afterwards, and though I rejoiced at the result, I could not help feeling pity for her commander. On the 22d of October the Notre Dame de la JDelivrance started from Callao for France. Her cargo was described as cacao, and she had some cacao, but underneath it and covered by it and quinquina and vigonia wool were two million Peruvian dollars, and gold and silver, in ingots and bars, vimounting in all to £800,000. On the 21st of July, when off the Azores, she and the Louis Erasme and the Marquis (VAiitln, with whom she was in company, were at- tacked by two English privateers, and after a stub- born fight she got away, but left her consorts as prizes in the Englishmen's hands. And good prizes they were, for they had on board three million dol- lars, which, I afterwards read, took forty-three wagons to carry from Bristol to London, and dis- tributed so well that every man before the mast got eight hundred and fifty dollars as his share. The Notre Bame^ having escaped the privateers, ■! 'f\ M < li^, 148 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. made sail for Louisbourg, aud on the 13tli of August her captain sig' 3d the Loo making for the harbor. When we fired our guns, after she had shown her colors, her captain thought we suspected he was under false colors, and he laughed at our hurried flight. At eight o'clock he saw the two men-of-war coming out, and supposed that they were French come to overhaul the B' ton privateer reported by the brigantine. Great was the joy of all on board at seeing a speedy end to their dangerous voyage. A boat was ordered to be cleared, and the guns were unshotted so as to be ready for saluting, when suddenly off came the French colors from the two ships, out flew the cross of St. George, and the ship on the starboard side fired the shot which cut the foretopsail halliards and brought down the sail. Nothing could be done but surrender, as the Notre Dame was leaky, poorly armed, and quite unprepared for serious resistance, and the smallest of the Eng- glish vessels was more than a match for her. Cap- tain Durell, of the Chester^ had been engaged in making charts and surveying the harbor; he had \r,t 'r THE SNARE. 149 now a pleasanter object to survey in the shape of a bag of prize money, for he sent his boat on board and took possession, and brought the Notre Dame into Louisbourg. I am thus particular in describing the capture of the Notre DamCy as, when the prize money came to be settled, it was decided that the Chester, the Siin- derlandy and our brigantine should all share. And my share of prize money, though small, became the nest eggj which, agreeable to Angel's recommenda- tion, I basted with its own gravy until I became the owner of the Loo. When we landed we found that the Notre Dame was not the only vessel that had fallen a prey to the device of the false colors. The Charmante and the Heron had been similarly caught, and a matter of £175,000 in prize money fell to their captors. But I was to hear the morality of these pro- ceedings commented upon in an unexpected quarter. At my father's lodgings I found Mary and the Indian woman, but not my father, who was out on duty. El l4i 150 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. " All ! Eyes-that-weep ! " I said, " have you many friends among tlie Indians 1 " " Many." " Do you know a medicine-man who talks with his fingers, and is called the Cormorant ! " "Pujookr» "What?" " Pujook is the Cormorant." " Just so," said I, for want of something better to say. " Do you know Pujook f " " He is there ! " said Eyes-that-weep. And I hastily turned, to find that an Indian had followed me in. There was no mistake. It was the same Indian who had helped me into the fort. We looked at each other, and the Indian began to gesticulate. I shook my head and said some- thing in hesitating and fragmentary French. The Indian spoke a few quick words to Eyes-that-weep. " Why, I thought you were dumb ! " said I. Eyes-that-weep laughed, and said, "No, Pujook not dumb, but French he hates and English he knows not." THE SNAKE. 151 The Cormorant again said a phrase or two in what I sui)posed to be Micmac. " Pujook say," said the woman, " anything you want to know ask me and I will ask him." " Ask him why he helped me into the Grand Battery," said I. " Because he is no friend to French. He is glad when they are beaten." "Oh!" said I. "Hear! hear! What does he think of our capture of the ship this morning!" " The Cormorant is glad," translated the woman, " but the manner of the capture was not good. It was in the French manner, not in the English. The French flags have been too long on Louisbourg and the ships. They have been there so long that they may come there to stay for a time — before the end. The English will not keep Louisbourg for long. There will be trouble about the money in the ships taken by the false flags, and the trouble will not be f orgotton for long, long time. I have said it." " What do you say, Mary ! " asked I. " I think Pujook is right." " Have you known him long ? " >? 152 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. There was more Micmac between the Indians. " The Cormorant says," interpreted the woman, " that Mary is his friend, and Felix is his friend, and that who hurts them will be hurt by him." " Thanks," said I. " Is Mary in any danger ? " " She lias been in danger, and may be in danger again. Her father was the Cormorant's friend. The Cormorant asks you to make her tell you about her father, that you may help to search." " To search for what ? " asked I. " Her father." lif r ^-^.^^-,,>- CHAPTER XI. .. fl 11 THE ALARM. IITTLE could be learned from Mary regarding her father. All she knew was that the small settlement had been destroyed, and that she had been hurried to a ship bound to Louis- bourg, after seeing her wounded father borne off apparently to another ship. Of her mode of life she spoke freely, but what she said gave no clue whatever to her father's whereabouts. My father talked the matter over with me, for I was always my father's friend, but we could resolve on nothing. Pujook, as it happened, had gone at once to visit his people across the great lake of Bras d'Or, so Eyes-that-weep told us, and no further information could be gained as to why it was so im- portant to seek for Mr. Kervan. Thus the matter remained in abeyance. I had quite enough to do, journeying backward and for- ■ m p,. ( 'i! i I t! I IN ism pi" Mj lis 154 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ward in the brigantiiie, and my father had to attend to irksome garrison duty, of which not the least un- pleasant part was attendance at daily funerals, for dysentery was killing the men in hundreds. The Cormorant's prophecy was in course of fulfilment. Our mother-country would not give the colonists due credit for their achievement, and instead of cherishing their martial ardor sought to repress it as being dangerous to future peace. By a blunder the Provincials who had volunteered for an expe- dition to be over in a couple of months were kept at Louisbourg till the following April waiting for the garrison of regulars. Warren, although the most American of British admirals, and the owner of a large estate on the Mohawk — which afterwards became famous as that of his nephew Johnson — seemed striving to belittle the services of Pepperrell and the enthusiastic New Englanders. During the siege Warren had captured the Vigi- lante, and with regard to her and all the other capt- ured vessels, he claimed half the prize money for the crown and the rest for the fleet. This was in accordance with custom, I believe, but the troops THE ALAEM. 155 expected that all captures would be divided equally among them ; iu fact, it had been so stated at the time of their volunteering ; and it was owing to this arrangement that their pay had been so small. All that was left to be shared among them was, how- ever, what had been captured on land, which, as it did not include the city or the country, ended in being the few pounds obtained by the sale of French provisions and spare clothing for French trooj^s. And at this there was much discontent. In many other ways offence was given to the colonials. Their appearance was laughed at, as well it might be ; but it was forgotten that it was not the clothes that had won Loi. bourg, but the men that wore them. In fact, the success of the New Englanders' Cru- sade had much to do with the eventual independence of the United States. Pepperrell had followed Phipps in showing what the States could do single-handed, and had organized an army which succeeded in its object by disregarding the formal rules of war. The lesson was not lost, and many of his old officers and men took a prominent part in the contest that ended mr] Ir • '" ^Bi 156 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ■ (! in separation. The old country so mismanaged matters as to tonch the colonists, not only in their self-esteem, but in their pockets, and the great political blunder that was soon to be perpetrated led the high-spirited Americans to look upon most things English with contempt. And so it came about that at Louisbourg were sown many of the dragon's teeth that were to stimulate that increase of fission which is the dismay of rival nations who look upon Britain as dead when, in fact, she has only just begun to grow. On June 1, 1746, Sir "William Pepperrell ar- rived in Boston with a good many of the New Eng- land army, among whom was Captain Ardyne's company. A few days afterwards Captain Angel's employment ended, and he was free to take the saucy Loo to any port he pleased. Captain Ardyne would have resigned his commission to make his long-delayed journey to Chebucto, but he was re- quested to wait awhile, as rumors had arrived of the preparing of the great French armada which was to recapture Louisbourg and lay Boston in ruins — if it could. THE ALARM. 157 It was on a Monday that a ship arrived with despatches for the Governor. There was a hasty summoning of the council and much hurrying about. And then the news was made pubUc. The armada had left Brest on the 22d of July ; and its commander was the Duke of Anville. " A good name for a French commander," said Angel to me. "And why?" " Anvils are made to be hammered." " Yes, but they last." " And they rust." Boston had been quiet for some time. White- field had gone, and the religious fever had subsided considerably. Fortunately, the tide of fanaticism had risen just high enough to do service to the State, and had ebbed as soon as it threatened to be dangerous. But, like all tides, it ebbed and flowed, and if a "Whitefield or even a Catch-em-alive-oh had again appeared, I think the crowd would have be- come as excited as before. But no preacher was there to raise enthusiasm ; and enthusiasm had for a time gone out of fashion. Respectability had its i ^■»] '.'t 158 englishman's haven. "(* I ; I ! Mr. Prince ; but Mr. Prince was too superior a per- son for the rough work of the streets. Wo were busy in Boston that afternoon. " Seems to me," said Angel, " we shall have our work cut out for us this time." " Why more so than we have had ? " asked I. " There is all the difference between leading an assault and waiting for an attack. In one case you choose your own time ; in the other you wait till it pleases your enemy to set you to work. We may be waiting for the French for months, and they may then come when we are tired of expecting them. Go ashore for a couple of hours and see what news you can pick up." And ashore I went. There was an air of solemnity, or rather grim- ness about, which struck me forcibly. While the Louisbourg expedition was recruiting even the " convicted " were cheerful and garrulous. Now the men were serious and spoke" briefly. There were little knots of them every few yards, three or four together, discussing the outlook in an undertone. What would the Governor do? Was there any THE ALAllM. 159 II le le e le British fleet on the seas to help us ? Had the French given them the slip ? Were we to have the French in Boston 1 Never ! As I made my way along I saw that something of importance had just occurred, and I soon dis- covered that this was the issue of a proclamation calling out six thousand men as militia. This was a large number for so small a population, and it showed that the Governor was in earnest. There would be no difficulty in raising the men, as the recent expedition had left a large number fidgety with military fever, and disinclined to turn to any trade but that of war. I returned to the Loo with the news. Next day Angel heard that new forts were to be built for de- fence, and it soon became the fashion to go out and watch the men at work throwing up the batteries. Then another step was taken ; a series of look- out stations was established, every station with a beacon. Just as England did at the time of the Spanish Armada so did we. Each beacon was in sight of another beacon, so that the signals could be spread instantly, not only along the coast but to 160 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. '$§'\\ tlie inland settlements. The beacons were not simply placed on the headlands and high grounds, but some of them were in the valleys, if in that position they could more readily spread the news. The plan of these beacons was very carefully thought out, as indeed was that of Elizabeth's beacons, the plan of which still exists. Our colonists then were a quiet, clean-spoken people, but in all this hurried and exciting work it was inevitable that among the weak impatiejice should show itself in an occasional imprecation. But this was undesirable in every respect. It was a " falling away " which all, even the imprecators, saw with sorrow. The Rev. Mr. Prince said "it was a scandal that should be nipped in the bud." * --What is the bud 1 " asked Angel. " The bud," said my father, " is the note of ex- clamation ! " " Then is Mr. Prince going to nip off our excla- mation notes?" " I think so." And he did ! There was an old statute in Massa- chusetts against profaneness, and a proclamation THE ALAEM. IGl was issued calling attention to it, and giving notice that it would be strictly enforced. And the general speech again became undecorated; and exclama- tions and expletives, though occasionally thought, were seldom uttered. Soon there was another proclamation, this time of a solemn fast to supplicate mercy in our trouble. On that day all Boston went to church. I went to hear Mr. Prince. "While we were in church a storm arose. When the minister began to preach the hail rattled against the windows ; and the wind moaned so that he was almost inaudible, although his voice was loud. It was only now and then we could hear a word ; but what he said mattered not, as we were all thinking of the storm. And he, thinking with us, availed himself skilfully of our meditations, and when at last a lull occurred for a few moments, he knelt vlown and asked us to join him in prayer, that the storm might light upon the Frenchmen's ar- mada, and destroy it utterly. And then again did Boston become cheery with martial music, and warlike with the tramp of armed men. Soon the covering forts were armed, the 11 1^'' 162 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. militia duly drilled and disciplined, and the beacons ready for lighting, to give either smoke or a clear fire. And day and night we waited for the French. The news came at last. It was a small sloop that brought it, perhaps the slowest sailer that ever carried a message. As she lumbered clumsily through the water no notice was taken of her, so little did we think that such a craft could carry such news. Angel came aboard the Loo whistling loudly. " Hallo, Felix ! The French are coming ! " " When ? " " Ay, that is the question ! Where do you think they are now 1 " "Louisbourg?" " No ! Chebucto ! " " You are making game of me." "No. Their rendezvous is at Chebucto — and there they are, what is left of them." " Has there been a battle 1 " "Yes. With the storm — Prince's storm! Be they Spaniards or Frenchmen, we always get the wind on our side when they mean mischief." M ! I THE ALAEM. 163 Ind As Angel said this, he heard a strange voice ask- ing for him on deck. It was a messenger from the Governor, requiring his immediate presence. He was gone about an hour. " Good news ! " he said, on his return. " I am off to get a look at the French ; it is rather a risky commission, but we must trust to our heads and the ship's heels.'' " When do we start ? " " Now, or sooner, if possible. If you want any- thing from the shore you must look alive. We shall be off in half an hour at the outside." And three quarters of an hour afterwards we were under way. When we arrived off the headland at the en- trance into the estuary at Chebucto, we could see no sign of shipping from the distance. Keeping on for awhile, Angel made for a small harbor more to the eastward where there were some well-wooded creeks, in one of which it was proposed to anchor the Loo while one of us went scouting ashore. Unnoticed and undisturbed we made our way in, and quietly took up a comfortable berth amid a P :l I I t I 164 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. mass of trees that Lid our spars, not only from the sea, but from everywhere except the banks of the creek. " Suppose we are surprised ? " said I. " Suppose nothing of the sort ! " said Angel. " We will keep good watch, and surprise is out of the question." " But the French might bottle us up ! " " We shall not stay long enough to be bottled. We can get all the information we want by to-mor- row night." " How far is it from here to Chebucto ? " " Five or six miles. The question is, Who will go I " "I will go." " You really mean it 1 You will have to go alone. " Yes. I mean it." " I think it is best that you should go. There is no danger that I know of in the woods, the only danger is here, and I must stay and be ready for it. "Indians!" said I. "Not here. It is out of their track. All you have to do is to steer by compass due west, and as om the of the A-ngel. )ut of ttled. ■mor- will 3 lie. e IS Illy it. ou as mi^ With many a cai(tion from Angel, off I went. *i 5*, THE ALAEM. 165 you return steer due east. In neither case can you miss your object. Keep your eyes open, of course ; trust to your eyes alone. Do not speak to any one, nor be seen by any one, if you can help it. If you start at eight o'clock to-morrow morning you ought to be back easily by three in the afternoon.'' And at eight o'clock next morning I started. I was very proud. It was my first expedition alone ; and I was going to have my first sight of the mysterious Chebucto. With many a caution from Angel as to taking care of myself, and armed with a light ax with which I proposed to cut a gash in the trunks of the trees as I passed along, so as to mark my path, off I went. I had been alone in the woods before, but never did I feel so lonely as after the first half -hour. My sense of hearing seemed to quicken greatly. I could almost, like the boy in the story, hear the trees growing. There was a murmur of life all around me, and yet I felt that no harm would befall me if I did my duty. Thick as were the trees, I found no difficulty in maintaining a westerly course, and the sharp chops II '^ mm 166 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. |il'!':"il i ;r m: l: I !';ii : i; of the ax, as I cut into the bark as I passed, seemed to tick off the yards of my progress. Hero and there the underwood was thick, and I had to diverge a little, but never for long, and I carefully marked my trees, and took my bearings in such a way as to regain my true line as soon as possible. The trees did not last all the way ; soon I came upon patches of open country, and indeed I passed two lakes and some marshy ground before I entered on the last mile ; but I cut a big, broad arrow on the trees from which I came and the trees to which I went, and according to Angel's advice noted the conspicuous landmarks in a little book I had with me, so as to make no mistake. We had worked it all out in the cabin the night before, thinking of all the possible sources of dan- ger, and taking our measures to meet them. Really, although I say it myself — but remembering that the credit was due to Angel, who planned the journey — this was a genuine bit of work. I held on my course, marked it, noted it, and made no slip. At the same time I must confess I saw nothing but my road. I knew not then, though I know now, what THE ALARM. 167 trees there were, what shrubs, or birds, or furred animals. My whole attention was concentrated on my course, and beyond, as I have said, a general feeling that everything was alive, I was insensible to my surroundings. On I went, as fast as I could go, and as straight as I could go. I had been driving ahead for a little more than three hours, when I caught a glimpse of water through the trees, and coming to a hillside I saw in front of me what looked like a wide river. Moving on more cautiously, I reached a wooded knoll, and there, below me, lay the long-sought Chebucto. There was the ruined block-house, and there, close to it, were a few huts, and not far off was what looked like a camp. And all along the river, here and there, and in twos and threes, lay the great French fleet. I looked and could not believe my eyes. Was it a reality, or a vision? Was this Chebucto — this beautiful valley, with the wide estuary dividing it and the rich forest framing it on either hand ! Real it looked, and it looked as I had hoped it to be. }•■ ^ i m lit ii W: 168 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. But the fleet ! Were the ships real ? Were the huts real ? Were the few men I saw like rats real ! I brought the telescope to bear, and my eyesight seemed undeceived. I took out my little book, and made notes of what I saw. Again I looked through the telescope. The ships were no phantoms. I went southward a little to another shoulder, and looked out, and saw the whole armada. And I counted them ; and I laughed. And then I returned to my first knoll, took another and parting look, and returned by the way I had come. I was back before three o'clock, much to Angel's relief. I told him how I had kept my course and had no adventure. " When I caught the gleam of water," I said, " I began to descend. And then I came out upon the hillside, and looking down from among the trees I could see the broad estuary and the much-talked-of armada." " A fine sight, I should think," said Angel. "A strange sight," said I, "not that I thought it a fine one." ( V i |a"^ i THE ALARM. 1G9 "And why not?" " There was the scattered fleet as I had never imagined a fleet could become in this world. At first I thought my eyes were playing jne false ; then I thought the air was distorting the images ; then I looked through my glass both ways to test its clear- ness ; and then I knew that what I was looking at was really as it had at first appeared." " Whatever are you driving at ? Are you hungry, tired out, excited, or what ! " "I have nothing at all the matter with me; though I might well be suffering from the shock that view gave me." " What, were the ships burning blue like brim- stone ? " " Worse than that." " Get along ; time is short, you know." "Well, the sheet of water, in the open and among the trees of the creeks, was crowded with shipping. There were masts everywhere. There were ships of the line, there were frigates and tran- sports, some with their guns out, some with their guns in, and all in disorder, huddled in patches, some r t ^J^ ^.^! IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) h {/ ,^^ 4> M^ :/. f/. 1.0 I.I | io "^" li^S •^ 1^ 12.2 2.0 !!f KL& ■ 40 11:25 p 1.4 1.6 ^ -\Vv'"Q' ^] gtti U;' i ' } -i 1 f In I'i 3 ' lii ill' 1 IJ!: /!^ 172 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. " Has the fleet been deserted ? " " That I do not know. On two or three of the ships I saw about half a dozen men altogether. They looked like skeletons, moving about so clum- silly and listessly. There were many more on the shore, where there are a gi'oup of wooden shanties — a lot of them — and many men, but none very lively or healthy looking. I fancy the ships have been left for some reason, and the men are camped in the huts. But of this I feel certain — that fleet will never do us harm." " Is there any getting a peep at this wonderful fleet from the brigantine ? " " I should say there was. I am sure none of the vessels are in a fit state to pursue. You might work round by to-morrow afternoon, and if there was a chase we could clear off in the dark.** " Then we will start at once." CHAPTER XII. THE TREATY. ^^^EFORE the night fell we were out at sea again, our object being to cruise till daylight, and e,w so time our course as to arrive in Chebucto harbor in the afternoon. Of course a good look-out was kept, and of course we carried no lights, as we had no wish to be discovered by a foe, and could take our chance of being run down by a friend. As the day grew on and the stars faded, and the sky was gray and flushed, there was all at once noticed rising every minute or so on the wi'inkled, slaty blue sea a small, dark object, soon made out to be a boat. It was on our starboard bow, between us and the land, and Captain Angel changed his course a point or two to the northward so as to have a closer view. As we neared the boat we could see there was a man on the aftermost thwart, who, on closer ap- proach, appeared to be asleep. 174 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. I r* li ret i ii " Ahoy there ! Ahoy ! Ahoy ! " we hailed. No answer. Was he alive or dead or ill ? Was it a man at all ? Or only a scarecrow ? The boat came drifting alongside, broadside on. I was aloft and saw there was nothing in her but the man. " Ahoy ! " roared Angel, in a voice of thunder. The man moved and rubbed his eyes, and then he fell backward on to the floor of the boat. Bump came the boat against the brigantine's side ; and Jim, one of our men, was into her in a moment. " The man is ill, sir ! " he said. " Help him up ! " The man groaned and muttered something. "What does he say?" " He says I am not to touch him." " Nonsense ! Pick him up ! Lend a hand there one Oi you ! " "Touch me not!" said the stranger. "It will be your death if you do ! " " Don't sing so big," said Jim. " You'll have to come along with us." l! ill ' THE TKEATY. 175 And witli some difficulty he was lifted up on to the deck. "Throw me overboard," said the man huskily. " 'Twill be better for you ! " " And why ? You are but one to a ship's crew." " I don't mean fighting, bless you ! " said the man. " I am innocent of that." " What do you mean, then ? " " Small-pox." We all recoiled — for a minute. Then Angel went and knelt by his side and looked earnestly at him. " Small-pox or no small-pox," said he, " you are weak and over-tired. We are not going to throw you overboard now we have you here." And turning to us he ordered a blanket to be brought, in which he rolled the man, and telling us to keep well away till he returned, he went below. Soon he was back with some stimulant which he gave the man, who drank it greedily. " My blessing on ye ! " said the stranger. " It's Irish ! '' And he rolled over and went to sleep. In an T!W'.,3 5- 176 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. i . 1 11 j i I'i'.' ■ ''■ 1 1 ijili ill ( ■■ ; ! ' m nffi ' 1 'Iff ■ 'A ■H 111 1 \ i 1 i! 1 ■ ! ; i ' ' * J ;'■! 'i .1 :i 1 ii i I. ,1 1 1 ■ 1 1 : 1 i 1 ' i hour he was awake again, and after some more whiskey and a little soup he was sufficiently re- covered to answer the questions that were put to him. " What are you ? " asked Angel. " Sure, Pm a Frenchman." " A Frenchman ! I thought you were an Irish- man!" " Ah ! I was once." " Once ! Where do you come from ? " " Chebucto." "Phew!" said Angel. "And how long have you had small-pox ? " " I haven't had it ; but Pm going to." " Oh, I see ! Small-pox at Chebucto, eh ? " " That's the truth." "And what have you done? Run away from it!" " From it and with it, I tell you ! " " What is your name ! " " CaUaghan." " Hum ! " said Angel. " Sounds Frenchy ! Will you have some more of the national di'ink?" THE TREATY. 177 " National drink, is it ? " And Callaglian smiled, and drank. " Now, Mr. Callaglian," said Angel, " you had better go to sleep again. It's my belief you have no more small-pox than I have. So sleep off the delusion, and wake with an appetite.'' The appetite with which the stranger awoke was hearty enough to make us wonder and envy. And as he ate he became quite cheerful. " I'm a prisoner, I suppose ? " he said. "Looks like it," said Angel; "but it depends on how you behave yourself. I don't take a mean advantage of a man when he is reasonable ; when you are strong enough I'll put you ashore." "Ashore! No!" said Callaghan decidedly. " No, not there ! Not where I came from." " Why not 1 " "I'll tell you anything! I'll do anything for you, only don't send me back. It is horrible, hor- rible ! I should not live an hour, I tell you. I should die like a dog, and have to bury myself." " You are an Irishman 1 " " I am that, but I have been in the French navy, 12 l\ tn Pi ii 178 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ;i ' '1 H' i ^ ^H ! : 1) 1 ^^H ' *':■ i r 1 i9fl| ^^H' '!'■ ' ^ iiV ^^Bi- ll'i I ' • -* IBHB*' 1 "' • * M il^i ^lir ■ ^ ■ 1 ^^^11 & )i' i.'jaSHBf ^HB ,iii ' HIBIh^b ^^bi 'iii ^^^^H 9 B ^^hB ■ill'. P^ib Bi' ' Ig-jJlB Hk- i i HHJ ^bH ' :(;• 9h H ' 111, ^n B ■ 1'' n^H ■ j: I ^B I ill' : j|. 1 ■ "i 111. Ih J^^H it BflBPBi fl m Iji^ft '. H H m^^ ' H H' Hk ' ^1 MB ^bI I J 1 and I have now left the service; you don't catch me going back. It is horrible ! " "What is horrible? The way you have been treated?" "Yes, the way I have been treated — and the rest. We came from France with small-pox aboard, eighty ships or more — eleven of them line-of -battle ships, twenty of them frigates, the rest bombs and transports — and had awful weather of it. Small- pox aboard, too ; buryings every day ; storm after storm. Off Table Island a hurricane caught us — the tempest was terrible: thunder, lightning, hail, snow ; and a clap of cold to follow, so fierce that the seas froze on the forecastle and embedded anchors and chains and tackle and windlass and everything within reach in a six-foot lump of ice. The fleet was dispersed — driven to smithereens, some of them. We kept afloat, and after digging clear the decks with pick-axes went on to the ren- dezvous at Chebucto." " Is that where you were bound to ! " asked Angel. " I suppose so. Anyhow, there we got, and there we cast anchor early last month, three or four THE TREATY. 179 going overboard every day with small-pox in our ship alone. And as with our ship so with the others. As the ships came straggling in they took the disease from us. We died in dozens. Some ships came in from the "West Indies ; they took the disease. Nothing but death, death. We had not been there a week before the Admiral died of apo- plexy. A few days afterwards the Vice- Admiral went mad, and ran himself through with his own sword.'^ " Is that so ? " asked Angel. " You know Irish- men — I mean Frenchmen — " " I had rather be Irish, if it pleases ye." "Well, Irish, then, are apt to say what they think you want to believe.'' " Sure, you >'^ant to believe the truth, don't you ? " " Yes, but we don't always get it from an Irish- man, and in the end the Irishman suffers." " It's certain truth, I tell you ; the Admiral was the Due D'Anville — Duke of Anville that means — once a Rochefoucauld, now dead as a juddock, and the Vice- Admiral was D'Estournelle ; he killed him- self in a rage, it's my belief, because he couldn't get Fl m |1 •1, S • I m 180 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. "l< II ' i\\r yt ; iiif:. J ;ii. his own way. Anyhow, he fell on his sword — like Saul, wasn't it 1 — and he died, like hundreds of us. There's a man dying every hour ashore now." " Were you landed from the ships, then I ^ " Yes, the officers made us build barracks, and sent us ashore to herd together and die. Little good did the barracks do us. I tell you, the men died in dozens. I could stand it no longer, and so I stole the boat and fled to take my chance. And here's to your good health, sir ! " " But why did you not walk away on the land instead of trying this dangerous game I " "The land is it, you recommmendl Sure, of course, you know nothing about it. The land is worse than the sea." " And why so ? " " The place was a general rendezvous. Not only were the ships there, but to meet the ships and join their forces to those we brought came crowds of Acadians, and Souriquois Indians. And you may guess what happened : the ships were nests of small- pox, the barracks were stores of small-pox, a regular poison haunt — and the landsmen and poor Indians THE TREATY. 181 caught the disease and spread it like wildfire, and they are dying so fast that they are left unburied just where they have died. It is a place of horrors, I say ; the people are gathered there to die, and when a belated ship comes in she brings a few sick, per- haps, and next morning half her crew is down, struck from the greater mass of disease on the shore." " Is that why the ships are in such confusion ? " I asked. " There are no men to work the ships," said Cal- laghan ; " the men are either dying, or burying each other." " It will be pleasant for us if you have brought it with you." " WeU, you needn't have picked me up. I did not ask you to. At the same time, I am much obliged to you." "I think I will have a look in at the harbor. Do you know of any reason why we should not ? " " No. Don't go in too far, and you'll see all you want ; but you may be caught in the poison cloud." " I win chance that." 182 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ^i ;i, i '!S ?!;;;? jlll 1 : if t ! .11 i And during the afternoon we sneaked into the harbor, keeping close in shore so as not to be con- spicuous. Although we did not go very far in, yet Angel saw enough to satisfy himself that my report was correct. I had seen the fleet from above, and seen it all at once ; from the water we could only catch a glimpse of a few ships at a time, but those we did see were in a deplorable state. Evidently, as Cal- laghan said, there were no men to work them, or to make the repairs after the stormy voyage. " All the same," said Angel, " it looks to me as though they might easily be put into repair. Some of them seem to be quite empty. If it were not for the small-pox, we might run off with one ; but, there, the risk is too great, and we have no men to spare to work her with. I think we had bettei* bo off to Boston to report." And with the turn of the tide out we went, the French making no sign to show that our presence had been detected. Callaghan continued free from disease, and when we reached Boston Captain Angel took his report THE TREATY. 183 to tlio Governor, and introduced Callaglian to tell his story over again. And the Irishman, being told to consider himself at liberty, came down to the Loo to say good-by to his shipmates, and then re- turned on shore and enlisted for King George, being fully persuaded to the end of his days that he must have had the disease without knowing it. Of course the New Englanders were jubilant at the news, but the visitation was too appalling for them to make any parade of their joy. The minis- ters took every advantage of the occasion: they pointed out that Louisbourg had been captured in a crusade and was consequently under special protec- tion, and just as the wind had ruined the Spanish armada, so had the disease the French one. And there were many who sympathized with the poor fellows crowded in this fatal spot to die, and some talk there was of an effort to save them, though how that was to be done did not appear. One thing was noticeable : the enemy was no longer spoken of as bitterly as he had been. At last wo heard that the plague was abating, but that reinforcements from Canada had arrived ! f y f- '1 I 1-. ff ' ■it''' h i!i •!l'! 1 ! i'. 184 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. round Annapolis, and a fleet was on tlie way to join them, for which Governor Mascarene was fully pre- pared and had two frigates at anchor off his port. Then came news that on the 12th of October there were great fires at Chebucto, many ships were burned, some were sunk, and with twenty-five ves- sels only the French cleared off. Then there was a long, heavy storm which drove twenty-three of these vessels many leagues to the eastward, and the two others, rounding into Annapolis, caught sight of the two frigates and bore off to be seen no more. The danger was over. We had heard the last of the French armada, and much thanksgiving ensued thereat. Of my every-day life on the Loo during all this time I need not speak. The clearing away of the French cloud caused a great stir in trade, and we had full cargoes for a long time afterwards, and so prosperous were we that we were in a fitting mood to enjoy the good news of the year that followed when De la Jonquiere's fleet for the recapture of Louisbourg was defeated off Cape Finisterre on the 3d of May. Then it was that Admiral Anson and THE TREATY. 185 t5> our friend "Warren gave him a terrible belaboring, and even captured him and his squadron complete. In that famous action not the least glorious part was borne by the Namur, whose captain was so badly wounded in the shoulder as ever afterwards to carry his head a little on one side. This wry- necked commander, one of the finest seamen who ever sailed the sea, will appear in this Louisbourg imbroglio in due course. Do not let it be forgotten that he was here the foremost figure in the fight that ruined the French hope of reconquering Louis- bourg by force of arms. But the fate of D'Anville's fleet had directed general attention to Chebucto's beautiful harbor; and Captain Ardyne resolved to pay it his long- postponed visit to view his shadowy property and prosecute inquiries as to the fate of Mary's father. What had become of him ? That he was dead was probable ; but he might be in a French prison, and even have been carried to France. For the sake of his daughter it was well that the matter should be cleared up, but how it could affect us was not sufficiently clear. li'^ i ^ > * ^ 'E Si m !h! N "■t I^^^^B 1 11 ^^^1 H I '* ^^^^1 R 1 > .^^^^1 In rl j^^H if 'f^^lH 186 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. w t Ir Again, however, there was a delay. The dis- turbed state of Nova Scotia, owing to French in- trigue with the Indians, made it hazardous to settle out of range of a fort or block-house, and the news of a mutiny in Cape Breton, and PepperrelPs re- quirement of more troops to strengthen the garri- son, led Captain Ardyne to continue in his com- mand and return with a detachment to the city he knew so well. During 1747 and 1748, therefore, he was in Louisbourg and was frequently in the har- bor, owing to Angel finding constant freights to and from New England. As occasionally happens in this world, the long- est -way round proved to be the shortest way to the destination. One day, while the Loo lay at anchor off the quay, there was a report that a body of French and Indians had appeared in the neighbor- ing woods. At the news a scouting party was organized under the command of my father, who took with him Captain Angel and me and went off on the trail. On the second day we reached the Bras d'Or, the great central lake or arm of the sea which prac- T THE TREATY. 187 1% tically divides Cape Breton into halves. As the men were pitching their camp by the lakeside we were astonished to see a solitary canoe approaching from the opposite shore. When just beyond gun- shot the Indian stood up and held his hands aloft in sign of peace, and the signal being answered from the shore, the canoe came on ; and out of her, fear- less, and with an air of importance, Pujook stepped on to the land. *' Why, it is the Cormorant ! " said I. *' The bird of ill-omen," said Angel. ^' Our sweet prophetic crow ! " Pujook stood still on the beach, and, making a sign that all was well, produced from his belt a thin strip of deerskin, on which were certain written characters. Fortunately, one of the half-breeds in the party understood Micmac, and at Captain Ardyne's re- quest asked Pujook what news he brought, and why he was there. " The message I bring is written," said Pujook. " It should be read." He handed it to me, and I saw such a combina- ' :.r .t » F ! n\\ m m i vt'l m 188 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. * ' '! ;.ti; ;;;JI|H iriili aMH ' ' :'■', 1 IhH ^i M tion of characters, known and unknown, as had never met my eyes before. " Wliat language is this ? " I asked. "Chinese to me," said Angel, looking over my shoulder. "It is Micmac," said the haU-breed. "The Frenchman Le Clercq taught the Micmacs to write hke that years and years ago.'' " And does the Cormorant, who hates the French, carry a Frenchman's letter ? " asked I. "It is a Micmac's letter," said the half-breed. " Who is it from ? " he asked Pujook. " It is the writing of Eyes-that-weep, from whom I come." " Oh ! " said Peter Ardyne. " That is what has become of Eyes-that-weep, is it! She has become Madame Cormorant, I suppose ? " "Is Eyes-that-weep the squaw of the Cormo- rant ? " asked the half-breed. " She is," said Pujook. "Oh, w^uit a falling off was there!" said Captain Ardyne. "But what does the letter say?" THE TREATY. 189 id er " I cannot read it/' said the half-breed, " though I know it is written in Le Clercq Micmac." "Perhaps the Cormorant can obUge. Let him have a peck at it," said Angel. *' Can you read this I " asked the half-breed. " I cannot read the scrawl," said Pujook, " but I know the message." " What is it, then 1 " " It is this : The French and the Indians are no longer on the war-path. Over the great water the Frenchman and the Englishman have agreed a peace. The chiefs have met, and the white flag is to fly again on Louisbourg; and the Englishman will return to his own home. The news is new." " I should think it was," said Angel. " The sailor does not believe the Cormorant ? " " No," said Angel, " I do not." " But it may be true," said Captain Ardyne. " It cannot be," said Angel. " If that is all the man can make out of the scrawl, he had better have left it behind him." "Who gave you the news?" asked Captain Ardyne. II ii f Igj^HH j 190 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. " It matters not," said Pujook. " It is true. I overheard it ; and Eyes-that-weep wrote it." "Then how about the prophecy of the great medicine-man?" asked I. Pujook looked astonished for an instant as this was translated to him. " The end is not yet," he said. " When you are again in Louisbourg you will find my news is true. Hasten back. Those you seek are far across the lake. They left here in canoes before this time yesterday." " That is likely," said Angel, " but the other is not." " It is true," said Pujook, as if for the last time. "The Englishman will again have to war against Louisbourg, and then will come the end." " Enough," said Captain Ardyne ; " we will re- turn to-morrow and inquire into this. The enemy has evidently escaped us. AVill the Cormorant honor us by accepting our hospitality ? " The Cormorant would, and did for about half an hour, during which time he was too busy to talk; and then, with an expression of regret, he THE TREATY. 191 rose to go, explaining that liis voyage lay far across the water, and that a storm might be ex- pected about midnight, in which he had rather not be caught. As he entered his canoe he beckoned to me, and shaking hands with me, drew me down so as to speak three words in my ear. They were : " Kervan. Found. Kebec." And releasing my hand, he paddled off across the lake. "When I told my father what he had said, the captain laughed. "Ah! Pujook is learning English! By the time we take Louisbourg for good he will be able to do without an interpreter ! " That night the storm came, as Pujook had fore- told. When we returned to the city it seemed as though the shadow of death were on it. Every one was gloomy and ashamed. The news of the surrender was true. All our bloodshed and trial had been in vain. Our mother-country had sold us. Louisbourg and the rest of Cape Breton Island was to be given back to France in exchange for a ped- iil Iff 192 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. dling little town in India called Madras. Madras indeed ! Whoever cared a dollar for Madras ? Deep was the disgust of every one in the Colo- nies at the disgraceful treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle — a peace at any price, of the most degraded character. But the giving up of Louisbourg to its builders was not without some consolation to Captain Ardyne. I heard the strangest possible news in Boston next time I went there. As Louisbourg was to be given up, it had been decided to make another stronghold in those seas. And of all places in America, the British Gov- ernment had chosen Chebucto, to the advantages of which attention had been called by D'Anville's dis- aster. I supposed father would go there at last. And he did. On the 2d of July, 1749, the sloop-of-war Sphinx, with Governor Edward Cornwallis on board, sailed into what is now known as one of the finest har- bors in North America. In a fortnight she was surrounded by transports bringing settlers and a 1 THE TREATY. 193 garrison from Great Britain and Cape Breton. And Captain Ardyno was present when the British ^ag was hoisted with much ceremony, and the world was informed that Nova Scotia was to be taken seriously in hand as a colony, and that its capital was no longer Annapolis Royal, but the favored city to be built on that spot which, then and there, after the then President of the Board of Trf.de, was officially named — not Chebucto but — Halifax. ras a 13 Mi't till 'V : n CHAPTER XIII. THE CAPTURE. THINK it is best to say but little of tiie six years that followed. They were of much value to me in many ways, but with one ex- ception the events crowded into them had little to do with the strange story I set myself to tell when I began these memoirs. Let me, then, make a fresh start when I was a young man of twenty-two, and master and owner of the old brigantine, whose late proprietor, and always my good friend, was in business at Halifax as a general merchant. The McRae money was still a mystery, the solu- tion of which was given up as almost hopeless. My father had done well by his choice of Chebucto, or Halifax, as it was now called. He had made good his claim to one of the best patches of land close to the city, and was a prosperous farmer. And Mary THE CAPTURE. 195 Kervan, the owner of the adjoining claim, was now treated as liis adopted daughter until she became his daughter-in-law. That is the most delicate way I can think of in which to recor*^ the most important item of the events of those six years ; and one of the few items I never had cause to regret. Poor Mary I Her father's fate remained a mystery. All that was known of it was contained in those three words : " Kervan. Found. Kebec." To Quebec I had been in course of trade, but nothing had I learned of Kervan. And I had sought for the Cormorant in vain. He had not been seen since he had disappeared across the Bras d'Or ; and with him had vanished Eyes-that-weep. The French were in possession of Cape Breton, or Isle Royale, as they called it, and had all along been causing trouble in Nova Scotia, fighting the English through genuine Indians, and whites dis- guised as Indians, whom they never ceased to urge on in such a way " as always to make the English appear as the aggressors," in accordance with in- structions received from Paris, as discovered a few years afterwards. ( ||. i 196 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ■ ; *.S And Abbe Louis Joseph le Loutre — mark him — was now in receipt of a pension of eight hundred livres for political services, and had almost reached the end of his detestable career. He had even been burning his own chapels in the sight of all men, to terrify his superstitious flock, and I had just heard of him, in his shirt-sleeves, and with a pipe in his mouth, working at the defences of Beausejour, near Chignecto, which was soon to be captured and be- come Fort Cumberland. To the relief of us all at Halifax, Nova Scotia was now at peaco, thanks chiefly to the expulsion of those rascals, the Acadians of Grand Pre, mostly a lazy, quarrelsome, drunken gang, often masquerad- ing in paint and feathers, and yet claiming to be as innocent as lambs. Three hundred of these hypo- crites were taken at Beausejour with arms in their hands — a nice exhibition of inriocence. To the com- fort of all Nova Scotia, these hypocrites of Grand Pr6 were turned out of their miserable hovels and deported in detachments to the older Atlantic States, where their descendants now seem to do well. But enough of reminiscence. My ship, on the THE CAPTURE. 197 ie day I recommence my story, was riding in the har- bor, her trade being chiefly between Boston, Louis- bourg, and Halifax, which, in spite of all the French could do, had become the most thriving port in North America. I had merely put in for a couple of days, having some goods for An*^ 3I, which proved an excuse for calling on my father at the farm and seeing some one else. "Is trade any better at Louisbourg?" asked my father. " Yes," I replied, " but not much, as far as the genuine trade goes. The transfer trade flourishes more than ever. Most of the goods that go to I BH 1 IH j^H M' j^H Ib 1 1 " Bother the brigantine ! You seem to think as much of the Loo as you do of me ! " "Oh! Fie! I never thought you could be jealous ! " " Jealous of an old ship ? But I am ! And if that old ship does not bring my Felix back before long, I'U~" "What?" " I'll have the old creature broken up ! There ! ^ " You will ? " said I, with a certain signal in the sign language, even more widely known than that of the American Indians. " There ! In a fortnight you will be blessing the old Loo and calling her your best friend." " Somebody thinks a good deal of himself — does he not ? Well, Mr. Conceited, I would rather bless her than break her. She has been a true friend to us all. And so good — good-bye ! " And I was off. Soon I had taken my last look at the citadel and the only church that then existed in Nova Scotia. The wind was in the westward, and in the bright sinking sun the wooded banks of the harbor were looking their freshest and best, as THE CAPTURE. 201 the old brigantine, smart and serviceable as of yore, slipped out into the Atlantic. At four o'clock she was off the East Nab ; at five o'clock she was abreast of Devil's Island, with the blue, swelling ocean to the south of her, and on her starboard quarter lay Che- bucto Head ; in another hour she had opened Cole Harbor, and by eight she was off Chezzetcook. At two in the morning I went on deck to see in the moonlight the long line of the so-called gold district of Tangier, and at noon next day I was off what is now Cape Macodome. Before evening closed in I had sighted Cape Canso, and was in the track of the picturesque fleet which had carried the New Englanders to victory in 1745. When I dropped anchor off Louisbourg the Loo was one of eleven merchant ships under British colors, almost every one of which lay alongside a French vessel bound to some port in France with " the products of Isle Roy ale," gathered ready-made from New England cargoes. At the quay were two storeships unloading guns and ammunition under guard. Going into the city, I noticed more military than usual ; and they were ! il 202 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. m^- 1.(1 more saucy. Evidently something had leaked out regarding the coming war. In the tavern I over- heard two Frenchmen talking and abusing one Mr. Fox — " one Mr. Fox," being the Secretary of State, who had recently persuaded Parliament to vote an increase of the British navy and army — and think ing the sooner I left Louisbourg the better, I went to get my papers passed. On returning to the brigantine I noticed the glasses at work on the batteries. There was much of what the French call " sensa- tion." A frigate entered the port round Lighthouse Point, and saluted and signalled in a way I had not before remarked. She seemed to have been in action. Her sails and rigging were much cut about, and her foretopmast was housed and had a long splinter out of it. She passed up the harbor and anchored off the Careening Wharf, and there was much communicating with the shore. In the midst of it all John Bacon came from his schooner and told me something of importance was on foot in the city. Shouts had been raised of treachery and ^'Down with the English!" He THE CAPTUKE. 203 tnouglit it as well to be ready to slip out, and I agi'eed with him. If anything happened to hasten our departure, we arranged to hoist our forestay- sails. He then left me to warn another of his friends. Thinking the warning worth attention, I went round the ship to assure myself we were fit for an immediate start, and I had the moorings prepared so that nothing would delay us. And none too soon. In the course of about an hour after Bacon left a gun was fired from the Grand Battery, and we saw that armed boats were putting off from the frigates and line-of -battle ships. I noticed one go aboard the Welcome^ where there was a dispute and a firing of pistols, and at the same instant I saw Bacon's men hauling at the forestaysail halliards. As this was the signal agreed upon, I made sail quickly, and, in the fresh breeze that had sprung up, I slipped my cable and made a dash for the har- bor's mouth. The Content ranged alongside, and Bacon hailed me that the French were seizing the English vessels. 11 ii i Ill 204 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. There was great confusion in the harbor, nearly- all our ships striving to run for safety. But the men-of-war boats, coming in all directions, managed to captr-'e three before they were well under way. Two of the frigates were also making sail to give chase ^u such as escaped. I thought we should clear off unchallenged. But the Island Battery- began to fire at us, although, luckily, the gunners had no skill, and the shot did us no harm. The running of the strait between the battery and the point was exciting work. We were abreast of Lighthouse Point, the Con- tent leading, when a shot carried away her foremast low down, and she fell into the enemy's hands, a boat from the battery taking possession of her. There were six vessels following, including the Loo. Two of them besides the Content were caught in the strait, two were overhauled a short dis- tance out. .The cannon were now going their hardest. It was a desperate rush for freedom; the French frigates in pursuit, the harbor alive with boats from the shore and the ships, a French mob on the THE CAPTURE. 205 beach, shouting and gesticulating as they watched the fun. The shot from the forts began to fall short, and the bowchasei's from the frigates then took up the tune, to which we two impudent pigmies had chosen to dance. The chase did not last long. My companion was the first victim. A shot plumped into her stern and wrecked her steering. I then put my helm down and tried to beat my big pursuer on another point of sailing. She wore and followed, and as she wore a shot from her knocked over the galley chimney. This was alarming but not dangerous. I held on, my object being to reach a bank of fog which lay ahead. There was a chance of escape in the fog, but it was a poor one. I had the gun cleared, trusting some good Prov- idence might attend me. And as the fog closed over us I fired. A curious proceeding I have come to think this, but an expression of regret can do no good now. I was sorry for it, and there is an end of it. A shot ^^^ I 'ffl" 206 englishman's haven. out of a fog was a trusting to Providence worthy of one of Pepperrell's crusaders. Alas ! Wo were no sooner in the fog than we were through it. It was a mere strip — a mere finger of fog to mock at a fugitive. The frigate, of course, disappeared when we entered the fog, and of course we could not see her when we left it ; but in a very short time she was in sight again, having left the fog behind her. And what to do I knew not. I took another shot at the frigate, which did no damage. And then I gave her another, hoping to cripple her foremast. This it did not, but it drew out the Frenchman's fire, who gave me two shots, one of which started a kevel and the other shivered the bitts. Another aimed high splintered a cheek and knocked a bee off the bowsprit. Another cut my gaff's throat. And finally, seeing all hope of escape at an end, I surrendered. CHAPTER XIV. THE PRISON. [HEN I reached the frigate's deck I found the French captain more amused than angry at my performance. " Ma foi ! " said the Frenchman, stroking his chin. "It is not an escape; it is an esca- pade." I bowed. " To whom does your brigantine belong ? '» " To me, monsieur," I said. " And what is your cargo ? " " I had just discharged it." " And the money ? " " Surely," said I, " you will not seize that?" " Ah ! " said the captain ; " it is the fortune of war." " It is my fortune ! What do you mean by war ? Is war declared?" i fl 1 ■ m 208 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. Tho Frenchman raised his finger, and said good- naturedly : " Ah, monsieur ! Take advice from an enemy, if you do not take it from a friend. When you are, as you are, a prisoner, do not show anger. It spoils all. You have done the best for your part, and I admire your courage, and laugh at your audacity ; and we need not quarrel. I will take you back to Louisbourg. There you can argue as you please, but do not argue here. As for war being declared, I know not. My orders were to catch you, and I have caught you; and at no cost beyond some powder, a few balls, and a little piece of epaulette, which you tore off my shoulder by that random shot out of the fog — " " Eeally, monsieur," said I, " I am very sorry — " " Pardon ! " said the Frenchman. " Enough ! I am content. Say no more. I see you are a brave man. I, for myself, will make no profit out of your misfortune. That is all I can say." But all French officers were not as Captain La- lande. When I arrived at Louisbourg I was ordered to be sent on board one of the line-of-battle ships. THE PRISON. 209 whose captain took a very different view of my pro- ceedings, and at once put me in irons as a danger- ous chai'acter, and ordered mo to the cells. The hold of a French line-of -battle ship in those days was just as horrible in its odors and vapors as the hold of Her Majesty \s ship Thunder, in which Smollett sends to sea a certain surgeon's mate. The cell in which I found myself was like a hollow, pu- trid cheese in touch and smell; it was many feet below the water — slimy, noisome, and rat-haunted. The rats, by their constant gnawing, were a sort of companions to me. The light from the lantern shining through the peephole only served to make the darkness darker. The food to me was hateful ; the water was ropy. In this dreadful hole I spent a month. Most of that time I knew we were at sea, but no information could I get as to whore I was going, or why I was thus carried off. When I was taken up to daylight, so weak and ill that I could not stand, I found we were anchored in a broad river, narrowed just above us by a lofty cape on the side of which clustered a picturesque city. In front was a fort ; above it was another fort cut in the I 210 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. solid rock, as I afterwards found ; and above all was a citadel with the lilied flag on the staff. " Why, this is Quebec ! " I said, recognizing it at once, for in the six years I had twice voyaged up the St. Lawrence. I became insensible, and I knew nothing that happened for some weeks. When I began to be conscious of my surroundings I found myself in bed in a sort of hospital. The people w^ere kind to me, but did not encourage my asking them questions. I was still at Quebec. " Why am I here ? " I asked my nurse. In broken English she replied : " You are prisoner of war.." As soon as I was convalescent I was removed from these pleasant surroundings and taken to the prison, w^here from one of the other prisoners I learned the story of the capture of the Alcide and the Lys, which had had so direful an influence on my fortunes. I heard that on the 8th of June Admiral Bos- cawen had fallen in with four French sail of the line and chased them. After a pursuit lasting two THE PRISON. 211 days the sixty-gun ship T)nnl:b% commanded by Black Dick Howe, ranged up alongside the sixty- four-gun ship Alcide and cannonaded h^^ so fiercely that on the Torhay appearing the i/ ..i Lehman sur- rendered. The Lys^ another French sixty-four, was taken in the course of the same running battle, and a third ship only escaped capture by flight in the fog. It was this vessel that I had seen enter Louis- bourg, to inform the Governor that the Seven Years' War had commenced,. The day after I learned this, an oldish man I had not before seen approached me and remarked on the fineness of the weather. Just then a priest passed the open gate. My companion asked me if I knew who it was. " That," said he, " is the fight- ing abbe. Monsieur le Loutre." On my asking what the abbe was doing in Quebec, I was told that the French had lost Beau- sejour and that the abbe had escaped the night before the capitulation, disguised as an Indian, as otherwise he would have assuredly been hanged for his crimes. il ■ ii IIP. I, "f I I .^ 212 englishman's haven. I would have inquired further as to this, but we were then called in, and for some time no opportu- nity offered of renewing the conversation. I did not meet my companion again for many months, during which I wrote three times to Halifax inform- ing my people of my whereabouts, and heard noth- ing in return, for all my letters miscarried — were, I supposed, stopped at Quebec. In May next year, 1756, the people of Canada were greatly excited at the arrival of a new and promising commander of the forces in succession to Baron Dieskau, who had been defeated and capt- ured by William Johnson, Admiral Warren^s nephew. The new commander was the celebrated Montcalm. Soon after his arrival an inspection of the prisoners took place for some reason, and among the officers who were in attendance on Governor Vaudreuil was Captain Lalande. I noticed the captain looking hard at me, and as the company were departing he came up and said : " Ah, is it you, monsieur, the master of the saucy brigantine ? What have you done to be here ? " I told him how I had been treated on the line-of- P lil' THE PRISON. 213 -of- battle ship, to which he replied : " Ah ! There has been an error, it seems to me, I will ask about you.'' Two days afterwards I was removed to the citadel — a much pleasanter place. The first evening of my arrival, while I was on the ramparts under observation, looking round on the beautiful landscape, I was sent for by a cavalry officer, who, I understood, was Captain de Bougainville, the aide-de-camp of the Marquis de Montcalm. A great man was this De Bougainville, then aid- de-camp to Montcalm. He had been a lawyer ; he was now a soldier. In time he became a sailor, an admiral, and a circumnavigator. " Since when have you been prisoner. Monsieur Ardyne?" asked De Bougainville. " Since June last year, monsieur." " Why have you not been exchanged ? Do you know ? " " I have always been kept back from exchange as though by special orders." " Have you no friends, no relations ? " I If ;'i| r 214 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. I I " I have written letters but have had no replies." " Captain Lalande, who left Quebec the day be- fore yesterday, mentioned your name to me, and told me of your escapade. But, unfortunately, wo are not in a position to be of service to you as offi- cials. Officially I may do something; but it is difficult. The governor-general has given orders regarding you, at the report of the captain of the vessel who used you so rigorously. Of course I can apologize for your treatment, which does not seem to me to have been just, but my apology — and I have permission to add to it that of Captain La- lande, who regrets he should have unwittingly aided in procuring you such treatment — is merely the ex- pression of private opinion. There may be reasons of state in your case, of which we have no knowl- edge, but which doubtless are known to Monsieur de Vaudreuil. One thing, however, I can do. If you will at once write a letter to your friends, I will do my best that your friends shall receive it. It is for that reason I sent for you. I need scarcely say the letter should not give any military news. Let it be merely private; and seal it — I can un- 111' i lit' xfiiod af Ihi' door (iiid smokrd. ic/iilr I irroti- /loinr, I'-. "i m - i 'i ik THE PRISON. 215 derstand you would not like every one to read it — and let it be ready for me in an hour. Stay ! Write it here. It will be in order. This is a mili- tary station and not a civil one. Here you are in our charge, and we are responsible for your safe keeping. At yonder table you will find paper, ink, wax. Remember! On your honor, no news that may be serviceable to our enemy. Keep clear of that, and Monsieur de Montcalm will pass your letter, I will answer for it. We soldiers may not be statesmen, but we can be gentlemen." And De Bougainville rose with the least possible rattle of his elaborate accoutrements; and stood at the door and lighted his pipe, and smoked while I wrote home. When the letter — a short one — was ready, the dragoon took it. " Monsieur," said I, with some feeling, " I thank you sincerely. I can say no more." "That is enough," said De Bougainville, with a bow. " The letter shall go." Two months afterwards I received a letter in reply from my father, enclosing one from Maiy. I T^ 11 ! 216 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. need scarcely say I had a high opinion of Monsieur de Bougainville, as I have still. That opinion was not diminished when on the following Sunday I was suddenly removed under guard to my old quarters in the prison. I there learned for the first time of the conflict that was in existence between the civil and military authorities. To be a friend of Montcalm was to be an enemy of the governor- general, a state of things that could only be satis- factory to those with whom France was on ill terris. The mystery of my detention was, it appears to me now, a very open one ; and often I cannot help agreeing with the French concerning it. I ^ ctS supposed to have an intimate knowledge of all things concerning Louisbourg, and would therefore be a guide worth having to any expedi- tion my country might undertake against it. And as rumors of such expeditions were frequent, it is not to be wondered at that the official mind took no heed of private opinions, even though " officiously " urged by a few soldiers and sailors. But there I was, doomed to stay in Quebec until the end of the war ; and, indeed, I was frankly told 1^- THE PRISON. 217 that such would be my fate. Eemembering the advice of good Captain Lalande, I did not show anger; but I began to look about for means of escape, and lost no opportunity of learning any- thing that might enable me to get away. In the prison I was again accosted by the man who had pointed out Le Loutre to me. It was on an after- noon after a day or two of wet that we spoke, the weather, as usual, leading on to the conversation. "Your name is Ardyne," said the man. "Are you of kin co Andrew Ardyne of Glasgow ? " "Andrew Ardyne is dead. I am his nephew, Felix." " My name is Kervan, John Kervan. It may be you have heard of me, may be you have not ? " "Heard of you?" said I, my heart jumping at the news. "Heard of you? I have been seeking you for years. Your daughter Mary is to be my wife — that is, if you have no objection." "Well," said Kervan, smiling, "that look of yours is quite enough warranty. I shall not stand in the way." "Sir—" r, !. J, .•ii ■ [«■ fH' ; II: 218 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. "Never mind that," continued Kervan; "your news means much. It tells mo my daughter is alive and probably well. Tell mo how you came to meet her." " My uncle Andrew left my father his property, including the land at Chebucto, and that brought us this side of the Atlantic." " Did his brother make no exception in his will ? Did your father succeed to all his possessions ? " " To all." " Then," said Kervan, " I am your father's debtor in the sum of £5000." " You 1 " said I. " Did you have that money ? " "What money?" asked Kervan. "See here, tell me how you came to find Mary, and I will then see how much you know about our business." And then I told him our story, including the Cormorant's hint as to our seeking for him in Quebec. " And so," said Kervan, " you know Pujook ? A good Indian is Pujook ! " " How did he come to take an interest in your affairs'?" asked I. THE PRISON. 219 " Now it is my turn. I will tell you. My daugh- ter was born in 1737, while I was living at Boston, and things in general were prospering with me. But I never cared to get fixed in one place, like an oyster on its bed, and hearing good accounts of Nova Scotia, I made several fishing cruises along the coast, and once or twice put into the harbor of Chebucto. "It then struck me as being a place likely to become of consequence in the world, and when a few years afterwards I mentioned the matter to my old friend Andrew Ardyne, he agreed to lend me £5000 to add to my £1000 to purchase land in the district, and form a settlement. I was to pay him five per cent, for the money until I could pay him more. Andrew had had a stroke of luck at that time from a speculation, and was glad of the idea of speculating on a safe basis with the money that had come to him unexpectedly." " What date was that 1 " asked I. " That was in the early part of 1743. Leaving my wife at Boston I went off to Chebucto, and suc- ceeded in obtaining an Indian title to two good- ( !'£ hi 220 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. sized estates with well-marked boundaries, one for myself and one for your uncle. I paid very little for them, as you may suppose, but no matter how little I paid, I had the right to them, and I sent your uncle particulars of his estate, knowing it would please him to find that he had landed security for his money. "Well, my wife died, as I dare say you have heard, and I took my little daughter to Chebucto, and with a few others built huts and began in the usual way. The Indians were friendly ; there was no difficulty with them ; and one day in the fall of the year, leaving Mary in charge of an old woman, I went off for a few sundries I required to Annapo- lis Royal. "On my way back with a companion, a descending a hillside, we saw in the wr al- ley below us a party of Indians on tx.. march. They were returning with prisoners, the prison- ers being some shipwrecked sailors they had capt- ured, four or five soldiers, and two Indian boys who had been cut off from a tribe friendly to the English." IHE PRISON. 221 " Souriquois ? " asked I. " Yes — that is to say, the successful party were . mostly Souriquois. But wait. Among these ludians, and evidently in command of them, was a priest — none other than the vicar-general of Acadia, the no- torious Le Loutre. The prisoners were being roughly used. Most of them were naked but for a few rags, and were being driven as if they were cattle. In charge of the rear guard was a big Indian with a bunch of green scalps dangling at his back, the said scalps having been taken from such of the prisoners as had been unable to keep pace with the party, either from injuries or want of nourish- ment." " They were killed to prevent them from being rescued 1 " "Yes. When we saw this party pass we lay close, and were unobserved by them. And when they reached a clearing a few hundred yards away they stopped, and tying the prisoners to trees to secure them, they lighted a fire, and then all knelt down while the abbe seemed to pray and give thanks for some success. While they were engaged ■ II til K'li • U \ ■ I ^1 ; ; I • I 222 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. in their devotions we remained quiet, being safe from observation so long as we did not move. After prayers they began their pranks, the priest encouraging them. One of the prisoners was re- leased and made to dance naked around the fire; another was released, but refused, and there was a short struggle, ending in the man being stabbed and scalped. The sight of the blood seemed to infuriate the savages; or perhaps the prisoners taunted them. At any rate, they set to work to murder their captives. One of the Indian boys had his head cleft by a thrown tomahawk ; the other was torn away from the tree, and was being stabbed and thrown on the fire ; and the priest himself, with knife in hand, having worked himself up into a frenzy, had seized one of the soldiers by the hair while an Indian held him down, and gashing him with the kaif e, was about to tear the scalp off — " " Is that true ? " " Yes, it is. About to tear the scalp off, I say, when suddenly there was a rush and a short bark- ing yell, and into the camp leaped a score of Mic- macs, who laid about them to such good purpose THE TBISON. that Lo Loutre and those of his men who could get away took refuge in flight." " And who were these new-comers ? " "They were a party of the unconverted under the leadership of White Crow, whose son it was that had been killed by the tomahawk. The man who had stabbed the other boy and thrown him on the fire ran past where we were concealed, and I shot him and brought him down, and my companion also fired at a fugitive, as under the circumstances it was the safest thing to do. The man I shot was being chased by one of the rescuing party, who sprung upon him and killed him before my eyes. He was a sham Indian, a Frenchman painted to look like one. The man who killed him was the father of the boy, and had taken life for life. It was your friend Pujook." "The Cormorant?" " Yes, it was his son that had been thrown on the fire." "And the other boy I" "Was the son of White Crow and Eyes-that- weep. The two boys had been a few yards from h lii i'; t' i r 1 1 '■I ! i 1 i ! t 1 ';i!i 224 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. the encampment playing together when the scouts of Le Loutre had kidnapped them." " To convert them ? " " Yes — into meat." " How horrible ! " " It was horrible, much more so than I have hinted. It was awful ; and I can even now remem- ber the horror with which the scene affected me. Well, that is how I came to know Pujook and his relatives, and after a most mournful scene I accom- panied them to their camp at Chebucto, and wit- nessed the burial ceremonies, which were interrupted by a desperate attack on us by the indefatigable Le Loutre, whom we drove off with loss. In that fight the most prominent part was taken by the soldier who had saved his scalp so narrowly, a certain Private Huggins, who, as soon as he saw the priest, swore he would have his life, and nearly succeeded in doing so. While we were in the thick of the battle an attack was made on my hut at the har- bor, and Mary would have been carried off had not Eyes-that-weep, forgetful of all the proprieties in her character of mourning mother, made a dash at THE PRISON. 225 the disguised Frenchman who was dragging my little girl along, and gripped him by the throat till White Crow cut him down." " Yes, Mary has told me about it." " Le Loutre did not trouble us again. His head- quarters were, as you know, at Chignecto, up Minas Basin way. It was Duvivier who attacked us and made us prisoners. The Micmacs had wandered off across the Gut by that time ; and White Crow had died, and Eyes-that-weep was a widow." "Why were you not released at the peace?" asked I. " And why did you not send word where vou were ? " "I was not released like the others, because I was thought to be worth keeping, I suppose. The exchanges are managed most loosely and unfairly. And as to communicating with my friends, I have written letter after letter, but all have been de- stroyed by the Governor — at least I am told so." "How did Pujook come to know you were of interest to us ? " "His tribe were at Chebucto for a couple of months, and during that time he took much notice 15 ! 226 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. of Mary, and doubtless heard our talk concerning your uncle and his affairs." "And what — " But before I could finish the sentence the order to retire was given, and we prisoners were marched in silence out of the yard. (' ' m i CHAPTEE XV. THE ESCAPE. I FTER this story, I cannot say I was sorry to find that the hateful old abbe had fallen into British hands, the ship in which he sailed for France having been captured in the English Channel. And years afterwards I could not help laughing at the terror in which he was put when he was a prisoner at Fort Elizabeth, in Jersey, by the same Private Huggins to whom he had acted so outrageously. It was very wrong of the soldier, I admit, but I think the poor fellow behaved much as I should have had an inclination to do, though I should prob- ably have mastered the temptation. On being sta- tioned at Fori Elizabeth, the said Huggins was the same day put on sentry duty over a prisoner of importance, and charged to keep good watch on, him, as attempts at escape had been discovered. I .lT^*i >f\ w ri; r ^,■,f |';.« \k 228 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. When the prisoner came out of his apartment, Hug- gins recognized him as the Le Loutre who had cut the gash round his head, of which he still bore the scar. Forgetting his duty, Huggins was so transported with rage as to shout : " You brute ! I have caught you at last ! I swore I would pin you when we met, and I will ! " And at once he levelled his bayo- net and made a run for him. Le Loutre fled for his life, round and round the yard, with Huggins in hot pursuit endeavoring to stab him. The abbe screamed with fright, as he skipped and jumped and dodged the thrusts that the infuriated soldier made. Scream on scream, yell on yell, rang through the fort, and the officer of the guard arriving on the scene, the abbe flung himself behind him, seized him by the waist, and clung to him for protection. " 'Tion ! " roared the lieutenant, and such was the instinct of obedience that Huggins instantly grounded arms and assumed the well-known posi- tion. " What is all this ? ^ asked the lieutenant. I THE ESCAPE. 229 " That is the man that tried to scalp me, sir," said Private Huggins, "and I swore to have his life when I met him, and I am going to keep my word. Stand aside, sir, please, and let me take a drive at him." " Oh ho ! " said the lieutenant, seeing he had to do with a maniac for the time being. " Of course you shall have him all to yourself when the captain comes. Right, half turn, march ! " And Huggins marched to the guard-room, where he was disarmed. And after inquiring, the colonel, finding he was really resolved to take Le Loutre^s life, shipped him off to the barracks in England out of temptation. There can be no doubt that had not the lieuten- ant appeared upon the scene so opportunely, the angry man would have spitted the Frenchman like a frog. The abbess punishment must, however, have been bitter enough. Wlien he came out of prison in 1763 it was to find that the only result of his detestable practices had been to deprive his countrymen of America. To him, more than any man, was due the colo- I I ll IT ^ ■'-^ iS' i 1 Iks ^ m 1^ ■;■ " 1 ; 1 i * i: •: f y : . 230 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. nial hatred of the French which gave Canada to Great Britain. He was the incarnation of every- thing abominable in the character of his nation. What a guK there is between a Le Loutre and a Bougainville or a Lalande ! The impression made on me by Mr. Kervan's story was the greater from my not seeing him alive again. The next day I was sent for to a dying man, and owing to the delay in doing the errand, I found a dead one. He had been taken with a fit, and on recovery for a few moments had begged the attendants to fetch me. When I arrived I was too late. " Did he say anything ? " I asked. "Yes, monsieur; he said, 'Tell Mr. Ardyne to have a notary to certify my death.' ^ " And anything else 1 " " Not of sense, but mere delirium of Louisbourg and General Pepperrel." And I went away sad at heart, and angry with myself for not having asked him sooner about my uncle Andrew's money. A natural regret, though its expression here is THE ESCAPE. 231 not as happy as might have been wished. But I cannot even now help thinking about those worry- ing money matters. The hint as to the notary I of course attended to, and I became possessed of a certificate which set at rest any difficulties Mary might have in succeeding to her father's property — if only the whole of it could have been found ! The whereabouts of the missing money occupied a large share of my thoughts. One thing was clear, Andrew Ardyne had not squandered the trust money, or appropriated it to his own use. The stain on the family honor was removed. For that my father would be thankful, and even Adamson, with whom correspondence occasionally passed, would not be sorry. But much pondering is wearisome ; and I found it so. I sighed for a life of action. To be cooped up in a prison was misery to me. But to wait till the war was over! And even then, like Kervan perhaps, be kept in captivity by some disgraceful shuffle, because I possessed such awkward local knowledge ! Meanwhile I had not been forgotten, and, as I ! ■ ■ F ff ■" 232 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ! . 1 1 . t ^ . f , 1 1 . i 4 1 1 ■■;-i >' '--'^^f^.jtH.'ti'WSiS learned afterwards, I had become quite a celebrated personage with the select official circle at Quebec and Montreal. It wt s Vaudreuil's department that insisted on keeping me, and Montcalm's that pro- tested I should be exchanged in due turn. And at last, to be rid of the difficulty and give Montcalm a snub, Vaudreuil resolved to send to France this prisoner who had become so important. One evening I was without any warning marched down to the wharf and put on board ship. To all my questions no answer was returned. I was locked in one of the cabins. Where the men were taking me to I could not discover ; but I soon knew we were under way. Next morning the cap- tain gave orders for me to be brought on deck, and told me he was taking me to France. I protested at this treatment, and he said, what was true enough, that he could only obey his orders, and that it were best for me to go quietly, as if not I might find the voyage an unpleasant one. As he was not by any means a bad fellow, and indeed, I rather liked him, I assured him I would not cause him uneasiness, though I warned him I I I THE ESCArE. 233 hold myself free to escape when opportunity offered. Ho thanked me for my frankness, and said he would take the risk. And so I was embarked on the then long voyage to Europe, with the pleasant anticipation of spend- ing the rest of my days in a French prison ! I thought over many plans of escape suited for many of the positions in which I was likely to bo placed, but, like many generals, my paper plans of campaign were never tried. At the same time it may be doubted if this were an unprofitable exercise. It at least helped me to keep my head clear. At daybreak one morning I heard the men on deck shouting that there was a sail in sight; and there followed much trampling and ordering, from which I gathered that the sail was probably an English frigate or privateer. As I was dressing in my cabin, I could see through the lathwork into the captain's cabin, which had the door open. From one of the lockers I saw him take out a canvas bag, and from the bag he took a packet of letters which I knew to be despatches, one of them probably re- ferring to me. From another drawer he took a i ^ I IF 234 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. PI :i r m \i smaller canvas bag, which contained musket bullets, as I saw by his taking a few out to assure himself he was right. He tied the bag of bullets on to the despatches, and threw it into the larger canvas bag, and then, making the neck fast, had all pre^Dared for throwing overboard should the strange sail come dangerously near us. A 3hase followed, but the French vessel, being a faster ship than the British one, as is usually the case, succeeded in making good her escape. The only result of the adventure was to drive the French- man more to the southward than he had intended. As Europe was approached there were frequent alarms of this sort, and eventually the French- man put into Vigo for provisions. As we ran in under false colors I noticed a British man-of-war at anchor, and at once a plan of escape suggested itself to me. That night, when the captain was ashore, I prepared myself for a long swim. In the middle watch I arose noiselessly, and making my way to the capt?:n's cabin I opened the locker, took out the canvas bag, opened it, freed the despatches from the bag of bullets, and added THE ESCAPE. 235 tliem to the private papers I had strapped round my waist. With nothing on but my drawers, a flannel vest, and this belt with the papers, I stole out on to the deck and slipped overboard unob- served in the darkness. That I might make no noise by swimming, I floated on my back into the wake of the English ship, where a few strokes en- abled me to reach the hawser. I then shouted, and was heard by the sergeant of the line regiment acting as marines, who gave the alarm, and I was taken on board. The sergeant's voice seemed famil- iar to me, and when I reached the deck I found ho was my good old friend Sergeant O'Brien. "What do you want at this time of night T' asked he. " Wliy, it is Sergeant O'Brien ! " said I. "Sure, it is that same!" said the sergeant. " And who are you 1 " " I am Felix Ardyne you used to know, and I have escaped from the French." " Felix Ardyne in that rig ! Faith, I'm glad to welcome you. Come and have some clothes on, my boy." 1 236 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. And he took me to liis commanding officer, who was no other than Mr., now Captain, Tarling. Hero was a meeting! The introduction was character- istic. The sergeant went to his captain and woke him up with the intelligence : " Sir, here's a new Father Neptune come up to you out of the sea." " What do you say ? " asked Tarling sleepily. *^ Wake up, sir. Here's young Mr. Ardyne wants to speak with you on important business." " Young Mr. Ardyne ! What, Felix ? " " Yes, sir. I shouldn't have taken the liberty of waking you for that, but ho has nabi3ed a bundle of the enemy's despatches, and I thought the sooner the captain knew it the better." " All right, I'll be there in a minute." And in about a cpiarter of an hour I had handed the despatches to the captain of the battle-ship, who received ine, and them, in liis night-shirt. " Very good, Mr. Ardyne," said the hero in the night-shirt. ''Very good, sir; you are a Briton, sir, and a good one. We'll read these despatches while you are having a rest and some refreshment. } il "aS'/t, hi'ir's a ncir Fttthi-r yi'/)tiine rome up to i/oit oiif of t/ie .sra." Uh ■ i ki J ! , f l.. THE ESCAPE. 237 Captain Tarling will see after you, I dare say. My servant will give you a rig out. I have got a few clothes to spare, though I have not much on now." And next morning, attired in an old suit of the captain's, I made a presentable appearance. The coat was of scarlet cloth trimmed with black velvet. " And it doesn't fit you badly," said the lender ; " there is plenty of room in the waist, but Saunders can take a reef in it." " Thank you, sir," said I. " I will return it as soon as I can. It would be a pity to spoil the coat for my sake." "Eeturn it?" said the captain. "Not at all! We will have it made to fit you. I am only sorry I can't do better for you. I am going to send you home on particular service. I am having your despatches copied, and you will take the originals to London, where you will be rewarded for your pluck and good sense. If I were to send them in any other way, some other man would get the credit." And that afternoon I went off bound to Fal- mouth and Whitehall to deliver my despatches to the Secretary of the Admiralty. i ' I I 238 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. i: K My arrival caused no little stir in the office, the news I brought being of great importance just then, when the fleet under Boscawen was only waiting for a fair wind to start for America. I was inter- rogated by the First Lord, and some of the ministers were sent for. I was told to be seated in an adjoin- ing room while the matter was considered. As I sat there a busy man with a high aquiline face hurried past me; and not long afterwards I was again ushered into the large room, and found the aquiline man seated at the head of the table. " Your despatches are of importance to us, young sir," said the aquiline man; "but from what you say it would appear that the French considered you also to be of importance to us. We agree with them. An expedition under Mr. Boscawen is on the point of sailing for Louisbourg. To Mr, Bos- cawen you would be of much service, and to your country you would also be of service. Will you go?" " There is nothing I should like so well, sir." " Good ! " " Mr. Pitt ? " said one of the ministers. THE ESCAPE. 239 til t ■ " Sir?" said the aquiline man. The gentleman leaned across the corner of the table and whispered. "Just so," said Mr. Pitt. "I was coming to that." " Mr. Ardyne, you will draw five hundred pounds, not as a reward for your services, which are invalu- able, but as a slight compensation for the annoy- ances to which you have been subjected, and as something in hand for outfit. But your outfit you must get on board ship. You will go within the hour to Portsmouth to Mr. Boscawen. A messenger will accompany you to avoid any risk of delay." And Mr. Pitt rose from his chair and, advancing to me, shook hands with me. "Good-bye, Mr. Ardyne," he said. "You are just the sort of man we want, and you will find Mr. Boscawen will be of the same opinion. Good-bye, sir, and good luck to you ! " in ^ p li = V \ i': ,' \ CHAPTER XVI. ill 1 1 I ; ' i THE LANDING. ARRIVED at Portsmouth on the 12th of February, 1758. The Namur was at Spit- head with the fleet, and I at once went out to her. I was accompanied by the Admiralty messenger, whose orders had been to lose not a minute on the journey ; and even on the water his I^resence caused the men to row us at racing speed. There was only one boat that tried to keep pace with us, and that shot out from Southsea, and raced with us side by side until it bore off for the Prin- cess AmcUa. In this boat was a sandy-haired mili- tary officer in a high-collared, cumbrous great-coat. " Do you know who that officer is 1 " asked the messenger. " No," said I, looking hard at the cloak and hat and their gaunt, sandy possessor, who seemed to be anything but comfortable in the choppy sea. I i Itl THE LANDING. 241 "That is Brigadier Wolfe, in command of the troops during the voyage ; when they arrive Gen- eral Amherst is to be commander-in-chief, and Wolfe will be one of three brigadiers. He is to be your great man — that is, on land." " He does not look as though he would do much at sea,'' said I. "The voyage will close on kill him, you will find. At sea the Admiral will have to do without him." I found the celebrated Admiral Boscawen to be a thin gentleman, looking little like a sailor, with a pleasant, painstaking, thoughtful face, and small gray eyes that peered straight at me. His right eye seemed higher than his left, but that may be from his holding his head on one side on account of the wound he got in Anson's victory. His quiet, determined look gave me a very different idea of Old Dreadnaught than I had amused myself with. I had expected a loud, bluff, swaggering sea-cap- tain; and I found a placid, clear-headed, imper- turbable gentleman, who would lose no chance of success and forget nothing that would risk failure. 16 I r 242 englishman's haven. U^i ' I He read my introduction from Mr. Secretary Pitt, and then looked me up and down ; then he read the letter from the secretary of the Admiralty, and gave me another scrutinizing look. He then asked me to follow him to his cabin, where he sat me down, and asked me to read through the copy of my despatches to him, which I did. It was a low, panelled cabin, with no more fur- niture in it than was necessary, and no pictures or ornamental articles on the panels, for the Admiral was an orderly, practical man, and had nothing but what could be cleared away instantly at the beat to quarters. Seated on a locker — for only one chair was allowed — sat I in my scarlet coat, ample in the waist, and black velvet trimmings, reading to the alert, gray-haired, gray-eyed young Admiral, then in his forty-eighth year. He was in his blue uni- form, with white facings and a white waistcoat, and sat in the one chair in the shadow, while I was in the full blaze of the sunlight that streamed in through the window. "Thank you," said he, when the reading was over. " I will now read them myself. It is a plan ! I THE LANDING. 243 of mine to be read to and to read, so as to get two views of a case. As for yourself, yonng sir, I think you had better start as acting-master. That will put you in the best position to begin with. You are to have the command of a sloop if I find you to be fit for the post ; but in the first place you would be of more use under my own eyes, and in the next I have not a vessel for you just now. You will find a good friend in the master of the Namur, who will take a pride in smartening you up and giving you a thorough knowledge of discipline and man-of-war management. We shall soon see what you are made of. Follow me." And Boscawen led the way to the office, where he gave the needful instructions, and I was soon under the wing of that very smart but boisterous officer, the master of the Namiir. Owine: to a continuance of westerlv winds the fleet lay weather-bound, but on the 19th of Feb- ruary a change occun*ed, and early that morning the signal to weigh was given ; and in the first half hour a disaster occurred, the Invincible^ the best seventy-four of her day, missing stays and ground- {■■■ * ; ■ : ! ' ' . ' ] ? : ;; i t yn'il i i Kit ;:(■ 244 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ing on the Dean Sand a little eastward of St. Helens. Out in the Channel the weather soon grew stormy ; and much to his disgust Boscawen had to put into Plymouth. When at last we were clear of the Channel it took us over two months to reach Halifax. My father was astonished to see me, as well he might be. When the fleet anchored in Halifax harbor the very last thing that Captain Ardyne could have expected was to find his long-lost son in naval uniform on board the flagship, for the fleet had come faster than the packet and I brought my own news. "What I should like to know," said Bezek Angel, " is what is to be the end of all this. Is it to be a timber toe and a green shade ? " " Oh, Mr. Angel ! " said Mary ; " what a horrid creature you are to say that. I thought he was looking so well, and I was so glad to have him once again among us, and now — " "Now what?" said Angel. "You had given him up as dead, and yet you are not content with THE LANDING. 245 him because he may get slightly damaged in one of the most glorious occupations under the sun." " What is that ? " asked Captain Ardyne. "Hammering down Louisbourg, I mean; and justifying old Pujook." " Come, Mary, don't be foolish," said Captain Ardyne. But somehow Mary could not help being foolish on that point, and when I gave her the notary's certificate, she went away to have a good cry all to herself. " She'll be all right in an hour or two," said Angel, who appeared to have had experience in such matters. " How long have you to stay ? " " Until the fleet are all mustered and the General here." " And what are you going to do, pray ? " asked my father. "Oh! I have charge of the Louisbourg pilot- age and charts ; and I suppose I shall have to take soundings." " Take soundings ! " exclaimed Angel ; " I thought you were going to take Grand Batteries ! " " Not this time, I believe." I v.' I I }''}^ I ' lMiL.^B 1 '■ J 246 englishman's haven. " Take care of number one, eh ? " "Who do you think is aboard the Princess Amelia with Brigadier Wolfe ? " " Haven't a notion." " Why, Commodore Durell, who took the Notre Bame when you began that profitable battle by banging away with your gun." " Ah ! " said Angel. " Poor old Loo ! God bless her ! I wonder what has become of her. Sit you down, lad, and tell us the story of her trouble with your own lips." And I told the story of her capture, and also that of my imprisonment, and this I was able to do at greater length from time to time, as I passed many a pleasant hour ashore during the days the fleet lay in the harbor. On the 28th of May the Admiral, being tired of waiting for the General, gave the word for departure, and out we went, making a fine show of a hundred and fifty-seven sail, counting many ships and trans- ports. As we were losing sight of Chebuct:) Head there was a cry of " Sail ho ! " and in about an hour we met the Dublin with General Amherst on board. If THE LANDING. 247 She was seventy-three days out from England. Her captain, Rodney, came aboard the Namur. He was the same who as admiral won the great victory off Dominica over the Count de Grasse — a daring, handsome officer, for whom every one had a good word ; a man cast in a more fiery mould than om* Boscawen, but, like him, a true leader of men. " A fine, manly officer is Captain Rodney," said the master of the Nmmir, " and a good seaman ; but I am not sure if our Old Dreadnaught has not as much fire in the locker when he wants it. You should have seen Boscawen when he was in the SJioreham at Carthagena. You would never have recognized the quiet old lamb ho now looks in the flaring lion who tore up the hill at the head of the seamen and took the Spanish battery sword in hand, and first man in. And then when he came to the Dreadnaught in 1742, my eyes ! what a time he gave us ! The instant war was declared in 1743, off we went. Soon there was * Sail ho ! ' After the sail we went, with the sticks bending like whips; and before night we had scored first capture of the war, and made prize of the Medee with Mounseer 248 englishman's haven. M? ■ Hocquart. Poor Mr. Hocquart! When in the Namur off Finisterre in Anson's victory, Old Dread- naught took him again ! Caught the same captain twice ! And what's more, when he picked up the Al- cide and Lijs, the first captures of this war, blessed if our Old Man didn't take Mounseer Hocquart a third time! Fact! Caught the same man three times ! Look how he looked after his crews, too ! No phyijic wanted where he is, only cutting and carving. See what a nose he has to spot a stench anywhere. Talk of your cell like a cheese, you didn't get anything like that aboard a ship where Captain Boscawen was. Ho would soon know the reason why, I can tell you. See how sweet his old ship is ! Did you ever see a healthier lot of men than ours ? Why ? Because they are looked after, and made to live in decency and cleanliness, and get good food. You don't starve Boscawen's men; not you; he's a man who treats his crew like men, and that's why tlio men worship him." "And you think he'll take Louisbourg?" said I. " Take it ? Ha ! That's good ! Why, he'll pulp it and make the French eat the jelly." III'! THE LANDING. 249 But the " pulping " was to take time. When the fleet appeared in the fog in Gabarus Bay the sea was so rough that no boat could live in it ; and for six days, while the boisterous, foggy weather lasted, the French — four times as numerous as in Ducham- bon's day — kept up a heavy fire on the ships from certain new batteries they had placed along the coast, and worked ceaselessly at their open and secret obstacles and fortifications. From Black Point to "White Point ranged a line of interchained barges; all along the cliffs were breastworks and entrenchments and supporting batteries, some of them boldly displayed, and others, for use during the landing, masked with young spruce trees and newly planted shrubs. Wherever the rocks were scalable artificial thickets were laid of felled trees having their tops towards the shore and thick as a green field. There were four batteries of heavy cannon and large swivels at Freshwater Cove, four miles to the west of the city, and along the shore were five more batteries at Flat Point, three more at White Point; then came the Black Point de- fences, and then the bastioned city with the Island '1 if ' 250 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. Battery guarding the harbor mouth as before. For nearly a week the long rolling surf made landing impossible, and the Frenchman shot at the ships all day and improved his traps and entanglements all night. On the 7th of June the swell began to abate, and at nine o'clock in the evening Commodore Du- rell came to the flagship and remained some hours. At eleven I was sent for, and ordered to accompany him in a boat exploration of the coast. As he had surveyed the harbor and approaches in 1745, and I had been backward and forward over the ground I know not how many times, we were not likely to come to trouble. In the boat I reminded him of his capture of the Notre Dame cle la Dellvrance, and learning who I was he became companionable, so that our night's trip was a pleasant one. On our return to the ship we reported that the boats could approach the shore with safety, and orders were at once issued for the troops to embark. There was quite a transformation on the trans- ports, for the uniforms, which had been worn inside- out by the soldiers on the voyage, were now turned THE LANDING. 251 d the proper way, so that the white troops became scarlet and green. At daybreak six of the frigates and a fifty-gun ship passed through the fleet and anchored off each of the promontories which had been chosen as the points of real and feigned attack. Off White Point on our right were the Sutherland and Squirrel; off Flat Point in front of us were the Graniont, Shan- non, and Diana; and in Freshwater Cove were the Kennington and Halifax. The guns from the shore Oldened on them as they sailed up. but they made no reply until they were anchored. Then from the fifty-gun ship Sutherland, Captain Rous — the same who in the Shirley Galley had captured the Viyilant in the first siege — fired the first &hot, and soon the seven vessels were hid in powder-smoke, with only their upper spars showing. While they were at work the boats in three groups moved towards the shore from the transports and line-of-l)attle ships. The sea tliough not "rougli" to a sailor would be so called by a landsman, and grew rougher as the flotilla reached the craggy coast. Each of the three divisions vvas under a brigadier. The group i i 1 ' ! ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. 'I' u;; nearest the city, steering towards the Sutherland and Squirrel, was commanded by General Whitmore ; the centre one, making for the three frigates, was commanded by General Lawrence ; the western one, making towards the Halifax and Kennington, was led by General Wolfe. His was the real attack, the others, notwithstand- ing the elaborate preparations, were but feints, their object being to distract the enemy's attention, and reinforce Wolfe when his forlorn hope had made good their landing. Wolfe's boats were in two squadrons : to the left were the grenadiers in red, with the green-coated rangers behind them ; to the right were the gi'cen- coated light infantry, with the pi aided highlanders behind them. In the middle of the front line of boats was the red flag which denoted the presence of the General ; which flag the officers were directed to watch as a guide to their movements. It was a long pull from the ships. The early morning was chill and misty, and the smoke from the frigates and the shore batteries rolled lazily off in heavy clouds. The sound of the firing echoed %■ THE LANDING. 253 over the waves ; and it was not without a feeling of shame that we saw our powerful line-of-battle ships idle while the frigates had so much to do. We watched the boats with anxiety. All the fighting was to be done by the soldiers, the seamen being on this occasion mere rowing machines ; and the soldiers had been forbidden to fix bayonets or shoot in the boats. As they approached the land wo knew they would be under fire without power of replying. The long line on the heaving surge looked like a great sea-serpent gliding towards the doomed city. As the flotilla passed the frigates our guns ceased; and the enemy also ceased firing, waiting until our men were well within range of all their arms, when they hoped to crush them by weight and fury. As the smoke fled and the boats neared the shore we looked at Lawrence's blue flag nnd Whit- more's white one, and wondered when they were going to stop and let the red flag get away. At last we could see the Wolfe division slowly leaving the others. The sea had increased in choppiness, and the boats were pitching far more than we rel- ' I » I I 1 II ! I I 254 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. II i I : i ■^: I ished. It looked bad; but it was really the best thing that could happen. Suddenly the enemy's fire burst out in a line of flashes along the cliffs. Instantly shrubberies became batteries, trees be- came trenches, and all along the ridge the mask fell and the miles of fortification were revealed. On to the dancing boats poured a rain of hot- shot, cold-shot, canister, langrage, and musketry to which no reply could be given. The red flag was shot away, and replaced. Now on the crest of the wave, now in the hollow, went the boats. The sailors pulled along steadily through it all, the motion of the boats in the sea-way making aim at them impossible, though many were hit, and it looked as though the red flag would never pass that strip of shot-torn surf. As they neared the rocks, too, the boats began to crowd and jolt against each other and upset ; and many were stove in. In vain did^Yolfe look about for a landing-place, until one of the light-infantry boats noticed to the east a somewhat sheltered point id led the way to it. Down on the men played tL guns, as close as II THE LANDING. 255 the top of a Louse is to the curb. As they jumped ashore many of the men were swept back off the slippery rocks by the lashing of the troubled surf. Some were drowned; but the rest scrambled up into a flanking fire from the cove guns ; and though several were shot they held their ground until rein- forced. The boat with the red flag was one of the first to follow, and Wolfe jumped up to his waist into the sea, and walked ashore under the angry fire from the batteries and trenches not sixty feet away. With his walking-stick in hand — for he used no weapons — he scrambled through the spray on to a rock that now bears his name, and up the cliff for twenty feet or more ; and, forming the highlanders, he led a bayonet charge at the first battery. That was taken. Then he went at the second battery. That was taken. Then he went at the third battery. That was taken. And so the day prospered. Post after post was won. Boat after boat landed its men, who crowded it i 1 256 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. lip to increase tlio number of captures. Wolfe's division was all ashore. Lawrence's followed. Am- herst, with the reserve, followed from the fleet. Wolfe rolled up Drucour almost as quickly as Pepperrell had rolled up Duchambon. And within six hours of the start at daybreak the French were driven within the city, and their four miles of thickets, trenches, and batteries, with all their cannon auci swivels and mortars and stores, were in the hands of the invaders. ti, ;t: l! f f-i CHAPTER XVII. THE SECOND SIEGE. [E " English savages," as Drueour called the highlanders and light infantry and rangers, kept the pursuit up at a run ; and the pine woods and marshes were alive for a time with the white-coated French infantry and the brown skins and waving feathers of their Micmac auxiliaries, who?=^ chief, a stout fellow, with uncom- monly large limbs and features, having a medal and crucifix of silver both hanging by a chain from his neck, lay dead near the landing-place. The pursuit only stopped when a fierce cannon- ade from the fortress obligingly pointed out, as General Amherst said, how near we might encamp to invest it — which he immediately set to wor^i to do — riding about in his bright scarlet coat, with the white ruffles fluttering in the sunshine, looking as trim and smart as if he had landed in a band-box. 17 I ill! W 258 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. % A man with a pardonatly good opinion of him- self was Jeffrey Amherst, afterwards conqueror of Canada. One look at his well-set-up, soldierly figure, and brisk, snappish face was enough to give you that impression. That small head, with the bold brows, keen dark-gray eyes, and lips with the pouts at the side, meant considerable self-esteem and much drill. A very different general was Am- herst to Pepperrell ; and a very different plan was he to go on. This was to bo a highly scientific siege — as nearly as possible ; and here was our old friend Colonel Bastide with his art of zigzag, which had been so rudely brushed aside by Vaughan. The colonel now was to have a free hand, and he was going to take Louisbourg on the latest improved principles, and had even brought a box of books of the most recent date in order that he should not be an hour behind the age. " Jam Wolfe " — we used to laugh at his signature on board the ships, and have many small jokes con- cerning this Jam — was evidently to be the hero of the enterprise. He was the youngest of the briga- diers, and had the most dangerous work to do ; and # THE SECOND SIEGE. 259 ho did it so well that it was hopoloss to attempt to ignore him. " The pattern of the officer, the darling of the soldier," as ho came to be called, h;id a figure that lent itself easily to caricature, and could be hit off to a nicety in dot and line. Ho was thhi and lanky and narrow-shouldered; so narrow that his coat-collar nearly touched the sleeves which end(Ml in gigantic cuffs that almost reached his elbows. Such a figure as this, in a red coat with ample skirts reaching to the knee, and with a large cockcul hat, from the back of which stuck out a tail of red hair, was just the sort of thing for our youngsters who thought they could draw. But, contrary to th(^ usual opinion, our great brigadier had rather a well- featured face, and only very distantly resembled the idiot that a dauber named Highmore has evolved from a pencil caricature sketched on tho field of Quebec. I once heard Boscawen say a word in favor of Wolfe which I never forgot. " That may be," said tho Admiral, " but all tho worthy have had a good word to say of Wolfe ever since he floundered about in tho Dettingen mud and did adjutant's duty when only a boy of sixteen ! " . ■mm IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1^ .<^, > / /A W ^\^ ^f.> c^- X , i:i '.V \y'i m m I ; vi ■ f t t > m r 3 1 260 englishman's haven. The part played by Colonel Vaughan in the first siege was in this to be played by Brigadier Wolfe. Like him he led the first expedition round the fort- ress to the northeast harbor; like him, strange to relate, he found the Grand Battery abandoned ; and like him he raised the batteries which eventually settled the island and opened the port. The taking of Louisbourg was a much toughei task than in the days of Duchambon. To say noth- ing of the new barracks and bomb-proof casemates, there were new works between the Maurepas and Princess bastions, a new bastioned curtain joining the Princess to the Queen's, and a new twenty-gun half -moon battery on the point ; added to which the French had known for months we were coming, and had laid in a year's provisions and much am- munition, and during the week we were on the coast they had every opportunity of preparation. Drucour had under his command over three thousand regulars besides militia and Indians. We of the fleet were chiefly interested in the vessels in the harbor. There were twelve ships of the navy there — two seventy-fours, three sixty-fours, a fifty- THE SECOND SIEGE. 261 ) gun ship, four frigates, and two corvettes. To keep these ships from getting out and to prevent others from getting in was Boscawen's business; to ap- proach the fortress by trench and battery and bom- bard it till it surrendered was Amherst's work; then tlie two were to combine, and from ship and shore, if necessary, carry the place by storm. On the 10th of June the trenches were opened, and a thousand men were toiling night and day, making a road and epaulement over a tract of deep mud covered with moss, under fire of the city and the ships at anchor. On the 13th the French frigate Echo ran the blockade in a fog, being bound to Quebec with a demand for help ; but the Admiral was after her like a shot, and she was soon brought back, a prize of the Sutherland and Juno. On the 19th Brigadier Wolfe opened fire from the new Lighthouse Battery. I went ashore. The great sight at the front was the Governor's wife, Madame Drucour, who appeared on the ramparts every day and fired three guns at us, and wiped off the dust with her lace handkerchief from any place t '4' f u i-e.1 \ In t [ i). il Ji '.!: 262 englishman's haven. we hit — in imitation, I suppose, of Black x\gnes of Dunbar. The cannonade was continuous, progressive, and tremendous. By the 25th Wolfe had knocked the Island Bat- tery to pieces, and the French, to block the en- trance, sank four of their men-of-war and chained their masts together at the water level. As soon as he had silenced the island Wolfe was off to join the main army, on the other side of the city, and super- intend the approaches to the West Gate, at which Pepperrell had made his chief attack. Every day saw the trenches advanced, new re- doubts or block-houses formed, new guns in posi- tion, and hundreds of new gabions and fascines turned out by the busy troops. The trenches be- gan at a hillock half a mile from the ramparts, and soon formed a network of zigzagery that rejoiced old Bastide's heart. " This is the way a fortress should be taken,^ he is reported to have said ; " none of your happy-go- lucky advances, but solid scientific work, with just as much fire and dash as in the forty-five. It is all [ii.*, THE SECOND SIEGE. 263 J very well to trust in Providence, but in our plans we may as well give Providence a chance." On the 1st of July the French sank two more ships and made a sally ; which sally was driven in by Wolfe, who took advantage of it to seize a hill in advance and build a redoubt oh it. And the sally had another result, for Drucour sent out a flag of truce, and politely informed Am- herst that in Louisbourg was a French surgeon of great skill, who would willingly attend any call from the General should his services be required. Where- upon Amherst, not to be outdone in politeness, sent in with the letters and messages trom the wounded French a basket of pineapples " for the heroic Madame Drucour.'' To which the heroine replied by graciously " begging General Amherst's accept- ance of a basket of good French wine." After which pleasant interchange of civilities down went the flags of truce, and roar went the guns, mortars, and " haubitsers " as Jam Wolfe called them ; and the combatants proceeded at their hardest to give full employment to the surgeon of skill, as well as to the burial parties. I 'I 'i ii .SJ :». :;i iri ; ri" : 264 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. The grunt of the pieces and the scream of the projectiles were incessant. Our siege train was heavy and numerous, and served not only by artil- lerymen, but by soldiers from the line regiments and by gunners from the fleet. Louisbourg was quite a mine of explosives. From the smoke that floated over it there was a never-ending roar, and the ramparts were edged with a collar of fire ; and from all the ships in the harbor there were constant broadsides. Our fleet had no practice, as we trusted at first entirely to the land batteries. What the noise would be like when Boscawen began I had really no idea. On the night of the 9th of July the French, many of them shamefully drunk, made a desperate sortie on a redan near the sea. They drove in Forbes's red grenadiers and killed Lord Dundonald, but Major Murray arriving with some highlanders drove the enemy out and chased them into the fortress. On the 13th a deserter arrived and — ^bad luck to him! — pointed out the position of the magazine. The next night Bastide began his first parallel. The same night the frigate Arethuse, commanded I'' THE SECOND SIEGE. 265 \ by the brave Vauquelin, was towed through the ob- struction at the harbor mouth and escaped in the fog. Amherst was dehghted that she had gone, for it meant so many guns less to annoy us ; but Bosca- wen was very angry and issued such orders that any further attempts at escape proved impossible. The ArethusCy however, came to a bad end after all, having been captured after she reached France by the Thames and Venus, The siege progi'essed busily. When off duty the men enjoyed themselves reasonably, but to nothing like the extent that Pepperrell's crusaders had done. The chasing of shot was now carried on on strictly commercial principles. For every thirteen-inch shell the finder got a dollar; a ten-inch one was worth half a dollar; an eight-inch one, a quarter dollar. Large shot were worth twopence each, and small ones a penny. It was curious to see Mr. Salt- enstall, the Commissary, examining these old pro- jectiles, and paying cash down for such as he con- sidered could be used again. Many a hole was made in Louisbourg by the shot which first felt powder in French guns. . .<. V"- t. i ■ 'I 3 266 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. The men were well looked after. There was no drunkenness. The provost-marshal stove the casks, destroyed the huts, and pulled down the tents where any spirituous liquors were sold without special per- mission ; and there were no liquors sold in the rear. The men^s drink was spruce beer, half a gallon a day. "Five quarts of molasses make thirty-two gallons of beer," said the General ; " each gallon will cost less than a penny; the best spruce is half a mile in the rear of the centre brigade," and further, " it is an advantage to the njen not to drink the beer till it is ten days old." And the food had to be good and cheap, or the General would know why. He cared nothing for the law of supply and demand. "No baker," he ordered, "shall presume to take more than twopence a pound for his bread ! " Meanwhile attempts were not wanting to relieve the beleaguered city. A certain Boisherbert arrived on the north side and was sent to the right about on the Miray road by Lanky Jam, our ever-active brig- adier. Off Cape de Gata Admiral Osborne fell in with the Toulon fleet for Louisbourg, and wiped it out. Another relieving squadron was chased by THE SECOND SIEGE. 2t)7 i / Admiral Hawke up the Charento and forced to re- lieve themselves of all their guns and stores by throwing them overboard — for which relief Hawke gave them due thanks. At Louisbourg Lanky Jam was indefatigable. On the IGth of July, early in the evening, he made a rush at the pickets, drove them in, seized Gallows Hill, and began to entrench three hundred yards from the Dauphin bastion, the enemy raining langrage on him ; and in the intervals the sound of his picks and spades could be heard, for, langi-age or no langrage, "the darling of the soldier" never ceased from working. The fifth night from that was a terrible one for the French. One of "Wolfe's bombs fell on to the sixty-four-gun ship Celehre and set her on fire ; she set fire to the Entrepreuant, a seventy-four- gun ship ; the Entreprcnant blew up and set fire to the Capricieux^ another sixty-four-gun ship, and several smaller craft; in the blaze the besieging batteries rained in shot and shell ; and the only two remain- ing vessels, the Prudent anu Bienfaisani, had to bo towed out of danger, while the men in the boats were pelted with shot not only from the northeast batter- 268 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. -m I, nr ■y'f • ies, where it was thought they were escaping to sea, but from the guns of their own burning ships. Next night the barracks in the citadel caught fire ; and soldiers, sailors, and people in desperation tried to put it out and save Drucour's lodgings. Under the rampart close by were the casemates, one with wounded officers, the rest with women and children seeking shelter ; before these was a barrier of timber, which was catching alight, when the women rushed out into the storm of shot that ever more furiously poured into the hapless city. "Horrible! Horrible!" I heard Brigade-Major Barre say. " Yes, sir," said Colonel Bastide, " but what would you have ? If the French had not built a city to be shot at, and put themselves inside it to ruin us, we would not be here to destroy them. It was they who courted the horrors ; we are ending the horror by making it impossible for them to repeat it." " Dear sir," said Brigadier Wolfe, " when the French are in a scrape, they are ready to cry out on behalf of the human species ; when fortune favors them, none more bloody, more inhuman." THE SECOND SIEGE. 269 » " It is our turn now," said Admiral Boscawen, " I shall want you to-night, Mr. Ardyne." And that night tho charts were out in the Ad- miraPs cabin, and I was marking on them a way through the obstructions into the harbor for the purpose of cutting out the two remaining men-of- war. " We shall want two boat squadrons," said Ad- miral Boscawen : " one for the seventy-four, one for the sixty-four; which will you look after? The seventy-four ? " " Yes, sir, if you please," said I. " Then to look after the sixty-four we must have another good man. Let me see. There is Mr. Cook — ^just the man ! I'll have him on board to-morrow morning, and you can give him the benefit of your local knowledge. You will go in Captain Laforey's boat ; Mr. Cook will have charge of Captain Balfour's. And mind you get the ships up into the northeast harbor in such a position that their guns can at once be brought to bear on the quay curtain. Let no time be lost." Certainly no time was being lost on shore. A 270 englishman's haven. :t • ' W- parallel was within two hundred yards of the ram- parts, and our pickets were along the foot of the glacis firing up at the French in the covered way. Gun after gun was being knocked out of the embra- sures. The Dauphin bastion and the King's were peeling off in masses before the shot; the roofs were riddled; the wooden houses were constantly bursting into flames ; and the stone buildings were crumbling down beneath that awful storm of plung- ing iron and bursting bomb. Acting-Master Cook came aboard the Namur and spent the morning with me. He was a tall, quiet man who had, so he told me, begun life as a collier's boy. He afterwards rose to distinction, being no other than the well-known navigator who discovered New South Wales. From the many portraits that have appeared of late his face is as well known as his Majesty's on a half-crown. Mr. Cook went over the charts with me. He listened to all I had to say about currents and eddies and set of tide, and the thousand other things likely to be useful ; and together we compiled a memoran- dum of the chief things worthy of notice. THE SECOND SIEGE. 271 A busy day was the 25th of July. At noon a signal was made from the Namur for a hoat to bo sent, and in response, as previously arranged, there came a barge and a pinnace from every ship of the fleet. But they did not all come at once, but in twos and threes at irregular intervals during the after- noon, and instead of mustering near the Xamur they went off to Sir Charles Hardy's squadron lying off the harbor, and took up their station on the seaward side of the ships, so as to be hidden from the enemy. Each boat was manned by a full crew armed with muskets, cutlasses, axes, and pistols, and it was commanded by a lieutenant or mate. A stubborn, reckless lot were our seamen, with flesh the hue of mahogany, and as hard and tough as the oldest Honduras. Even the tails of the five-foot cat failed to make some of them feel. Hard in the shell they were, and yet a noble lot, but, unlike many of the men I meet with, I do not think they were in any way better than the seamen of to-day. As the night fell a cold, thick fog came rolling up over the sea, and in the fog the boats lay quiet till midnight. Then, while still in the fog, the signal 272 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. I was given by Captain Laf orey, and six hundred men started for the welcome duty. Great as had been the soldiers' deeds, we sailors had resolved to surpass them. I was in Captain Laforey's boat at the head of one division ; at the head of the other was Captain Balfour, piloted by Acting-Master Cook. Silently we rowed in the fog in two long lines, the bow of one boat just a yard from the next boat's stern. Side by side we threaded our way past the Island Battery, through the sunken ships and within hail of the town. Luckily the fog thinned as we neared the land. I must say that we kept distance admirably; and our course was not swerved from even for a foot. At last we were near enough. " Now," said I to Captain Laf orey. In a whisper the word was passed back, and each line of boats became three lines. " Grive way," said the captain. And at full speed our lines made for the ships that loomed in front of them. One made for the bow, one for the quarter, one for the gangway of each ship. "'H^M' nil ; > , ' I.. I- i U , s in i lii ■ ■ ' i 't ! ! - . i M- ' 1 : ^; J 1 1 • ---, * ( t ' ^ ! ■ t> : i > Down came the Ulied ensign ; up went the crom of St. George. THE SECOND SIEGE. 273 " Way enough ! " said the captain. There was a shot from the French, who had dis- covered their danger. Almost at the same instant the leading boats were alongside. Captain Laforey scrambled up on to the gangway, followed by our crew and the crews behind. A glint and flash of steel, a few shots, a struggle of men at hand-grips, a cheer, and back the French were driven. There was a cheer from the bow, and then a cheer from the stern, as the stormers crowded on board like so many cats, some in at the ports and windows, some over the rail. Some ran to cut the cables ; some ran to the wheel ; some sprung up the rigging to set sail. Down went the French officers; down went the men; surprised and overwhelmed by the fury of the assault, they could do but little. Down came the lilied ensign ; up went the cross of St. George. One man would have clubbed me with a musket, but a quartermaster sent him sprawling on deck while the weapon was in the air ; another lunged at me with a pike, to be gripped by the scruff of the neck by Captain Laforey just in time to spoil his aim. The garrison heard the cheers, and knew that 18 'J sh :< 274 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ^ii m ih >J •3 their ships were in danger. At once from all the seaward guns, from the Half -moon, from the Manre- pas, from the Beach, from the Dauphin, a storm of shot came pelting on friend and foe, riddling the falling sails and splintering the spars. " Get back into the boat, Mr. Ardyne," said Cap- tain Laforey, " and tow us out." When I got round to the bow the men on the forecastle had a hawser over ready for me to seize, and every mooring had been slipped or cut. Another boat came up and took its rope, another and another. Then the boats were linked on to each other and slowly began to pull. For a minute, during which the batteries fired at us furiously, we tugged at the oars, but the ship remained motionless. I guided the boats half round, and tried again. The Prudent would not even swing ! Meanwhile from the Bienfaisant were heard the cheers of victory, and soon above the roar was audible the measured beat of the oars, and, the fog dissipating, she could be seen under way. Again the men tugged their hardest. THE SECOND SIEGE. 275 " She's aground ! " roared the captain from the forecastle. " Bring the boats alongside. We must set her on fire." It was a great disappointment; but there was no help for it. The tide had gone down unusually low, and the Prudent, an unusually deep ship, was fast on a shoal. A schooner was close by. " Capture that schooner and bring her here ! " shouted Captain Laforey. Off went a lieutenant and boarded her, and brought her alongside. And all the time the batteries were busy, and the shot cut up the rigging and fell among the men. As the schooner touched the line-of -battle ship there crashed forth a few straggling shots towards the British batteries, Captain Laforey having depressed the loaded guns and discharged them harmlessly. " Now, then," shouted he, " overboard with all the prisoners into the schooner." And we hurried them off at the run, and left them to make the best of their way to land. Before the last had left us the Prudent was on 'I) 5 276 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. ■1;? ''"'M 1 ' M fire at five different points j and when her destruc- tion was certain We regained our boats. And all the time the gi*eat guns from the ram- parts were going on us, and the guns from our investing batter 3S were going on to the town. Soon the harbor was lighted with the blaze of the ship. Her half-set sails in holes and strips, and her rigging cut to ruin by the shot from the shore, guided the flames as they rose. One flag only was left her, that on her gaff, which blew stiffly in the breeze, with the full glare of the light on it. I was told afterwards the French burst into tears when they saw this one flag to be the British ensign. The bowsprit went; the foremast went; the mainmast went ; the mizzen-topmast went. Last of the masts went the mizzen. The gaff and it fell together. And with them, last of all, fell this de- fiant flag that the flames threw their glare upon but refrained from touching. As the bowsprit dropped away the French bat- teries ceased firing, and waited for the inevitable explosion which was to rend the air and shake the land and sea at the moment the colors fell. I '"■■'WBS THE SECOND SIEGE. 277 When the firing stopped the Bienfaisant was almost out of range, towed by Cook's boats into the northeast harbor ; and our own flotilla was well on its way to join them from the ship we had destroyed, which was the last of the French fleet in Louis- bourg. w !'l •'r, -A '' m .1 ! :■ -• ^ CHAPTER XVIII. ! i if 1^ I i .'Is pi ..I If ' I" * 1 t t *'■ 'i ? it- u. i; j! V. THE FAREWELL. [ERY good, Mr. Ardyne,'' said the Admiral to me next morning. "Very good. You did your piloting well. It would have been bet- ter if we could have saved the Prudent, but that was not your fault. You will come ashore with me, I may want your aid." Captain Balfour and Captain Laforey were, I heard, to be posted, but what the Admiral wanted with me I could not divine. "Have you Commodore DurelPs chart of the harbor with you?'' asked the Admiral, when the boat was ready. " No, sir.** " Get one. Be sharp ! ^ We landed at Flat Cove, and walked to General Amherst's headquarters. "I congratulate you on your boat attack, Ad- •|v THE FAREWELL. 279 miral,'' said Amherst. "It was a pleasure to see such excellent work." " Ah ! Thank you. It was very well ; it cleared the road, that was the gi-eat thing. I am going to give Drucour another shaking up to-night. I in- tend to bombard him from the harbor from six of my heaviest ships. I have a young man here who knows every inch of the anchorage and piloted the boats last night. I have brought him with me so that we can settle on the positions. Perhaps your engineer would like to have a say to him on the subject. I will send on the Nanmr, the — " An orderly rode up with a letter from Brigadier Wolfe. "Excuse me," said Amherst, opening the let- ter. "Why, what»s this? Read!" And Boscawen read : " There is a flag of truce over the breach in the Dauphin. A Colonel Loppinot is here with instruc- tions to treat. I await your orders. " Jam Wolfe." " What do you think of that ? " " Think of it ! " said the Admiral, " why, hooray, ji '•■i ' H •; ' Vj ? s i 1 P^'-r u 280 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. of course ! But at the same time it is a shame that ho didn't wait till ho had had a touch from the old Namur.'^ All that day the flag of truce was flying, and there was much running to and fro. Drucour wanted bettor terms than Amherst would give ; so Loppinot was sent back; then D'Anthonay came out to propose a less rigorous arrangement, and Amherst sent him back; then Loppinot started with a defiance, and Drucour, thinking better of it, sent somebody after him, so that the men in the batteries saw a pursuit and capture of Loppinot outside the fortifications, and then the return of the two officers together; then out came D'Anthonay again, running at full speed, and making signs and bawling, "We accept! we accept!'* And he was conducted to Boscawen and Amherst at head- quarters. At eleven o'clock that night the long day came to a close by the articles of capitulation being signed ; and at eight o'clock next morning I marched in with Forbes's grenadiers, when they took pos- session of the Dauphin gate. Soon afterwards I THE FAREWELL. 281 saw the French thro ;■ down their arms and wipe away the tears of anger and chagrin that they could not check. There were over fifty-six hundred pris- oners, and in the battered fortress we found two hundred and twenty-one cannon and eighteen mor- tars — a very different state of affairs to that at the surrender in 1745. Soon after the fall of the city Admiral Boscawen sent for me to his cabin, and told me he was about to sail for England. He reminded me that Mr. Secretaiy Pitt had suggested I should have the command of a sloop if I proved fit for the charge ; and he said he was pleased to say that he had every reason to be satisfied with my conduct, and had in consequence appointed me master and commander of the Argus, then lying in Halifax harbor to be fitted out for the attack on Canada next year. "The Argus,'" said the Admiral, "is an appro- priate name for your ship. She has not got ninety- eight eyes open, but the sixteen she has you will make the best use of — if you please, sir." "Ninety-eight, sir!" said I, unthinkingly. "I thought Argus had a hundred eyes." 282 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. : Ui i > •^\ ■■'■ V i , , iJ " So ho had ! So he had ! " said the Admiral, pleased to have caught me. "But did you never hear he gave them a rest in turn by sleeping with only two at a time ? " I apolo.gized humbly for my ignorance, and next day I went home with Commodore Durell, leav- ing the great Admiral to sail for England and be thanked by Parliament and received with much honor. At Halifax I spent the winter in peace and hap- piness among my friends. I had done but little, and yet I seemed to be sought by every one, prob- ably because luck had at last come my way. Only one thought no more of me than before, and that was Mary, and the reason was obvious. Being of her old opinion, \n e agreed to get mar- ried "as soon as Canada was taken from the French'' — a somewhat speculative arrangement, perhaps, but one quite in keeping with the confident expectation of the colonists that the days of the French were over. In the spring I was despatched by Admiral Du- rell to Boston in my new ship ; and while there I ir. THE FAREWELL. 283 paid a visit by invitation to Sir William Pepperroll, who was still living in gi-eat state at Kitteiy. In the course of conversation I said something about Mary Kervan and her father's death. Pep- perrell's head-clerk, who was present, pricked up his ears at the name. " Kervan 1 " he said ; " that. Sir William, is the account I was speaking to you about this morning." " Yes, I remember," said Pepperrell. " It would be well to mention it. Sir "VViUiam." " Certainly ! Certainly ! Allow me to congrat- ulate you on your coming marriage, sir," said the old man. " Whatever you may regret, I do not think you will ever regi-et making that lady your wife. With regard to Mr. John Kervan's death, I am not prepared to say that it is altogether incon- venient, inasmuch as it enables us to close an ac- count which has been open in our books for many years. Sixteen years ago Mr. Kervan deposited with us a sum of £5000, on which interest was to be paid at the rate of six per cent. Since that deposit was made we have heard nothing of Mr. Kervan until this moment. The consequence is that the ■f. 1^ t'5 1? in ''s ■ •*.' ;>'. Ij-il 'i :1 i I 284 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. money has been accumulating with us at compound interest, and unless Mr. Kervan has left a will, which I suppose he has not, it belongs undoubtedly to the future Mrs. Felix Ardyne ; and we shall have great pleasure in transferring it, either to her account, or deal with it in any other way she may instruct us." " Then, Sir William Pepperrell," said I, in aston- ishment, " you have had the money all the time ! " "What do you mean by the money? I know of no special money. A sum was deposited with us to account for on demand, and I know not where it came from, nor was it my duty to mention it until it was asked for, as under the present circum- stances. If it pleases you to identify any particular money with a good work, you can consider it to be the £5000 which, had I not had it, I should have been unable to contribute out of my own pocket towards the colonial expedition to Louisbourg — an expedition, sir, which did its work in its own way as well as the present one ; an expedition, sir, whose achievements the home government despised and practically condemned when they basely returned Cape Breton to France. That mistake, sir, has cost ^ THE FAEEWELL. 285 them a pretty penny; with the sacrifice of much treasure they have again had to do what we did for them cheaply and well ; and now the end of it all is that Louisbourg is to te no longer a stronghold for French or English, but a dead city." " A dead city ! " said I. " How is that ? " "Mr. Pitt is going to blow it up, sir! Its forti- fications and its houses are to be levelled with the gi-ound, that in case of a change of parties in our home government the French will have nothing to boast of if it is again thought becoming to make them a present of Cape Breton." And it was my fate to see the last of Louis- bourg. When in October, 1760, after the capture of Montreal I put into the harbor, I found the de- stroyers at work under Commodore Byron, the same Byron who was the Wac/er midshipman, in whose adventures so much interest was at one time taken. On the 17th of that month I was present when the sappers and miners blew up the last of the once mighty bastions. It was a public holiday, and a small crowd had gathered to see the firing of this last mine. Accompanying me was Major Tarling, •1 1. - i 1 1' 1 t : I 286 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. who had been, like me, through the Canadian cam- paign. We had turned to retrace our steps to the ship, when there came towards us from the crowd an old wrinkled Indian and a bent old woman. At first I did not recognize them. " You found Kervan ? " said the Indian. " What ! Pujook ! " said we both. "Yes, the Cormorant!" replied Pujook. "The old Cormorant now. But he prophesied truly. See. Alive is Eyes-that-weep. The locust has bitten the field-mouse and will stay in the land forever. And soon the grass will grow in Englishman's Haven on the grave of the dead city." "That is wha*. General Pepperrell called it," said I. " Pepperrell ! " said Pujook. " Aye ! Pepperrell is dead now, and Louisbourg is dying. And the Cormorant will soon die. But he knows his friends and does not forget them. You are to be the hus- band of Kervan's daughter ? " " Yes." "Then," said Pujook, taking a curiously orna- wmmm THE FAEEWELL. 287 it," mented bowl from his girdle, " keep that in remem- brance of the old man who once nursed her on his knee. Keep it in remembrance of him from whom Le Loutre stole an only child. Keep it in remem- brance of the father who slew his boy's murderer, aided by the father of the girl you are to make your wife. It is the oorakin by whose spirit I have prophesied ; but the spirit goes with him who says — Farewell ! " And without another word the Cormorant was gone ; and Eyes-that-weep, without a word, as if a mere phantasm, passed away with him. And when we reached the harbor we saw that the last of the hewn stones brought from France at the building of the city was being borne on board a brig bound to Chebucto, otherwise Halifax, where it remains to this day. And from another ship a few sheep were running ashore, the parents of the flock that now graze on the grassy mounds that cover the ruins of the once proud fortress on Eng- lishman's Haven. "Ha!" said I, "it reminds me of Greenock. Henceforth this is to be the land of peace." ii m It r !/ I '-1 J n ■ t H ' m-s •• I Ii I 1 -i I?; U I ■ lii 288 ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN. "Peace?" said Tarling. "What is peace? A .state of happiness in which war is made on every animal but man — " " And the dog," I suggested. " The dog is a prisoner of war ! " " And so is the sheep ! " And with the sheep I began. To the sheep I have returned, and with them I will end, though I would have ended better with the oorakin. ? A ivery iep I ghl