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33261

Constance of Acadia.

a j^obel.

BOSTON:

ROBERTS BROTHERS.

1886.

i -yk

k Ji

*\\

Sn(6en(tg ^tn»:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridgs.

r^\

To W.

CONTENTS.

Paob

I. Light over a Western Sea 9

II. An Interview before Breakfast ... 14

III. Wreaths of Smoke 19

IV. Their Gossips 28

V. A Paternal and Filial Fight .... 38

VI. The Wastes of the World 45

VII. The Souriquois 53

VIII. Marchioness de Guergheville .... 64

IX. A Floating Jesuit 72

X. The Night Watch 81

XI. A Feudal Castle 89

XII. The Queen of -.: ^.a.dia y5

Xm. Ouangondy 102

XIV. Jemsek 109

XV. The Cardinal 119

XVI. The Acadian Wild 126

XVII. RoDERiGO Palladio 139

XVin. Richelieu's Echo 145

XIX. Charnac^ and his Snow Shoes . . . 153

XX. The Blockade 167

vi CONTENTS.

Page

' XXI. Governor Winthrop's Garden . . 175

XXII. Captain Hawkins 185

XXIII. A Puritan Debatinq Society . . . 190

XXIV. Setting Sail 202

XXV. Passaoeewakeaq 215

XXVI. Versailles 222

XXVII. La Rochelle 231

XXVIII. The Acadian Wreath 243

XXIX. Baron Charnac^ 252

XXX. The Middle of the Sea 260

XXXI. The Suit of the Dolphin .... 271

XXXII. Castine 281

XXXIII. Rio Hermoso 287

XXXIV. Artillery Practice 295

XXXV. Constance and Charles of La Ro-
chelle 307

XXXVI. The Tides of Fundy 312

XXXVII. In the Ice 316

XXXVIII. The Jesuit Fathers say Mass for

the Repose of the Dead .... 324

XXXIX. The Widow Berni^res 833

XL. Before Sunrise and after Sunset . 342

XLI. La Tour 352

To the Reader 365

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

-•o*-

LIGHT OVER A WESTERN SEA.

"T T THEN shall I call you Lieutenant General of
V V Acadia ? " asked the bride Constance of her
husband, as they reclined upon shelving rocks near
the mouth of the Penobscot, looking toward the
southwest long after the sun had gone down. Be-
yond the salt sea there was still a silent sea of dull
crimson in the sky ; but the lambent flames so long
playing upon the surface of the waters had been
nearly quenched in the gathering night. The full
moon — their honeymoon — was rising in the east ;
but it was not yet dark enough for them to notice
their luminary, — theirs in a peculiar sense in months
of early marriage.

" My father should bring the commission soon,"
replied Charles la Tour. " The Shoals vessel from
La Eochelle, that hove to this morning, outside,
brought news that having obtained the commission,
he was captured on the high seas, and carried prisoner
to England ; but had been released upon the repre-

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

sentation made by your old townsman Pierre Gaudet,
that my father was allied to the Bouillon family.
The English take kindly to Huguenot noblemen ;
and none the less so if they know anything about
Acadia. I look for him almost any day."

The Guardian Angel who had watched, and waited
upon, Constance for twenty-five years, must have ob-
served, even in the gloaming, the color deepen in her
face when Charles pronounced the home words, " La
Eochelle," and " Pierre Gaudet ; " but the color had
faded again when he came to the word "Acadia."

Like a person whose body was in Acadia, and
whose heart, will or nill, must be where her body was,
— she asked mechanically, — " And what will Charles
do when he gets to be Lieutenant General ? "

There was no one of finer discernment of the hidden
meaning of tones, of faces, of attitudes, than Charles
la Tour, whenever his absorbing business plans al-
lowed him to think of anything else than his gains,
or when a keen perception of the mental state of any
one he conversed with was likely to help him in a
business way.

" You speak, my Constance, of a third person :
* What will Charles do ? ' You are dreaming of
La Eochelle, and of the old man Gaudet." And,
turning so as to see his wife's face, he took her hand
in his, pressing it warmly. " These home words
make you speak of me impersonally, as if I were as
far off as your father's house ; or, as far off," — look-
ing deeply into her dark eyes as the light upon the

LIQUT OVER A WESTERN SEA.

water westward was reflected upon them, — " as your
childhood loves."

The poor wife, — I had almost said child-wife,
since Charles was tall and the type of manly beauty,
and Constance was in comparison so much shorter
ami smaller as to seem childlike to him, although
she averaged well with her countrywomen of the
Bay of Biscay, — closed her eyes, and her Guardian
Angel must have wiped away a tear-drop.

Charles did not see it, but he saw visions beyond
the reach of sight — far over sea.

But Charles la Tour, who had high aspirations, had
not married for love, not he ; he had, indeed, said that
he loved. He was not without love. But Constance
had taken his fancy as being the brightest and best
judge of furs who had ever appeared in Acadia ; and
he was in the fur-business. And as to fish, she knew
well the La Rochelle market, and was a judge of
values, and of seasons, — in a word she knew a cod
from a haddock ; and he was making a vast deal of
money in fish. ■ Out of the five thousand men in the
eastern fisheries some two hundred and fifty years
ago, he and his father, and their Port Royal partner
the son of Poutrincourt, employed one twentieth.

La Tour really loved Constance, more or less ; why
should he not ? Toward her his heart was not
divided with any other of womankind. But he was
through and through a business man ; and his whole
soul was in his affairs. He had no such sentiment,
or believed then that he had none, as would lead

^ .,:

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

him to object to his wife's having a great variety of
French loves, if that should please her French fancy.
But little did he know of Constance Bernon, — even
if he did look deeply into her eyes.
• The moon had come forth in all her strength, illu-
minating the bay of the Penobscot ; and Charles could
discern far away upon the southern waters the gleam
of the paddle-stroke, as Joe Takouchin was coming
up with the flood from Long Island.

" What will Charles do when he gets to be Lieu-
tenant General of Acadia ? " asked Charles, repeating
his wife's interrogation. "He will get to be very
rich in a monopoly of fur and fish, and in great land-
grants ; and then he will erect Castle La Tour at the
mouth of one of the great Acadian rivers; then a
feudal lord and lady will preside over Acadia; and
then the house of Bouillon need not be ashamed
of having poor relations. My father was once as
rich as any of them. But he was a patriot, and
lost his property in the civil wars, while some of his
relatives saved their capons whatever became of their
country."

It is a matter of history that there were few men
of that age in America, with its little handfuls of
population scattered along the coast, who were the
match of Charles la Tour in " presence," in " persua-
siveness," in " affability," in power to gain the " con-
fidence " of those with whom he had to do. When
he set out to marry, he was perfect master of the art
of making his wife believe that he thought everything

\ , *

LIGHT OVER A WESTERN SEA.

of her. He was fond of her, and so perhaps supposed
that he loved her. He admired her matchless dis-
cernment as a business woman ; if she only had as
perfect a passion as he for beaver and cod, there need
be no limit to their acquisitions in the vast area of
inland waters and the great fishing-banks at their
doors. She was, if anything, too spiritually-minded,
as she called it ; too Huguenotish, as he called it.

Here was to La Tour a solid business reason for
marriage ; as Baron de Castin married the daughter
of Madocawondo, upon business grounds. Constance
being a woman he liked her more than he would a
man, and more and more as long as she lived ; but
he never loved her, was never devoted to her.

But Constance was deserving of the profoundest
love ; it is no wonder that her Guardian Angel stood
by her and thought himself better off than in heaven,
— so that one loved her, who was worthy. One who
was not worthy also loved her, — although not her
husband.

COJ^STANO: OF ACADIA.

II.

AN INTERVIEW BEFORE BREAKFAST.

nnHE day -dawn, with all the colors of heaveu
-^ reflected upon the Bay, found the bride alone,
looking far eastward, as if by looking far enough she
could have seen the weather-vane above the pointed
roof of her father's house near the Lantern, close by
the solid sea-wall in that well-armed, rich, and enter-
prising Huguenot city La Rochelle, mistress of so
many seas, and fair to look upon in the eyes of any
lover of the true greatness of France.

The Lieutenant General, whose commission had
not arrived in the thirty-sixth month of patient
waiting, had arisen before day, in his eager attention
to tlie gains of his trade ; and he was now seeking
out the intricate windings of the Biguyduce,^ with
his birch.

1 An arm of the sea, now known as Bagaduce, east of Castine.
Williamson thinks it was named for some French Major — Bigay-
•iuce. The peninsula between this river and the Penobscot Bay on
the west being known to history as the Majabigaduce. The older
name of the Biguyduce River appears to have been Matchebiguntus.
The attempt of an eminent Indian scholar to identify this word
with Williamson's French Major is creditable.

,1 ■

AN INTERVIEW BEFORE BREAKFAST. 15

Constance cast her eyes downward, when the sun
shone full-blaze athwart the eastern waters ; and she
forgot her father's house in the broad daylight.

It could not but occur to her that, after all, it
evinced good judgment that she had sailed in one
of her father's ships to a new world, to forget that
dream which had taken definite shape, after having
haunted her for more than ten years, a dream of
being wedded to one whom she would have loved if
he had not been, as she believed, an utter stranger to
her God. The Huguenot faith, her own faith, not
that of another, would not allow her to love one, or
rather link her destiny to one, who did not make God
the supreme choice of his soul. Of all the selfish,
idolatrous, papistic, Jesuitical persons she ever saw,
her would-be lover was the best. She would never
confess to herself that she loved him ; and she left
the country to be rid of him. He, apparently, was
fully devoted to her, protesting his affection in strange
heart-felt tones, which she had not yet heard from
the business-like professional lover Charles la Tour.

She thought to herself, bending her steps toward
the great hearth where her breakfast was smoking, —
" Charles la Tour is a Protestant ; and I think that
he is religious. He is gifted, and apparently devout,
in prayer. He is fluently religious ; and I shall not
^'soon believe that his Vaudois blood has been all
sopped up by the furs of Acadia. I did wisely in
this new world to take the world as I find it, and
to marry in the line of my religious duty ; and I have

/^/.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

made my vows to God that I will be to my husband
a minister of good. I have taken him for better or
for worse ; and, if it is for worae, I am sure it will be
my fault."

Her train of pious and wifely reflection was inter-
rupted by the sound of a ship's gun. Wheeling from
her solitary seat at the table, she saw two English
ships heavily armed, which had just rounded the
western headland ; and were now standing in for the
fort. For the sake of running before the wind, and
avoiding the islets of the lower Bay on the east, they
had ascended the western channel by moonlight.

Constance despatched at once a messenger to her
husband. There might be work in hand for the
King's Lieutenant. These men-of-war had appeared
suddenly, like Megunticut thunder-clouds; canvas
clouds illuminated by the sun, but filled with
lightnings and the peal of battle.

When the ships hove to, and lowered two boats,
Constance went toward the landing alone to meet
them. An English baronet was in the foremost boat,
with the English flag flying over his head.

Constance waved her hand ; and her gunner, upon
the platform fronting Pentagotiet ^ next the sea, fired
a shot across the baronet's bows ; and his men peaked

^ Pemetigoet or Pentegoet was the name given by Champlain, in
1605, to the river which had been known to the Indians as Norem-
bega. Wheeler (History of Castine, Bangor, 1875, p. 14) thinks
that Pentagotiet is a combination of Indian and French, meaning
entrance to the river.

#'■

AN INTERVIEW BEFORE BREAKFAST. 17

their oars. "While the boat swung round to the wind
upon the uneasy tide, Constance, putting her hand to
her mouth for a speaking-trumpet, spoke in clear
penetrating musical English, —

" Lay your head off shore ; and land the baronet
from the stern, then pull off. I will see him alone
under a flag of truce. If you delay, I will blow you
out of the water."

She mised her hand, and another shot crossed the
bows of the boat. When, in the next uplifting of her
hand, she flaunted her white kerchief to the breeze,
the baronet condescended to land from the stern ; and
the boat and flag pulled off, and Constance was alone
with the stranger, who also held out a flag of truce..

The English baronet had an important communi-
cation to make to Chevalier la Tour.

"My husband cannot be interrupted upon trivial
business, at this hour," replied Constance. " He will
see you later, if he thinks it important. Your present
business I will attend to."

The baronet rubbed his eyes, and he would have
ripped out an oath or two if he had been an English-
man ; being a Frenchman, he took out his snuff-box,
and offered it to Madame la Tour, with a profusion
of compliments, which led her to abandon her new-
world direct Anglo-Saxon method of addressing one
whom she had supposed to be a Saxon.

It was her father-in-law, Claude la Tour, returned
with her husband's commission as Lieutenant General
of Acadia.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

" Will the baronet be so good as to produce the
commission, as a voucher for his personal identity as
Claude la Tour ? "

The baronet hesitated. Should he negotiate with
a woman ?

" Will the baronet be so good as to recall his boat,
that he may get into it under his own flag, that I
may proceed to blow him out of the water ? "

The baronet looked into the deep dark eyes of
Madame la Tour.

" It would be less work to exhibit the commission ;
which I will do with pleasure," he remarked, after
looking at eyes which never quailed.

The baronet accepted his fair enemy's invitation
to breakfast, when satisfied that his countrywoman
was his son's wife. But first he sent to the ship
for his own wife ; whom he had picked up in Eng-
land, a maid of honor to Queen Henrietta.

The sound of the great guns had outstripped the
messengers of Constance, and Charles la Tour — now
indeed Lieutenant General — returned in season to
breakfast with his step-mother, and his de-national-
ized father, and his own faithful friend and defender
Constance of La Rochelle.

. WREATHS OF SMOKE,

A'*^

III.

•i

WREATHS OF SMOKE.

TVTOTHING could exceed the self-complacency of
■^^ Charles la Tour except the self-complacency
of his father. They were neither of them self-con-
ceited men — far from that. Self-conceit implies
something notional, almost whimsical ; but the La
Tours were thoroughly well-balanced, and the better
balanced they were, the better satisfied they were
with themselves.

Charles la Tour had a faculty of extracting from
all circumstances an immense amount of downright
happiness. If the marines told a true story, when
they said that La Tour killed an Englishman in order
to steal a ship, he undoubtedly did it with joy in his
heart, and a smile at his own deftness in doing it.
If he had a long and bitter contest with a rival, he
enjoyed every minute of the time. The fun of fight-
ing was exquisite. Then his skin was stuffed full of
satisfaction when he delicately nibbled at sweetmeats
or sipped wine with Governor Winthrop. And his
conversations with Constance, whom he never to her
dying day understood, were sources of rare pleasure ;
as if, for the moment, his soul bathed in the pure

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

empyrean of a higher range of thought than he had
known since his mother died at Saint Martin on R^,
when he was fourteen years old, the day before his
father sailed for Acadia.

This happy disposition kept in subordination his
curiosity to know just how his Vaudois father had
become a Britisher in crimson and gold.

As they lighted their tobacco for an after-breakfast
stroll along shore, between the thick-set hackma-
tacks and the Bay, the father and son chaffered each
other upon their respective marriages.

" How came you, my dear father, to find such a
fair faced and attractive Frenchwoman among the
fogs of England?"

" She discovered me, my son, by my French accent.
It was a love match on her part. And I responded
heartily, since the Queen was very fond of her, and it
strengthened my position at court. And my wife was
anxious to see our new world, which I am going to
turn over to England."

" To England ? " replied Charles, almost forgetful of
his even poise. T^en recollecting himself, he added,
" That would indeed be very fine. But how do you
propose to do it ? "

" I have," said the father, " not only a baronetcy,
but a land grant, big enough to make your heart
jump, to give to you, which will be much better than
the Lieutenant General's commission that Louis XIII.
has sent you. Acadia will certainly be lost to France
before the present hostilities terminate."

WREATHS OF SMOKE.

"But do you think, father, that I would be a
traitor to my country for a baronetcy, a few acres of
bushes in what you propose to call Nova Scotia ? "

" Traitor ! country ! You have no country but the
soil your feet cover, and what you own in our new
world," replied the father. "You can dissemble to
the French King. I learned in the Maritime Alps to
call no man my king except as I could make kings
my subjects. What kings are for is to help the La
Tour family. Louis and Charles are both my ser-
vants, and yours too, if you will make them such."
And he rattled his sword in its scabbard when he
said this.

"Indeed, indeed," answered the Lieutenant Governor
of Acadia, "was it not upon the very ground that
I was to keep Acadia for France, that I based my
petition to my king ? "

"Are you then settled that you will not surrender?"
asked the baronet, in alarm. "Do you know, sir,
since you claim to be a man of honor, that I obtained
this land -grant and a baronetcy for you, and for my-
self also, upon my pledge that you would surrender
this fort to His Britannic Majesty ? And do you
know, sir, that these men-of-war have crossed the
ocean for the express purpose of taking possession of
this fort ? I entreat you to surrender, and keep the
engagement I have made for you with my king, and
my newly adopted country. I throw myself upon
your clemency. I plead as a father with his own
son."

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

■A

** I iBifleed love you, and recognize my obligation to
you who have given me life itself; and I value the
honor you have brought nie from a foreign prince ;
but 4- must seek the approval of my own king. Do
you suppose me capable of betraying the truRt ^y
king has placed in me ? What is my life wo'-^V v Jr ss
I can be trusted ? France depends upon lae lo iioid *
this fort." So replied the son with no ii'mill indig-
nation and emphasis.

" Did you ever know a French king to b*^ grate-
ful ? " asked the father. " My word for it, he will
have you in the Bastile to please some favorite,
before you are done with him."

"It will never be my fault, if he forgets me,"
responded the King's Lieutenant. "But it will be
my fault if I do not do what I know to be right.
My conscience is in it."

Approaching now the shade where Constance was
sitting with her mother-in-law, Charles said to his
father,

" If you have no other proposals to make, you may
as well send away your ships of war, and take your
charming bride and settle down with me to make
money out of the Inc^ian Tu^-trade, and keep along
with Lhe cod-fishinf w ^n^ in *''Ui Biencourt.
Perhaps, however," lic added, — turning about to
renew the pacing up and the pacing down, and
changing his tone from that of a warrior to that of
an accomplished diplomat, — "if I had married a
Franco- Anglican wife, I might talk as you do. But

WREATHS OF SMOKE.

'^onstdnct of La Rochelle, the daughter of Bernon,
knows nothing of the independent spirit you brought
from the Alpine crags looking into Italy; au'l she is
French to her heart's core."

"Ha, ha," continued Charges, " 1 see by the twi nkle
in your eyes, that you already laugh at nic for havi '^
married a wife who is more of a man than T an.
But I assure you, upon my honor, that I niarri i her
for soldierly and statesman-like qualities. Vnd si. has
made me swear by a great oath that I will set up the
throne of France upon the ^^anks of the Penobscot, \
the Saint John, and the n. iring tides of Fundy."

" And did you swear, my ^on ? I am duly proud
you, for being of a piece witi your father. I see tha
you on your part intend to eurn the approval of youi
king; and have me on my p.irt hold our titles and
our land grant. Is not this what you really mean,
down at the bottom of your eyns ? "

Charles and his father looked calmly into each
other's eyes; as if they took d light in contemplat-
ing each his own image reflecteii in the eyes of the
other.

It is noteworthy that they sh* ok hands upon it ;
and turning, walked towards the fort.

"You were speaking of your wife," said the baronet.
" Does she not fear the power of the Jesuits ? "

" Yes ; she thinks they will, for the present, control
the Saint Lawrence. But in thifc part of Acadia,
she has, — so far as I can discern what she really
does intend to do, — a settled purpose to establish a

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Huguenot colony upon these eastern shores of New
France ; and if she does, she will make these strag-
gling outskirts of the world the match of old France
for the love of country, able to maintain her rights
in the great struggle that must come between France
and Ensrland for America. Of that I am satisfied."

"And now, sir," added Charles la Tour, looking
somewhat sternly at his father, "I believe that
we understand each other. You and I are for the
La Tours against all kings and all nations and all
religions."

Upon this, the baronet pulled out of his travelling-
pocket the land grant, representing a magnificent strip
of country fifteen leagues inland, along the coast for
fifty leagues from Fundy to Mirliguesche.^

"Yes, I think we will take this land," said the
Lieutenant of France. "We shall want for the La
Tours all that we can get from both the kings. I
think it is now settled between us, that you will be
the friend and patron of Charles I., and keep this land
he has given into your charge ; and that I am to be
the friend of Louis XIIL, and take all he gives me."

" Allow me to embrace you, my son."

"This arrangement, my honored father, will of
course involve a public separation of our interests,
which will appear to others most painful, to say
nothing of its being strange. "We must fight to
maintain our respective rights; but as long as wo

* From Yarmouth to Lunenburg.

' II'

WREATHS OF SMOKE.

have come to this private understanding, the world
may wonder."

At this point, they had come so near the place
where their wives were conversing, that they again
turned about. Ascending a slight elevation, Charles
la Tour threw away his half-burned tobacco, and
stood firmly upon both legs, looking every inch like
the representative of a king, and pointed to the
southwest over the Penobscot Bay: —

" The Saxons are founding cities and planting an
empire; and those who are descended from Roman
soldiers and ancient Gauls will begin from this day
forward relatively to lose ground in the world, and do
less for advancing civilization, unless they seize on this
new continent and hold it vigorously with both hands.
At least, this is what my wife says. Under the pre-
tence of fur-trading, and marrying me, and the con-
verting — as she calls it — of the Indians, she expects
to take the stifled Huguenots out of France, and bring
them hitherward, where they can breathe the air of
freedom, and worship God in the wilderness, and
plant the industries and civilization of the Latin race
upon a new continent."

" That would please the spirits of the dead patriots
of La Rochelle," answered the father. "The Due de
Rohan and his compatriots said, that France was fast
losing its grip upon the world by driving out of her
borders the best blood of the nation. He desired
to keep it in the country, by erecting a Huguenot
republic. Failing in that, nothing could be better

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

than to ship the Huguenots out of France in bulk,
and build up a New France in America."

" I have been so long out of France," replied the
younger La Tour, " and I have had so little news in
your absence, that I am glad to learn your views.
Constance represents that no small part of the wealth,
the business capacity, the intellectual force of France,
have turned toward Calvinism ; and that the Roman
Church, led by the Jesuits, proposes to destroy the
very sinews of the nation itself, and leave a mere
ilabby France, loyal to Eome. She is al! on fire to
bring these Protestants to America. It .ould make
your blood boil, father, to hear Consr<auce talk about
it. Pray, do not speak of England and English forts
and English baronetcies and English land-grants.
We will keep the land, to be sure. There are no
English here to object. There is nobody in the whole
country. We can do what we please. We will send
off your ships of war, and build up a New France."

" Ah, I see," replied the baronet. " You have fully
submitted yourself to your wife ; although you have
not been married a month."

" I am proud of my wife," said the son, taking his
father by the button. "When her brother died, a
year ago, I took her into partnership at once, and my
business almost doubled. My self-gratulation is com-
plete now that I have married her. She will make
an admirable Queen of our New France, when we
fill it with Huguenots, and set up for ourselves in
America."

WBEATHS OF SMOKE.

" Suppose, however," retorted his father, " that we
compromise the situation, and bring in Scotch settlers
as well as French. The chances are, that, so long as
France and England are liable to have half-a-dozen
wars within the next century, Acadia will be seized,
whenever hostilities break out, by the King who does
not happen to own it at the time. The area is large,
and the population will be small for a hundred years.
Then when the kings settle their quarrel, Acadia will
be played like a card, this way or that, as will best
suit the game. Under such conditions, it will be
handy for us, the La Tours, the actual settlers of the
country, the only rightful kings or feudal lords of
Acadia, to have both Scotch and French; and we
ourselves can be Scotch, English, French, to satisfy
the circumstances, — only we will be La Tours, and
Acadians, under all governments, and keep our rights
by the nimbleness of our wits."

" A wise father, truly," remarked Charles. " If
you represent Charles I. and Sir William Alexander,
I will represent Louis the Just; and we will both
look sharply to our own interests."

So was made the celebrated La Tour, French,
Scotch, English, Catholic, Protestant, Acadian treaty.

Having paced up, and paced down, and trodden
the June grass, and ground it under their heels, and
fingered the fresh tips of hackmatack boughs, and
looked out upon the sunny waters, to their heart's
content, they now returned to the society of their
gossips, — Constance and Henrietta.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

IV.

THEIR GOSSIPS.

/^LAUDE LA TOUR'S London wife was the
^-^ daughter of a native of Languedoc, one of the
inferior order of French nobles, whose titles came to
them through the royal grant to municipal office, on
account of some old-time service to the king. Her
father and his bride had escaped to England upon the
occasion of the Toulousian League riot in January
1589. Henrietta was little older than Constance;
and, at this obscure fort in the wilderness, they struck
up at once a fine friendship.

Constance found that any Gallican sympathies
which Henrietta might have had by inheritance, had
so suffered from the wrongs rehearsed by French
refugees in London, that she was glad to carry an
English heart under her French features. The two
wives, however, established a basis of confidence,
when they discussed the La Tours.

"Claude la Tour," said the late maid of honor,
" came to London a prisoner.^ My father and Pierre

1 The prisoner of Sir David Kirk, who upon his failure to take
Quebec, cruised for the French fleet which was bringing supplies to
the St. Lawrence and Port Royal, capturing eighteen ships, and one

THEIR GOSSIPS.

Gaudet knew about his family in La Tour in Pied-
mont. My father, when a child, was once a night's
guest at his mother's house in La Tour."

" It must have been a wild place, from my hus-
band's account of it," said Constance. " His grand-
mother's home was in the Val Angrogna. It was all
overhung by jagged and majestic mountains."

" Indeed," replied Henrietta, " I never heard my
husband allude to the sublimity, He has however
often spoken of the beauty of his child home. I
have dreamed of it as I would of fairy-land, — with
vineyards and gardens upon the river-side, fruit-trees
and groves of pine, pastures tinkling with sweet
bells, musical cascades, and a world of wild flowers
humming with bees."

"How strange this is," said Constance, "I never
heard of all that. Probably Charles does not admire
beauty, although he professes to go into ecstasies, if
I give him a flower ; I think he does not care for
anything but the Jieur de lis of my country." Say-
ing this she looked closely in Henrietta's face to see

hundred and thirty-five pieces of ordnance, and an immense store
of ammunition. La Tour the senior, with his son's commission
as the Acadian Lieutenant of France in his pocket, appears to have
made the most of his voyage to England in exercising his blandish-
ments upon the tough old Scotchman, his captor, who subsequently
introduced him to Sir William Alexander, as just the man suited
to his service. La Tour's long residence in Acadia, and his mani-
fest ability made him most useful to Sir William. His acquaint-
ance with the Scotch knight is alluded to in Hanney'a Acadia^
p. 117.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

•whether there was the slightest tinge of French blood
in it. " I have, however, often heard him speak of
the way in which the Vaudois maintained themselves
for a hundred years in those mountain heights, falling
like the avalanche upon hosts of enemies beneath
them."

" It must be," replied Henrietta, " that Sir Claude
la Tour does not propose to frighten me by the
sounds of war, notwithstanding the array of guns we
carry ; for he never once lisped a word relating to the
fierce crags of Mount Vandalin, save that they looked
out upon the rich plains, the corn lands, the mead-
ows, and vineyards of Piedmont."

" And did he never tell you," asked Constance, " of
the towering walls of Castelluzzo, where his grand-
mother was hidden in a cave, let down to it by a
rope ladder on the face of the precipice ? It makes
my heart hot when I think how near we are to the
blood-red Alps. Did your husband never tell you
that his mother's jewelled fingers were cut off by
Spanish swords one Sunday morning, when La Tour
was plundered in the name of the pope ? "

" No," answered Henrietta fingering her rings, " but
I got it out of him that his father was a sort of^
Protestant highway-robber, — if that is anything to
be proud of."

"Outlaws, I think they called themselves," said
Constance. "They started out, I have heard, after
their fracas with that braggadocio priest IJbertin
Braida; and for years they kept the Vaudois val-

THEIR GOSSIPS.

leys from going to sleep under the tyranny of the
times."

" But, why," asked Henrietta, " shall we bring to
this new world all these ancestral woes ? You can
hardly tell my sense of freedom in breathing the air
of America. It is much as if I had entered the
borders of Paradise. And I should think so, were it
not for these wicked-looking guns, and those Tarratine
redskins."

" These savages and hostile guns must help decide
who owns America," replied Constance, " before we
can build a paradise upon our beautiful rivers.

" You would little believe it to be Paradise, if the
Jesuit fathers should gain here the mastership, as
they did in Savoy, when they seized your hus-
band's playmate Neveau ; took him from his father's
house to their Turin convent, then shipped him to
the Indies, from which never returned even his echo.

" I should weary you, indeed I should, were I to
tell you how dear these guns are to me. We pro-
pose to have a country.

" I sometimes believe," she added, looking half
timidly into the sparkling eyes of Henrietta, " that I
am engaged in founding a nation. Aside from a
handful of your countrymen in Virginia, and the
small settlements in Massachusetts Bay, and the
Papists who claim that noblest of all rivers the
St. Lawrence, there is no America. And if I can
prepare the way for a Huguenot republic, Acadia
will have an honorable future."

—I

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

" The Due de Rohan," observed Henrietta, " tried
that in France, did he not ? "

" France was no place for it," answered Constance,
her lips suddenly losing color. •' It would have
been wiser to have taken the Protestant population
bodily out of France, and brought them here. At
this distance, we could have defied the world in
arms." These closing words were uttered in a voice
strangely agitated; and with eyelids closing over
their tears.

" Do you know," asked Henrietta, without noticing
her companion's face, " that Sir Claude la Tour is
now engaged in this very work of planting a Protes-
tant people here ? "

" Pardon my interruption," answered Constance
with an effort. " You had begun to tell me of Sir
William, when we made our conversational trip to
the Alps."

" When Claude la Tour was released from prison
by my father's interest at court ; and when His
Majesty and Sir William Alexander who had the
royal patent of Acadia, knew the La Tour connection
with the new world, and their respectable rank in
France, they made advances to him at once to plant
Scotch colonists, and to seize upon the country —
with your husband's consent," — said Henrietta,
speaking rapidly, with sharp eyes fixed on Constance.

" My husband will never consent," said Constance
firmly, in a low musical tone.

" That depends," replied the late lady of honor to

THEIR QOSSiPS.

the English queen. " Did not our English naviga-
tors discover Acadia ? In years of peace, of course
we could not enforce our claims and take our country
from your French settlers. But when Charles I.
assumed the defence of La Rochelle, the way opened
to seize upon New France ; and the King employed
my husband for this purpose."

Henrietta hardly noticed the effect of her words.
Constance, who had been ready to sink with anguish,
now seemed likely to faint. She rallied a moment
in the lull of conversation ; and her eyes were fixed.
She saw, far away over the tossing leagues of sea, no
old-time lover, but her father's desolate house. Her
father had been slain early in the siege. Her mother,
and the entire house, save her youngest brother, a
mere child, had perished of that terrible famine
which heaped up the dead upon the walks and in
the passage-ways until twenty-five thousand out of a
population of thirty thousand had perished. She
saw those massive, impregnable walls, which had
made her native city the pride of the Protestant
world, crumble under the edict of that very king
who had now sent a commission to her husband.

But, for all this, her heart faltered not ; she was
loyal to France, that ideal France which is dearer
than life to every true child of the nation. She be-
lieved that there might, even yet, be gathered a peo-
ple, persecuted at home, who should build in the
eastern portions of America a French State with
more freedom if less sunshine.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Henrietta had ceased to speak. She had placed
her hand softly within the palm of Constance. Her
full warm English ])lood imparted new life. Her
English eyes looked fully into the lustrous eyes
which the ancestors of Constance bad brought to her
out of Italy.

Henrietta' knew too well what visions her com-
panion was conjuring np across the waste of waters.
— " Constance, my dear one, the world is new, not
old. It is ours to win the battles of the future.
"We cannot blanch our checks with tears for the
world's wrongs, — or even mourn unduly for our
own dead. — Look at your husband, your possibilities
of life. How manly he appears, pacing up and
down with liis father."

Taking both ha ids of Constance within her own
magnetic palms, she added, — "Did I not begin to
tell you, my love, about my acquaintance with
Claude la Tour ; how he sought me, and pestered me
out of my life to marry him ? Of course, I did not
want to; and I would not. But my queen set in,
and my mother set in, and I yielded. I sometimes
think that queens and Frenchwomen have queer
notions, — as if marriage were to be at the call of
convenience, not love."

Constance drew a long sigh, the first since the bit-
ter day in which came the crushing news of the fall
of La Roclielle and her father's house, — the very
day her brother died at Port Eoyal, — the very day
she first met Charles J^a Tour, when he was so

THEIR GOSSIPS.

thoughtful and kind to her at the bedside of the dy-
ing and tlie new grave in the wilderness. It was
also the last sigh. During all the years next follow-
ing she kept her respiration in close control, — as if
the iron in the blood of her family stock during
some ages had finally asserted itself ; indeed she kept
it, and did not sigh upon that fatal and darkening
day so soon following, when her childhood lover ap-
peared riding upon the morning seas toward sunrise.

"I could not help loving Charles la Tour," said
Constance ; " and it did not seem to me a marriage
of convenience."

Then, — so long waj it since she had seen the face
of an intelligent and sympathizing woman in her
desolate wilderness life, cut off as she was forever
from any old home confidants over sea, — she con-
tinued, as if she would tell all that she had in her
heart, and be as frank with another as with herself :

" I should I am sure have loved differently upon
the coast of France, if another Charles, — my Charles
the First," she said with a grim attempt to smile
under her tears, " had not been already wedded soul
and body to the Jesuits who educated him after the
death of his parents. He loved me devotedlj^, but
he hated my religion. He was taught to do it. He
preferred the Jesuits to me. I should have given
him my whole heart at once, if he had returned my
gift ; but the Jesuits had his heart in safe keeping.
— Perhaps he will be more manly, and break away
from them sometime."

rfT

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

■■*! I

■

At this point Constance would have sighed, but
she had made up her mind never to express herself
again by that symbol. As it was, she stopped short,
and fixed her eyes upon the manly beauty of Charles
la Tour, as he paced up and down between the hack-
matacks and the water.

" When Ciiarles la Tour asked me to become his
wife, he snatched me from the depths of despair, and
gave me something to live for. My best child-friend
had developed in his opening manhood into a con-
firmed Jesuit, threatening to take priestly orders if I
should not marry him. My city, oh my native city,
my home, had perished of starvation under a cruel
king, who could never batter down her strong walls.
My father's house had tumbled into the grave, except
my baby brother ; and I fear that the Jesuits may
get control of him as they did of Charles de Menou,
whose mother was the daughter of a Huguenot house
of our oldest and best and most honored. And then
my brother who came from home with me to this
new country, died so suddenly, so strangely. It all
came at once. The world fell in ruin over my head.

"Charles la Tour then appeared, with so much
that was noble in his heart and life, in his practical
handling of this world's business. He was devout.
The prayers he learned, when he was a child at the
school of Pra du Tour, I heard him repeat in tremu-
lous tones, as we kneeled over my brother's grave.
I could not help becoming his wife. T believe that
he loves me with all the capacity he has for loving.

THEIR GOSSIPS.

ecome liis

jspair, aud

liild-friend

Lito a con-

Drders if I

ative city,

ier a cruel

'ong walls.

ive, except

[Suits may

ie Menou,

not house

And then

le to this

It all

my head.

so much

practical

IS devout.

Id at the

in tremu-

r's grave.

ieve that

or loving.

His heart is, however, principally in his great ambi-
tions for pelf and power; his heart throbs for me,
whenever it is at leisure.

" I sometimes think," she added with sunlight in
lier eyes, " that he is more devoted to beaver-traps
aud tish-flalies than to. me; and then, too, he dotes
on his commission which your husband, the baronet,
has just brought to him."

At this point, the approach of the sauntering son
and father put an end to their gossip.

It was noteworthy that Charles did not take bis
father into the lort at breakfast or after.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

A PATERNAL AND FILIAL FIGHT.

TT 7HEN" it came nightfall, the light upon the
^^ western sea was dimmed somewhat, as
Charles la Tour reclined upon the shelving rocks
with Constance. It would be needful for him m fly-
ing his flag at daybreak to name his choice between
two kings ; but he and his father had no occasion to
deceive each other, — they understood perfectly what
part they were to play. Charles had, moreover, to
prepare the mind of Constance for some modification
of her views relating to the Scotch.

" How did you like your mother-in-law, Constance ?"

"Well enough for an English woman. She no
longer loves the lilies of France. She is very good
socially, and in a kind sisterly way ; but how can I
bear the sight of her, when the French blood in
her hand is treacherous, and she would change our
flag ? "

" But do you not think well of a Scotch colony ?
Heretofore the Scotch and French have sought
alliance with each other against England."

"Charles la Tour, or Lieutenant General rather,
the good representative of a bad king, I believe down

A PATERNAL AND FILIAL FIGHT.

apon the i

what, as \

Lng rocks \

im in fly- :

I between \

ccasion to :

ctly what j

[•eover, to 1

(dification ]

''1

istance?" 1

She no J

t^ery good

low can I 1

blood in \

■

ange our ^

L colony ? ■;,

J sought

il rather, "

jve down

f
^

in my heart — I wish I did not — that the British
Islands will control America; but it shall not be
by my consent, as to Acadia. They will swarm and
cover the continent. They are a migrating people.
Let them go south to New England. If we bring in
the people, we bring in the king; and I am not ready
to abandon New France for New Scotland."

" But what are we to do," asked the husband, " if
the French wish to stay at home ? To-day, the only
ones who wish to emigrate are those whose lives are
made a terror by persecution."

It was a strange sight which Constance called up
from over the sea, as she replied, "Would that I
could call back from the realms of the dead the
twenty-five thousand martyrs of La Rochelle. With
them we could have built up a French Protestant
power, which would have used the magnificent har-
bors of this coast, and have turned the falls of our
rivers- into great manufacturing towns. My poor
country is given over to madness. She is taking
the intelligent, the liberty-loving, the industrious,
the thrifty, the enterprising among her people, and
scattering them to the four winds of heaven. I would
give my life — I will give my life if need be — to the
gathering here of a handful, who will make Acadia
the seed-plot of a thousand generations, where the
best blood of France may show what it can do in
redeeming the world."

" But our Frenchman John Calvin," replied Charles,
"has already inoculated the Scotch, through John

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Knox, not only with the love of liberty, but with
a type of moral character new even to Great
Britain. They certainly would make good homes in
Acadia."

" I am not objecting to them as good people,"
answered Constance, "but I object to their king.
The oats and the bagpipes I could put up with, but
Charles Stuart, never. I am French in every fibre.
We could conquer and hold no small part of the
world, in any cause having a religious basis, if our
Huguenot warriors only had a place upon which to
stand, sacred to Protestant liberty."

"I can never cease to be glad to hear you talk
about a French-Protestant Eepublic in New France,"
responded Charles. " But the present point is this,
that my father has an immense land-grant for himself
and for me personally; and for you too, for your
emigration scheme, where your settlers can be safe
under the La Tours, whoever is king. It must -have
occurred to you, that since Acadia is half as large as
Old France, and since there are absolutely no French
settlers here, except our own family and our retain-
ers, that it will be difficult to hold the entire area; so
that Acadia is liable to change hands, back and forth
a good many times, whenever a few pieces of ord-
nance float, as now, toward the feeble forts of this
wilderness."

" On this account we will fight for what we have,"
replied Constance. " You do not mean to hoist the
red flag of England at daybreak ? How can you do

A PATERNAL AND FILIAL FIGHT.

it with the King's commission in your hand? Is
your father still to be recognized as your father, if he
is a traitor to his king ? He is a Piedmontese ; let
him shift kings, if that suits his fancy. But were I
to hoist the meteor flag, the red fire of England, more
than thirty generations of my ancestors would arise
from their graves and fight for the flowers of the
lily of France."

The white flag of France was flying at the break
of day. It was first seen by the lookout upon the
men-of-war.

" All that remains for us is to take the fort in a
fair fight, if we can," the baronet remarked to the
commander of the expedition. " Lieutenant General
La Tour pleads a prior engagement with Louis XIII.,
which hinders him from ratifying the agreements,
which in his absence I made with King Charles and
Sir William Alexander in his behalf. If we cannot
take the fort, we must make a treaty with him to
protect our colonists, and to cooperate with Sir Wil-
liam in settling up the country with Scotch, which the
Lieutenant General is disposed to do."

If the Acadian lobsters, boiled into red coats for
the Britons' breakfast, were three or even four feet
long, La Honton should be credited with the report.

When, after disposing of the lobsters, the com-
mander sought to disembark a body of his soldiers,
the ships were struck by a heavy fire from the fort ;
to which the British oak made answer by a lively
cannonade, — the first shot cutting away the Pen-

! II

I i

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

ir.

: w

tagoiiet flag-staff with its folds of silk.^ This was
followed by hearty English cheers, which made the
bay and forest ring with echoes.

They were, however, silent when the return shot
took away the rudder-post of the " St. George." This
piece of ordnance had been manned by Constance,
wlio had spent her life in a military city, under the
elbows of gunners. By her father's position she was
permitted to learn the artillery practice ; to which he
had been trained in his youth. In bearing her part
in sighting guns upon the Penobscot, she recalled the
spirit of her mother, who in the first great siege of
La Eochelle was among the foremost with her ladle,
when the women and children mounted the walls
and poured boiling pitch upon their assailants.

One more shot, perilously near to cutting the main
boom, led the baronet to beseech his commander to
run out of range.

An attempt was made to land soldiers at midnight
upon the western side of Majabiguyduce, which was
met with so fierce an onslaught, that they retired in
some confusion.

The Saxon soldiery had none too much faith in
their French baronet, who had promised the surrender
of his son's fort without bloodshed. The number of
Huguenot sailors and soldiers on board prevented,
however, the officers from making any hostile demon-
stration. But it was determined to test his fealty,

J The flag was one which Constance had wrought with her own
fingers against the day of peril.

A PATERNAL AND FILIAL FIQHT.

and avail themselves of Claude la Tour's knowledge
of localities (he having resided at the fort in former
years) to make regular approaches from the hill on
the north, unless the inner palisades could be carried
by surprise upon the second night.

The Pentagoiiet garrison had now been reinforced
during thirty-six hours by Indian trappers and
friendly warriors, to whom Constance had sent out
runners in every direction, before the return of her
husband, upon the morning she first saw the foreign
flag. The Biguyduce Eiver was alive with canoes
stealing along in the evening shadows ; and the tall
Tarratines from the northern waters were pouring
down upon the swift current and the outgoing tide.

The surprise-party in the night was therefore
sadly surprised. The baronet hastily returned to the
" Lionheart," still wearing his scalp ; in which he was
more favored than some of his shipmates.

This cloud of red Indians decided the attacking
party to hold a war-council. It was determined to
return to En^iand.^

It was whispered among the officers, that the
baronet would die on the block if he should return
to England; and there were some who would liave
been glad to see him dangling from a yard-arm in
sight of the fort.

Claude la Tour was, however, able to persuade the
commander, Sir Richard Kent, that he had acted in

1 A Geographical History of Nova Scotia. London : 1749,
pp. 55-61.

! !l

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

good faith, and that by remaining in the country he
would be able to render important service to Sir
"William Alexander, and to the King; that his son
would co-operate with England, as to the settlement
of colonists, although he deemed it prudent for the
present not to arouse the antagonism of France^
More would be gained for England with a La Tour in
the fort, than by precipitating upon Acadia the forces
of Louis.

Kent had not been favorably impressed with what
he had seen of the coast ; and stated that he would
recommend Alexander to give the La Tours the whole
of it, if they were willing to take it.

Tlie chagrin of the lonely baronet, — who knew not
when there would be another, who at that time
comprised the entire body of landed aristocracy of
Nova Scotia, — was very great when he reflected upon
the disappointment of Henrietta, who was thunder-
struck at the turn which affairs had ♦"ken. T*'^"'' '•'^ly
alluding to his changed condition, he intimated that
she miglit prefer to return to England.

'* Do you suppose," she answered, " that I assumed
the marriage vows to forsake you ? Wherever you
go, I will go. I will share every turn of fortune.
However wretched the condition, it will be my great-
est felicity to soften the rigors of your fate, and to
alleviate your sorrows."

With two men servants and two maid servants, the
baronet and Henrietta were set ashore.

THE WASTES OF THE WORLD.

VI.

THE WASTES OF THE WORLD.

IF England had claimed the country first explored
by Livingstone, and had appropriated it ; or if
the United States, or more properly an enterprising
New York newspaper, had claimed that portion of
the interior of Africa upon great lakes and rivers
which Stanley discovered, ^as a mere extension of
the public domain, or as a private realm in which
to sell papers, — it would have been precisely what
was deemed the proper thing by the European kings,
— who sat as comfortably as they could upon sword-
points or cushions of silk, surrounded by women of
questionable reputation or by fierce soldiers, with
assassins lurking in the background, — when the
world's enterprising merchants, sailors, and country
gentlemen went out and explored regions unknown,
and dedicated them to their most Christian kings.
The kings, upon reflection, had no doubt that they
owned the domains westward by perhaps a better
title than many things of which they had possessed
themselves eastward.

If the navigator wanted, therefore, a little money
to develop and improve his new land, he was

1 1

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

allowed by that crowned Christian, under whose
shadow he hajjpened to have been born, to get his
cash as best he could in the way business men ordi-
narily do, — with the additional security of certain
dark and mysterious rights in land grants, vast, un-
certain, perhaps limitless as the unknown continent,
doled out by royal hands to those who dare risk
money and person in a new world risen out of the
sea.

This holding out of sceptres over the Cimmerian
darkness of lands less known to Europe than the
nether world, was one form of amusement for kings,
some of whom were mere children. James, Charles,
Henry, Louis, Philip all claimed and all gave away
the same country ; and the poor grantees had to fight
it out on the new soil as best they could, with occa-
sional help from their liege lords.

Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that
the actual settlers, who once got a grip upon their
lands, defied the world. The La Tours, therefore,
claimed it as their right to hang on to what they had
got; taking with both hands all that Louis and
Charles would give them in the way of titles, and
submitting from time to time as best they could to
the chagrins of the hour and the changing whims of
the courts of Europe.

When Charles la Tour had once discharged his
obligation to his revered father, by giving him much
high-sounding advice upon the duty of a patriotic re-
gard to that puppet, which was made to sit here or

THE WASTES OF THE WOULD.

to .Stand there by the Bishop of Luqon in his new-
scarlet robe ; and had awakened echoes of applause
in Versailles, and made himself respected at Hampton
Court ; and had received a congratulatory letter from
Louis, who would entertain a kingly remembrance of
what the backwoodsman had done for him ; and had
in hand his commission and land grants from France,
and a baronetcy not formally accepted and a land
grant which he would take from England, — he was
well fitted to make a treaty of peace witli his own
father, and set a good example to all Blue Noses for-
ever as being a little more cute than any Yankee who
had yet been raised upon the New England coast.

If Charles la Tour's wits had not been sharpened
by his experiences in a new world it was not the
fault of his fate.

" Of course the La Tours own this country," said
Constance to Henrietta, as they embarked in their
birch to pick up certain mink traps, before emigrating
to Cape Sable. " The former king, James, shuffling
round in his old shoes, gossiping with his old Scotch
cronies, peering out of the thick atmosphere of
London or the mists north of the Tweed, tried to
discover another bank of fog for his countrymen, and
to name it New Scotland ; now King Charles at-
tempts to make good the Scotch grant. As for Louis
XIIL, he would make anybody his Lieutenant-Gen-
eral, who would fortify and fight in his name upon
any part of the globe to which he had no claim, and
he would call it New France. For all that, whatever

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

king claims it, Acadia belongs to the La Tours.
Louis was only eight years old when my liusband
came to Acadia ; and James was upon his throne,
trying to substitute oatmeal porridge for English beef,
when your husband first appeared in these parts ;
and Sir William Alexander did not get a patent from
James until the La Tours had discovered and im-
proved large regions in their own right. What does
Louis know about the Madawaska, or Charles about
the Tobique ? They slice off land grants mucli as
they would cold turkey, or cold Jesuit as they say
in France." ^

" I am sure," replied Henrietta, " that if I had
starved in Acadia as your husband did that winter
with Biencourt waiting for supplies from France, I
should lay claim to the country for a recompense.
Fat and oiled and curled kings never wintered on
acorns and hazel-nuts, buds, roots, lichens, and boiled
boots. He told me that he had breakfasted in Janu-
ary upon broth made from the eel skins with which
he had patched his trousers in October ; and dined
the next day upon soup made from the tops of his
elk-hide boots."

" I suppose," answered Constance, " it was a whiff
of that broth which excited the envy of the lean and
scrawny Scotch noblemen. They have little fun in
their north country, and I have no doubt they look
upon it as a huge joke to beg land from a king, who

1 It being believed that the Jesuits introduced this bird to
Europe.

THE WASTES OF THE WOULD,

does not own it ; and then give away what does not
Ijelong to them to men, like your liusbund and mine,
who had been already the actual owners of it for
some twenty years. I expect now, at almost any
time there will come, riding upon the morning sea,
some other claimant of this country. He may be
English, he may be Scotch, he may be from Virginia,
from Plymoutli, from Massachusetts Bay, from Pem-
aquid, or he may be from France ; he may be an
Episcopalian, a Presbyterian, a Separatist, a Papist,
or a Jesuit. It is on this account that we propose
to fortify for the La Tours. America is booty for
adventurers, and we expect to be attacked by almost
everybody, — although Charles to be sure did not
expect to exchange shots with his own father. I
presume that my old lover, the La Eochelle Jesuit,
will turn up next."

" That would be no more strange," replied Henri-
etta, " than what has already taken place, when you
stood sighting a gun, with your mother-in-law on the
other side, trembling lest you should kill her out-
right."

" I should think, indeed, that Charles de Menou
would come to America," said Constance. " The
Jesuits wish to convert the Indian world ; and the
woods are full of savage souls."

"Any young Frenchman," replied Henrietta,
" would, I should suppose, be glad to get into a coun-
try where he is free to think and act without losing
his head. I do not wonder that Champlain loves

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

! ffl II

i H!

:iti

the wiklerness ; I only wonder at his angelic wife,
wlioni the Indians at Quebec wanted to worship,
who has left her husband to wander in the woods at
his own sweet will, and has gone back to Franco to
enter a convent, there to fulfil her predestined saintly
career with the holy women of her native country.
I suppose that she would rather be the bride of the
Church than of a pioneer."

" For myself," responded Constance, " my heart is
in Acadia ; and I love every Indian, every stump,
every boar, and every beaver in it. T only wish that
I had a tithe of the Huguenots of France, — and I
think I could put up with a very few grumbling
Scots, — and we would soon lay the foundations of a
Protestant nation. Our Acadian harbors are better
than the English have, to the south of us ; we have
better rivers ; and our soil is as good as theirs, if jiot
better. You and I ought to be crusaders, and stir
lip the old nations to come and settle these wastes of
the V orld."

When the mink traps and all other traps, by the
marvellous executive force of Simon Imbert, —
Charles laToi;r's right hand man, — had been removed
to Cape Sable, the new "Fort Louis" frowned among
the rocks, upon a headland which gave sight of all
shipping bound for Fundy, the Penobscot, or the
Massachusetts Bay. And the King's Lieutenant
kept a swift shallop constantly provisioned and
munitioned, ready for a long chase or a sudden
expedition.

THE WASTES OF THE WORLD.

Cape Sable itself is an isliirul, a barren mass of
rocks. Behind it, the coast is indented. Upon the
fiii"cr of land reacliinj? out from the main on tlio
east, stood the fort; a stronghold massive and im-
movable by the artillery of that age, — as Cape Sable
itself amid the thundering surges, pounding against
it throughout all generations. East of Fort Lonis tlie
Atlantic had so gashed the coast as to make a little
harbor; the mouth of wliich was guarded against
strangers by a baker's dozen of rocky islets. Baccaro
Point makes into the ocean n])on the east of this
little port, which is still called Port Latour, — a
little fishing hamlet occupying the ground where
stood the house of Constance, and the trading-post,
the little chapel, and the Indian school-building in
which Henrietta taught the Sorriquois children for
ome months.

The heaviest seas were broken npon the reefs
fronting Port Latour. Ugly ledges stood away from
the cape, a full mile into the sea. The waters were
full of danger, save to those who went in and out
every day, with full knowledge where they could sail
in safety.

It was easy to find a good sand-bank for curing
fish ; and to discover an abundance of game upon the
low coasts, and the wooded islands. The stony soil
supported a thick imderbrush ; and the bushes were
alive with rabbits. Barrens made by old forest-fires,
and bogs which had raised rank grasses for the deer
and the moose of unnumbered centuries, and exten-

'^'f^

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

sive marshes, offered to the La Tours easy experi-
ments in agriculture ; and they cut no small amount
of grass, here and there, in the area of modern Bar-
rington and Argyle. A patch of some ten or fifteen
acres was often turned by the plough.

A house was built for La Tour the senior, whose
happy temperament satisfied him with small comfort
if he could not have more.

Notwithstanding the gallant defence upon the Pe-
nobscot, Port Eoyal had been taken by Sir William
Alexander ; but Acadia and Quebec were immediately
ceded to France again, so that the La Tours were
first under one king then another, scarcely knowing
or caring who claimed to rule over them. First one
king was lost, then another ; but the La Tours were
always to be found, — as a Micmac told Constance
in the forest : " Wigwam lost ; Indian here."

Foreseeing the impending struggle for America, in
the game of kings, the La Tours made sure of their
fortifications : La Tour the senior being set to work
upon a fort at St. John, as soon as Cape Sable was
ready for war.

THE 80URIQU0I8.

VII.

THE SOURIQUOIS.

ON their way to the St. John, the baronet and the
lady Henrietta visited picturesque Port Eoyal,
its wild hills and watery expanse of surpassing beauty.
Sir William Alexander's Scotch colony had suffered
much in the long winter, three sevenths of the in-
habitants seeking narrow houses under the sod within
the few months before Henrietta and her husband
bore such comfort as they could to the homes of the
living.

The La Tours had great interest in the quadrangle
at the settlement, and upon the river !fiquille. The
father had been driven from this spot by the Eng-
lish, going thence to the Penobscot ; and the son still
owned it all, by the Biencourt deed, under the French
grant.i

The influence of the early French occupation was
still discernible in the Indian residents of the neijzh-
boring wilds ; the aboriginal population easily catcli-

1 The memorial stone, some two feet by two and a half, inscribed
by the founders with the Masonic square and compasses and the
date, 1606, was discovered in 1827.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

ing the polite forms and salutations characteristic of
their teachers.^

A hundred or more of the Souriquois families near
Cape Sable were formed into a mission by Constance,
at first with Henrietta's aid. These Indians became
so much attached to the French, that they were
practically so many allies for the enlargement of
the garrison, if occasion should require.^

In connection with the fur trade, established in all
the region far and near, Constance herself visited no
small area of the Indian settlements, living for weeks
together among the savages, seeking in some practical
way to improve their lives within and without.

When Constance reflected upon the ages of barbai
ism in her native country, pagan Gaul, and thv'^, ages
preceding of Roman savagery, and upon the relative
low state of Christian civilization among the Latin
peoples in the early part of the seventeenth century,
she did not look for great results immediately follow-
ing any attempt she might make to Christianize her
Souriquois neighbors. If, indeed, she could have
made them what she would, there would have been
less need of importing Huguenots.

^ Argal in making his savage and piratical onslaught upon the
French at Mount Desert, which led ultimately to the destruction
of Port Royal, discovered the neighborhood of the French by the
politeness of the natives ; the captain discerning in this the French
"tracks," as one would follow wild game by footsteps in the
forest.

'•^ This alliance appears in La Tour's communications to the
French King.

THE SOURIQUOIS.

tions to the

It is still related in the Imbert family, that when
Constance had spent some months in work among
the Indians, she confessed to having gained new in-
siglit as to the meaning of the sacred books, in which
it is said that the Lord is patient and long suffering,
and slow to an!:fer.

The power of Constance over the wild men of the
woods was due mainly to her adaptation to the kind
of life she led among them. No warrior could fail
to be attracted by her well balanced figure and elastic
step in the wilderness ; and it was noticed that she
turned not to the right hand nor the left in a day's
march, but kept straight forward as the Indians did,
unmindful of any particular tangle in the tangled
wood.

It came to be noised abroad that to the various
kinds of Indians of Acadia, — Abenakis, Canibas,
Etechemins, Mahingans, Micmacs,^ Openagos, Socco-
kis, — there was now added Constansis, a name that
ran, wherever the warriors ran, along the Acadian
rivers. That the Micmac remnant at Shediac should
still mention her name, as the Guardian Angel of
their children, is indeed a delightful testimony to the
place won by this Huguenot woman in the hearts,
"and so in the mythology, of the pagans she served.

A fishing station was established at what is now
Port Rossingal. In this lone land, with Claude la
Tour and a dozen whites at Saint John, ten Scotch
families at Port Koyal, Simon Imbert at Pentagouet,

^ Souriquois.

I !

i'tg iii

»i|!l

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

and her own huoband with a few trusted soldiers
at Cape Sable, this Guardian Angel ministered to
the >ouriquois, at Rossingal, at La H^ve, and, — by
following the streams, and crossing the mountains in
paths made by the wild beasts meandering according
to the nature of the surface like dry rivulets, —
moved across the land's interior even as far as Chiq-
necto Bay, where she found vast numbers of Indiana
near the great marshes, with well settled agricultural
habits, and an inexhaustible and unvarying abundance
of game at hand. Wherever she ventured amid the
deep-green trees, tossing like the waves of the green
sea, clothing a continent like the boundless expanse
of waters, it is a part of the old Indian stor}^, — living
now after more than two hundred years, — that 'he
branches, even upon still days, waved welcome and
farewell as she passed under them ; and that the for-
ests sw^ayed listening, when she spoke to the Indians
about her God ; that the meadows enlarged their bor-
ders and multiplied their flowers, when she plied her
paddle passing through them upon smooth streams ;
that moss-grown and decaying trees were touched
with undying youth, wherever she kindled her camp-
fire ; that the clanging and screaming sea-birds gath-
ered in a silent cloud above her head, and that the
wild waves ceased their tumbling, when her birch
rounded the headlands in passing from one inlet to
another to gather the children of her mission.

These dream-like journeys, invented by wigwam
fires during eight generations, are pleasanter by far

THE SOUniQUOIS.

than those endured by the original missionary. It
was prosaic enough iu the tough work, so long since
forgotten ])y those who have idealized the story.

Huddle of huts, — some like inverted and coned
wash-tubs ; others like large sized hen-coops twenty
feet lonnf, or like roucrh barracks of a hundred feet
with a loft for the children of eight families and sleep-
ing stalls upon either side below — all with a stone
platform for fire the whole length of the centre, with
no chimney save a hole in the roof closed in stormy
weather, without windows, with a door at one end
— all inclosed with a heavy stockade of oak, double
set, fifteen feet high ; villages as often as may be
standing between wood and water,^ devoured of gnats,
mosquitoes, and black fiies in summer, and smothered
by smoke in winter; villages often connected by old-
trodden paths, deep with water or mire, bordered by
briai and thorn, — paths over burnt lands, scorched
under the summer's heat or wind-swept in w^inter; —
villages crowded with men of medium size, well
formed, of strong physique, full of fire, absolutely
without temper upon their tongues or in their facial
muscles, but with cold-blooded barbaric cruelty in
their hearts, — they alone matching the Iroquois in
battle ; villages in which the squaws, with their great
black eyes and fat unwieldy frames, were honored by
tlie chiefs in contest unique before they ventured

^ Besides the coast and rivers, there are between seven and
eight hundred small lakes in Nova Scotia, the shores offering '
favorite sites for the Indian villages.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

upon the war path ; ^ women tough and wiry as their
husbands, with bodies impervious to heat or cold;
women honored, as well they might be, for their use-
fulness, not only in making fish nets in imitation of
the spider-webs they saw hanging upon the shrubs
along shore, but in stirring the damp soil of spring-
time ^ 'ith crooked sticks, and putting in corn,
squashes, pumpkins, water-melons, — and not without
skill in tobacco culture : villages swarming with chil-
dren, — the babes crawling without clothing into
snow-drifts and thickets, upon tlie ice or in the
water, — the feeble dying, and the strong becoming
as agile as the beasts of prey, and as much inured
to the changing conditions of wind and weather i^ —
amid such surroundings Constance led no ideal life
of poetic dreaming ; but she turned heartily to the
problems of the place and the hour, with a practical
insight into just what could and could not be done
to ameliorate the physical and spiritual condition of
the Acadian savagery.

Moving about among the hundreds of islands which
gem the waters of Argal Bay, and nearly one hundred

i Geographical HiM^ory of Nova Scotia, London, 1747 ; p. 45.
Charlevoix, in Ilistoirc Nouvclle France, passim, indicates that
nominally, and in fact commonly, the dictum of the Indian women
was considered final,

2 Charlevoix, Nouvclle France, I. 113, 114. The accounts in
Parkman's Jesuits of what Indian captives endured, show that the
she-hears and wolves of Canada were not tougher than the women ;
proving, at least, that the American climate is not in itself unfavor-
able to the feminine physique.

THE SOURIQUOIS.

lakelets strung along the Tusket River, Constance —
says the Indian tradition — called for a great gather-
ing ac a bear feast. It was in the late autumn, when
bruin was in fine condition. The frightened bears
were clubbed out of the grape vines iu the trc ^ tops
by creatures more courageous than they ; and were
then driven upon the run by the nimble-footed
savages ; so that from many quarters, the swift In-
dians armed with mere switches might be seen driv-
ing parcels of bears toward a village full of arrows
and spears and sharp appetites.^

Into the mouths of the slain bears, and down their
throats, smoke from an Indian pipe was blown by the
hunters, and, with this incense offered to the spirit
ursine, each bear was conjured to cherish no resent-
ment for the insult done his body; then the bear
heads, painted and adorned, were set in honored
place, and the savages sang the praises of the king
of Acadian beasts, while they tore in pieces and
devoured every shred of the flesh.

The bears left little appetite for the French pastry
which Constance had prepared ; but the memory of
her skill in cookery fastened itself at least in the
mind of the leather-visaged old chief Packate, who
inquired whether the pies of Paradise were as good
as those made at Port Latour. " If I ask for nothing
but bread," objected the grisly Outan, in learning

' Charlevoix's Journal of i Voyage to North America. 2 Vols.
London, 1761. I. 182, et al.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

the Lord's prayer, "I shall have no more moose
or sweet-meats." ^

Acute were the arguments of these wild theolo-
gians against a written revelation. Proud at heart
and independent, they had little apprehension of
things spiritual. "Work was a penance, gently insisted
upon as tending toward the highest good. Simple
industries adapted to the forest were introduced, —
the making of tar from the pines being one Acquisi-
tiveness, — the saving gospel of the Book of Proverbs,
— was taught by Constance.

The women were inducted into the mysteries of
bread-making, — a knowledge welcome in the woods,
where hominy, soaked and pounded and baked in the
ashes and eaten hot, answered for bread. The Bread
of Life had more meaning to those who lear.ied the
French cooking. The flavoring of venison-broth for
the sick gained favor for the fair missionary.

And her heart was full for the sorrows of mother-
hood. Poor Nimi of fantastic foot, a merry dancing
girl, she found bending over the grave of her first-
born child, sprinkling the sod with the milk from
her breasts. " I have buried in this grave," said the
mourner, " the cradle and all my child's clothing and
everything she handled, not only to testify my love,
but likewise to prevent my having always before my

^ De la Hutclictte was the only street in Paris which interested
the Iroquois chieftains, — a row of pastry shops, Charlevoix,
Journal, II. 107.

THE SOUBIQUOIS.

nore moose

eyes objects which, being constantly used by her,
incessantly renew my grief."

And tlie heart of Constance was touched with the
sorrows of childhood. It was her devotion to the
little ones which led to her apotheosis. She taught
to them the Hebrew idea of guardian spirits, which
doubtless gave form to the shape in which she was
herself remembered when she ceased to move through
the Acadian forests.

She had hope for the cliildren, and she went to
school to them, learning all their wildwood-lore :
about the birds, — the swallow, the tlirush, the black-
bird, the raven, the wood-pigeon, and the partridges

— red, white, black ; and about the roots, — so need-
ful a knowledge in the forest.^

With them she sought out the strawberry barrens ;
and to them she imparted her knowledge of what to
do with the vast stores of bluets^ they gathered,
interesting the little ones in the culinary arts from
La Eochelle. To make vinegar out of gooseberries,
to cure the wild plums, to coddle the wild apples, to
improve the quality of the native fruit-trees by cul-
ture, to favor the pears, to select the best grape-vines,

— formed a part of the practical instruction of the
Guardian Angel of the Souriquois ; and the children
in the next generation called her blessed.

1 The root of Solomon's Seal played no mean part in keeping the
French from starving at Quebec ; groundnuts, varied by acorns and
clams, were an inipoi-tant article of diet to the poor of Boston in
more than one hard winter of the early settlement.

2 Blueberries.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

To the little Sagassoa was imparted special infor-
mation, how to protect the Indian babes from the
torment of the unperceivable sparks of fire, — the
hrulots ; ^ and to Pingoe was given the results of
French rellcction as to the best way to fight the
columwitclih in June.

The 1)1 inulacture of maple sugar was first intro-
duced into Acadia by Constance, who taught the
method to her Indian chiltlien.

It was mucli, not little, that this cultivated woman,
— her soul fired with great enterprises for the faith
that was in her, and for the outworking of a great
problem for her nation, — should have placed her
heart, throbbing beat upon beat, by the side of these
Souriquois hearts, of warrior and widow, of r^ other
and child, in the humble avocations of each day in
their squalid homes.

She fastened her religious instruction upon what-
ever was worthy among a people who appeared, to
themselves at least, to have no small allotment of
this world's happiness.

By tears and entreaty, never by threats and blows,
these women of Acadia ruled within their own homes.
" Thou dishonorest me," uttered by a tearful mother,
failed not to win the heart and the obedience of her
child ; and if in hasty temper the extremity of reproof
was given — a few drops of water sprinkled upon a
child's face — the proud aggrieved spirit sometimes
sought refuge in exit from life itself. The children

1 La Honton, I. 242.

TBE SOURIQUOIS.

were taught that no one, not even their own parents,
had the right to force tliem to do anytliing. Upon
tliis stalwart, self-respecting, self-reliant character,
there was by patience built up something more than
the highest Indian virtue, respect for age ; and some
there were who sought to conform their wills to Ilim
who is called the Ancient of Days.

This missionary to the Micinacs, whose name is
worthy of honor by the side of Mayhew, Eliot, and
the Ursulines of Canada, was cut off long before the
prime of her years. When, just before the end came,
she made her last visit to the inland villages, and
cruised along the inlets of the south-shore, she found
a little less dirt, a little less smoke, a little more to
eat, a little less contention among the women, more
aversion to the vices which cursed many homes, more
intelligent views of the All-Father, and more faith in
the living and loving God.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

VIII.

MARCHIONLoS DE GUERCIIEVILLE.

"TT THEN" Constance was a child, she was with her
' ^ mother the guest of the Marcliiouess de
Guercheville, at the tiiae Heniy IV. made a hunting
party an excuse to crave Mudame's hospitality. Tlie
chateau, standing upon the right bank of the Seine,
about ten leagues below Paris, was brilliantly illu-
minated for the royal lover ; the open groves upon
the upland in the rear of the house were lighted by
colored fires, and the beautiful gardens upon the ter-
races were blazing with light ; the fountains and riv-
ulets added their delicate music to that of skilled
voices and tuneful instruments, — as the King, sur-
prised at so cordial a reception, rode up the long
avenue of shade trees, under the escort of booted
guardsmen, clothed in blood-red or deep blue richly
embroidered with silver ; he was met at the portal by
plumed and ribboned, ruffled and starched, and laced
and gilded gentry, and by women of rank in robes of
purple and cloth of gold. The king, alighting upon a
carpet of flowers was greeted by the Marchioness,
clad in gray velvet shot with gold, a robe of black
satin variegated with white, a gray hat and white

MARCHIONESS DE QUERCUEVILLE. 65

featlier, her neck and bosom of pearl loaded witli jew-
els. Having ushered her lord and king into his apart-
ment, the hostess repaired at once to the court yard,
where her gay equipage was waiting, and drove two
leagues to the gray couveut of St. Agathe, which
stood with its heavy walls among the crags upon a
lonely hill top in a sparsely settled district, and there
craved a lodging.

She left word with her astonished monarch, —
" Where the King is, he should <3 sole master ;
where I am, I desire to preserve uiy authority. If
my rank is too 1 )W to becom •, ^'our wife, m * heart is
too high to become your mi; iress."

In after years, the King deemed her the one per-
son in his kingdom, who should stand next his
queen.

In the new reign, the Marchioness was in high
favor with Concini, whose conscience was kept by
the Society of Jesus. The most influential minds in
Ffance were at that period under the advice of those
followers of Loyc^^ who were set apart as "spiritual
coadjutors " with ih j care of souls. Under the in-
fluence of Concini, Madame de Guercheville selected
Arrighi as hei confessor. The Jesuit authorities
sought out the consciences of women likely to be of
eminent service.

It was upon those identical days when Constance
was traversing the heads of the rivers at the base of
the mountain range, in search of the Souriquois chil-
dren, that the Marchioness de Guercheville dedicated

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

her fortune to Jesuit missions in New France, and
obtained a grant from Louis XIII. of all North
America for her grand project of Christianizing the
denizens of the wilderness. With all the power of
the court behind her, she personally solicited funds
among the royal favorites, and bought for Jesuit
missionaries a controlling interest in great mercantile
enterprises, and made the most elaborate and syste-
matic plans for colonizing the new world, under the
leadership of the Society of Jesus, which had already
borne the cross of their Saviour, and the discipline of
their order to every part of the known world.

It cannot be said, that Constance had a pre-judice
against this holy order, so much as a post-judice.
By their fruits ye shall know them. She remembered
how her father had exerted himself against the res-
toration of the Order in France, when they had been
once cast out for supposed (with little reason it is
likely,) complicity in the assassination of Henry of
Navarre. It was not in her blood to live at ease in
Acadia with these men. Perhaps her judgment had
been warped the more by the leading away from her
childhood heart, and the heart of her blooming
womanhood, Charles of La Kochelle.

Be that as it may, she had nought to do now, but
to gird herself to the contest with Madame de
Guercheville for that portion of country controlled
by La Tour.

Constance of Acadia had a mission to perform.
With no confessor at her side, with no rosary in

MARCHIONESS DE QUERCHEVILLE.

jewelled fingers, this practical, energetic woman
stood to her faith, and to self-denying labors among
the pagan people of her husband's province. To
build up a Protestant nation, to colonize the new
world with sach men of France as would die rather
than submit their consciences to the pope and his
kings, was the work which she determined to main-
tain even at the cannon's mouth. She would give
her own life rather than yield to that religious Order,
which, at a critical time in the settlement of America,
sought to control the opening continent, when there
were few men in it.

Looking at it now, as it must appear to the student
of history, her stand, when she made it, was little
else than the attempt of a solitary woman to sweep
back the on-rushing tides of Fun.^y. " Thou King of
kings, give me Acadia, or I die," was the inscription
cut by Constance upon the great paper birch, near
the Souriquois school-hut at La H^ve; as it was
found after her death by Simon Imbert.

The inscription may have been made upon the
morning of the very day when "L'Esperance en
Dieu" hove to, near the rocks at Cape Sable.

This pious pinnace, this hope in God, was of a
hundred tons; with all the guns and swivels she
could safely carry. If the commander hoped in God,
he also kept his powder dry.

The King's governor or Lieutenant in Acadia see-
ing the flag of his nation at the masthead of the
stranger, fired a salute, which was returned; and a

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

boat load of those whose hope was in the Divine
Providence and in their own powder, made toward
Fort Louis. The handsome young commander, clad
in garb little removed from that of the Jesuit priest-
hood, presented his credentials as one of Mme. de
G uercheville's lay missionaries, who was to estab-
lish certain priests upon the Penobscot, at such point
as the King's Lieutenant might deem most feasible ;
concerning which, he desired an interview.

Apologizing for his wife's absence, who was at her
La Heve mission. La Tour invited the ecclesiastics to
his house outside the fort, and made the most of the
hospitalit/ he had learned from his polite father, and
his frank open-hearted mother in Piedmont.

He was informed in oily phrases of the great repu-
tation he had won for himself in France, by the gal-
lant defence he had m.vie of Pentagciiet ; and that
the King intended further to honor him : meantime,
it would be greatly for his interest to render every
aid in his power to the work of saving the pagans,
and transforming them into the allies of France.
The princes of royal blood had contributed largely to
their mission ; and with his great revenue from the
m nopoly of the fur-trade upon the peninsula, and
upon the St. John and upon the Penobscot, it had
seemed to them probable that he would devote some
portion at least of the Penobscot profits to establish-
ing their mission of St. Ignatius.

To all this, La Tour replied with so much suavity
and apparent cordiality, that it would have made a

r '

MARCHWNEBS BE QVERCHEVILLE.

great iiDDression upon the strangers, had they not
themselves been perfect masters of the same art, with
no more sincerity than that of their host. Whatever
they thouglit of each other at heart, there was a regal
feast of squirrel broth, brook trout and salmon, of
black duck and wood-pigeons, of venison and moose
meat, of the wild fruits of the country, of wines
from over the sea, and of brandy flavored with blue-
berries.

The fine spirited leaders in the brisk and bright
conversation at table, with great delicacy, found out
what they could of each other, and imparted as little
as possible. The hours flew swiftly. Always com-
plaisant. La Tour had a face which could be read by
no man, and by no woman, as to what he was really
thinking about ; he appeared to give much informa-
tion, even if irrelevant.

He sent an open letter to Simon Imbert, bidding
him give the missionaries and colonists the use of
the Pentagoliet settlement ; and to aid them in their
explorations for the inland mission of St, Ignatius,
which was to be located at the mouth of tbtj Ken-
duskeag stream. He even sent La Plaque, an Indian
spy, along with his guests for a pilot, — with secret
instructions to Imbert.

The Jesuit fathers could but remark among them-
selves, as they sailed westward, what a great acqui-
sition to the Order, La Tour would prove, if he could
be persuaded, — as he had intimated that he might be,
— to become one of their number. It had not, they

C0N8TANCE OF ACADIA.

admitted, seemed wise to him at that time to invite
one of them to become his confessor, — he had, it
seemed probable, a Huguenot wife. Indeed it was
certain that not a cross, not a saint's relic, not an
image of the Saviour, not one holy painting had been
seen in his house. To liin private chapel, he had
not, however, admitted them. He had said, that his
wife preferred to have the observance of his holy
hours in his chapel. It had been made apparent to
them, that he was a devout child of the Churchy as
well as friendly to their mission.

Before La Plaque was sent away with the stran-
gers, he had already visited the L'Espdrance en Dieu,
under the pretence of selling vegetables to the sail-
ors ; and had returned laden with information, of
little value or much, as to the real purposes of the
colonists who accompanied the missionaries. They
were prepared to make a permanent settlement in
western Acadia ; and their commander had the royal
promise of ultimately controlling the trade of the
Penobscot.

La Tour, who never allowed the grass to grow
under his feet when he had interests at stake, set out
that night to hurry to completion his fort at the
mouth of the St. John.

He left a letter for his wife, whose return was im-
minent, — she might arrive at any hour, — to forward
more men, provisions and munitions. He added in
a postscript, that her dreaded Jesuit mi, oionaries haa
finally appeared in Acadia, and that he had sent

MARCHIONESS DE QUERCHEVILLE.

them as far off as possible, under instructions to
Imbert to give them no advantage.

It was written upon the margin, that they were
under the leadership of Chevalier Charles de Menou,
Sieur Hilaire Charnacd.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

IK.

A FLOATIN'G JESUIT.

v- 'a

'T^HE Cavalier Charles de ivlenou, Sieur Hilaire
•'*" Cliarnace, of La Eochelle,^ was better known in
iiiH matiive years as Chaniact^ ; his father having been
a younger brother of Baron Hercule Charnac^, the
most eminent of the Frei'ch diplomats in the age of
Ijouis XIII., to whom the l^ingdom owed so much of
its foreign prestige.

Charles upon leaving his early home, accompanied
by his Jesuit teacher and confessor Palladio, went
fir.st to St. Pol de Leon in Bretague ; but he attracted
too much attention from his teachers to r -in in
obscurity. Upon his removal to the Jesuit college
in Paris, his conscience was placed under the care
of Arrighi, by whom he was introduced to Mme.
de Guerclieville.

Her drawing-room offered a delightful contrast to
his lonely cell in the Rue St. Jacques. Following as
it did upon his mendican* life, and irksome service

1 Charles la Tour was comir.
in Re, off the La Rochel- ''lari
i.is mother there, and his

inderstood to have originated
— most likely from the death of
.hence for America.

A FLOATING JESUIT.

of the '.nose wretched of men in the hour of disease,
it seemad like re-entering the home of his mother.
> The Marchioness, by beautiful words and matronly
affection, re-enforced the instruction he had already
received, — to hold himself to the most rigid obedience,
to abandon himself, never to think of himself, his
mental, or even moral progress, but to unbosom all
his thoughts, his impulses, his character in its inmost
recesses to his confessor for the sole purpose of abdi-
cating his own will and judgment, to make himself a
living holocaust, grateful to the Divine Majesty, ren-
dering to the nod of his Superior not only obedience
in his will but in his intellect, his understanding, —
to think the thoughts of his Superior, not on account
of the Superior's wisdom but because he is in God's
place, — so in perfect concord completely and quickly
executing every task, — never so much as once
thinking of prudence or discretion but solely of obe-
dience as a soldier of the cross.

Charnac^ was charmed with his new instructor.
It was a renewal of his boyhood dreams, to converse
with an intelligent and devout woman. Little by
little he was led to defer his entering upon priestly
vows ; it being thought that his peculiar talents
would be far more useful at present in secular life.
He was a scholar of the three vows : ^ but when it
was evident to his superiors, and evident to himself,
that hp WU3 likely to succeed largely in a business
way ; and when it appep^fid that his great executive

1 Poverty, chastity, obedience.

oJ^iwitSi

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

ability fitted him to become the responsible head of
Acadian colonization, he was at his own request re-
leased from his vows, — it being credible that he
would achieve most for the Church if not bound to
personal poverty, that his vows might be at any time
renewed, that for the present, the Order would gain
more by his voluntary obedience and private gains
and inlluence tlian by his doing the same business
hampered by ecclesiastical form.

It was believed that the heart of Loyola was in
him, trained as he had been in his youth to some
soldierly service in his native city, — and that he
would serve faithfully the behests of the General of
the Order.

Re had indeed the heart of Loyola, who was theo-
retically inferior to the Pope ; but who in practice
did what he had a mind to, when his judgment and
that of the Pope differed.

Charles of R() little knew what valuable informa-
tion Charles of La Rochelle had stolen from his
house. It was a copy of Thomas k Kempis' De Imi-
tatione Christi, inscribed " To Constance Bernon from
Sieur Hilaire Charnac^." La Tour had never opened
the book, or seen the name of his rival ; and he did
not miss it when his rival put into his pocket the
keepsake, which he had given to Constance, upon the
night he last saw her, at her father's house.

In his oiled clothing, pacing his quarter-deck, as
the rain fell, just before the short day closed, — it
was the first of December, — Charnacd strained his

A FLOATING JESUIT.

tlie

Ik, as

1— it
his

eyes toward the black firs of Cape Sable, thinking
more about her who had so fingered the book as
almost to wear it out, than he did about personally
imitating Christ.

He had heard that she had perished in the dread-
ful siege of her native city. But, alas for him, he
had seen with his own eyes, in that fatal house of
Charles la Tour, not only this precious memento of
former years, but here and there about the living
room, and by the door ajar in the little sleeping room
that led out of it, articles of apparel, and the et cetera
a woman keeps about her, which were like those
Constance Bernon affected when she was a mere
child.

Then too he had found the margin of A Kempis
marked in Constance's handwritii . f date within
the month : — " Behold me, then, Hungering and
thirsting after Thy righteousness ; and let me not be
sent empty away."

He was now certain that Constance was alive,
that she was in Acadia, that she was the wife of that
Protestant hypocrite Charles la Tour. He had care-
fully measured the man with hip smooth exterior;
and he had concluded that the u^udiery would be with
himself. He believed not only in his right arm, but
in that religious power so potent with his King, and
in that mysterious Order which was mightier than
all kings. He concluded to abide his time.

Alas, for him, his heart belonged to Constance, and
it rose up in rebellion; she had always owned it;

£mSmS

-Mik ' '■ jIt w'

.'INt:;',*.!*

I m\\

'\is

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

f'^alty to his teacher hud been the result of his
aii;i 1 ion to be somebody, to rise with the rising tide
of Jesuit influence in Ids native country. TTis uncle's
laurels would not let him sleep. Now he was in a
fair way to win not only position, but great wealth

out of a ^1-i'v

so soon to be his own. Why not

now give his heart formally to Constance, with what-
ever of religion there might be in it, much or little ?

Having deliberately set out from France upon a
plot to ruin the Protestant Lieutenant General of
Acadia, and despoil him of his office, his fair fame,
and his goods, should he not despoil him also of his
wife ?

It was news, indeed, that he, who had bnen pro-
nounced an enemy by the General of the -fvisuits,
held a wife. It was news, that she was Coi ance
Bernon risen from the gaunt famine heaps of La
Pochelle. Was Constance indeed alive ? Had Cod
accepted all the masses he had offered for her safety,
in that grim war which — had he been in power —
he ' /ould 1 ve prevented for her sake ?

It must be that her Guardian Andrei, whom he had
always looked on as his own rival for the affections
cf Constanct , had snatched her away before the doom
fell upon hf • lather's house. He remembered now,
that he^ dder brother Godefroi had already entered
into tl ^4.ca<iian fur trade, in a small way, and that
he had spoken of extending his business.

This discovery of Constance in New France must
be considered. It might put a new face upon his

A FLOATING JESUIT.

pro-
suits,
ance
f La
L.oJ
lafety,

had
btiona
Icloom

now,
Itcred

that

Imust
bis

plans ; it certainly gave him a new motive in life.
Had he not already rapped his knuckles upon the
gilded world, and found it hollow If, after all, he
had been mistaken, and there was a woman in it, if
Constance was still alive, he had something more to
live for than gathering fur and coin, and building up
an ecclesiastical organization which had, so far, failed
to fulfil the dreams of his youth.

Piety, to be sure, there was piety ; but the same
quality existed outside the Order, — here was Thomas
k Kempis. And for Constance, she wa.i certainly as
good as her Guardian Angel, whoever he might be.

Piety, — to be sure he himself had gained too lit-
tle of it in all these years. Was he at heart any
better than he was when he disputed with Constance,
and despised her wise words ? Who now should be
his teacher, if by all his schooling he had not already
learned the way of life ? He had trampled upon the
human heart, and tried to efface from the earth do-
mestic affection, to make himself the part of an
Order, — to become in the words of his founder, " like
a little crucifix, which ii\ turned about at the will of
him who holds it." Now, indeed, he was dead to the
Order, and alive to Constance.

Nature moves by extremes. The pendulum in the
heart of Charnac^ was swinging back to the point
where it was before the Jesuits mastered him.

And he paced tlie deck first in the gentle rain,
then in the soft falling snow, as the weather changed
in his long night watch. Indeed, there was now no

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

occasion to sleep, if Constance was still alive. That
she was married made no difference. He had seen
too much of French society to consider that an ob-
stacle. Four thousand men of gentle blood had per-
ished by duels in his own country within a score of
years.^ Charles la Tour should die ; or he would
himself willingly die, upon the brink of this great
wilderness.

Their plan, however, — that is, the plan of the
General of the Jesuits, — contemplated war, if need
be, to dispossess his wily and powerful rival ; war, as
soon as his present reconnoitring expedition could
be wisely supplemented by suitable forces to be
brought to Acadia ; war to be begun with or without
provocation, — then to be justified to the King, who
was in leading strings, then authorized by him upon
the ground that La Tour was in the wrong, — surely
all this would be a small thing for the accom-
plished Jesuits in the King's confidence to compass.

Now, who could tell what the chances of war
might be ? Constance would live ; and she would
have a husband left. Who he might be, depended
upon the power of France, when brought to bear
against Acadia. France would no longer tolerate the
Protestant La Tour, who was to be set forth as a

* A note in Masson's Richelieu states that two hundred and fifty
years ago, it was not uncommon for the Catholic clergy, who were
often sensitive and touchy upon many points, and who were rarely
seen in professional garb, to fight duels. Private combat was in
that age more fatal to the best blood of France than even war.

hat ^

een

ob-

per-

e of

ould

;reat

the
need
ir, as
could
io be
thout
;, who
upon
urely
com-
ass.
war
ould
nded
bear
e the
as a

id fifty
10 were
rarely
[was in
Ir.

A FLOATING JESUIT.

traitor; the Bastile was ready, and the headsman,
— and there had been political murders on less
grounds.

But what would Constance say ? No matter now.
Charnac^ had come to that time of life when he had
no sentiment, no wish, no passion, but he had pur-
pose ; he would not brook denial ; he would have
what he wanted ; he could, and he would. What
was a woman in the wilderness ? If he made up
his mind to marry, he purposed to do it. And who
should hinder him ?

But Constance would not refuse him, whenever he
should renounce the Order, and give her his whole
heart. What was La Tour to her ? Nothing, he
was certain. He knew the wife too well; and he
had seen her husband. Her husband was a politic,
self seeking, self satisfied, fur trader and politician ;
he was not a man. He might as well die on the block.
The Acadian world would not miss him. Charnac^
could look after the beaver pelts and the cod fish, and
the government of the country ; and do it all before
breakfast daily, and spend his days rationally with
his wife.

Would it be possible, — and at this point Charnac^
paused long to consider, — that Charles of La Rochelle
should ever in this life become so transformed in
character as to become to Constance a tolerable sub-
stitute for her Guardian Angel ?

" Breakers ahead ! Breakers ahead ! on the star-
board quarter ! " shouted the man on the lookout.

Ill

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Putting about his helm, and standing away to the
open sea, Charnac^ turned in, and slept till the

morning.

Mean' Ime Charles la Tour, was — in the self com-
placent night watches — making long tacks in the
Bay of Fundy, with his heart intent upon fortifying
his valuable Indian trade. It had never entered his
mind, that St. John was the disciple beloved of
Jesus, an holy apostle. St. John was — to La Tour
— merely a fur trader at a good point ; and he
should have a fort for his defence against predatory
traders who were none the better for being followers
of Loyola.

THE NIGHT WATCH.

T TPON tho first of December, the early morning
^^ sun shone clearly upon the fine harbor, and the
large timber of La Heve ; as it had shone during in-
numerable ages upon the eastern margin of a lone
continent covered with a wilderness, waiting for the
dawn of human civilization. Constance was early astir,
moving in the edge of the forest, and her Souriquois
people were smoking themselves in their huts in the
attempt tc get breakfast.

An inch or two of snow like a heavy hoar frost
was thinly scattered in patches over the newly burnt
clearings and the margin of the sea. The sky soon
however began to gather vapor, which hung in dra-
pery folds. Some portions of the sky looked as if a
field of cloud had been ploughed in furrows ; and
in other parts, the fleecy clouds were regularly but
loosely arranged, not unlike the receding hangings
over a theatrical stage. The sun poured down
through the rifts, illuminating portions of the sea
with intense brilliancy. The watery waste was not
yet stilled after the late heavy blow. Far off upon
the horizon the sunbeams were tossing upon a myriad

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

points of quickly changing waves. Nearer the shore
the sea was dark by cloud shadows. Nearer still
• was another narrow strip of sunshine dancing on the
sea. And the waters near shore were sullen in
shadow.

From the heights upon which she stood, Constance
could see a ship far to the southwest, makinc^ toward
Cape Sable under the light air now upon her lar-
board quarter. A cloud rift over her, let down the
sunshine like a benediction ; so that she rode with
ghost-like sails of unearthly whiteness, — as if
bleached by processes unknown, and sailing in su-
pernatural light ; but the hither sea was black, and
the headlands westward were gloomy with clouds,
which hung so low and so dense, that it was like
cloud land ready to fall upon rock, hill, and forest.

Judging that the wind would haul re nnd to the
eastward, and save her some beating, Constance de-
layed a little hoisting the sail of her sliallop, the
Sable, for the home voyage. She saw the far-off
stranger disappearing behind the dark shores west-
ward ; the sable cloud lighted a little, but still hung
in that quarter, — till the wind shifted, then the
sable cloud was blown off. The melody of the sea
deepened upon the shore; heavier billows surged
around the islands and upon the shingle beaches;
and Constance set sail before the freshening breeze,
— scudding swiftly over a slightly pitching sea, run-
ning free before the wind to the sweet music of the
water rippling against the bows of the Sable. The

THE NIOHT WATCH.

iliung
the
le sea
irged
ches ;
ireeze,
run-
f the
The

changing sun and shadow of the early morning con-
tinued first to lighten then to darken the features of
her Indian boatmen.

Later in the day the wings of the wind were laden
with light sheets of moisture, with which the atmos-
phere near Fundy is often surcharged by the moving
of so vast a body of water, rising and falling to such
height. Under the great veil Constance gave the
helm to Nibi, and tlien she slept ; the Sable under
new canvas moving like a spirit along the dimly
lighted aisles of the ocean.

Toward night the air lightened ; and the rain set
in, — li.tl'3 of it, but the more welcome as sooner
conveying to the voyagers the upswelling massive
tone of the tide bell off the home harbor. The wind
had slackened, and Constance could hear bursts of
sound as the billows thundered upon the ledges, and
the notes of the bell at first faintly stealing over the
surface of the s'^a like a low dirge from viewless lands,
then the weird floating music came in deep peals, as
if ringing from far off cathedrals. The tide bell was
left beliind, toiling in the darkness; and the lights
by which to enter safely were seen glimmering
athwart the uneasy surface of the inner basin.
Sweeter far than the bell chime, was the noise of the
fierce watch do^s which Constance heard when Ta-
pouse and Nibi brought her to the welcome landing.

All day, whether restless or reposing, the heart of
Constance had been filled with foreboding;. It can-
not be said that lier eyes were holden from what was

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

about to be revealed. If she had the practical en-
ergy, good sense, fine organizing power, and spiritu-
ality of the Abbess Angeliqne, she had also not only
the devout mind of Madame Guyon but her second
sight. The very instant her eyes had rested upon
that strangely illuminated ship in the morning light,
she had a half belief thi.t Charnac^ had followed her
into the new world, as a .fesuit missionary.

By a pitch knot shf, read her husband's letter.
Missing her Thomas k Kempis, she knew that
Charles, — not La Tour who never appeared to know
that it was in the house, — had taken it.

With inexpressible agony she prayed all night.
First, however, by well ordered forethought, she set
the men to preparing a sloop for the fortifying of St.
John ; that they might sail as soon as the weather
should change. It was a kind of care which rested
lightly upon her, this direction of men in preparing
for St. John ; toiling all night — not leaving her
work to pray alone, she shut the doors of her heart
and communed with Him who seeth in secret. The
ordering of potatoes, corn, powder, ball, oak, iron, salt,
salt junk, cordage, canvas, clothing, axes, muskets,
traps, and cannon, disturbed her serenity of soul as
little as the smooth and silent sea is vexed by the
curling fog which sweeps over it near Port Latour in
dogdays.

I said that it was with anguish unspeakable that she
prayed all night. Unknown sorrows are always bod-
ing beneath the calm and silent sea. Wrecks, and

■ "f^.- .' *.»,■. ■■^■■■'■^■' '

THE NIGHT WATCH.

jart
?he
salt,
lets,
as
I the

[she
md

dead men's bones, and all manner of foul things
crawling or dead, — the slime, the garbage, the off-
scouring of all the world are foijnd in the depths of
ocean.

Had not Constance sometimes reproached herself,
that she had clung to the Pauline text not to be im-
equally yoked with an unbeliever ? Had not Paul
also said, that the believing v^rife should win to the
faith her unbelieving husband ? What might not
Charles of La Eochelle have become, if she had
married him ? The very foremost of the religious
reformers of i^rance, she was half ready to believe.

Still she could not rid herself of her woman's
instinct, which had told her, that he had never given
her more than a fragment of his heart. On the other
hand, as she herself had clung to the God of her
youth, making Him first in her life, she could not
blame Charles of La Eochelle for clin<^in<T to what
religious ideas he had, after the Jesuits had the han-
dling of him at ten years old. Could his mother
have lived, it might have been different.

The experience of her Married life had made it cer-
tain, that Charles la Tour of La Tour was less spirit-
ually minded than he would have been in a world of
less traffic and of smaller political possibilities.

Then she gathered up all her loyalty of heart toward
God and toward man, and prayed ; prayed with eyes
flowing with scalding tears, — amid nil her directions
given in those hours when the thickening rain was
giving place to snow in the cooler temperature after

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

midnight. She prayed for her husband, that in his
personal life she might be to him a conscience incar-
nate, quickening and reinforcing his own moral sense ;
and that he might have such good sense in affairs as
would make him the fit instrument for planting a
French Protestant nation in Acadia.

And then, the more surely to strike where the
blow was needed, she prayed respecting Kings and
Jesuits, the Pope, and the Eeformation, — for Eng-
land as well as France. Well kIic might do this, since
Acadia was kicked like a foot ball between France
and England five times within the century ; and all
her own wit and wisdom and that of the two Charleses
in Acadia availed as little (save as their own spirits
were disciplined by their attempts to do what seemed
to them present duty,) as their own attempts when
new and green in the Bay of Fundy, — not knowing
the habit of the ocean on that coast, — to stem the
outrush or tlie inrush of tides from thirty to sixty
feet high, swinging this way or that with the whole
force of the Atlantic behind it.

She did wisely, indeed, to pray for the foolish
Kings Charles and Louis, neither of whom, perhaps,
deserved to have a head upon his shoulders.

She prayed for the stranger ship moving westward
in the niglit. Her men had turned in for a short
sleep before dawn ; and she walked up and down tlie
pier, in the gently driving snow, — and all her old
life upon the coast of France came back to her.
But she calmed herself, when she prayed for the ship

THE NIGHT WATCH.

ang

aps,

Ihort
the
old

J her.

Iship

silently sailing toward the Penobscot. She stood
still at the cable post, upon the verge of high tide,
and prayed most earnestly for tlie beautiful river,
that it might not" become the home of the papal
church in America. And, — somehow she was
strangely drawn to it, — she prayed that the eyes of
her child friend might be opened in the ligiit of a
new world ; and that he might reopen the Bible,
which he had learned to read at his mother's knee.

It did not enter her heart, that Charnac^ still
cared for herself personally. She thought of him —
it is strange that she did so in view of all that came
to pass — as cold at heart, like an iceberg.

Standing long upon the verge of the pier at high
tide, with the light snow falling upon her, it is possi-
ble that she was slightly chilled. But there came
vividly into her mind the forms of ice she had seen
drifting through the seas, among the icebergs, when
she came upon the American coast, before reaching
Acadia. Constance remembered, rising twenty feet
out of the sea, not far from the ship, a finely pro-
portioned vase of pure ice, — fluted, decorated, glow-
ing with tints emerald and sapphire, — the sea water
spouting from the brim, and the waves tossing their
spray upon the sides of the stem and falling back
in foam upon the pedestal. Half the bowl burst off
with a sharp crack ; and it all fell with a heavj''
pliirige into the sea.

As \L her mind was in some prophetic mood, she
could not clear her imagination of this imagery.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Before Charnac^ left lier side in her father's house,
she remembered thinking of him, as of polished steel,
possibly of plate armor, — but that was not cold
enough as she thought of him now. The exquisitely
polished forms of ice floating in the sea, — touched
and retouched by the sun and by the waves, till tliey
are like crystal, or pearl, — this was all she could
think of.

His heart must, indeed, have been cold and glitter-
ing, like an island of ice ; else he would have melted
under the warmth of aflection that had surrounded
his youth.

She thouglit of him now, as sent out by his Supe-
rior to proclaim — what? Not the love of God, the
warmth of divine friendship for man ; but wiiat
looked to her like an ice-cutting machine, to saw out
mere crystalline vases.

The spiritual terror awakened in her mind, by the
appearance of Churnace in Acadia, was based upon
the belief that there might be personal collision ; each
friend beii-g actuated by the sense of a divine mis-
sion, — missions opposed driving them apart.

Constance could not bring her mind to pray in
respect to her old-time lover, save that he might see
new truth in a new world. But in the small hours
of the night, she did pray most earnestly against the
success of the colonial plans of the Marchioness de
Guercheville.

lie

A FEUDAL CASTLE.

XI.

A FEUDAL CASTLE.

TT indicated good sense on the part of La Tour that
■*■ he named his next fort for the king he intended
to serve, — Fort La Tour. When Constance final]}-
mt)ved thither from Fort Louis> leaving it in charge
of Simon Imbert wliose room was more desired than
his company by the Jesuits at Pentagouei,^ she could
not help teasing her husband a little that he had
become a papist, — which she discovered by no change
of life or even of views, bu*- by his being so denomi-
nated in rhe land grant of fifty square leagues from
Louis XI il at the mouth of the St. John, or the
Ouangondy as the Indians had called it.^

"It is," replied Lieutenant General La Tour to
Constance, "as proper that I should become a Catholic
for the public interest, as that Henry IV. should have
done so."

" Lecherous and treacherous are the European
kings," answered Constance. "The feudal lords of

1 The use of the Penobscot station had been now given to the
Jesuit fathers for a term of years.

2 The river was discovered by Champlain, upon St. John's
day, 1604.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

America will be best, P"d do best, to stand upon
their own feet. I fere jcjst Louis shall abandon
you, after all. The kin<^ is none the less likely to
betray you, for your refusal to betray him on the
Penobscot."

" This land grant does not look as if he intended
to desert me."

" Is it not rather," asked Constance, " a mere sop
thrown to you, to keep you quiet, while Kazilly and
Charnace take possession of the whole country ? "

" It had not occurred to me that way," suid La
Tour. "Acadia is a large area. The sending out of
Eazilly as governor will be helpful, not injurious.
The development of the country will increase values.
And Charnace is not likely to have political aspira-
tions, if he finds preferment in the Church."

" Simon Imbert believes from the talk of the colo-
nists, that Charnacd has already a Lieutenant Gover-
nor's commission in his pocket," remarked Constance.
"And I gathered the same thing from what Governor
Eazilly let fall, when he came to Fort Louis to get
your permission to settle on the Scotch grant at
La mve"

" The concessions I made to Bazilly will not fail to
benefit me," said La Tour. " Aud if there had been
anything in the rumor of a subordinate commission
to Charnac^j, the Governor would have told me. He
is amiable. So long as he lives there will be no
trouble in Acadia."

" The most that I get out of my husband's baro-

A FEUDAL CASTLE.

get

il to

jeen

sion

iro-

netcy, aside from the pleasure of his company," said
a merry rincjjinf? voice in tlie hall, "is vvliat I get from
my horse md hounds and liunting-horn."

Upoii thii, Henrietta now appeared in her hunting
'fn-L OSS of her greeting increased i;}' lie
>he had gained by her second v; ae,"
h sporting reputation which Fort Ijsl

bel ,
vigor of
in A
Tour c

^0 the traditions of a later age was due
to Henricc.,.6 ardor in the chase, not to Constance
who had no taste for the exliilaration of being upon
the alert for a buck breaking the dry twigs. La Tour
and his father were occupied with a saw-mill, and
with quarrying for finishing the fort. Henrietta took
it upon herself to keep the men in meat, which was
no difficult task, — tlie caribou and the red deer
being within easy reach.

Henrietta did honor to her queen in adapting
herself to a hut in the wilderness as cheerily as to
a palace, as if Castle La Tour were Whitehall. In
garments of thick gray frieze, she hesitated not upon
occasion to handle the woodman's axe, or to cut holes
in the ice to fish for dinner, or to mount her snow-
shoes and follow a moose. The abounding health,
vouchsafed to so many women in the long winters of
the North, was so fully manifest in the first white
woman in New Brunswick, that she never yielded
the palm to a squaw in anything that pertained
to helping herself, or to helping those around her.
Blithely she bore more than her share of life's heavier
burdens. She had the health to do it; and it was

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CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

her belief, that her husband was the better balanced
for it, — more delicate in his attention, more winsome
and womanly in his affection, — having a wife "strong
enough to tie to," as the wiry Acadian boatmen were
wont to express it.

The St. John fortress makes a large figure in the
American Orient, as sheltering the brave and the beau-
tiful. And it is one of the stories of early Acadian
winters, which mothers have heard from their mothers
during eight generations, that, when the yearly French
packet returned, wines were so abundant as to be
served three quarts to a man per diem. It was in
those days, that happy Acadia was free from the noise
of war. The Micmac Scozway, who won such a repu-
tation as the best fiddler of his time along the New
England shore, first practised in Fort La Tour ; and
his "pretty, odd, barbarous tunes" have an established
place in history.

There came from over the sea domestic heirlooms
of the house of Bernon, and certain pieces out of
ancestral Piedmont. And there came to the castle
upon the banks of the Ouangondy refugees straight
out of the fires of persecution in the old world;
and they were set to repose under tlie peaceful and
musical pines of the Acadian rivers. That riches
were abundant, that there was a great gathering of
war material, that there was much drilling of soldiers
and training of Indian scouts, — we gather from the
old tradition; and we should hear much more but
for the roar of great guns, which soon arose over the

A FEUDAL CASTLE.

swirling waters, where the swift current of the river
mingles with the tides of ocean.

The mouth of the St. John was fortified by nature
before La Tour touched it. Mighty gates were erected
not far above the fort, which kept the Bay of Fundy
from overwhelming with its roaring tides the great
Bay of Kenebekawskoi above the narrows of the
river ; and which kept the great river from degener-
ating into a mere estuary^of the Atlantic, for at least
the score of miles covered by an inland basin. The
narrows are only eighty yards wide, and four hundred
long. A ridge of rocks makes across this flume way,
at such height as to give only seventeen feet of water
at low tide ; this makes a reversible waterfall, twice
in every tide. The average tide is twenty feet : when
the tide is out, tha river is twelve feet higher
than the ocean, — and the downpouring fall is twelve
feet high ; at high tide the ocean is five feet higher
than the river, and the cataract is reversed, — flow-
ing up the river and falling five feet. There are
only about ten minutes during each outflow or inflow,
in which tha cascade is at a level, when shipping can
pass the point.

At all this, a stranger is perplexed not a little. He
goes to the hidden ledge ; and he sees no waterfall.
In a few minutes he goes again, and there is a dis-
tinct, sharply defined fall, tumbling up the river ; in
a few hours he sees it a great cataract. Then it all
dies away again, and the river is smooth. Next he
beholds the whole thing reversed. In great freshets.

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

the tides do not rise to the level of the river; and
then the falls pour seaward all the time, and are
as impassable as Niagara.

It ought not, thought La Tour, to be very hard to
protect this dam during the few moments of daily
passage. He therefore felt very secure in his fort ;
which stood upon a gentle rise of ground, at an angle
commanding the harbor and the sharp turn made by
the river in entering. It was located perhaps half a
mile below the falls, at the tip of a tongue of land
which juts out toward what is now Navy Island ;
to which a bar makes out at low water, extend-
ing beyond the point of the peninsula upon which
stands the city of St. John. The town of Carleton
has now nearly overgrown the ancient site of Fort
La Tour, a portion of the earth-works remaining a
few yeara since.

The fort wa -^f stone, one hundred and eighty feet
square, with .' bastions at the angles ; so cornering
as to bring two bastions toward the lov»^er harbor,
two toward the upper, and two inland, — the tongue
of land admitting of such defence. There were
palisades without ; and within, two dwellings, and
a chapel, and the usual storage for munitions and
soldiery.

So La Tour was ready to stand at odds with the
world, armed with twenty pieces of heavy ordnance.

•^l

■ H-. -'T' ,.

THE QUEEN OF ACADIA.

XII.

THE QUEEN OF ACADIA.

igue
^ere
aud
and

the

be.

" I ^0 set every Jesuit to act as a spy on every other
-*• Jesuit was fundamental to the system of that
Order, which two hundred and fifty years ago played
such an important part in Europe, and which at-
tempted to control America in place of what Blaxton
of Shawmut called the tyranny of the lords-brethren.
Whatever may have been the state of things in Bos-
ton under Winthrop, it is certain, that those who
sought to control the Bay, and who trimmed off ears
they thought too long upon the Mystic, only lacked
organization to become the master tyrants of the
world.

Looking at it merely as a machine, — without once
inquiring what became of human hearts, of longings,
of affections, of the homes of the world, and of reli-
gious and civil liberty, — it is impossible to sit down
calmly and face the system of Loyola, as it was in
the days of its supreme glory, without an admiration,
bordering upon awe, before an Ism which took men
in multitudes, and uncovered every secret thought
and aspiration, and adaptation, then linked them
together by oaths to each other and to God, not only

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

to do what they were commanded to do by a Supe-
rior, who stood to them in the place of God re-
quiring unquestioning obedience, but to act as spies
upon each other, reporting to the Superior every
variation in word or act which might indicate a
swerving even of a thought on the part of a single
brother from the command to lay aside private judg-
ment and live as a tool for the handling of the
Superior.

If Charnac^ had not been brought up to become a
living part of such a system ; if he had not been am-
bitious of the very highest place in an organization
which could control the interior as well as the exte-
rior lives of a vast number of the most eminent per-
sons in the civilized and even the barbaric world ; if
he had not been hopeful of ultimately handling the
whatever-of-conscience the kings in his day might
happen to have about them at any given time ; if he
had not believed himself ordained of God to gain the
mastery in thought and action — ruling the nations
somewhat after the order of the secret powers celes-
tial or infernal — ruling in secret — issuing mandates
as little known to the world as the thoughts of arch-
angels or the powers of darkness ; if Charnac^ upon
the sunny waters of the Penobscot, and when wan-
dering through the primeval forest of Maine, had not
been possessed of these great ambitions, — he would
never have filled his small corner of the globe with
spies to entrap the unwary, and to embroil New
France in civil war.

THE QUEEN OF ACADIA.

He had thoroughly informed himself about La Tour
before he saw him, so far as he could by the family
traits as known to the old world ; he had seen him ;
he had drawn out from faithful Simon Imbert every
point which would enable him to judge what his
enemy was thinking about every day, — and now he
kept spies upon him, notably a Jesuit confessor who
had palmed himself off upon credulous La Tour as
a Franciscan. Fortunately La Tour was little given
to confession; and he was merely reported as not
very pious, as being only nominally a Catholic, as
being really as much a Protestant as ever he had
been, — as really recognizing no divinity outside of
La Tour.

Little was there need, that Charnac^ should set a
spy upon Constance. He knew too well all that she
thought; or he believed that he did. He knew
probably all that he was capable of knowing. As it
is impossible for the finite to comprehend the Infi-
nite, and impurity to understand the heart of God, so
there is something in the soul of every one made in
God's image, something in the soul of every one
within whom God himself abides, unknowable save
by kinship of spirit. Charnac^ was too little like
Constance to know all that she carried in her heart.
She would have been an enigma to her own husl)and,
if his mind had been perceptibly cognizant of any
high spiritual truths and influences ; as it was, he
was not different from a bat — blind in the sunlight.
The depths of the soul of Constance, all her secret

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

desires, all her purposes, all her self conquest, all her
devotion to man and to God, — were known to no
finite mind unless to her Guardian Angel.

She knew better than her husband the absolute
necessity for keeping spies by day and by night at
the side of Charnace ; and the happy and honorable
devices to which she resorted would have fitted her
to act as the Superior of the Jesuitical nuns, had not
that Order been suppressed by him who styled him-
self the vicar of God upon the Tiber.

It was only little by little that she finally arrived
at some knowledge of what Charnac^ really came to
America for : that such a man as he came upon no
trivial errand, that such a man as he had objects
ulterior to the baptism of a few barbarians, she was
confident.

It was in the spring months, when she had re-
turned to her Souriquois children upon the lakes of
the Tusket, and had gathered them in great numbers
for a few weeks of religious instruction, as well as
instruction in the art of making maple sugar, — that
she learned that Governor Eazilly was dead, and
that his brother had sold out all his rights to Char-
nac^, and that her old lover now claimed in perpetno
the best harbor upon the Alexander grant. La H^ve,
and the swift coursing waters of Digby gut and all
the old Biencourt property, which her husband had
given to Razilly for temporary use during his own
life time in exchange for his influence in obtaining
the St. John land grant for La Tour.

K >

THE QUEEN OF ACADIA.

99;

of
Ders
as
hat
md
lar-
ztuo
l^ve,
all
Ihad
)wn
ling

And it now appeared by authoritative proclama-
tion, to all whom it might concern, that Charnac^
held a Lieutenant General's commission from Louis
XIIL, by which he was to rule La H^ve, Port Royal,
and that portion of Acadia west of a north and south
line across the middle of the bay of Fundy, excluding
the fifty square leagues given La Tour at the mouth
of St. John. And this vast territory, including Pen-
tagoUet, and the fur trade of the Penobscot, was now
to be held by Charnac^ as a fief under the King,
who was to receive ten per cent of the annual profit
of the fur trade.

Here indeed, thought Constance, was a ground for
war in Acadia. Louis XIIL had stolen from her hus-
band what Henry IV. had given him by way of Pou-
trincourt and Biencourt, and given it to Charnac^.
And Isaac de Razilly's brother — Esau very likely —
had sold to Charnac^ part of the Scotch grant owned
by the father-in-law and husband of Constance.
And whatever was to be said of the coast of Acadia
westward to the Penobscot, that river and its trade
belonged unquestionably to her husband by right of
settlement long years past, as well by the confir-
mation royal as by the defence of it all by the feudal
lord La Tour who held the fief.

All this, then, was brought to America, in that
pious pinnace, L'Esp^rance en Dieu, with her fierce
dogs of war gi'owling between decks. Was there
anything more brought in this craft of the Jesuit
missionaries ? There might be.

100

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

When Constauce returned hot-hearted to the Feu-
dal Castle, — which her husband still held under liis
strange king and which he purposed to hold for king
La Tour, come wliat would, — it was with a queenly
determination by the help of lieaven to nuiintain at
least this spot, her home and that of the little child
God had given her. She had now breathed the free
Acadian air so long, that her respect for the kings of
her native country was somewhat diminished, — as
to their moral uprightness, and their right to rule
unless for reason ; and in any event she did not be-
lieve that Richelieu's puppet had any right to dispos-
sess the La Tours, of whom her child was one, of what
had been once given them by all the authority the
world was bound to respect at the time when it was
granted, — and what was theirs by the strength of the
frontiersman's right arm, and the actual improvement
of the country. All the Bernon blood in her veins,
— twelve or fifteen centuries at least traceable back
to the Roman soldiery who conquered Gaul, a stock
improved by the native population of stalwart sav-
agery upon the northern slopes of the Pyrenees and
the hardy navigators of the Bay of Biscay, a stock
flowering centuries since with noble houses, a stock
fit for ruling in Acadia, — all the Bernon blood
not yet cooled from the crusades against the Turks,^
not yet cooled from ancestral generations of armed
merchantmen, not yet cooled from the heat of re-
ligious devotion, a determination to serve God in

» A. D. 1191.

A'.

^ I

THE QUEEN OF ACADIA,

101

their own way despite the pope and the king, — this
Bornon blood rose to the throne at least in Acadia.
I Upon that spot Constance would live. The St. John
belonged to • her house ; she would hold it, — or die
upon that spot.

The Queen of Acadia found her husband turning
codfish in the sun, upon the flakes near the fort.

102

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

XIII.

OUANGONDY.

'T'HERE being no disputing the fact that Razilly,
-*■ — or llasallai, or Rasilli, or Razilla, or Razillais,
or Razillai, or Kosillon, or Rozilla, or whatever his
name really was, ^ — Razilly the redoubtable knight
commander of St. John of Jerusalem, and commo-
dore of Bretagne, who fought so gallantly as a naval
captain in the siege of La Rochelle, — was now really
dead ; and there being no dispute possible with one
so well armed as Charnacd, as to powder and ball,
and the King's commission, and the agreement of
Esau Razilly in behalf of the dead Isaac, — the wisest
thing for the La Tours to do was, first, to avoid
present conflict ; second, to fortify their river ; third,
to bring in such soldiers and colonists from Hugue-
not lands as hated Romanism, and who would fight
for a principle; and, fourth, to make friends with
the New Englanders.

In pursuance of the plan to fortify and hold the
Ouangondy, — by the help at least of the savages,

1 The books relating to the period spell his name in all this
variety of fashions. I have adopted the orthography of Charlevoix
and M. Rameau.

OUANQONDY.

103

Ills

who cared more for tlieir own great river, and the
name that had been given to it by their fathers, and
who cared more for their own warriors and medicine
men, and especially for Constance, the Guardian Angel
of the children of the Maldchites of New Brunswick as
well as of the Souriquois in Nova Scotia, than they
did for Saint John or any other of the French saints,
— it was determined to build an additional fort up the
river fifty miles at Jemsek, where Salmon River and
the Grand Lake p'^ured into the Ouangondy ; so pro-
tecting the coal discoveries at the head of the lake
and all the fur trade of tlie river. This fort is known
to the French archives and to history by the name
Jemsek, or Jumsack as the log drivers call it to-day.
It should have been named Fort Constance, for the
Acadian Queen ; since it was her idea to build it, and
in the course of events it so turned out that she super-
intended no small part of the work in its erection.

It was on a June day that Simon Imbert, the
faithful, who had dismantled Fort Louis and mounted
the guns at Fort La Tour, took formal possession at
the mouth of the river, and the flotilla of the La
Tours ascended the Ouangondy.

After they had run through the winding way
above the Falls of St. John, from five to six hundred
yards wide and two miles long, commonly called the
gullet, and had entered upon the Kenebekawskoi,
wide and far reaching, they saw the fir and the larch
crowding down to the margin of the marshes ; then,
upon the fresh water intervales above, they saw great

104

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

sweeping elms, and, here and there, a black cherry tall
as an oak with a butt big as a hogshead.-^ Then, jour-
neying onward, green walls of foliage arose sharply
from the banks on either side. At every bend of the
river, from the weedy margins or the shelter of the
islands, wild fowl started up, — half swimming, half
flying, then rising, — before the passengers of the
Sable; and the crew of the freighting sloop Great
Heart made merry with long shots at gray ducks and
whistlers. The great northern diver was sometimes
seen darting athwart the placid waters of the lake-
like expansions of the beautiful river, or splashing
the surface in alarm to escape the white-winged
shallop, which advanced so swiftly under a favoring
wind.

"This contest for the possession of Acadia," said
Henrietta at the evening camp-fire, "is like one of
the feuds between the great lords in former ages,
when the fiefs were fought over inch by inch. We
only need love and a lady to make a perfect parallel
to half the wars of the middle ages."

Constance placed her hand upon her heart. Hen-
rietta knew nothing of Sieur Hilaire Charnace which
would lead her to identify him with Charles de
Menou, whose name she possibly remembered, from
once mention by Constance.

" No," said Constance, " it is very certain that our
Jesuit friend Charnac(5, claiming to be the King's
Lieutenant Number 2, has no love and no lady to

1 La Honton's Voyages, I. 248.

OUANOONDY.

105

contend for in Acadia. His method of warfare is,
however, far removed from that of the feudal barons
whose stories amused our childhood. By concealment
of his ultimate plans, he has obtained practical posses-
sion of no small part of the country without contest.
It will be hard for me to believe, that the amiable
Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, now deceased, did
not have something to do with it. In fact, he must
have been a party to the plot at the outset, although
he claimed to be a knight ready to give fair gage
before battle."

The La Tours were not well known to Constance.
There were depths in themi and heights in them,
not easily reached by common standards for meas-
uring men. Charnac^ flattered himself that he knew
Charles la Tour; but he was never more mistaken
than in the estimate he made. The sublimity of her
husband's content, Constance never understood. She
had faith in God. La Tour had faith in La Tour;
that, whatever turned up. La Tour was likely to turn
up at the top.

'* Why Constance," said Charles, removing his pipe,
" is not Acadia big enough for us both ? The St.
John alone has more fur than I can easily handle.
If I were to go up to the head waters now, and over
upon the Miramichi, it would be worth as much to
me as an Inca's ransom. Besides, I have lost Port
Eoyal twice before, and Pentagoiiet once before, and
found them again. And I am now likely to come
into possession of them again, by the time I get rich

106

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

V. -

enough to develop them properly out of what trade
I have to-day. It is all in the way of business, —
profit and loss, loss to-day and profit to-morrow."

It was apparent that La Tour had a vivid memory
of various adventures with Virginian scapegraces,
riymouth Pilgrims, and Scotch claimants; and that
he worried little over any friction that might arise
between himself and Charnacc!;, or any temporary loss
to which he might be subjected. Moreover the La
Tours were of a long lived stock. He fully expected
to stand over the grave of his rival ; and if he were not
himself in dotage, he might easily pick up whatever
Charnac6 should leave behind him, — as the spurious
titles to land left by Eazilly had been already picked
up by the King's Lieutenant Number 2.

This quietus from the lord of the Castle La Tour
upon St. John agreed well with the digestion of his
old father, who laughed heartily, and then emptied
his pipe by rapping it gently upon one of the
stone andirons of the camp fire.

" It is a capital night to spear for salmon," he said,
rising to full height, standing on tiptoe, stretching
his arms upwards, and yawning. He was very tall ;
and when Henrietta and Constance saw the baronet's
shadow upon the great rock behind him, they both
re-echoed his laughter, which had become thoroughly
Anglicised since he had become a Scotsman. They
all launched out, paddling for the salmon.

The Great Heart had carried on her deck the
Otter for Constance, and the Lynx for Henrietta,

OUANQONDY.

107

ill;

jt's

)th

iiy
ley

Ita,

canoes beautified by their owners with colored sinews
and porcupine quills, in a variety of pretty patterns, as
if tlie boatwomeu were not without affection for birch.

When they were once alone, gliding over the dark
and silent water, Constance said, —

" I am sure, Charles, that there is much truth in
what you say of the resources of our noble river ; and
it has occurred to me that during this fine summer
weather, I can build the fort, while you and your
father explore the heads of the rivers, and make
arrangements to increase our trade."

This plan had already occurred to La Tour,
whose confidence in his wife's capacity needed no
confirmation.

"I cannot express to you," continued Constance,
— observing that her husband was in a receptive,
though perhaps silent mood, — "the anxiety I feel
relating to the movements of Charnac^. He is so
able, so devoted to his purpose, so consecrated to his
kind of religion, that he will allow nothing to stand
before him till he rules alone in Acadia."

" I shall myself have much to say about that,"
replied Charles. " Besides, I have perfect faith, that
your good angel will keep you ; and he will have to
keep me also, since you are the guardian of the La
Tours as well as of the Souriquois."

"Charnacd I should have married before I saw
you, if he had not first married his Jesuit confessor,
and gone into the Order," said Constance, with a
frank heart, to her husband.

108

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

" He was an unlucky dog, if that 's the case," said ^
Charles.

At that instant the birch-bark torch of La Tour
the senior flamed around the bend of the river, illu-
minating the dark foliage and the massive cliffs above
the water ; and Henrietta displayed a salmon five feet
and a half long and a foot in diameter.^

Charles la Tour never made further allusion to
the revelation his wife had made to him, concerning
her former friendship for Charnacd. He paid her the
highest compliment a man can pay to a woman, —
he trusted her; and had no anxiety to know her
thoughts, save as she cared to reveal them.

Kindling their own birch flambeaux, Charles and
Constance wearied themselves, not with the sport of
the hour, but with peering into shallows to watch the
fish sleeping so securely, or gazing upon the play
of light and shadow among the towering fir trees, or
upon the face of the immense ledges rising sheer out
of the water, touching up the black fringes of the
river with their flaring and fading fire.

1 La Ronton, I. 246.

JEM8EK.

/'^ 109

XIV.
JEMSEK.

"TEMSEK is the water-alley — of slow current and
^ great depth — leading from the Ouangondy, the
front street of Fort Jemsek, to Grand Lake the back-
yard of the Fort; the alley on the north, and the
great river on the west.

The noble sheet of water called, from time im-
memorial, the Grand Lake, is separated from the St.
John by a narrow alluvial bank ; the water extend-
ing north some thirty miles, from two to five miles
in width. It is connected by channels with French
Lake, and with Maquapit. The water is singularly
clear. Great banks of gravel extend along the mar-
gin of the Jemsek stream : granite boulders are seen
scattered about the bottom of the lake ; and they are
found, here and there, far and wide, in the neighbor-
ing forests of pine and hard wood, which surround
the lake even to the water's edge. These great
boulders in the woods are often covered with wild
vines, or so matted with fallen leaves as to support a
fine growth of ferns ; the rocks in some instances
lifting their altar like tops high among the oaks and
the walnuts. Numerous islets with bold shores, and

110

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

shaggy with tall trees, adorn the bosom of the lake ;
offering a breeding place far from the foxes, — for
loons, wood ducks, black coots, plover, and grouse.^

Several small islands stand in the edge of the St.
John at the mouth of the Jemsek stream.

The fertile soil and wild meadows in the neighbor-
hood were put to use promptly by La Tour, that they
might bear a part of the burden of their own defence.

A trading post was opened. Axes, kettles, flints,
sabres, sword blades for the heads of darts, twine for
nets, woollen socks, awls, needles, beads, tobacco,
much vermilion, and little soap, — were here ex-
changed for the finest of furs. The currency con-
sisted in bunching the skins, in dozens or half dozens,
— of beaver, rarely the white beaver,^ the otter, the
martin, of squirrels, the ash-colored and the Suisse,^
of the raccoon, of weasels and ferrets, of the wild-
cat, the lynx, the badger, the red fox, of bear skins
the black and the cinnamon, elk hides, I'enfant du
diable,* — and the " michibichi, a sort of speckled
tyger," believed by the most superstitious of the sav-
ages to have been the incarnation of an evil spirit.*

The necessity of preparing for war in time of

1 Adams' very entertaining Field and Forest Rambles in Eastern
Canada, London, 1873, gives valuable notes upon the geology of
the Grand Lake region.

2 La Honton, I. 233.

3 So called from the black and white streaks along the body,
like a Swiss doublet ; and the black and white rings on the thighs,
like a Swiss cap.

* Mephitis Americana. ' La Honton, L 232.

JEM8EK.

Ill

peace, led La Tour to visit the heads of the great
rivers of Acadia, to gather in furs, — the profit being
enormous, both upon the goods sold to the savages,
and then again upon the furs received in trade.

Well might the aborigines be proud of the Ouan-
gondy, and well might an apostle be glad to have
his name attached to such a river, with its long
reaches of navigable water. General La Tour's boy-
life in the defiles of the Alps, and the privations of
his early Acadian manhood, made him indifferent to
the difficulties of a new country, whether of dan-
gerous logs and the storms of Fundy in winter, or the
inconveniences of Pokiok carry, or adventures upon
the sides of the gorge below the Grand Falls. Upon
the sides of this gorge, to please his Indian boatmen,
he erected, at a point difficult and dangerous of
access, a monument of rough stones to commemorate
that unknown Indian maiden of the Malechites, who
led her captors the Mohawks over the Great Falls in
the night, when they were moving to attack her people.

There is no ground for comparing Constance with
her contemporary, the Marchioness de Eambouillet,
whose architectural taste and ability revolutionized
the arrangement of houses, and gave to the Parisian
world models for the royal improvement of palaces,
— but this woman of the wilderness knew how to
build a fort, having schooled herself to some purpose
in her life at La Eochelle.^

^ The Acadiau forts had little to distinguish one from another,
unless in the quality of the work. When completed, — the dwell-

112

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

While Constance occupied herself in overseeing
the workmen, Henrietta made wide acquaintance
with the Indian families, who came to the Grand
Lake in vast numbers in the summer season to fish
and to hunt, the game being very plenty in the
neighborhood of the cooling waters.^

Pitchibat, so swift of foot, and so strong of arm, was
Henrietta's guide and guard and boatman; as the
muscular Tarratine Takouchin, the trusty messenger,
was attached to the service of Constance, — never
far from her in all wild wanderings.

Henrietta not only diverted herself by idling
along the shores of the lake in search for jaspers
and carnelians, and fossil ferns near the coal beds,
or pushing out in her light canoe to gather lilies,
making garlands to dress out her friend the su-
perintendent of construction at the fort, and to
adorn all the Indian children whose fathers and
mothers were engaged in service at the works, —
but her solitary sail was often seen coursing over
the lake as she sought out the mouth of Salmon
River, or new hunting grounds, in bearing her part
to keep the workmen in flesh, fowl, and fish. The

ing house at Jemsek was of hewn stone, 30 x 45 ; and the two story
magazine of stone, 30 x 108 ; the court of the guard, 30 x 45 ; the
chapel, 12x18, — with a turret, and a bell of 18 lbs. ; under the
magazine, was a cellar with a well in it ; the twelve guns were each
of nearly a ton weight ; outside was a large cattle house, and a
garden with fruit trees.

* Gmnd Lake is famous, even to-day, for the gatheiing of Indian
utensils, and relics of far ofiF generations.

JEMSEK.

113

shad, the gaspereaux, the savory trout came to her
net or hook.

If Jean Pitchibat and the hounds drove a fat buck
into the water in the neighborhood of the Lynx,
Henrietta dropped her lines, and stunned the deer
with her paddle ; and she shrank not from using her
hunting knife. To contend with the bears for berries,
to secure now and then a toothsome cub, suited well
her mettle ; but if nothing better offered, she would
condescend to conceal herself in the small birches,
steal along under the aspens, or push the alders one
side, to get a shot at a partridge, or to bring down a
bevy of wood pigeons.

Constance never killed a wild creature for need or
sport, — it was not in her heart to do it. It was her
diversion to go away alone, watching, perhaps, the
humming bird with changeable colors, blue and gold
and red, glistening in the sun, and moving with nee-
dle beak from flower to flower with the bees, — or
she gazed long upon the great eagles wheeling in
their flight ; she took her little child where the silence
was broken only by the tap of the woodpecker or the
whirr of the partridge, — • or where they could look
into deep clear waters watching the fish in their un-
derworld, — or where they could see the young of
the innumerable wild fowl, seeking food or at play,
when surrounded by the stillness of the forest, — or
they saw the brown sides of doe and fawn timidly
gliding along some wood path towards the water.
And when the season came for crimson and orange

114

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

in the tops of the maples, she adorned her birch
in gay colo^, and floated as if upon an autumnal
leaf over the smooth bosom of the lake, listening
to the impressive stillness of the wilderness. The
Indian children said, that, so, she hoped sometime to
hear the voice of her God, — or that her Ministering
Angel would speak to her. She herself believed,
that the Voice within her soul could best be heard
when she was alone amid the wilds.

The shining waters and sunny wildernesses were,
however, not a little disturbed by the news Joe Ta-
kouchin brought up from Fort La Tour in the Euro-
ropean mail, which had just arrived in the yearly
packet, the Cceur de Lion.

It now appeared, that Eichelieu, — the conqueror
of La Rochelle, the master mind of France if not of
Europe, he who made a toy of kings, — was at the
bottom of the movements of M. Razilly and of Char-
nac^ ; they were his chess men, playing his game in
New France. Constance had not merely to cope
with an old time lover in his shifting masks of Jesuit
missionary and of Second Lord Lieutenant, but must
now contend with Richelieu, or lose Acadia.^

It now appeared, that Razilly, who was related to
Richelieu, and Charnace, whose uncle, the Baron
Hercule the great diplomat, married a blood connec-
tion of Richelieu, were of the Hundred Associates :

1 The reference to Richelieu's Jesuitical plans in Prince's An-
nals, Part II. Sec. 2, page Si, indicates the alarm of the Protestants,
although their information was not perfect.

JEM8EK.

116

otherwise the Company of New France, at whose
head stood the Master of the French world; with
large capital paid in ; with a grant from the Cardi-
nal's tool, the king, of all New France forever, and
a perpetuity of the monopoly in furs, freedom from
duty upon all exports, and twelve patents of nobility
as premiums ; with an obligation to colonize the
new world with papists, at the least four thousand
of them at some early date. The Company was to
be supplied with three ecclesiastics to every set-
tlement ; no Protestants were to be allowed fur-
ther foothold, so putting a complete stop to Huguenot
emigration.

Here, indeed, was ground for war in Acadia. And
the blood of Bernon took up the gage. Who could
tell to whom the Lord of battles would finally give
this land ? Kicbelieu might have other matters in
Europe, to keep his hands too full to admit of his
grasping America. His scheme might fail. He had
humbled La Eochelle ; but might not the prostrate city
be avenged in New France ? If the Marchioness de
Guercheville had not been able to bear the draft upon
her purse, might not the new capitalists so sanguine
at the outset, soon fall back ? The courtiers might
risk one pocket full of pin money, but they would
not continue to put out money for other people to
spend in far off ventures.

Some such thoughts as these rushed through the
mind of practical Constance, as she ran over her
mail. But Henrietta was boiling over, with ill sup-

116

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

pressed rage. She hnted tlie Romanist religion not
only with the fierceness of an English Protestant, but
with the bitter memory of old French refugee wrongs
tliat had come down out of a former generation.
Moreover, her service in the h< i Fabold of King
Charles, when ho espoused tlio oauciO of the French
Protestants at La Pochelle an"! was defeated by
Richelieu, led her to rtnortain the most violent
prejudices against the (Jaidinal, and all his kin upon
both sides of the sea. At the same time, she had so
much of the British admiration of pluck and hard
fighting, that she could not but stand in awe before
the genius of that clergyman, who, when he once
undertook to fight, restored the day of miracles, con-
verting some portion of the sea into land to support
his artillery, and lifting up the land itself beliind La
Rochelle into great embankments, to starve the gar-
rison of the impregnable city into submission.

Henrietta had absolutely no hope for Acadia, if
Richelieu had condescended to say that he would
take possession of it.

" This whole business," she said to Constance when
they har! ,)p(iued their dispatches, and read and re-
read th" (Ji ' 'ic lett - from loved ones beyond

the oceuii, reminds me of what I saw this forenoon
in my hunting. I sighted a deer in the meadow,
and was about to fire, when I observed two wolves
skulking in the edge of the forest preparing to make
an attack. I watched them, as one cirded around
the buck at a distance, then lay down behind him.

.-s -

JEMSRK.

117 r

The other wolf then made an open attack ; and when
the buck turned and fled, the first wolf tlien rose out
of the grass, and seized liim. .». Kuzillv, and Char-
nan^, merely fiighteu us, in order i at Kichelieu may
take us by the throat. Between tht », Acadia mwst,
fall."

Constance making no reply, \ t still gazin^^ in-
tently at the burning cities ailing nto ; shes, m the
remains of their camp fire, Henrietta res* ned in her
dogmatic fashion: "The Man of S loes not feel
disposed to cue. Such moderate m-
lanchthon, an*.' song-singing, jovial T u
over theology, lud Jolm Calvin sittin;.
keep Geneva fr* m danciUg a jig when r
— could never damage the power ' •
church much, in its triumpliant progress
centuries. That stupid Spanish Cavalie' Loyola, —
who could not rea I at an age when Calvin had lec-
tured on civil lav.' to crowds of admirers id had
formulated those ii. stitutes of religion whicli are the
bulwark of Protestantism, — was to the very end, as
at the beginning, a soldier; and between him and
the soldier Richelieu who threw away his sword to
take a bishopric, the} have given a new lease of life
to the world's old friend, the Man of Sin, whom
we all thought dead ; and he will go on living for-
ever."

At the termination of this harangue, Constance
rolled upon the ground in an uncontrollable fit of
laughter, — more violent for the excitement she had

as meek Me-

r quarrelling

up nights to

was asleep,

the papal

iirough the

118

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

undergone in learning the true causes of the Acadian
tangle.

"Henrietta," she said when she revived, "I am
astonished. The preaching of the English divines
was not lost upon you. I, being born a French
woman, cannot attempt to converse in a style, savor-
ing of the Puritan conventicles. What you say is as
good as a sermon. Let me ring the bell and call in
the savages."

THE CARDINAL.

119

XV.

THE CARDINAL.

"VTEXT morning Constance did not fail to enlighten
-^^ her amiable and entertaining mother-in-law
young Henrietta, at breakfast, upon the mysteries of
French politics, in a style which was complimented,
as being an admirable model to Milton for a political
tract, — being more temperate than he commonly
used and more judicial, but not lacking in fire or
poetic phrase and imagery. Having undertaken to
perfect Constance in the use of the English tongue
Henrietta took pride in her progress. Packets from
the old world brought to the wilderness not only
powder and ball to defend the settlers of Acadia,
and rare goods out of the old world, and the means
for trafficking, but the writings of John Milton, who
was just at that time pounding against the gates of
Prelacy.

As the morning wore on, Henrietta, who could not
be easy until she had read all the theology, which
had come with the bad news in the Coeur de Lion,
took Chilliugworth's Religion of the Protestants out
for an airing after being boxed up so long at sea;
and seated herself under a little cluster of autumnal

120

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

beeches liglited by the sun. Constance, going out
not long after with the second part of Don Quixote,
noticing the warm glow of the clump of low shrub-
bery and fruit bearing trees where Henrietta was
seated, drew near, much as she v/ould to a cheery
camp fire kindled by a torch from the skies in the
early noontide. The temptation being great to air
her English in the presence of so kindly and appre-
ciative a critic, she reverted to the topic of the morn-
ing, saying to her companioTs, —

"I think that your Eng'i I people make a great
mistake in regard to Eicbelieu. You speak of him
as an ecclesiastic. Eeally he is so, not more than
was William of Orange, not so much so as Philip II.
of Spain. He is a statesman. His robe is an acci-
dent. Rather he uses it to cloak his designs. The
Vicar of God is to him less than the King of France.
It pleases him in his red garment and skull cap, with
a golden cross gleaming upon his breast, to have a
sickly and feeble king with just sense enough to do
what he is told, whom he can take up between his
thumb and finger, and set at the head of Europe."

"You forget Charles I., and particularly our poor
Scotch Jeems, who was the legitimate father of our
Nova Scotia," interrupted Henrietta.

" Pardon my seeming disrespect to the Scotch. I
meant to have excepted Sir William Alexander. Those
who tliink well of Nova Scotia of course rank higher
in my estimation than Louis or even Eichelieu."

"Eichelieu certainly deserved well of the world,"

THE CARDINAL.

121

replied the Scotch baronet's wife, " when he cut the
apron strings that tied Louis to his mother, and drove
away from court Mary de Medici. And even if lie
did put a bib and tucker on Louis, and give him a
few play-things, he is not much to be blamed for that,
considering how much of a man he has made out his
king in the eyes of Europe."

" Eichelieu," said Constance, " has done for France
what the wars of the roses did for England, — killed
out the feudal system, and given life to the king. If
I could allow myself to think calmly of my native
city, — and tliis I cannot do," she added in a plaintive
tone, with tear drops filling her eyes, — "I should say
that Eichelieu, who knows no more of human pity
and has no more respect for human life than the
axe of an executioner, was after all right in what he
did."

"What do you mean ?" asked Henrietta, in a quick
excited tone. " You do not mean to uphold him in
his persecution of the Protestants ? "

" He did not persecute the Protestants, if you will
pardon me," replied Constance. "He could not,
upon his theory of destroying feudalism and creating
an absolute monarchy, do otherwise than he did.
Henry IV. made one mistake in the edict of Nantes,
— he left my Huguenot people as a political party,
who should be heard as a party, in governing France.
It would have been better, if he had merely given ab-
solute religious toleration, and protected it. It would
have allayed prejudice, and have helped spread the

*"* ' ^ ' • ^\

i j

i ;

122

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Protestant faith. The result of the course he took was
to make the Protestant political leaders ambitious of
controlling the nation. And after the King was mur-
dered, my native city" — and here her voice trembled,
and she almost broke down again — "proposed the
establishment of a Protestant republic. The Due de
Rohan was opposed to it at first ; but afterwards he
favored it, and headed the movement. You know, by
your father's house, what evils had been wrought by
the long religious wars. There was no France ; it was
Gaul again, — barbaric tribes contending, some reli-
gious, some not. At this juncture Eichelieu appeared ;
he happened to have been a soldier, a bishop, and a
cardinal, — but he was really at heart one of the very
few born kings, as much so as Csesar, or Charlemagne,
or your Alfred, or William the Norman. But he is a
king not for himself, he is true to his priestly vows ;
he glorifies the Church by setting up one and pulling
down another. Hildebrand is the only Pope worthy
of being named upon the same day with Eichelieu."

" But did he not destroy your churches ? " asked
Henrietta.

" I cannot, my dear, speak of what he did," replied
Constance in a subdued voice. " He contended against
us for political, not for religious reasons. The throne
was to be established. It is not time yet for a republic
in France. The department of Aunis was fit for it,
perhaps Languedoc ; but France would have been
dismembered in this way. And France as a whole
is not intelligent enough, or religious enough to be a

TEE CARDINAL.

123

republic. Richelieu has now consolidated a nation out
of a few feudalities; he has ruined the aristocracy, and
reduced the parliaments to insignificance. Now we
shall see France at the head of Continental Europe."

"I admit," answered Henrietta, "that a kingdom
absolute, is better than anarchy. And, if freedom of
thinking and religious liberty were possible under an
absolute government, there might be hope sometime
for such religious and civil growth that the govern-
ment itself might safely be controlled more or less by
the people. Our English nation, I confess, is almost
tired of such kings as we have. If I should breathe
the free air of Acadia long enough, I should become
a republican, or have a king that would rule just as
I might fancy."

" In respect to France," said Constance, " we never
had even the beginnings of liberty which your Saxons
fished up out of the foggy seas of the north ; we have
for ages been under the thumb of the Pope, or of
some king, or some feudal lord true to the imperial
traditions of Eome. The liberty of the strongest is
all the liberty we have in France. And just now
Richelieu is the strongest."

And so they talked, these Acadian women, viewing
the great events of far off nations through the clear
sky of the new world, — talked until the fires in
the autumnal woods grew dim with coming twilight.
The effect of this new move to plant papal power in
America, by the Hundred Associates of Morbihan,
was discussed in every light

' ii

124

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

" Is it not a fundamental error," asked Constance,
"one likely to be fatal to their whole scheme, to
attempt to plant colonies in New France upon the
feudal system, which Richelieu is now trying to
uproot in Old France ? They have not made it an
object to the common people to emigrate. Nobody
is to be benefited except the Hundred Associates."

"I should have tliought," said Henrietta, "that
they might at least have made a hundred and fifty
noblemen as our King did, instead of twelve. That
might have induced somebody to emigrate. I doubt
if we see any able Frenchmen coming to Acadia in
addition to M. Razilly, and — shall I call him Lieu-
tenant General ? — Charnace. On the other hand,
there will be a good many Scotch and English people
in want of nobility patents, and land grants, who will
come over." ^

"What is needed," answered Constance, "is the
plan adopted by the New Englanders, — to give every
settler a fair footing. The Hundred can never hire
colonists ; and they do not want bona fide settlers.
The fur business would be destroyed by the general
settlement of the country. Charnac^ would rather
have paying beavers than pauper colonists. A few
farmers to raise food for the trappers, is all that the
Hundred will send over. There are few in France
who can even be hired to migrate. The Huguenots

1 Claude la Tour's liaronetcy was of a new order of Nova
Scotia nobility ; one hundred and fifty being created for the sake of
settling the country with those ambitious of titles.

THE CARDINAL.

125

are really the only ones who wish to pack up and move
to Acadia. The Catholics do not want to come ; and
they will not, except as hired help, or as priests."

" But Richelieu has put a stop to Protestant emi-
gration," interposed Henrietta.

"He cannot do that," was the reply. "The Hugue-
not merchants, in their armed ships will glide in and
out everywhere. They are as persistent as if they
were smugglers and pirates. They make money by
their wits. The Protestant population of Biscay will
not ask the Hundred where they may go or not go."

At this point, Henrietta could no longer refrain
from yawning, — wliich she did with an apology.
The defenders of Acadia, then, roasted their green
corn at the evening camp fire ; toasted their feet ;
and told surprising stories of old-time hunters and
warriors of former ages, and of those devout men who
had been engaged in holy missions among the barbaric
tribes of Europe.

126

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

XVI.

THE ACADIAN WILD.

TEMSEK was a more comfortable place to winter
^ in than Fort La Tour, more sunny, and less ex-
posed to the eccentricities of the Atlantic. In com-
pleting the works, General La Tour was there most
of the cold season, passing often up and down the ice
clad river, according to the exigencies of his building
and his traffic. Constance, when at liberty to do so,
busied herself tliroughout the winter in ministering
to the Malechites, in which the wife of the Senior
La Tour gave occasional aid.

Besides families not a few, who had regular huts
and formed little villages upon the lake shore, or
near the junction of considerable streams, there were
great numbers, who wintered near the lake with its
stores of fish ; it being a region somewhat famous for
the number of moose yards within reach by one or
two days journey upon snow shoes.

Those camping or unsettled Indians, — who spent
a winter here then there, who moved with moving
game, who had different resorts for seasons dry or
wet, whose movements were directed by feuds or by
war, — lived in temporary lodges rather than in huts

THE ACADIAN WILD.

127

and stockaded villages. A lodge could be set up in
a new place within half an hour ; a few poles were
placed upright, and tied together at the top, then
covered with mats or more commonly with bark ; a
parapet of snow was then gathered upon the outside
for a windbreak ; and pine branches or tips of fir
served as a mattress, over which skins were then
thrown for bedding, — and this completed the house
or home. The smoke which gathered in the top of
the lodge, little by little found its way out of the
interstices of the bark covering, after having first
imparted all the heat possible to the smothering
inmates.

In severe weather the falling snow was so thick as
to darken the day ; or the clear north wind so full of
force as to split the forest trees, and so full of frost
as to peel the skin off a white face. Upon such days,
it was, within the lodge, only possible for the inmates
to freeze one side and roast the other ; impossible to
see through the smoke more than half a yard ; pos-
sible only in such smoke to weep their eyes away,
else perish with cold by opening the roof. Some-
times they could breathe only by placing their nos-
trils near the ground. Such rough weather, however,
offered her best days to Constance, since she was sure
of finding the entire family or families in a lodge at
home, with nothing to do but to keep the smoke alive,
and to hear anything she might have to suggest. To
conduct devotional exercises under the circumstances
might have been difidcult; still it was possible, —

128

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Constance remembering that the dwellers in the
lodge had always been used to such atmosphere, that
they at least were at home, the only home they had
ever known.

The Indians bathed daily in summer, but never
in winter ; they rubbed their bodies occasionally in
bear's oil, but never changed their clothing. Heat-
ing, and steaming in the smoking lodge, they were
still at home. Tl-ere was nothing in the atmos-
phere to which i\ii:y had not been accustomed all
their lives.

These Indians kept vast numbers of fierce hunting
dogs, which were fed little save in the chase ; starv-
ing in winter, they crawled into the lodges, snatching
food fro'u any hand they could catch unguarded ; hav-
ing shivered outside, they approached as near as they
could to the inside smoke. A coverlet of two or
three dogs lying upon one's person, was likely to be
found by any one sleeping in these kennels.^

It was with such surroundings, that Constance of
Acadia, — whose father and grandfather by their money
helped Henry of the White Plume to the throne of
France, whose family records had given prelates to
the church during more than seven hundred years,
whose ancestors during all that time had been in high
positions of trust military and municipal conveying
a title of nobility, who was a descendant of the
counts of Burgundy ,2 — patiently devoted herself to

1 Charlevoix Journals, pp. 129-131.
a A. D. 895.

THE ACADIAN WILD.

129

the religious instruction of warriors and squaws
and their children, day after day during those very
winter months in which llichelieu travelled like a
king, with a long retinue of horsemen, of coaches,
of wagons, with vocal and instrumental music, or
gave elaborate and costly entertainments to richly
dressed courtiers, — liichelieu, who, when of the
same age with Constance, wrote to Madame de
Bourges, that, as the poor bishop of Lu(;on, he had
no garden or avenue where he could walk, that he
had the muddiest bishopric in France, and that he
could find no lodging without a smoky chimney.

As a practical lesson to her wild neighbors, Con-
stance lived among them, in a lodge ; so arranging it
by what wit she had, as to show them how to be
more comfortable as well as more cleanly. Without
other conveniences than every Indian household could
easily obtain, she had prepared in the deep snow a
pit, sinking to the leafy covering of the ground, and
here prepared her bed of fir-tip feathers laid thatch-
wise ; and in that region which, of all places in Aca-
dia, offered stone in abundance and Umerock, she had
a rough chimney ; and she could be seen any day
frizzling her meat upon sharpened forks of oak, sur-
rounded by the children of the nearest lodges. Henri-
etta now and then kept her company ; and Takouchin
and his family wintered in a lodge close at hand.

In this Sunday lodge, as it was called, she had
little companies all day long once a week ; when she
learned by some system what had been accomplished

130

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

f t

by the habits of iiulustiy slie Imd inculcated, and in
aid of which she had su|^f^fested practicable methods, —
the work upon the fortitications employing any who
could really make tliemselves useful, and the making
of pipe staves for sliipment employing any who cared
to undertake it. The Indians were found to be good
imitators, and they easily learned to make many ar-
ticles of domestic convenience. Providence for the
future was a matter of inquiry. Information was
given as to sickness ; which tended to break up the
superstitious courses often followed upon such occa-
sion. The laws of kindness, of gratitude, of courtesy,
of cleanliness, of purity, of uprightness, were made
clear by simple illustrations, and enforced by appeal-
ing to conscience, and the authority of God. Practi-
cal precepts were committed to their faithful memories.
They were taught to be alone with God, seeking help
from heaven. And before the winter was over, Con-
stance saw many, who could endure torture without
a tear, weep when worsted in an attempt at self
conquest.

That her words, in respect to being alone with God
were not meaningless, came to be understood by her
people ; and they learned not to look for her, or disturb
her hours upon a Saturday, when often she was quiet
in her lodge ; or sometimes went away into wild nooks
of the forest in sunny weather, her faithful Joe busy-
ing himself with his basket-making wherever his mis-
tress might indicate. Clad in the squirrel-skin clothing
given her by the Souriquois maidens, she felt the cold

THE ACADIAN WILD.

181

as little out of doors in ordinary winter weather as a
fox or an elk. A friendly log, whiuli her woodsman
could easily provide, with a few branches of hendock,
together with such skins as Joe took with him, made
it easy to bivouac wherever the fancy of the day
might determine. So was she shut witliin the wil-
derness, like some woman who had taken vows upon
her, and entered into her cell in some storied cloister.
Under the solemn pines in the silent north-land, no
solitude could be more perfect.

Constance had no such rhapsodies as marked the
spiritual experiences of Marie do I'lncarnation; but
there were sober words written of o'd time, which
indicated God's friendliness and the promise of his
abiding, — and these had great weight with her. The
bitterness of her early years, — for she saw it now to
have been more bitter than she once confessed even
to herself, — in what was really a disappointment, — in
the choice made by Charnac6, which left her no other
choice than to cleave fast to the God of her youth, —
had upon her the effect to throw her back upon Him,
and to form witli Him that " mystical union " which
the theologians of former ages dwelt upon so much, —
v/hatever this might mean when subject to analysis.
To Constance it meant, the possibility of communion
with God as her Friend, — and that was enough.

She saw no visions, but she had the implicit faith
of Joan of Arc ; and in the great solitudes of a new
world she carried to God all her sorrows, all her
hopes, all her purposes.

132

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

It can hardly be a wonder, that there were days
wlien her heart was empty in the unpitying wilder-
ness. If so, she must have had deep spiritual sym-
pathy with the most devoted men of tlie Order of
Jesus, who during so many years moved in their holy
mission across the monotonous and desolate land in
winter ; who sometimes said, that this vast continent,
in those grim ages when Acadia was first visited by
Constance, — so inhospitable, so rude, so rank in its
wildernesses, so peopled with devils, — was but an .
outskirt of tlie world of woe.

She could not easily get so far from the scene of
her daily service, as to forget to lilc up her heart to
Him, to whom all flesh came, praying for the savages,
so easily mistaken for devils, — and for all who were
ignorant and out of the way.

One still night, when she was alone, gliding over
the smooth surface of the lake before the depth of
snow hindered such recreation, as she had been pray-
ing for her own home, for her little child, — her
mother-eyes saw afar off, with that forecasting vision
which reads or seeks to read the record of predes-
tined years. Just then a brilliant meteor rushed in
splendor just above the lake, as it seemed to her, —
falling in the forest upon the south. It made sucli
an impression upon the mind of Constance, that she
spoke of it to Madame Gibones upon her second
visit to Boston, just before she was cut off in the early
bloom of her unfolding life.

If Constance kept up a brave heart before her hus-

THE ACADIAN WILD.

133

band and Henrietta, in relation to Eichelieu and his
Acadian plans, she did not hesitate to make known
to God all her fears. She prayed, that He would
withhold from the wise and crafty the wisdom needed |
to people America with colonists opposed to freedom
of thouglit and worship; and that there might come to
the coast such men — even if Englishmen — as Crom-
well and Hampden, who had been mentioned in the
recent mail as having recently actually embarked for
tlie new world but temporarily detained. She could
not hold her heart back from praying for some of the
ancient houses of her own native city, that those able
men might come to America, — and she prayed that
God would so guide the feet of her little brother, who
alone remained of her father's house.

February was spent by Constance near the mouth
of the Salmon river. It was the last Saturday in the
month. She was perhaps not a little worn with her
steadfast devotion to her mission, and not a little dis-
turbed by reports brought from the Penobscot by Jean
Pitchibat. The crust upon the snow favoring a longer
excursion than common, she went some distance from
the lake, beyond the first range of hills westerly. The
tingling sensation of out door life in bracing winter
weather, when contrasted with the long hours she had
made with the Malechite children for many days pre-
ceding, led her further than she had first planned. It
was not until she had found a sheltered spot upon the '
top of a low hill without prospect, among thickets of
young hemlocks, and Joe had kindled a fire for her

134

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

under the naked limbs of a great oak, crooked, gaunt,
chilled by the winter winds, — that she became sen-
sible how cold it was.

Fog and frost had covered the entire forest with
silver, or spangles of crystal ; and the glory of the
sun, retlected from every reed and shrub, from the
fir-trees commonly so dark against the winter sky,
and from the fine outlines of the maple and the ash
as if they had blossomed with diamonds, — had led
Constance far, in a clear cold day when the sun had
lost his fire.

Soon after noon, when this woman in the wilder-
ness had craved God's blessing upon her little parched
corn, the sun was obscured, the skies became heavy,
the clouds thickened, and the horizon was dark. A
storm was gathering; and the wind began to moan.

It is not certain that Constance was peculiarly
sensitive to the conditions of the outer world, as
some are whose natures are strongly sympathetic,
lie that as it may, the thought was forced upon her,
as she quickened her returning steps, that as the
morning with its glitter of hundreds of square leagues
of jewels had gone by forever, she had now in her
own life nothing to which to look forward but a
oatherinfj storm and sunset.

All the morning her mind had been running
over the happy days of her childhood, and dawning
womanhood. Until she was twenty-three years old
she had loved, perhaps foolishly but fondly, one
whom she refused to marry partly out of respect

THE ACADIAN WILD.

135

to Paul, and partly out of fear of Loyola. And
ever since then, she had idealized the man, think-
ing; him without fault save in the excess of his devo-
tion to what she believed to be a spiritually misleading
religious system. But now it was apparent that her
child friend was dead, — that Charnace was not the
same man with Charles of La Rochelle. Since she
saw him, he had developed what was in him. He
liad become an intriguer, scheming always for the
mastery; following blindly — as she believed — the
inspiration of his Superior, — and just now the in-
spiration of Richelieu.

Was tliis the cloud obscurinf? the sun ? It was
not. She did not, she would not believe eyes or
ears ; she would believe her own heart. Her heart
told her that Charles of La Rochelle had not changed.
It had forced itself upon her, as she walked through
the glittering avenue of the palace of jewels ; and
now agjain as she went home — if her lodo-e was her
home — when the jewels were falling under the sad
fingering of the wind, which snapped the twigs and
made havoc with the beautiful world, — it was forced
upon her that Charnac(^ the man had not changed.
He was too noble. She believed that he was heartily
sick of the Jesuits, and a disbeliever in the system,
swinging back to the faith of his mother.

"What if?" And she moaned aloud, loudly like
the moaning wind, when she said that. She looked
around to see whether Joe was too near, and had
overheard her thinking aloud. No, he was not in

136 CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

but his dog was, — just in advance of his

sight;
master,

" What if ? " And she stayed her steps ; she was
getting too near the Indian village. Constance told
Joe to go forward, and prepare her dinner ; and she
waited in the gathering gloom of the starless night.
She knew Charnacd too well. No man sne had ever
met was so domestic as he in his tastes and habits,
or in his heart. He desired most of all a home. He
loved to have fine things about him. He would snatch
at his present opportunity to pluck up wealth by the
hands of Briareus, the Hundred Associates, — and then
he would ha\'e a home. Jean's words had disturbed
her. " What if ? " And she almost shrieked with
terror, as the thought flashed upon her mind, and
stood in illumination, as if written upon the dark
sky in words of fire. "What if his heart is not
still ? what if he was not satisfied when he decided
to cling to the papacy and the Jesuits instead of
marrying me ? He acted from a mistaken sense of
religious duty. What if he has now found out his
mistake? He wanted to marry me, he protested,
because he loved me. If he has discovered his
mistake in uniting himself to the Jesuits, his love
for me will certainly rise supreme, and control every
act of his life.

"His iron will has been schooled for years by a
different standard of right and wrong than tliat of
God's Word. He believes that the end sanctifies the
means. He gets it from his church, which he be-

THE ACADIAN WILD.

137

lieves to be infallible, and inspired of God, so stand-
ing to him as the very word of the living God. He
is made ready by his very piety to do wrong for the
greater glory of God. He will shield himself behind
the order of his Superior, and go forward. How far
will he go ? "

She paused a moment, as if, by so doing and look-
ing with fixed eyes, she could discern how far Char-
nac^ would go, — in grasping for his Associates, in
tearing up Protestantism for his Superior, and in
giving definite form to the sentiments of his own
heart toward her. Then she spoke in a low tone,
as if her Angel might listen to her, asking, —

" Is there anything in this world so much like hell
as a confusion of one's sense of right ? Are not men
led by it into the worst of ways, dreaming that they
are in the divine paths ? They will act like demons ;
and when ihQj become conscious of what they have
done, they will wail, as if in the world of woe. Char-
nac^ will go straight forward, and from his wrong
sense of what is right he will act like the worst of
men. And he will not pause till the evil is done.
Then he will reflect. He will curse the Society of
Jesus. He will curse the Pope and all his angels.
And he will yearn with unspeakable longing for the
simple faith of his mother. And he will long for
me, — when I am dead. May God shield my hus-
band, and my child."

The gulf was before her. She had looked into it.
Constance then calmed herself. Kneeling upon the

138

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

snow, overlooking not the frozen lake but a great
shoreless sea of darkness, darkness that could be
felt, she prayed : — " May we never meet. But be-
fore I die, permit me to direct his soul to Thee, Thou
Friend of the friendless, Thou Bride of every longing
heart."

-T ■ «,

BODERIQO PALLADIO.

139

XVII.

RODERIGO PALLADIO.

'T^HE Jesuit by whom Charnac^ was taught when
•*- he was a lad and youth, Eoderigo Palladio,
brought to his work not only the beautiful spirit of
his accomplished and devout Hispano-Italico mother,
but her singular beauty. Of the corps of carefully
selected young teachers sent to La Eochelle by the
Jesuits upon their restoration to France early in the
seventeenth century, after their brief dispersion, he
was the only one who kept his footing in the great
Protestant strong hold.

Charnac^ must indeed have been an idiot not to
have loved him, when he had once thoroughly made
his acquaintance. Palladio's mother had been startled
by the increasing power of the reformed religion,
which threatened strongly to take from France the
proud title — " the eldest son of the Church." She
had no hope, save in giving the world over to the
Society of Jesus ; which seemed to her, — in her
extended studies in the history and theology of the
Church and of the controversial treatises of the Eefor-
mation, to which, under the guidance of her confessor
Fra Camaxo, she had access at her house in Lyons
by giving shelter to the library of the Jesuit college

140

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

> I

during the dispersion of the Order, — to furnish the
organization best fitted to stay the defection in the
Catholic Church, which plainly needed reformation,
but not destruction.

She was confident of a long and honored career for
the Church of God already hoar with ages, if, at this
crisis in her history, the most devoted of her sons
could be marslialled as one man, and placed under
intelligent direction. Loyola would not have lived
in vain, if his work had won for him no other ad-
mirer than this intelligent and godly woman Mad-
ame Jaqueline Palladio,^ who was attracted to it first
of all as a work of consummate art, as she had been
by the Moses of Angelo, the Last Judgment, or the
dome of St. Peter's.

What could be more sublime than the conception
of bringing the entire body of the Church into a per-
fect state of purity, of unselfish handling of all earthly
goods, and of obedience even in thought to the repre-
sentative of the Highest, that the earth might so
resemble heaven ? If the holy Catholic Church offered
the only way of salvation, the Order of Jesuits offered
the only way of saving the Church when assaulted
by the powers of darkness ; and this Society of the
devoted followers of Jesus was deserving not only of
her own confidence, but with sincere devotion she
gave to the Order her only son.

The beautiful boy, with his heart full of his

1 The young widow of Palladio of Vicenza, whose geniiis did so
much to adorn the Italian cities.

£aL.

RODERIQO PALLADIO.

141

mother's tenderness, was dedicated to this service, as
her holiest offering to God. The little child was
taught to look upon the Church as his mother, as the
child Jesus looked to Mary. And he was taught by
his own mother's lips, in all his growing years, that
his espousals were due to the Church tlie bride of
Christ, that — in such sphere as he might fill — he
should be like the Vicar of God upon the earth, by
choosing the Church as his companion in life, seeking
a celestial union rather than an earthly marriage.

How strange the outcome, — this woman Jaqueline,
of Lyons, in this way, stole away the son of Marthe
de Menou of La Eochelle, and hindered his marriage
with Constance, and embroiled New France in civil
war.

It was impossible to discern what the end would be.
The Society of Jesus, seeking to save the Church, was
like the ark which took into it things clean and un-
clean. If every Jesuit in the Order had been like
Eoderigo Palladio, the name of Charnace would have
stood high upon the roll of missionaries, perhaps
consecrating the soil of some far off land with his
martyr blood.

But it was found to be practically impossible, in
the working of the Society, to achieve success without
the leadership of men of pronounced individuality;
men not always pliant, not easily moved about by
kings or popes, or even by such kindly criticism by
inferiors as no theory could avail to suppress. And
the manifest success of the Order, advancing to the

142

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

liigliest places of the world, led able men very imper-
fectly sanctilied to take vows, and by their surpassing
ability to reacli the highest positions of trust.

The system as such had so little power to clear it-
self of the worst of men, that civilized nations found
it practically impossible to protect themselves, save
by clearing themselves of the Order itself.

If all members had been filled with that unselfish
love which characterized the best, the Society and
the world would have reaped the best fruits pos-
sible to be reached under this svstem: whose fun-
damental theory required the members " to vancpiish
and subdue the loftiest and most difficult part of
themselves, their will and judgment," and "to per-
form the order, let it be what it may, of the Superior,
with a certain blind impulse of an eager will, which
will bear them forward without giving space for
inquiry." ^ Is it not related, that " the Abbot John
inquired not whether what he was ordered to do was
useful or not ; but continued daily, throughout a year,
to water the dead stump of a tree " ? ^

Certainly no conception can be more sublime than
that which the founder of the Order saw, when he
would utterly destroy the individuality of every man,
and create, from them all, one vast personality fitted
to be the bride of Christ upon the earth, — actuated
solely by the infallible Vicar of God: "the lowest
ranks being controlled by means of those next
above them, and these by the higher; one move-

1 Loyola's Letter on Obedience (Taylor's trans.). ^ Idem.

ir1iiiiiii

RODERIGO PALLADIO.

143

ment originating at the centre being communicated
to the extremities." ^

It is no wonder tliat tliis system fitted men for a
certain kind of power. The world had need not only
of men eflicient by nature, but trained for special
service. They were so laborious, so persevering that
they found a place. This system, moreover, had th(5
unequalled advantage of being able at any moment to
command the implicit obedience, for any service, of a
great body of men throughout the world ; as if the
globe had been a great monastery, in which the eye
of the General controlled the action of every man.

It is easy to see that the ablest members of the
Order always construed tlie rules, so as to allow — to
themselves at least — all needed freedom of action ;
and men of warm hearts .and glowing love were will-
ing to give their lives to a system, which tended to
reduce the whole religious world to mere mechanism.

When, therefore, Koderigo Palladio devoted his en-
tire time, not to instruction alone, but to obtaining
the control of the affections and the conscience of
Charles de Menou, Sieur Hilaire Charnac^, of ten years
old, it was with the love of a mother — represent-
ing the motherhood of the Church — to a motherless
boy. And the teacher was so imbued with the spirit
of religion, and of the Order of which he was a vital
part, that he filled the child's mind with the most
surpassing ambition to be of use to God and man, in
the Catholic Church and in the Society of Jesus.

* Letter on Obedience.

I >

^ I
I J

144

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

It was indeed many years before the child of Pro-
testant parents who was beloved of Constance, could
be brought by insensible steps to cut off all tender
ties, and devote himself to God as a Jesuit. With
scarcely perceptible motion he was led far, before he
perceived, as a growing lad, tliat he had gradually,
irrevocably, made great advance in a new religious
pathway.

When he finally left the home of his youth, it
seemed to him reasonable that he should not begin
all over again to decide the great religious problems
of the world ; that Constance must be in serious
error, if she should undertake to settle all things for
herself, aided only by her reason and the interpreta-
tion which she personally put upon what she called
God's Word, — and in still worse error if she should
not think for herself, but take the interpretation of
John Calvin, the Protestant pope.

It seemed to him far wiser, as a young man, !•
submit his intellect, his judgment, to the authority of
the Church, which alone — by all the wisdom of ages
and as the infallible holder of the keys of earth and
heaven — could rightly interpret the ancient Scrip-
tures. Uncertain for himself, as to what was right,
he threw himself back upon the Chair of St. Peter ;
and allowed Urban VIII. to reign in his own heart as
the authorized Vicar of God, — that is, so far as he
might be allowed to do so by any special restrictions
and counter orders issued from time to time by the
General of the Society of Jesus.

RICHELIEU'S ECHO,

145

XVIII.

RICHELIEU'S ECHO.

WHEN Charles of La Rochelle entered the St.
Pol do Leon, he came in contact with teachers
less self-denying, less devout, less modest, less amiable,
less attractive, less keen, than the peerless Palladio ;
they were men of greater personal ambition, more
selfish aims, — and somj of them were corrupt and
unscrupulous, illustrating in their own lives that doc-
trine of devils, th it the end sanctifies the means.

It is not to be wondered at, if in the age of Riche-
lieu there were bad men in the Papal Church. Who
can tell when the night of the dark ages passed away
from every hamlet in France ? The spirit of private
lawless tyranny, ruling by the right arm, had not yet
died out of many men of surprising vigor ; the Papal
Churcli still had preferment for able men of this
stamp.

It was hard to decide what was right. The stand-
ards were doubtful. For ages the Church had for-
bidden men to think ; had invoked the secular power
to burn for the variation of a shade of thought, upon
abstruse doctrines not affecting morality between man
and man. The religious wars of France had divided

146

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

kinsfolk and cloven in twain many a domestic hearth.
The reformed churches were contending among them-
selves, and some were fighting against civil authority.
Many conservative men of well ordered lives thought
it the only safe course to adhere to the Vicar of God
and his dictum ; and, if it were of evil, to trust that
God would accept their right intent. So, multitudes
of obscure devout persons were fed with meat out of
heaven, borne to them by unclean ravens.

Charnace, as he began now to style himself, with
all his manly ambitions to be of service, met spirit-
ual guides most crafty and ungodly among those who
obtained great influence over him in the Jesuit Col-
lege in Paris. Before he was conscious of what he
was doing, his vows of obedience had made him a
party to transactions, which were commonly thought
to be right by the circle in which he moved; but
which could never be squared by the side of the
written Word of God, — the Word of God being of no
effect by the traditions of men. Under these cir-
cumstances his conscience was warped; the light
that was in him became darkness, and great was
that darkness.

His local knowledge of La Rochelle was of use to
Eichelieu ; the knowledge of the fur business and of
Acf iia, which he had picked up in his native city,
greatly interested Eichelieu, that man of universal
genius. The magnetism of him, who had now acliieved
what the kings of France had tried for, during five
hundred years, in unifying the nation, told wonder-

RICHELIEU'S ECHO.

147

fully upon Charnac^ ; as it could not fail to do upon
all who were not mere hare-brained courtiers.

"The universal spider," Louis XI., whose prodigious
nose indicated the soundest practical judgment in
affiiirs, had never been able to spin the web he
dreamed of, upon which he was to stand in the centre
and be connected by direct lines with all France :
Eichelieu in his Cardinal robe bad accomplished it
for Louis XIIL, — perhaps in part by very virtue of
his ecclesiastical office, which won for him the co-
operation of the religious forces of the nation. A
peer of the parliament of Paris, a duke, rich as a
king, making most costly presents to a king who did
not think himself belittled to take them, — here in
reality was an ecclesiastic who fulfilled the promises
which Palladio had held out to Charnacd, that the
kingdoms of the world belonged to God, and that
the Church ouijjht to rule.

It was a tempting offer made to young Charnac^,
whose clearheadedness in business matters had at-
tracted attention, and whose ability was matched
only by his docility and readiness to serve, — when
it was proposed to give him a share in the Company
of New France, to the organization of which he had
so largely contributed by his masterly presentation
of the ways and means of reaching great results
in commercial gains, which would amply justify the
risk, and which would be certain to open new fields
rich for spiritual harvest among pagan peoples, and
a new area for the extension of the Church by

!;i , : IS

i i

148

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

emigration to a land otherwise likely to be seized by
Huguenots.

Henceforth the lad, the youth, the young man.
was no longer such, — he was a man, trusted, honored,
capable of fulfilling the trust and sustaining the
honor. Charnacd henceforth was an integer in the
State. A nation had grown up under tlie magician
Richelieu, and the boy from La Rochclle had now
an opportunity to show his patriotism. He had a
country to serve. He stood for Acadia in the nation.
This great province of New France was his govern-
ment ; or soon would be so, wholly, "^ " "^'our could
not stand in the way of the kingdon !od. The

great machine would crush La Tour.

So it came to pass that Richelieu had an echo in
the Maine woods; the new continent rising out of
the sea, a mere resounding surface for the voice of
that feeble bodied priest whose intellect ruled no
small part of the world.

The only real difficulty in the way of carrying
to completion the plans formed was, that the Jesuits
forgot to take out Charnac^'s heart, — when they set
him afloat upon a western sea. They did not dream
that Constance was in Acadia, a rival of the Papal
Church and even of Richelieu.

The Hundred Associates, nominally represented by
M. Razilly as first on account of the noney he was
able to secure for the enterprise, looked to Charnacc!^
as the responsible head, as he really became by Go\ -

ernor Razilly's death ; and,

although

the Hundred

•-Hv

RICHELIEU'S FCHO.

149

had no occasion to seek a present quarrel with La
Tour, whom they had found first in the field and
entrenched in the good graces of the King, it was
understood that having gained the King's assent to a
division of the territory of which La Tour had held
the monopoly of trade and government, they would
press the matter of removing him altogether, as soon
as occasion might be found.

The General of the Jesuits was peremptory in his
order to seek early occasion to quarrel with La Tour,
who had been trained as a Protestunt, who was a
Protestant, and who could not be counted upon for
any service to the Church, even if he should profess
Catholicism, as he did in applying for a land grant
at the mouth of the St. John. The contest once
opened, the Jesuits had access to the conscience of
tlie King ; and Kichelieu would be governed by his
interest, which would be promoted by the fall of La
Tour, and by a monopoly for the Hundred.

As Charnac^ had inherited from his mother schol-
arly habits, his father's character was perpetuated in
fine mercantile traits. The merchant, the trader, was
strong in him, when he came to man's estate. And
side by side with his spirit of obedience, there was
tlie love of power. Money would give influence ;
influence would give political preferment; political
preferment would glorify God in His Church.

The contemporary New England historians say that
his revenue was from four to five thousand pounds
sterling per annum from the Penobscot, of which he

i 1

/•'

! :

150

CONSTANCE UP AC All A.

practically took possession soon after his mission was
seated at Pentagoliet. General La Tour might very
well have quarrelled with his rival on this account,
but he believed in making money by peace rather
than by war ; and chose to develop the trade of the
St. John basin to its utmost capacity, and abide his
time for the repossession of Pentagoliet, which un-
questionably belonged to him whether tlie trade
of the Penobscot did or not. The ground for quar-
rel as to Port Eoyal and La Heve has been al-
luded to.

The building of the fort at Jomsek so exasperated
Charnac^ as to hasten the crisis. It was unquestion-
ably the intention of the King in giving La Tour the
mouth of the Ouangondy to give him control of the
fur trade of the river. And the subdivision between
Charnace and La Tour made by th.e King, certainly
gave La Tour the bulk of the St. John trade. Still
there is a strong probability, although it is not alluded
to by any of the historians who have treated of the
period, that Jemsek was built upon land nominally
within the precinct of Charnace. However that may
have been, Jemsek controlled the situation. The
clever La Tour had long known the resources of this
rich basin ; and he would part with all other rights
in Acadia rather than lose it. And he cunningly
moved in season to hold it, as soon as it was evident
to him that there was to be a conflict.

The St. John trade handled more than three thou-
sand skins annually, at a profit of from one hundred to

RICHELIEU'S ECHO.

151

one hundred and fifty thousand livres,^ T i a question
of lives or livres, the public sentiment of the Hunrlred,
of the courtiers, of Richelieu, and of the ecclesiastics
interested, would not bear out Charnac^ in sparing
the lives and losing the livres. It was an age in
which highway robbery was common.

It was brought home to Charnac^ tnat since he
had himself made the representations of profit, which
had led to the formation of the company, he could
not safely stand by, and see La Tour, by controlling
Jerasek, defy them all, and sweep in an annual profit
equal to from thirty-three to fifty per cent upon the
entire cash capital of the Associates.

Charnac^ had been put to great disadvantage by
the fates. During all those years in which he him-
self had been studying an antiquated theology, and
splitting hairs with the Calvinists, and meditating
upon the dolors of heretics in their final state, La
Tour had been training himself by actual trapping
among the Acadian aborigines, and learning all the
ins and outs of the fur business, and had made friends
among all tribes, :ind knew all rivers; and he had
already acquired a good working capital by which he
CO aid build forts and maintain garrisons, and con-
stantly enlarge his trade ; and he had created channels
which would as certainly pour an enormous wealth
into his feudal castle, as the great river itself would
gather its waters and pour them into the Bay of

J Colonie Feodale, L'Acadie ; M. Rameau: Paris, 1877. pp.
73, 95.

152

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Fundy. This practical education of his rival, and the
actual control he had obtained in the country were,
under the circumstances, of inestimable worth.

If Charr.ac^ should now seize his rival, and take
the results of his hard years, it would accord with
the customs of feudal lords; and also with those
precious maxims he had learned at Paris, about doing
all sorts of doubtful or clearly wrong things for the
greater glory of God, which he had been at such pains
to learn, which — if not followed — would be of little
profit to him.

A thousand motives filled him with madness, that
he should put forth every effort within his power to
supplant his rival.^ Like a bolt out of heaven there
had come a new motive into his life. He had not
thought to see Constance in Acadia. Had not God
brought him hither in order to rectify the great mis-
take of his life ? Was not this strange ordering from
his Superior to crush La Tour, a part of a celestial
ordering for accomplishing that which was plainly
ordained on liigh ? Charnacd did not dare to reason
with himself about it. His heart beat wildly when-
ever he thought of actually seeing Jemsek and Fort
La Tour. Should he see them ?

1 Kameau, p. 95.

C EARN ACE AND HIS SNOW SHOES. 153

XIX.
CHARNAC^ AND HIS SNOW SHOES.

'T^HEKE was so much frost in the long gun barrel
-*■ as to require great care in handling without
buckskins, when Charnacd set out upon his snow
shoes in the clear cold sunshine for a day in the
forest country between Biguyduce and the Penob-
scot. The sweet face, the finely cut features, the
strong personality, the spirit so serene toward all
things earthly, so impassioned toward all things
heavenly, the marvellous combination of attractive
qualities in Constance as he had known her in
former years, had been in his first waking thoughts ;
as in truth they had, perhaps, too often occupied his
waking hours by night in place of those forms divine
which he had sometimes imagined that he saw when
he first consecrated himself to his sacred studies.

Hardly did he find him«elf five miles away, mov-
ing slowly, watching, listening, searching the new fal-
len snow to see what creature might have tracked
it since the dawn, when he was compelled to rub
snow upon frost bites; he had been too closely
kept within quarters since winter began. What
else could occupy his winter hours in Pentagoiiet so

1 I

154

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

well as the investigation of Indian words and signs,
and the interpretatiori to the barbarians who served
him of the mysteries of the faith ? If his early morn-
ing hours usually sufficed him for the secular cares
of his position, what better use for the remainder of
short days and long evenings could he have found
than systematic study of the essentials of religion, and
the attempt so to simplify them that the wild men of
the woods might know Goc as well as receive baptism,
and might perceive the path of life as readily as they
could discern their way through the intricate forest ?
He had by this method not unlikely exposed him-
self too little to the greetings of the wholesome north
wind.

The enthusiasm of his own spies, when making
their reports rel;iting to Constance, had, however,
now so disturbed his usual avocations, that he
needed the recreation of a day's hunting. If he
took little interest in following and killing, it was
at the least a delimit to see how manv of God's
creatures were running wild and free, in happy ig-
norance of the weights and woes which bore so
heavily upon the huntsman.

La Tour, indeed, his spies had taught him to hate
more and more. Yes, it was a word well chosen : it
was employed by the sweet psalmist of the Hebrews,
and there had been no true hero of the Holy Faith
who did not hate as well as love. Charnacd kept his
hate for his enemies. La Tour was too cunning, too
crafty, too competent, too successful to be allowed to

il!

CHARNAC^ AND HIS SNOW SHOES. 155

carry on his career ; every day was making it more
difficult to dislodge him.

But Constance had won almost tlie worship of those
who had followed her in the unselfish service to which
she devoted her life. Could it be that in the days of
liis unhappy youth he had been led to choose other-
wise than to place himself in the high and holy com-
panionship of this fair saint, whose practical piety
must be held to more than offset the errors of her
opinions ?

He tried to recall the sweet face of Roderigo. Was
there no lineament in his features suggestive of the
demoniacal origin of the work which he did ? Had
not Charnac^ dreamed only the last night, that he
saw Falladio pacing up and down the gun-platform
next tlie sea, in a halo of sulphureous light ? He
knew that his old teacher was dead. How pale
Roderigo looked to him in his dream, and how
ghastly was the light, and how vivid the lambent
flames.

Kindling to flame a log of pitchwood, which he
partially excavated from its bed of snow, Charnac^
cut a few hemlock boughs and spread them upon the
drift, and lay down upon them, between the fire and
the arbor vitae shrubs which hedged off the wind.
He had removed his snow shoes and his moccasins ;
and after his feet were thoroughly warmed, he ate his
lunch of cold venison. He then occupied himself in
tracing the tracks of the little wild creatures, which
in their wide paths — upon the sunny and sheltered

156

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

side of the thick hedge of evergreen — had scam-
pered in delight in this lonely retreat, or wandered
in hunger after the long storm. Perhaps his unsea-
sonable coming had disturbed their sports or their
forays for food.

Lying as still as the dead, with his feet to the fire, ,
he saw in a little while a few birds come out, as if by
magic, from the mysterious forest ; and he saw them
flitting over the snow, in which many of their com-
panions had perished. He thought of tlie sweet
singers which had starved and frozen in the tough
storm, and the remorseless winding sheet which cov-
ered them. Perhaps he was even then lying over
their stark forms, encased in the deep drift under
the evergreen lee. Had all thcoO fallen without the
knowledge of the pitiful Creator ? Was not the
kindly Saviour of men mindful of the sparrows ?
Even St. Francis had thought of the sparrows.

Then he thought of the blinding passions, which
slew men in multitudes ; and of his own instructions
from his holy Superior, and the expectations of the
Hundred and of Richelieu, that Charnac^, — who
would not wantonly destroy a wildwood bird, and
who could hardly be said to carry the heart of a
hunter with his long gun into the wilderness, —
would beleaguer the defenders of Fort La Tour, and
kill if needful all but Constance.

Was Constance in reality with his foe La Tour ?
He would give all the furs in Acadia could he know
for certain that she had never risen from the heaps

CHARNAC^ AND HIS SNOW SHOES. I57

of starved wretches who were piled in the narrow
streets of La Rochelle, where he had seen her in his
dreams so often in those nights of that terrible siege.
How could he dispel the vision that had haunted
him so long, of her unearthly eyes glowing like coals
from off the altar, standing out so prominently over
her hollow cheeks before she died ? It must be that
his long fasti :ig in his lonely cell, and his .\nxiety, and
his prayers for her safety had made him ill ; for he had
never been so impressed with anything as he had been
with this vision of the dying and dead Constance.
Could it be that in those terrible days, she was safe
in Acadia ? No, not safe. La Tour was in Acadia.

All this must be a dreadful dream. He was de-
cei\'ed by his spies. Constance was dead. The
whole world, conspiring to delude him, could not
make him believe that she was still alive ; that she
was now at that moment in the same all circling
forest with him, only far away ; that mere journey-
ing for days and days of the winter months upon his
snow shoes would bring him where he could see her
with his own eyes, as his spies reported that they had
seen her.

Would it do any good to test the matter, to write
to her, and perhaps get an answer in her own hand ?
Would it not possibly open some way out of this
tangle, as to stealing upon La Tour as upon a wild
beast to ensnare him or kill him, for his furs, and
the saving of souls under the rule of Urban rather
than by the rule of Calvin ?

158

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

He had often thought of writing to Constance.
But what to write, he did not know. She might
have changed toward him. She could not love
La Tour, whose moral sensibilities were, in his
judgment, not more than an intelligent beaver might
have.

He took out from his bosom Constance's Thomas
k Kenipis. He would underscore such words as
would make a letter, and send it to her. He would
so write ; " I warn you, that I must be obedient to
my Superior. Whatever may follow, you will know
that I still love you." He read it aloud. " No, that
is nut the best message. 1 will send this book to
Constance, and merely tell her that I have not ceased
to carry it next my lieart. Tliere will be nothing
indelicate about that, and it may mean much or little
to her, according to her own heart."

Then he concluded, that this would not answer.
It was not positive enough. He cut a note sheet of
birch bark, and wrote upon it; then held it off at
arm's-length, and read it : " Constance, I have not
forgotten you."

" It will not be needful for me to sign it ; my
handwriting is sufficient signature."

Then he folded it up, and placed it carefully in the
fire, which was still fitfully blazing and smouldering.
He saw his letter end in smoke.

It did not seem kind, or thoughtful, or delicate in
him, to write to her — if she was married. "If, —
would God that she was dead.

M*V

CHASNACJS and his SNOyV SHOES. 159

" No I will not offend her sense of propriety by
writin<]j to her."

He had spoken in an excited, passionate tone, —
so talking to himself, and the wild inhabitants of the
wood. Jean Pitchibat was one of the inhabitants,
in that noon tide. It was when he told Constance
all this that he had seen and heard, that she had
been so strangely disturbed upon her walk amid the
glittering halls of the ice palace on that still Saturday
west of Grand Lake, - - strangely disturbed that her
name should still I ; upon the lips of her old lover
at Castine.

Charuacd 1 eaid a step in the crisp under-snow,
where the fresh snow was light.

At that instant, a buck and doe, and a fawn of last
season, appeared, and passed through the forest to the
windward. Charnac^ fired ; and quickly strapped on
his snow shoes, and followed the blood stains of the
wounded.

" Was it the doe that I have wounded ? " asked
Ohh. ncM, too sensitive to make a good hunter. •

" if it is not right for me to communicate with
Constance, is it right for me to make war upon her
husband ? I have no heart to kill him for his pelt-
ries. By what authority of heaven did my Superior
insist upon this, for the greater glory of God ? ' No
sophisms can make it right, that I should disturb
this home. The world is big enough for La Tour
and for the Hundred ; and the souls of the savages
will not be lost by any heresy they will learn from

160

CONSTANCE OF ACAD T A.

Constance. I will countermand the orders to pre-
pare for embroiling Acadia in civil war."

Slacking, his pm-suit of his wounded game, he cut
a great strip of birch bark. He had seen, in the li-
brary of St. Pol de Leon, the gospel of Matthew
written in Greek upon bircli bark. He would write
down his thoughts. It would amuse him to do it.
He wanted to look his thoughts in the face, and see
what clothing they might wear: —

" Did I not come to America to lose myself? Here
I have found myself, — rapacious, cruel. Am I per-
sonally losing character, that liiclielieu may grow
rich in pelts ? I will no longer eat out my heart
upon the Biguyduce mussel beds and mud-fiats.
I will not turn my back upon the dreams of my
youth, and degenerate into a mere collector of elk-
hides and fox skins, and kill a rival trader — to
please Richelieu. And as to the Jesuit Superior
and the souls of the savages, I will fly from Con-
stance. I will put oceans of forest between us. I
will go to the head of the St. Lawrence, and descend
the great river that flows westward to the Pacific.^
I will found the empire of God upon another ocean.
And this penance of unselfish service will be accepted
of God, and my soul's deepest longings will be satis-

^ The enterprising Jesuit missionaries and fur traders in trav-
ersing the oi^euing continent, believed that the head of tlie St.
Lawrence was a little west of Superior in a lake whose western
outflow led to the Pacific. Charlevoix's map is of great interest.
And the wild goose chase so long followed by Cham plain, as
described by Parkman, is a fascinating stcry.

CHARNAC^ AND HIS SNOW SHOES. 161

fied, and I shall be at rest. And the General of the
Society of Jesus will proclaim to the Order, not that
Charnacd was disobedient, but that he was so con-
sumed with zeal for the conversion of the pagan
world, tliat he had crossed the ocean of the Ameri-
can wilderness, and raised the cross upon the hither
side of the unknown rivers and mountains of the New
World, opened new realms for France, and added vast
territories to the kingdom of God and Ilis Church."

The sun no sooner turned from his low zenith to
hasten his going down in tlie short winter's day, be-
fore the intense cold of the morning was renewed, and
began by aid of the light air stirring to snap now and
then some branch in the forest. The fall of a great
limb of white pine, which had held no small weight
of snow upon it ■ mce the storm, showered Charnacd
with its mingled twigs and snow, and the main
stem lay athwart his path. Folding his birch manu-
script, he quickened his steps toward the frozen river,
following the blood stains in the snow.

" Be still, my heart," he cried aloud, " Is not God
thy Father ? Is not the Church thy mother ? Is not
Jesus the bridegroom of thy soul? Yes, in the fu-
ture world, — not now."

Then he paused in the path made by the deer
through the deep snow, — planting his snow shoes
over the bright blood stains.

liaising his eyes toward heaven, he said, in a rev-
erent voice, — " What God hath joined together, let
no man put asunder.

162

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

I li I

I!!

" Not even my sweet spirited and honored teacher
Palladio," he added in a low tone, looking toward
the west, and the strange colors in the sky gleam-
ing through the forest. "No, he had no right to
separate our hearts by his instruments of sharp
casuistry.

" And La Tour had not the right he would have
had, if he had been more manly. No, La Tour has
no right," — he said in bitterness.

The tops of the pines were beginning to sway this
way and that, in the rising wind. Like a pendulum,
swinging first this way then that, moved the he^rt
of Chai^nacd, under the strong passions which agitated
him.

"No, I will not traverse more wilderness to the
westward. My star is in the east. I am released
from my vows, but my word is outstanding, — or
at least a moral obligation, a tacit pledge, that I will
obey my Superior. He looks upon me as a part of
his system in Acadia. He does not look to find me
upon the Pacific. He ought to be able to depend
upon his machinery to work his will with precision.
If his will is at fault, let him look to it. But I be-
lieve that he will not clash with God. The divine
Providence permits the sparrows to fall, and La Tour
may fall."

There was a grim satisfaction in his face, when he
said that. It was not a cast-iron face which Char-
nac^ wore when he was envious, angry, or in his
worst moods. It was, rather, a wrought-iron face.

CHARNAC:^ AND HIS SNOW SHOES. 163

heated and hammered, then cooled and hardened. Or
perhaps, then, his face was not lacking in suggestions
of ice ; as if chiselled out of it, smooth, polished, hard,
cold. Whether ice or iron were in his face, it was
plain that his thoughts toward La Tour were some-
thing deeper and more malignant than one who was
merel}'' a fur trader could have toward another trader,
with so wide a world of skins on foot everywhere
upon the vast continent.

Then his heart broke again, like the heavily laden
boughs of pine and snow snapping now so frequently
by the icy frost fingers and the cold breathing out of
the North. Then his face of ice or iron melted, and
hot tears flowed ; and he sighed, as if moved by some
great sorrow which now weighed more heavily upon
him in his ripened years than it could have done in
his earlier life.

Charnac^ was of that full agje when Alexander
mastered the world, and when the French Calvin
wrought his miracle of reformation. Was he not in
the maturity of his judgmenr, and of his powers ? ± f,
the very sensitiveness of his nature, that ability
enter delicately into the feelings of others, so essential
to mastering their wills, that lieart of his, throbbing
now so wildly, was the very ground of his weak-
ness — if weakness it was — as well as his strength.
Was it not said by rumor, that even Kichelieu was
not without love ? Some of the most eminent in the
Church were not without human friends. The pure
friendships of godly ecclesiastics open the brightest

164

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

pages in the gloomy book of the dark ages. Why
then should Charnacd seclude himself upon this
desolate shore, keeping company with wolves and
wild men ? So he reasoned with himself, as he has-
tened along the deer path. He longed for a presence.
Had anything been left out of his education ? Was
there no spiritual rest ? His mind was not lacking
in appreciation of natural beauty, but he longed to
people the world with spiritual forms.

It cannot be said that Charnacd had a tinge of
melancholy in his temperament. Upon the other
hand he was not only cheerful, but of wholesome
hearty faith in God, and man, and in himself. But
his early discipline had led him to entertain sober
views of life rather than gay, and he was thoughtful
rather than heedless. And a great impression had
been made upon his mind by the fact, that the
heights of the Church, as seen by him, were less
heavenly than he had been led to look for. His
apparent success was of less value, from having been
conferred by unworthy men upon a person having
less merit than he had hoped to store up in his heart
when he should enter upon life's duties. The world
he stepped upon had an empty heartless sound.

He decided to take the middle course, to obey his
Superior, to fulfil the expectations of the Associates,
and to satisfy the passion in his heart, by going for-
ward with the preparations to att3'?k Fort La Tour.
Then, after that, he would act as circumstances might
arise. If La Tour should be held, and accused of

CHARNACi AND HIS SNOW SHOES. 165

treason for fortifying with the intent to betray his
King, — if treason could be proved against him as it
easily might be, — then Charnacd might abandon
the Jesuits after having discharged himself of the
commands already given him, and refuse to be
directed further. In this even, with the passage of
years, even if he should never marry, there might be
hours of lioly converse with Constance in the Acadian
wild country; and with her he could lead the pagans
into higher paths of life. If this was not the light he
sought, it was the only light he saw, — in the
gathering twilight.

Charnacd was cold, and chilled through, by his
slow-moving, doubting, hesitating steps. He there-
fore abandoned the trail, and advanced as rapidly
as possible by a short cut to the easier walking on
the river. "This heavy carpet of snow and thick
ice," he said to himself, "leave the fishes in the
dark for months together. How glad they will be
to see the sun."

He now remembered that his devotions had been
long disLuibed by conflicting thoughts." Had not this
Jeinsek business affected his religious peace ? As he
had come at this moment where he could see the
Cross against the evening sky, rising high above the
fort, he crossed himself, and bowed his head:- -

*'i cry unto thee, t'-ou pitying Mary, to intercede
for me, that I may be guided in the right .' rij. May
the anguish of my heart Lc net by the sensfi of thy
love, and the love of thy dear Son. And iielp me to

:'t?8»j

St it

i: d

■■:!

166

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

do the duty of to-day, by tlie power given thee by thy
Son to pity tlif needy, and to guide those who are out
of tlie riglit. vn\y.

" i.ord Jesu. pity me, ii y. venture to pray to Tliee.
Judge of the worhl, be not angry with nie, that I
know 80 little the path i opght to follow. I wish to
be ol)3dieiifc. And sinre Thou hast given the keys of
earth and heaven ^ the head of Thy church upon the
earth, deign Th)U to help me, as I obey the Superior
whom Thou has set over me, who is to me in Thy
stead. I do it with willing heart. Let my sacrifice
of my own will and judgment be acceptable unto
Thee."

THE BLOCKADE.

167

3 by thy
I are out

to Tliee.
, that I

wish to
! keys of
ipon the
Superior

in Thy

sacrifice

ble uuto

XX.

THE BLOCKADE.

WHEN Charnacd began to lay aside the strictly
ecclesiastical character in which he first
appeared at Cape Sable, and assume his true office
of a Lieutenant General in Acadia, he began to lay
aside the habit of a Jesuit scholar, and attire himself
according to the fashion of the age, — sobered some-
what by the deep shadows of the Acadian wilderness
and tlie sober sea. When now, at the end of the lag-
ging spring, he headed the expedition to reduce Fort
La Tour, he did not fail to accoutre himself as a cava-
lier in full dress for war. It would give more heart to
his soldiers ; and it might be more pleasing to Con-
stance, if they should meet, as they undoubtedly
would before midsummer, and most likely within the
month.

L^n conscious of any logical process, he found him-
self comparing his sky blue and purple and cardinal
colors with the clothing of Eaphael's angels, as he
had seen them before he came to Acadia where
angels were scarce. He wondered what colors were
made radiant by being worn by the Guardian Angel
of Constance ; and whether she was as cognizant of

168

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

his presence, as she claimed to be when she was a
very little child. He remembered that she said little
in her more mature years about him who had been
appointed to minister unto her; but that she still
believed in the presence of her Celestial Guide was
certain, since she had alluded to it upon the last
evening they spent together at her father's house.

When he, — as a confirmed Eomauist devoted to
to the Society of Jesus, — had threatened to take
orders mless she would marry him, did she not reply,
gazing fixedly at the walls of ruby and the battle-
ments of Paradise glowing in the fire on the hearth,
that she would then have no earthly companion save
her Guardian Angel, and that he would be more to
her thenceforth, and that he would direct her feet to
the heavenly Bridegroom ?

And Charnac^, in all his battle attire, could hardly
see his own form in his mirror, from the mists which
gathered in his eyes. It must be, he thought, that
Constance stot.d little in need of earthly loves. And,
while he had no fear of La Tour and his fate in the
outcome of the present expedition, he could not but
ask himself whether there might not be legions of
angels fighting for Constance.

Then it occurred to him, to set his own spiritual
attire in such order, that no good angels could find
it in their hearts to contend against him. And he
gave his hours to devotion, until Roland Capon, his
secretary, called him to embark.

Adverse winds were welcome to Charnac^, his

THE BLOCKADE.

169

hesitating purpose leading him to tack this way and
that in reaching the St. John. He went all over
again the familiar stoiy of the rise of Eichelieu, as
Bishop, as Cardinal, and as the official head of three
principal monastic orders. It was not becoming in
Charnacd to presume to judge, to be too nice. It was
well known, that it often happened, that Richelieu's
private plans were well concealed under schemes for
the public good ; and why might it not be so in this
case — Charnac^ advancing against his rival. He
would not be too scrupulous.

It was surely an accusation of the enemies of the
Holy Church, emanating from the great adversary,
that he himself, in obeying his Superior, was willing
to do evil that good might come. Is not all evil in the
motive ? The moti', good, — the greater glory of
God. Does not this holy end make holy the means
needful to reach that end ? The life, or at lea; t the
liberty, or at least the carnal prosperity of L?. i^r
muit be sacrificed — for the good of the Church, the
State, the holy Hundred Associates who were to plant
Catholic colonies, and, also, for the spiritual good of
La Tour himself

Charnacd was giad at last when the wind changed.
Perhaps the Guardian Angel of Constance was more
favorable. Never as upon that beautiful morning, the
first of June, when he sighted Partridge Island, did
the beautiful system of Loyola seem so fair to Charnacd,
so artistic, so finely fitted to the needs of the world.
What, indeed, could be more wonderful than that the

dk -'i^-^

'I^f-

■•*< JI

■

l, «

170

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

solitary Spauisli soldier, demanding obedience wher-
ever man might be and in whatever he miglit be
engaged, should find those; who would surrender con-
science itself to a Superior, and confess it as a sin if
they merely questioned the rectitude of his mandate,
liow happy was the condition of Charnacd, if in this
case the mandate might coincide with his own wishes.
And how evident would be ihe blessing of God upon
his own obedience if, as the outcome of this war, the
Guardian Angel of Constance should smile upon
him.

As the ships were assuming their positions,
and coming to anchor, Charnacd confessed to his
priest Fra Cup'vvo, and recr^ved tlie sacrament. The
holy father well knew the nontal agit tiun of his
illustrious penitent ; and aftci the administration of
the holy wafer, he placed in the mds of Charnacd a
copy of Loyola's Letter on Obedience, — r)pened to the
passage: — "Fix it in your mind that hatever the
Superior commands, is the order and will of God
himself."

The prosaic, practical, prayerless, imperturbable La
Tom was not engaged in questions of casuistry upon
the first morning in June. He had just shipped his
furs to France ; and he was pitching out cod fish with
a fork from the smack Dora, A\hen the alarm was
given that Charnacd had appeared in the offing. Char-
nacd, if he should happen to take the fort, would find
little in it for spoils, except scrod and salt fish. His
spies had kept General La Tour well informed what

THE BLOCKADE.

171

to expect ; but he had seen no reason why there
would not be the usual run of fish in May, and they
midit run on in Juno.

The stolid fisherman La Tour was not lacking in
system ; in fisliing time he fished, in pelt time he
was after everytliin^i,' that wore a hairy hide, and
when diplomacy was in order he plied his arts ; and
he prepared for war by attending to his business as
usual until the conflict came.

A great variety of edible fish came to the stake-
nets upon the Hats below the fort, sometimes break-
ing the nets by their weight. Ale wives and herring,
tlie sea-shad in its season, pike, turbot, and salmon ;
congers, lampreys, the valued gold fish, the mullet,
the merle, and the wawwunnekeseag; bass ; white por-
poises as big as oxen ; ^ the sturgeon or armor fish ;
and, by deep sea hauling, the halibut, — were among
the fish brought to the Castle La Tour.

It was commonly reputed among the Romanists in
Acadia, tliat the Massachusetts Bay people worship-
ped a cod fish, which had been suspended over the
pulpit in their meeting-house at Boston, which was
used for the Great and General Couit ; the fish skin
stuffed having been presented to the colony by Gov-
ernor Wintlu'op, after its contents had been served
up in chowder upon the occasion of his first inaugu-
ration as Governor. La Tour therefore looked to the
Bostonians for sympathy and practical aid against
Charuac^ ; M. Eochet, sending to them to establish

1 La Honton, I. 244.

172

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

free trade and a military alliance. The Bay people
took the trade, it boing free; but declined to aid, —
tliat being thought too risky.^

M. Ilochet was, however, more successful in France,
in procuring soldiers and colonists with capital. "He
caused it to bo published in La Rochelle, that he
offered to all those who would choose the climate of
Acadia as their home, lauds and fields of great fer-
tility, which hud been conceded to La Tour, abounding
in all sorts of birds and hunter's game." ^

He enlisted, as colonists for the Acadian planta-
tions, for tlie accumulation of furs, for the fisheries,
and for the garrison, the trained soldiery of La Ro-
chelle and Aunis ; and not a few of the fierce fight-
ing water-dogs from Ars, La Flotte, and St. Martin
upon the low sandy lagoons and marshes of Ed.
And he secured a little handful of hired soldiers out
of Savoy, — from the Val Pragela, and from Pra du
Tour, some of them schoolmates of Charles la Tour.
And he brought to the St. John a few enterprising
colonists who had been driven away from the St.
Lawrence by the Jesuits.

So were all things made ready for dispelling the
dream of a golden age in Acadia ; and the rivals met
to fight for the possession of the country and the
Queen of Acadia ; setting aside sentimentality, much
as the two Shoalers did in 1625, who agreed to

91.

1 Consult Hubbard's History, pp. 478, 479 ; and Winthrop, II.

2 Riimeau, p, 72.

THE BLOCKADE.

173

"lieave the law oue side" till they should get
through fi','hting.

Cliarnacd had indeed laid his plans with care. Ho
came at the time of year when the larder was lowest,
and the garrison smallest, and helpers most widely
scattered ; and he came in superior force. His two
ships and a galliot blocked the ship channel between
Partridge Island upon the southwest and Bruyeres
Point ; and a pinnace lay upon the northeast of the
island. A portion of his five hundred men were set
to such service as seemed likely to forward his enter-
prise upon the land. Spies, as soldiers for the service
of La Tour, had been already sent into the fort itself
some months since, who should by timely desertion
keep Charnacd informed of the state of the garrison,
and betray tlie fort if opportunity might offer.

With his ships out of range of the fort's artillery,
and with force enough to command the surrounding
country, Cliarnac^ took the cue from his king at the
siege of La Eochelle, and proposed to cut off all
supplies by sea or land. And so effective were the
measures he took at the outset, that capitulation was
only a question of time.

La Tour was not slow to see this. Jean Pitchibat
and Joe Takouchin silently slipped out of the fort,
and stole down to the headlands southwest, to inter-
cept the armed ship Clement, which was overdue from
La Eochelle with a cargo of supplies, and a long list
of soldiers and colonists. The Clement was signalled
within a day or two, after the siege had begun in
earnest by the close guarding of all points of ingress

174

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

aucl egress. Joe and Jean found their way on board ;
and M. Rochet kept his ship away from Charnacd's guns.

Tlie besieger was not strong enough to cope with
a new foe ; and he had no more resources this side
of old France. He could not break hio line to attack
the Clement, without giving La Tour the chance to
join forces; and the Ilochelle guns floating outside
were ready to open upon him if he were to change
position.

Charles la Tour was not the man to sit down delib-
erately and starve to death rather than capitulate ; or
live long upon dry codfish. Upon the first dark
night after tlie Clement arrived, Constance stepped
into the bow of a birch canoe, and her husband sat
in the stern to steer ; and, without a paddle stroke,
they shot upon the swift ebbing tide between the
pines of the Carletou shore and the cliffs of Partridge
Island, under the very guns of the beleaguering ships.

Constance at the look out, when they floated past
Charnac^, heard his singularly musical and pene-
trating voice in the darkness, for the first time since
she had heard it in love accents in her old home : —
" The spy, who came down last night, says, that his
comrades will send down La Tour in shackles at
midnight."

When they were beyond hearing, and could ply
their paddles, General La Tour laughed merrily, — and
the louder since the conspirators had been already
ironed and placed in the dungeon.

They soon reached the relief-ship ; and, before
dawn, were out of sight upon the high seas.

GOVERNOR WINTHROP'S GARDEN. 175

XXI.
GOVERNOR WINTHROP'S GARDEN.

THE founder of Boston cultivated, upon the mar-
gins of his island, sow-bugs for medical pre-
scriptions. To the regret of a much quoted traveller,
and tlie chagrin of the medical profession, the Gov-
ernor could not acclimate any of " tliat sort that are
blew and turn round as a pea when they are touched."

It is to be said to the credit of Governor Winthrop,
that he ripped up the bashes and grubbed his garden-
ground with his own hands. Many of good birth, ac-
cording to tlie "Wonder Working Providence," who
had been gently bred in Old England, and who had
scarce ever set hand to labor before, did the same ;
and until corn and cattle and beans were plenty, the
Bostonians did not despise pumpkins.^

Upon the afternoon of the twelfth of June, the
very day of the year in which the Arbella entered
Salem harbor, Governor Winthrop was weeding his
turnips down the harbor, upon the seventy acre plat
now occupied by Eort Winthrop. He would prob-

^ "Let no man make a jest of pumpkins ; for with this fruit
the Lord was pleased to feed his people to their good content." —
Johnson's Wonder Working Providence, p. 56.

v-.

'i^_

ill If

1 1 ill)

.d .

'I I

176

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

ably be compelled to visit several agricultural fairs
in the autumn, and he was giving strict attention to
business; his carrots and cabbages might take the
premium.

Hearing the measured splash of oars, he looked up,
and saw his neighbor Mistress Gibones and her chil-
dren approaching the boat landing as fast as strong
oars and swift boatmen could bring her. She was
being chased by General La Tour and liis wife.

The Clement,^ with her decks crowded with sol-
diers grinning to see the sport, was within easy range
of the Governor, so that he rej^ressed his first impulse
to n:n to tlie landing and scotch the French invad 'r
with his hoe.

With nimble wit he decided upon the instant that
the enemy had taken possession of the Castle, below';
knowing that the solitaiy keeper of that fortification
had left all his guns and munitions, — as he had no-
ticed him an hour since spading for quabaugs just
east of the garden. He was therefore prudent by
instinct, — the more willingly so, since he saw that
the grass widow — whose husband liad gone to the
Sagamore of the Massachusetts upon business for the
colony — was gaining upon the foe in her escape.

It is at this point a relief to read, in the most sat-
isfactory of the books about Boston, that " La Tour
met Governor Winthrop very cordially" upon his
own island.^ The complacency of the Lieutenant

1 Hubbard's New England, p. 479.

2 It was not until some years after, when he was the guest of

GOVERNOR WINTHROP'S GARDEN.

177

Governor of Acadia, so far from suffering by his
enforced canoe voyage, had become more emphatic
as he approached the first families of Boston, being
all first — fresh from the old home — in those days.
The self contained Acadian undoubtedly " welcomed "
Winthrop, who stood in a meek attitude, hardly
knowing whether or not General La Tour intended
to capture him and his family and the fair Mrs.
Gibones, and sail away ; having first provisioned and
manned the castle, against his return to bombard
Boston.

When, however, M. Eochet, who landed with La
Tour, proved to be an old-time guest of Mrs. Edward
Gibones, explanations soon followed, — and they all
went into the Governor's summer house, — which
had just been completed,^ where he escaped the
heated " city," — and partook of Mrs. Winthrop's
pumpkin pie and potatoes.

Madam Winthrop had just returned from a trip to
England, and was unwrapping the parcels she had
brought. Coming upon the tobacco her husband
had written for, their accommodating free-and-easy
guest was urged by the hospitable Governor, — who
diminislied his estate not a little in giving to the
needy, — to try a hand.

Maverick at Noddle's island, being temporarily at a lower ebb than
common in his fortunes, that the Bay people remarked the fact that
La Tour uniformly took off his hat when he spoke of himself.

^ It stood upon the high ground on the west of the island, near
the block house.

178

CONSTANCE OF AC ALIA.

i: I

The Governor apologized for the lack of wine, stat-
ing that his rent to the colony for the use of the
island had been paid in the juice of the grape, one
hogshead, from his first vintage ; the season coming
he could pay in pippins, two bushels, — and then
his wine pipe would be on tap for his friends from
Acad 1,1.

To'.vard evening, they saw three shallops of armed
men sweeping down from Boston to prevent La Tour
from kidnapping their Governor.

Doctor Cotton, from his study window, upon what
was afterwards called Cotton Hill, now Pemberton
Square,^ had seen the armed stranger salute the
Castle, without awakening the appropriate echo.
Knowing that a part of the work had tumbled
down, and that the guns might be stolen ; that the
two mercliant ships in the harbor could offer no op-
position; that the town itself might be taken, it be-
ing a time of pirates, and of frequent outbreaking
wars, — he hurried down the foot path to give the
alar^'i. Happv^ning to meet Deputy Governor Dud-
ley, who was posing in a statuesque attitude, at
about tlie spot where the statue of Governor Win-
throp now stands in Scollay Square, the Deputy at
once took fire. It had been his hobby to build Bos-
ton at Newtown,''^ a place with room enough to fortify,
and less exposed to strange ships ; and he had fiercely

1 His house was at the south end of the Square, at au altitude
eighty feet above the present pavement.
'-* Cambridge.

GOVERNOR WINTHROP'S GARDEN. 179

quarrelled with Winthrop, who saw the superior ad-
vantageo of the Shawmut peninsula for a seaport.

The Deputy, who — if he had stood still in his
tracks where the Doctor met him, — would have
looked better tlian the Winthrop monument, did not
pause to think of an admiring posterity; he was
alarmed for the safety of the chief magistrate, for
whom he had a peculiar affection. He knew the
Governor was out of town, caring for cucambers
instead of tlie common weal ; it was on this account
that he had ridden in from his country seat in Dor-
chester ; and he had spent the entire morning in
attiturHnizing first on this corner then on that, pick-
ing out a place for his statue, ana nudging the
neighbors to make good the affairs of State so sadly
neglected by their agricultural Governor.

AVhen Dr. Cotton pointed out to him the French
ship, which was apparently of a hundred and forty or
fifty tons, lying to, opposite the Governor's garden,
Dudley answered, — "I will at once assume the en-
tire charge of the State ; the Governor is undoubtedly
in irons by this time ; and he will be whisked out
to sea before we know it. He would make an ex-
cellent plantation hand at the Barbadoes. — Did you
say that the Castle did not return the pirate's salute ?
His excellency will, hereafter, I trust, look to the for-
tifications, — if he escapes now. What ho ! What ho I "

Seeing Constable Jeramy Houtchin, leaning against
the whipping post^ waiting for business, he walked

1 At the corner of State iiiul Devonshire.

180

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

m '\

in a dignified manner to meet liim; shouting in
measured and impressive tones, " Wliat ho ! " much
like a town crier.

The alarm was given. The Constable moved, as
rapidly as his dignity would allow, down the street
to Merchants' Row, which was then the water-front,
and turning to the left, entered Cole's tavern, the
Three Mariners, where he easily secured volunteers,
of whom he assumed the command ; and they
marched to the principal landing, where the Quincy
Market now stands. The Deputy Governor gave the
Constable particular directions and lengthy, what to
do and what not to do, whatever had happened or
had not happened, and whatever might occur there-
after, — he was in short to use his discretion ; the
State had perfect confidence in the Constable.

The pilot boat, Number 19, which spent most of
her time in cod fishing outside, had now come in.
The Clement coming up in a fair wind had taken a
pilot out of 19, and had left a French lubber in his
stead to help dress the fish ; this Frenchman was
taken in hand by the Constable, to serve as an in-
terpreter in conversing with the pirate. The Con-
stable \/as visibly affected when he bade the Deputy,
or Governor as he had called him, " Good by." He
bade the Deputy cheer up, assuring him, that he dared
do all that might become a man.

When, however, the three shallops ^. armed men
learned the true situation, they "welcomed" the
Lieutenant Governor of Acadia, very *' cordially ; "

GOVERNOR W1NTHR0F8 GARDEN.

181

and told him that they were glad to see him ; that
they had come down for the express purpose of es-
corting him up to their hamlet, — called the "hub"
from its solid trimountain rising to such height with
a rim of water on everyside, — where he would be
hospitably entertained.

General La Tour's boat's crew having been long on
board their ship, had made the most of their wander-
ings over the island, gathering sorrel to flavor their
soups ; and having made friends of His Excellency's
Pequots, they had obtained a few onions. Saint-
Leger, with a French sailor's hankering for frogs,
had the misfortune to lift the cover off a pot of gar-
den toads which Kikatch ought to have been baking
to a powder, but was not ; so that the victims of the
pharmacopoeia peculiar to the island escaped. Ki-
katch undertook to prevent Saint-Leger from dump-
ing his sorrel and onions into the boat. But the
Governor kindly interfered, having accepted the offer
of his guest to take him up to the city in his own
boat. The dignity of the State was maintained —
in spite of the vegetables — by the somewhat excit-
ing efforts of the shallops to keep within hail of the
Governor without running him down or leaving him
behind altogether. It had been not without mis-
givings, that Jeremy Houtehin had seen his Gov-
ernor enter the same boat with the fierce Acadian.

Mistress Gibones, who had been upon her way to
the Major's farm, had now turned back ; and she
prepared her house to receive the charming Madame

182

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

La Tour and the General. Her home was situatf 1
upon what is now the east side of Washington Street,
on the corner opposite the foot of Cornhill. The head
of the town cove came up to tlie point now occupied
by the Samuel Adams statue; the cove lines extend-
ing upon the one side along North street, and upon
the other toward Faneuil Hall and around Merchants'
Kow to Kilby street, and thence to Fort Hill. Ma-
dame La Tour's canopy bed looked upon the morning
light reflected from the quiet waters of the harbor, so
beautiful with its islands and green marshes.

When the Bostouians learned that the many titled
stranger, the feudal lord of St. John, was not hostile
(as he had clearly shown by his voluntarily placing
himself in the power of the English), and that he was
securely housed fronting upon Dock square, which
even then had innumerable paths leading into it from
every quarter, — they felt easier.

Dr. Cotton came down and interviewed the Gen-
eral and hobnobbed with Madame, and pronounced
theni reasonably sound in theology, particularly Ma-
dame. So Boston made its best bow, and the French
governor and his wife had captured the city.

Major Edward Gibones, in the edge of the even-
ing, riding in from that arrow shaped hill in Quincy
which gave its name to Massachusetts, had been re-
flecting upon what good times he used to have when
he first landed at the Mount with jolly Tom Morton.
He stayed at Captain John Hawkins' gate at Eock
Hill (now Savin Hill) a moment to drink a glass of

GOVERNOR WINTHROFS GARDEN.

183

3 situatf 1
on Street,
The head
J occupied
es extend-
aiid upon
kierchants'
lill. Ma-
e morning
harbor, so
s.

lany titled
not hostile
ily placing
iiat he was
ire, which
ito it from

I the Gen-
Tonounced
Lilarly Ma-
he French

the even-
in Quincy

II been re-
lave when

m Morton.

e at Eock
a glass of

fresh milk from the sweet pastures of Dorchester.
With that rollicking old sea dog, ho 'd had many a
roaring time, particularly in those days when they
were courtimr their wives at Mount Wollaston.

Then, as the Major rode along the lonely path over
Eoxbury neck in the tv^ilight, — hastening a little
so as to pass the barricade gate before it was closed
for the night, — lie reflected that it was probably bet-
ter for him, now that he was no longer a young man,
to settle down and enjoy the confidence of society and
hold important colonial offices, under the administra-
tion of him whom they had been wont lo call King
Winthrop, tlian to sigh for the freedom ot the days of
his you1;h.

Nevertheless, when he entered his own house, and
found his stoutish handsome wife Margarett with
broader face than usual, and an amazing heartiness
in her smack of greeting, which sounded like the
snap of loose canvas in a sudden gust — calling up
as it did his days of sea-faring, — he was in better
condition to meet General La Tour, who welcomed
him to his own mansion with a complacency which
was certainly a favor. The Major appreciated it, hav-
ing slept the last night under a blanket in the bush.

As happy as they could be without a May-pole,
w^as tliis little party at the Major's that evening. The
Governor was busy with cares of State, and he thought
it best for the Puritans to stay in the house after nine
o'clock, so that the party at the foot of Coruhill was
unuistarbed by callers.

184

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Madarr • ' ii Tour was by no means a solemn indi-
vidual ; and the Mujor was captivated. Of unquench-
able vitality, her face was fairly radiant with good
humor. It was not alone the endless outf:;ushing of
merriment in her own heart, which made it possible
to maintain a happy home with her husband ; but she
must liave been attracted to him, as he was to her,
by the genial possibilities of every unfolding hour.
They had at least this one thing in common. To
tliis happy temperament Constance owed no small
part of her power over the pagan Souriquois and
Malechites. To this, likewise. La Tour owed no
small part of his power in persuading men. The
jollity of Margarett Gibones, and the jovial humor
of the Major, the life and vivacity of Constance, so
filled the house with glee, that General La Tour
found it very easy to be one of the most affable and
entertaining guests who ever tasted Boston brown
bread in the land of its nativity.

To Constance the embryo city seemed almost op-
pressively still, so accustomed had she become to the
loud calling — high and holy — of the wants of her
Indian people, or the urgent voices of distressed re-
ligionists of her nation and faith, or the mutteringg
of war about her home. It was with a sense of rest-
fulness and gratitude to God, that she sought repose
under the roof of a town so hospitable. And in her
night visions, she found herself praying over the bed
of her absent child.

CAPTAhV HAWKINS.

185

XXII.

CAPTAIN HAWKINS.

NEXT morning when Major Gibones started his
cows along up Washington Street, he sauntered
after them as far as the Governor's house ; which
fLiced south, at a point opposite School Street, the
01(1 South meeting-house being afterwards erected
in what was at that time his front yard.

The Major found the Governor behind tlie house at
the great spring, which was much visited by the chil-
dren coming down the unfenced road from the school
house upon the present site of King's Chapel ; and
the children from the waterside, in going to scliool,
made from Water Street to the spring a cut-off, since
known as Spring Lane.

It was a warm morning, and Major ^^libones leaned
against one of the great button-woods,^ while the
cows grazed along the wayside ; and as he quaffed of
the sweet spring water, which the Governor extended
to him in a silver cup, he replied somewhat bluntly
to the question of the Chief Magistrate, how it would
do to fit out an expedition against Charnac^, — " The
Lord rebuke Satan."

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186

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

This was the Puritan way of swearing. It had the
same effect upon the Governor, as if a modern politi-
cian had said, — " Blank Charnacd." The Major had
learned it at Salem ; where he was so useful to Gov-
ernor Endicott, in getting the colony upon its land-
legs after the sea voyage. It was here that he had
sobered down somewhat, as he needed to do after as-
sociating so long with the roysterers of Merry Mount ;
and here he took to himself new views of life, and
joined the church, — all of which he attributed to the
happy influences of the good people of Salem. He
was still allowed this one oath by the emphatic Endi-
cott, who used it himself, and applied it to Eev. Mr.
"Ward and Simon Bradstreet and others, who wrote
what he thought to be an impertinent letter to
Governor Winthrop for the course he took in this
same La Tour business.^

Governor Winthrop had spent the principal part of
the night in studying Hebrew and Greek texts with
his pastor, finding precedents and precepts pertinent,
that he might know how to answer La Tour's appli-
cation for aid. He now wished to examine Major
Gibones, who served as a sort of moral thermometer
for Boston in those days, being the younger son of

* "I finde the spirits of men in this countrie are too quick and
forward," MTote Endicott. The trivial use of the name of the Deity,
and the abode of lost spirits, as exhibited in the correspondence of
the principal men of the colony, would be deemed profane by the
clergy and elders of to-day, if appearing in modem political letters.
Consult Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1769.

CAPTAIN HAWKINS.

187

a house much honored in the old home, a son in
himself deserving of the honors heaped upon him in
after time, when he served the colony as Major
General, and also four years as Lieutenant Governor.
The Major's pious euphemism decided the Governor.

When the moral thermometer sauntered along after
hi3 cows, having turned them into the herd of some
seventy head feeding with Elder Oliver's horse upon
the common pasturage south of Beacon hill, he made
his way slowly toward Roxbury neck, thinking to fall
in with Captain Tom Hawkins, whom he soon met.

"Good morning, shipmate," said Gibones in memory
of their early voyages, privateering together along the
Spanish main.

" Hew are you, my hearty ? " replied the Captain,
extending his big red muscular right hand. "I
thought I'd come down early, and see what that
Frenchman wants in our Bay."

"He wants to hire your ships and mine, well
manned, and a string-bean company of volunteers
to go with Lieutenant Israel Fife, to fight Charnacd.
And he has got strong boxes in hand to pay cash
down. I was just cruising, thinking I should meet
you on this tack, near the barricade-bar."

" I am yours, my liearty," answered Hawkins, " to
rebuke Satan, as they say in Salem. By the way,
how handy it is for us that Endicott has some
gumption."

" Yes, I think he will stand by us. But the coun-
try folks generally will be in high dudgeon with the

.^j-mmma'vtmmmimmHmuu

188

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Governor if he lets the ships go. But he is used to
it, and don't mind what tliey say more than a drake
does a thunder shower. He will stand by us, if we
stand by him. "What he wants is to be remembered
as the founder of Boston. He don't care anything
about Ipswich, and the disgruntled people of Salem,
or Mason's Grant. What he dotes upon is to build
up a great seaport here on these marshes. I heard
him talk with our pastor a week ago about how
Providence set this tri-mount here on purpose to
be dug down and shovelled into the shallows to
make room for the great city that is going to be
built here."

" True," said Hawkins ; " he vrill some day have a
monument down front of your house, or in that open
patch between Cornhill and our pastor's house. And
he will deserve it too. Only think of his enterprise
in building the first barl the Bay." ^

" That is so ; he will f^..> down to posterity, further
than you and I will, and he deserves it. He is long
sighted like, you may call it. And he has got one
idea, that you have got to have if you ever make
a small city into a great one."

"What is that?"

" He asked me at the spring, as I came along, if
General La Tour had brought along any money. with
him. He believes in cash in hand, if you are ever
going to do business and build up a city. He calls

• "The Blessing of the Bay," of thirty tons, launched on the
Mystic, July 4, 1631.

CAPTAIN HAWKINS.

189

it solid. He says we want a solid Boston, built up
on hard money at bottom."

" That sounds reasonable ; it has a good ring to it.
What did you tell him?"

" Monsieur Rochet, who is a friend of the Governor
of Acadia, took pains to tell me this morning while I
was milking, that General La Tour had £5000 in
strong boxes in his ship, straight from the merchants
of Rochelle, in return for furs and fish he had exported.
'And,* says the Frenchman, politely smiling at me,
with a sort of humorous expression about his eyes»
'I should think, Major, that you could make more
money fighting Charuac^ than you can in stripping
these cows.' You see Margarett had shipped my
hands down the harbor to the farm."

Captain Hawkins, here, haw-hawed so loud, that
Constable Houtchin peeped out from behind the
corner of the meeting-house, which they had by this
time reached, —

" I say, you Capting, don't laugh so like thunder,
or you '11 shake the steeple off the meeting-house, as
the airthquake kind of onsettled it."

It was one of the happy humors of the colonists
to speak as if they had a steeple ; but it was still
so near the time when they had worshipped under
a shade tree, that they made their joke, went to
meeting by the drum-beat, and patiently waited for
their bell tower.

;hed on the

/^U>«»«MW«1

190

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

i<t

XXIII.

A PURITAN DEBATING SOCIETY.

" I ^HIS duel for Acadia created an intense excite-
-'■ ment in Massachusetts Bay; a State in which
exciting events were then so rare, that the Governor
of Massachusetts sat down with all the calmness
he could command, and wrote to the Governor of
Connecticut that two calves had been killed by
lightning.

There were two days of debate, and many letters
were received from the country. The arguments for
and against aiding La Tour are reported with more or
less fulness by Winthrop, Hubbard, and Hutchinson.
Richard Saltonstall, Simon Bradstreet afterward Gov-
ernor, Nathaniel Ward, and Ezekiel Rogers, led tlie
opposition, presenting their points in writing.^ The
presentation for La Tour was made by prominent
citizens of Boston,, under the leadership of Dr. Cotton
and the Governor. The discussion was held in the
meeting-house, upon the site where the Rogers

* Governor Endicott, who thought these gentlemen impertinent,
ohjected to the French as idolatrous ; and suspected La Tour as a
sp7, who ought not to s^e the defences of the coast.

A PURITAN DEBATING SOCIETY,

191

Building now stands, on Washington Street, south of
Court.

It was a day when the English world distrusted
the precedents of kings like Charles and James, and
fell back, not on Josiah and Hezekiah, but upon what
the Lord out of heaven told the Hebrew kings to do
and not to do. They had learned to distrust Rome
as a religious authority; and, for lack of anybody
known to be more competent, they had taken to
interpreting the ancient Scriptures for themselves, —
which seemed to them reasonable, since every man
must give an account for himself unto God.

The influence of the clergy was observable in the
form of the arguments, which appear to have been as
dry as the bones in the old Indian burying-ground
in Pemberton Square near Dr. Cotton's house. Not
unlikely, the preachers intended to improve the op-
portunity for the good of La Tour ; as one of them
the year before had given to M. Rochet a French
Testament, which he gratefully received, promising
to read it.

The questions were two : — 1. Is it lawful for
Christians to aid idolaters, — that is, the Papists ?
And, if so, how far ? 2. Is it safe for the State to
allow La Tour to have aid against Charnac^ ?

The opposition based their opinions mainly upon
two passages of Scripture : —

I. It is not lawful for us as a Christian people to
aid La Tour. 2 Chron. xix. 2 : " Shouldest thou help
the imgodly, and love them that hate the Lord ? '*

,:»>«NA«lt« rum «.ji«..t*i» *4.a.«»

192

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

This text was the main point ; it being assumed that
La Tour had little religion, that ne was in the Fame
nest with Ahab, aad with Ahaz whom Jehoshtiphat
was reprehended for joining even commercially.
Josias and Amaziah showed that righteous men
ought not to be associated in any way with the un-
godly. It was wrong in Josias to aid the King of
Babylon against Pharaoh Necho.

Great stress was laid upon carnality, in which
no confidence could be placed. La Tour might be
carnally-minded, — as he undoubtedly was.

The most difficult matter, however, for La Tour to
surmount was the fact that he had two Franciscan
Friars on board the Clement, mere figure-heads to be
sure, to give countenance to his profession of Catholi-
cism in his office-holding under the French King.
But divers of the elders, says Winthrop, went down
to confer with them, and one — Fra Millais — learned,
acute, fluent in Latin, and a ready c'isputant, was
brought up to see Mr. Cotton. It was against the law
to have live Popish priests in Boston. Catholicism
was, if there were choice, worse than carnality. La
Tour would keep no faith with heretics. Aid to a
Papist aids the Pope.

Absolutely no help should be rendered to the
ungodly by the city of saints.

II. It is not prudent for the Colony to aid La
Tour. Prov. xxvi. 17 : "He that meddleth with a
strife belonging not to him taketh a dog by the ears."
Charnac6 may be a bad dog to handle. He is a

A PURITAN DEBATING SOCIETY,

193

valiant, prudent, and experienced soldier. He is
spending £800 a month to carry his point. He will
scourge the New England coast, if we meddle with
this quarrel. Kittery is already trembling ; and Ips-
wich remonstrates with us. Besides, if we act against
Charnace, it may bring on war with France, — a
nation not so feeble in its intellectuals as to deem
that our permission is not our action. And what
will the authorities do, if Charnac^, or France shall
demand the men of our expedition as murderers ? If
the men go confiding in the Governor, and their blood
is shed, and their souls are lost, is not the Governor
responsible ? There is a German proverb, that " he
who loseth his life in an unnecessary quarrel dies the
Devil's martyr."

Even if it were wise for us to intermeddle, it would
not be right to do it without first giving a hearing
to Charnacd. Shall we declare war, before we know
whether it be just or unjust "

The ends of war should be religious; this is fili-
bustering. We ought not to take up with a mere
adventurer.

If it were right to enter upon a war, it is not
prudent for the colony to do it now. Emigration has
been checked by the rising hopes of our brethren at
home. The Eomanists have risen in Ireland; and
are they not more barbarous than the Iroquois ? The
Cavaliers are gaining ground.^ We know not what

^ John Hampden, at that moment, lay dying in defence of his

own village against a raid from Rupert.

194

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

■J,.

we shall hear next from Westminster. We ought to
take no hasty action, and risk wrecking the great
hopes centring in our Commonwealth, — so feeble,
and agitated by perils enough of our own without the
taking up of quarrels in Acadia. We can assume no
risk except upon most careful deliberation, and the
weightiest reasons to justify us to God and to the
coming ages.

Upon the other side it was said, that the Biblical
instances of non-communication alluded to were in-
tended for the particular cases then in hand, not for
a uniform rule ; and that although Ahab was in no
such distress as La Tour, as a matter of fact Jehosha-
phat did make a league of amity with him; that
Josiah broke no known rule; that Major Gibones,
than whom the Bible saints offered no better man,
had entertained a Jesuit, and given him a chamber
key and leave to say mass in his house to his heart's
content ; that if La Tour be not helped he will lose
his fort, and if he loses his fort and stays here he
may be dangerous, and if he goes over to Charnac^ it
may be worse yet since now he knows our condition ;
that we do not rely upon his faith but upon his
interest, .which is to hold with us; that aid to Papists
may win them to the truth ; and that we may
properly help Papists destroy each other.

The principal point advanced was that La Tour
should be relieved since he was in urgent distress.
The Golden Rule, the Good Samaritan, were in point.
Gal. vi. 10 : " Do good to all." Imitate the Heavenly

A PURITAN DEBATING SOCIETY,

195

Father in making the sunshine and the rain fall upon
the just and the unjust. Josliua aided the Gibeon-
ites against the other Canaanites.* Jehoshaphat aided
Jehoram against Moab. Ezek. xxvii. 17 shows that
we may have commerce with idolaters. Nehemiah
did not forbid trading with the heathen. In Neh.
V. 17, — the Jews had heatlien at their tables. Solo-
mon was courteous to the Queen of Sheba. First
Corinthians shows that Christians may go to heathen
tables, if asked. '

There is ample Scriptural ground for us to go upon,
in relieving the distress of La Tour.

For the second point, the quarrel is ours, since it
is our duty to aid La Tour in his distress, and to
weaken Charnacd ; it helps us to help La Tour in his
attack on his enemy. Our business interests demand
it. The Trial, the first ship built in Boston, is in
the Acadian trade. The profits are immense. It is a
point of conscience with us to make money, and build
up our seaport, which Winthrop selected with such
sagacity. The early French navigators, in exploring
the coast, did not have the wit to discover Boston.

As to the fear of Charnacd, we should not omit
what is lawful and necessary lest evil come of it.
We ought to aid La Tour in distress, and not fear, —
1 Peter, iii. 6. Also, — " The fear of man bringeth a
snare." Some fears were raised against our first
expedition against the Pequots ; the Governor of

^ Hubbard mentions this as Governor Winthrop's principal
argument.

rwMB«»iuni«Ka

196

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Plymouth and the Connecticut brethren were afraid ;
but the war was a blessing to the English. "The
Lord hath brought us hither, through the swelling
sea, through perils of pyrates, tempests, leakes, fires,
rocks, sands, diseases, starviugs ; and hath here pre-
served us these many years from the displeasure of
Princes, the envy and rage of Prelates, the malignant
plots of Jesuits, the mutinous contentions of dis-
contented persons, the open and secret attempts of
barbarous Indians, tlie seditious and undermining
practices of hereticall false brethren ; and is our con-
fidence and courage all swallowed up in the fear of

one Charnacd ? " ^

1 1

Charnac^ has already acted against us; and it
cannot well be worse. If we aid La Tour, we get his
help to weaken a dangerous enemy.

There can be no danger from France, since La Tour
is on good terms with his King. He is the rightful
ruler, and we ought to aid him. He shows you here
his commission as Lieutenant General of New France,
under the hand of Louis XIII. Nor can it be said
that the French are changeable, since here is a letter
from La Tour's official correspondents in France,
dated only three months since, informing him of the
injury Charnacd is working against him in France, —
advising him to look to his interests, — and addressed
to him as Lieutenant General. And here is the
parchment commission of Captain Martin of the
Clement, to carry supplies to La Tour, signed only

* Compare Hutchinson, p. 131.

A PURITAN DEBATING 80C1ETT.

197

two months since by the Vice Admiral of France, in
which La Tour is styled His Majesty's Lieutenant
General of Acadia.

Nor can it rightfully be said that we are to hear
Charnacd's story first. We are to help first, as Abra-
ham did Lot in his distress, then judge of the justice
afterwards. Moreover, we have heard Charnacd
against La Tour by our traders ; and Charnacd is in
the wrong. Besides, we will offer him parley before
wo fight.

This has, also, all the merits of a religious war.
Tliere can be no work more noble than that of Mad-
ame La Tour in the conversion of the Indians ; there
can be no greater safeguard against the Jesuits in
America than to aid her. She has Protestantism
enough for the two, even if La Tour himself were
positively a Romanist, which he is not ; at worst, he
is only a nominal Catholic from the necessity of his
office. Charnac4 has been educated by the Jesuits ;
he is a Jesuit ; he obeys the orders of the Jesuits ;
Captain Hawkins, here, knows what the Jesuits are,
he has seen them in Spain ; and Dr. Cotton says, that
the Friars on the Clement are not Jesuits, that they
are Franciscans, and that St. Francis was a harmless
and rather pious lunatic.

There can be no danger to the colony, or lack of
prudence, in allowing La Tour to help himself, — hire
men and ship^, and pay his own bills cash down, —
at this time. There is no real danger. We run no
risk. And, even if there were danger, enterprising

mifimmmmmm

^^.

198

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

business men are accustomed to assuming risks, and
our merchants run risks every voyage they make to
Spain or England, and why not to Acadia ?

It was, after hearing all these arguments extended
throughout two long summer days, determined by
the authorities — not to give permission to any to go
and make war, oh, no, — but to such as La Tour
hired the Governor was to give leave to go: there
being a law that no one should go out of the patent
by land or sea, without first obtaining permission of
the Governor, or his deputy.

This decision the Governor was very careful to
explain in a long written communication to the mal-
contents from the country.^ The main part of the
arguments would have been in favor of aiding Char-
nac^ in an attack on La Tour, if he had applied first
with the money in his pocket, — he being in as much
" distress " to take the beleaguered Castle as La Tour
was to hold it.

You may see, said Winthrop, that there is a wide
difference between giving men a commission to fight,
and giving them leave to be hired to fight. Is it not
the calling of ship owners to go out for hire ? They
may without impropriety hire out to La Tour. For-
eign nations allow their citizens to go as soldiers to
other nations. Our Bostonians have the same right,
if they get their money. Although we have a law,
dating back to June 14, 1631, that no Boston money

1 Eleven octavo pages — of Latin, and Scripture, and sophisms —
in Hutchinson.

A PURITAN DEBATING SOCIETY.

199

sliall be paid out, even to buy food of any strange
ship, so that it is liable to be carried off never to
return, without the Governor's permission; — I am
unable to find any law to prevent us from giving
La Tour liberty to spend what money he has in
Boston.

The fact is, that General La Tour had come into
Boston at the right door. The La Tours became the
fashion. Madame was heavenly, and the General was
earthly • cind between them both they made a perfect
match. The town was all agog with the La Tours for
a few days. Jonathan Negoos, David Offley, Robert
Keayne, Thomas Munt, Bartholomew Pasmer, and
other great merchants were to furnish provisions and
Tr.unitions for the expedition, which was a dead cer-
tainty as soon as there appeared to be money in
it. La Tour had done nothing but lay pipes for the
debate ; and he did it by making it for the interest
of leading men to league with him. Those who could
make a profit of a hundred per cent upon their mer-
chandise, and twenty-five more by exchange, in those
early days, were all with La Tour to a man.

Had Charles la Tour been brought up among the
courtiers of France or the politicians of England, he
could not have had at more perfect command the
power to adapt himself to every man he met. At
the Three Mariners, he expressed himself in regard
to Charnac^ in phraseology less conservative, by far,
than that employed by Gibones, who, as the boys
said, stood a fair chance to become an elder in the

200

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

church. To Captain Hawkins he spoke in particular
of the learning, the skill, the zeal, the artfulness, the
cunning, the intrigue of Charnacd, — who, as a Jesuit
of the Jesuits, would within ten years make torches
of Protestant Boston seamen upon the Acadian coast.
To all, he made a great deal out of that Scotch baro-
netcy which his over-contident father had procured for
him from King Charles ^ for surrendering a fort which
he never surrendered. That his father was an English-
man went for something. His relationships, his titles,
his land grants, his holdings, were of a variety to
meet any reasonable demands made upon him. La
Tour was in a land where titles could be made to
tell, and he used them.

He could carry on a conversation alone, with as
many dramatis personam as any playwright. " Who are
you now, Charles la Tour ? " " Whom do you want ?
I am made up to suit circumstances."

La Tour in visiting Boston came as an old settler,
having roughed it for a score of years before that town
was founded. He did whatever was needful to main-
tain his footing. Leaving others to debate the equi-
ties, he allowed nothing to hinder his strict attention
to his own interests, — whatever might betide the
remainder of mankind.

It was not known at that time how much or how

little he was controlled by a profound moral sense,

or whether he had that commodity. No Jesuit ever

crossed the Atlantic more artful than Charles la Tour

1 Hanney's Acadia, pp. 112, 118.

A PURITAN DEBATING SOCIETY. 201

in winniug his way, or less consulting his conscience.
The great interest of the La Tours was always in
his mind, as a "Superior" to whom he must render
prompt, unquestioning, and irresponsible obedience.

To him the hub of the universe was Monsieur
Charles la Tour, Knight of the Order of the King,
Lieutenant General of New France, and Baronet of
Nova Scotia, Sir Charles de St. Etienne, Seigneur de
St. Deniscourt.

It was, even at that remote day, plain sailing for
such a man in Boston.

202

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

I i

XXIV.

SETTING SAIL.

TTEAVY FISTED, solid, substantial, hard-money
•*• -^ Hawkins, and Major Gibones, executed the
contract with General La Tour, for four ships, thirty-
eight guns, and one hundred and forty-two men. The
ship owners were to have $2600, for two months ser-
vice. They were to be made ready for the tenth of
July. The Greyhound, the Philip and Mary, and
the Increase, were put in order for the voyage ; the
Seabridge also, which had just returned, June 23,
from England, having on board twenty children of
the colonists, who had been sent at the expense of
the Puritan churches at home. The children were
set ashore, and the soldiers filed in.

The town was small, but there were many servants
in proportion to the population. These made up a
larger body of soldiery than would ordinarily be found
among so few houses ; which were it is likely more
than the two score named by Josselyn, who was dis-
gruntled for the little hospitality shown him. The
village lay upon the cove with no house save. Dr.
Cotton's west of Tremont street, and hardly half a

SETTING SAIL.

<r^^:

203

dozen houses far southward towards the present
Essex and Boylston.

la the desire to emigrate, and receive the high
wages of a new country, the poorer class of laborers,
men and women, sold their services for a term of
years ; and their labor was made profitable in de-
veloping varied industries of sea and land. Any
property holder of two to three thousand pounds
employed ten or twelve lusty servants;^ and there
was not a house in Boston however small its means
without one or two ; and five or six was a common
nuraber,2 — many being negroes worth from £8 to
£16. When therefore Governor Winthrop, a month
before La Tour's arrival, had the general May train-
ing, two regiments of the Bay colony were mustered
at Boston, comprising a thousand men, of whom the
most were serving men. Their skilful management
ia divers sorts of skirmishes under Colonel Dudley
excited great admiration.

General La Tour having expressed the desire to
land his one hundred forty people from the Clement,
for exercise, he was permitted to do so, if in small
companies so as not to alarm the women and chil-
dren.3 The Governor did not feel afraid, since, during
La Tour's entire stay, he never took his constitutional
even, between his house and the windmill at the foot
of Summer street by the Milk street lane, without

1 New England's Prospect, 1634.

2 Report French Protestant Refugee, 1687.
' Drake's Boston, p. 270.

..(^iMMMMiMMlM: 0-Mf.n*. .^ ,^

204

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

W !]

a body guard of halberdiers and musketeers ; he in-
tended to run no risk after his scare on the twelfth
of June.

When General La Tour exercised his French sol-
diers, the Governor, not perhaps as a precaution but
out of civility to his guests, — much as the armed
shallops went down to the garden with Houtchin
to escort La Tour to town, — ordered out the entire
village military. They got together a hundred and
fifty, it being a busy time of year for the servants.
It was upon this grand occasion, that men were en-
listed for the Acadian service, and first formed into a
line. Elder Oliver's old Pequot war-horse, lest he
should become excited by the martial music, was
safely secured in the pound, which stood upon the
site now occupied by the Atlantic Monthly on Park
street; and the town's cows were kept well down
upon the Back Bay near Fox hill, so that — being
accustomed to seeing the well disciplined soldiers of
Dudley — they need not be frightened at the new
recruits.

The British flag, — with the St. George cross cut
out by fiery Endicott one day when he wanted to
rebuke Satan in the Popish symbol, — was flying
over the Wishing Stone, near what is now the junc-
tion of Beacon and Joy, where so many joyous young
Puritans had plighted their loves ;^ and under its

^ All that a maiden had to do, was to walk around the stone
nine times, then stand upon the stone, and silently wish ; and the
young man would pop immediately.

SETTING SAIL.

r^.

205

bright color, never so beautiful to her as now, Con-
stance sat with Mistress Gibones to see the parade.
It is one of the Gibones family traditions, that Mar-
garett and Constance walked around the stone, and
stood upon it, like school girls, wishing well to the
expedition.

The first man to take La Tour's money, from Israel
Fife the recruiting officer, was Edward Palmer, who
had been only just now released from the stocks ; he
remarked to Fife in a low tone that he wanted to air
himself in some other jurisdiction. He had spent two
days, and found all the material, in making new
stocks, upon order, for the colony ; but when he
brought in his bill £1 13s. Id., the authorities said it
was too much ; fined him £5 ; and set him in the stocks.

The second was Bobby Bartlett, whose tongue had
been in a cleft stick, the day before, — as he stood
an hour in the Market place at the head of King
street, — for swearing in the ordinary style of those
who did not belong to the church. He, too, wanted
to get out of the jurisdiction.

Danyell Mawd, George Curtys, servant to John
Cotton, Barnaby Dorryfall, one of Gibones' men
who had hurried up from the farm at PuUen Point,
William Coursar a coblar, John Gallop a fisherman,
Holbech Eukas, John Button the mylner, Richard
Bulgar a bricklayer, and Myles Tame leather dresser,
all members of Dr. Cotton's church, next came for-
ward in a body, — Curtys having a bonus to recruit
in the church, to give character to the company.

206

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Captain John Chaddock, a son of the Governor of
Bermuda, came forward with a number of substantial
citizens, men of property, some of whom wished to
see Acadia and its resources for themselves. Among
them Mrs. Gibones recognized John Newdigate, Wil-
liam Hailestone, Robert Blott, Richard Straine, John
Lugg, and Walter Sinet.

Ninety-two soldiers were soon made up, Gibones
and Hawkins furnishing fifty-two seamen. There
were so many eager to go, that there was at the last
a struggle made ; the last two who — in the crowd —
could get the attention of Fife, were William Beer
and John Milk.

The French soldiers from the Clement delighted
the English by the perfection of their discipline.
They came near creating a serious panic, when, in
their exercises, they suddenly threw down their guns,
drew their swords, and appeared to make a charge.^
The children ran ; and the women screamed, — Theo-
dosia Hay swooning on the grass. Lieutenant Fife,
who upon Hawkins's request had received a Captain's
commission, drew his sword and turned to his awk-
ward squad, shouting, — " Stand firm." Cotton Flacke
and Gamaliell Wayte turned pale ; and acted so fool-
ishly that Fife persuaded them to stay at home, in
which he was warmly seconded by their good wives
Penelope and Elynor. Penelope Flacke told Cotton,
if Charnace was going to act like that, she did not
want him to go within ten foot of him.

1 Winthrop, II. 108.

SETTING SAIL.

-,i»'

207
' ■' J
General La Tour infonned the Governor, that it

was a great surprise to him to see so many soldiers
as the Boston militia gathered in one town and so
well armed; and that he never saw such training
before, and that he would not have believed it pos-
sible if he had not seen it.^

It all ended with an invitation from the Boston
officers to the French officers to go home with them
to dinner; and the soldiers invited the French sol-
diers. A dinner was given to such of the La Tour
recruits as cared to partake of it, under the shade
trees near the sink hole where the cows were watered
in the middle of the pasture.

The Constable Houtchin had been round town and
got up a corner in beans, as soon as he learned the
decision of the Governor to let La Tour have the
men. He earned in this way enough to replace
with gold the brass tip of five or six inches at the
top of his black official staff of five feet and a half.
It is painful to complete the record, — he was set in
the stocks, fined and deprived of his office for indulg-
ing in the luxury ; if all this had happened in season,
he too would have gone out of the jurisdiction.

Happily it was not known upon that day what the
final effect would be of the rise in beans ; but great
indignation was expressed by some of the poorer
families, particularly by Charity Brown and Thomas
Grubbe whose sons had enlisted.

The enterprising Ann Ruby and Elizabeth Trout,

1 Compare Drake's Boston, p. 270.

208

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

who then occupied Blaxton's log cabin,^ sent their
boys round with fresh fish balls, well browned, two
for a penny, — and Joe Takouchin was instructed by
La Tour to buy them out for his new soldiers. Tlie
Gibones family and the La Tours picnicked with the
recruits. If the baked beans did not quite go round
for a second serving, the Indian pudding, the brown
bread, and the bushels of doughnuts, allowed no one
to lack. "One sees many people of good appetite
in this land," remarked an eminent Frenchman, of
the Bostonians;2 and La Tour, a good eater, and
hearty, as if brought up on English roast beef, re-
marked to the Major, that, if the truth must be told,
it was the report which M. Eochet had brought of
Madame Gibones* cooking, which had led him to run
away from the fort, where Charnacd must suppose
him to be still starving.

The French soldiers discharged their fire-arms as a
salute at the landing ; and the recruits embarked for
Long Island. This was the night in which, by the
old records, voices were heard issuing from the hill
upon the west of Winthrop Island, and sparkles of
fire were seen upon the height. It was believed that
the demons were let loose.^ One minister wrote
Winthrop, asking him where his conscience was that
he could be so careless of the good of the State ; and
another said in his sermon, that the streets of Boston
would yet run blood on this account.

1 Between Louisburg Square and Charles Street.

2 Fr. Prot. Ref. Report, p. 33.
8 King's Hand Book.

SETTING SAIL.

r^'

209

The Governor and Dr. Cotton and their wives were
at the breakfast given by Major and Mrs. Gibones
upon the fourteenth of July ; after which the La Tours
sailed with their fleet. 1

M. Rochet, when alone with the General in sailing
down the harbor, joked hira about his attending the
Protestant services so regularly with Governor Win-
throp, during his entire stay in Boston ; and repeated
Dr. Cotton's remark, anticipating his conversion to
Protestantism by the influence of Madame La Tour.

" I am a Puritan," was the answer, " in one thing.
They censured Governor Endicott, when he cut the
cross out of the English flag ; then they doubled, fox
like, and used the mutilated flag ; and will have no-
thing else in Boston. But down here on the Castle,
you see the cross still flying, to hinder hostile criti-
cism by British officers who may put in here. I am
Protestant or Catholic, as may best serve my turn ;
just as Winthrop keeps two flags flying to please
everybody."

Constance disembarked at the Isles of Shoals,
where she chartered the barque Sea Spray of the
Cutts Brothers, and selected a cargo of fish for La
Rochelle, whence she expected to procure more sol-
diers and colonists and munitions of war.

In her youth, with tlie world before her, she could
not entertain gloomy thoughts ; but when she was
alone, now the first time for so long, save in the
quiet chamber overlooking the Town Cove in Boston,
she felt that strange sense of moral widowhood, which

210

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

comes to so mauy noble women, wlion tliey cease to
hope ^qainst hope, and confess to themselves that
there is a deep gulf morally between husband and
wife, a gulf which possibly will never be bridged in
time or eternity.

With her Huguenot training, the spiritual Tnr/;i'ebta
of her home were of surpassing momenf ; evar ihing
else sinking out of sight in the comporUr, >.

She sat long upon the shelving rocks, looking
westward ; the coloring upon the water not fading
out until nearly ten o'clock. It brought vividly to
mind her honeymoon evenings at Pentagoiiet. How
strange it seemed to her, that Charnace had now
lived there for many months, and had there plotted
to de«t ioy her home, and there, — most dreadful
thought of all, — had murmured her name in ac-
cents of love, murmured it to the winter birds in the
solitary woods, like a love-sick boy.

The terrible domestic tragedies of the Reformation
and the generations next following, came crowding
in upon her memory. Of some she had personally
known. Many in the circle of her acquaintance
were the children Ox a nar^ntage, who were once
broken of all their ri';'. o religi .\o divisions, —
the wife one side and husband the other, or the
mother one side and her child the other, or lovers
separated and finally contending against each other.
It had been so, over no small part of the civilized
^.vorld. It was the separation of Calvin, Luther,
Zvvingle, Huss, Wyclif, Knox, from the Romanist ; a

SETTINO SAIL.

211

separation of kinst'olk upon moral grounds, — a separa-
tion that (sach of the dividod friends would risk deuth
to maintain, so long as the religious diflerenct i ight
exist. What anxieties, whaL sorrows, what he.. 't-
breakings, what groaning prayers, what deaths vfvm
undergone for domestic friends in those grim ag ■"<.

This gloomy historic background did not, ho\s ver,
make it less a sorrow t« Constance. She mo. nod a. ud
by tlie low murmuring sunnner sea ; and mingled bei-
tears with the salt spray, which rose now and th i
when a heavy wave fell uj on the rocks at her fet
Had she rejected Charnacd *o marry a man tauut«*i
by the Puritans as an idolatt r ? She was glad that
she had stayed in her chamler to pray, instead of
going into the meeting house to hear thosr» plain-
spoken men, whose words her husband had reliearsed
to her with laughter, as though it were all a joke, as
in truth he took it. He said that they meant nothing
by it, except to hinder the expedition ; that they cared
nothing about it.

But upon the heart of Coastai ce the words fell
like clods upon a coffin lid, the cofi n of her husband.
He was as much separated from hi as if dead. His
laughter seemed grim, and almost t.emoniacal. Per-
haps she was tired, had undergone t< lo much nervous
strain. She had felt anxious for her child. She had
felt so anxious, heaven alone knew I ow anxious, for
a quickened moral sensibility in her husband. She
had prayed so much for this. Now she was homo
down by the chagrins of the hour.

212

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

With all her womanly nature she had deliberately
crushed the instincts of her heart reaching out toward
Charnacd, and had said, No ; she would not marry a
papist. She had married Charles la Tour as much as
for any reason because he was a Protestant ; not cer-
tainly because he was the deliberate choice of her
heart, — as Charnacd was, whom she loved during so
many years, vainly hoping to bring him back to his
mother's God without a pope to stand between him
and his Maker. And when it slowly dawned upon
her after her marriage, that, — in the wreck of all
earthly hopes by the destruction of her father's house
and by the death of her brotlier, — she had pledged
her word to La Tour without sufficient knowledge of
him, she had wearied the heavens in praying for him ;
and had exhausted every persuasive power upon him.
And with what result ?

The dreadful words of that man whom they called
the Cobbler of Agawam, Nathaniel Ward, had rung
in her ears : he had merely told the truth, when he
spoke of her husband as a carnal man. Would not
Paul have added, that Charles la Tour was at enmity
with God ? Conscious as she was of her own moral
defects, Constance had never been willing to think
such thoughts of her husband ; perhaps she had been
too lenient in her judgment. But these blunt Puri-
tans had merely used the sonorous and fearful Bible
phrases; which might be the premonitory rumbling
of a day of wrath. Her husband had always said,
" Yes," *' Yes," to all her tender loving words, and

SETTING SAIL.

213

pleadings, in relation to a high moral plane of life,
living wliolly unto God. But she had never known
him to be so utterly devoid of all moral sensibility as
now.

Is not an idolater, she asked herself, better than a
carnal man ; a miseducated perverted moral sense
better than none ? Charnacd had a superabundance
of spiritual life, he was charged with it ; he would
act according to conscience in the end. If he had
not persisted in giving his conscience to some one
else; if he had remained master of it; if he had
worked out his own salvation with the God working
in him to will and to do; in short, if he had not
bound himself or rather remained quiet while some
one else had bound him, hand and foot, and thrown
him like a bundle to be ticketed and used at will by
the Order of Jesus, — she would have married him.
But she had refused to be so unequally yoked ; she
had refused him, — only to yoke herself, when her
eyes were blinded with tears, to aa unbeliever;
and now all the evil consequences predicted by
Paul had come to pass. One end of the yoke was
high, the other low ; and it was hard to draw life's
load.

Like a meteor streaming across the sky, casting a
strange light upon land and sea, then sinking out of
sight forever, the thought flashed upon the mind of
Constance, that if, after all, she had followed her
heart and married Charnac^, he would have been
finally led by his love rather than by his theology ;

^lttV0*td**^

214

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

that the ties by which his loving teacher had tied
him to the Scarlet Woman, the Mother Church,
would have been first slackened, then loosened for-
ever, if she had married him and bestowed upon him
one half the wealth of aftection, the sedulous devo-
tion, the days and nights of prayer, that she had
bestowed upon the carnal La Tour.

This unwifely thought alarmed her ; and she rose
from the dark sea, with its planetary lights dancing
upon the ground ewell, and retired to h-^r lodging.
It would be well, she thought, if now <.;;/ ing two
months she could be alone upon the greac sea, and
for many months comparatively alone. She would
still besiege the heavens ; and gain the best of
spiritual gifts for her husband. And she would
place the ocean between herself and Charnacd
She would be loyal to her husband's earthly in-
terests, and so hope to gain his interest in some-
thing higher. She would live for her child, from
whom their terrible domestic peril — fighting for
their home — now separated her; it was indeed a
happy providence, that Henrietta, so domestic, so
affectionate, so wise, could care for him.

With such thoughts she entered upon her weeks
of voyaging ; entered into the midst of the sea with
her Guardian Angel, and with that Presence which
was to her more than all earthly loves, the Heavenly
Bridegroom.

PASSAQEEWAKEAQ.

215

XXV.

PASSAGEEWAKEAG.

/^HARNAC:^ carried to tlie mouth of the St. John
^""^ a pile of old Troubadour verses ; the Cid ; Pe-
trarch ; and even Orlando Furioso, Boccaccio, and
Rabelais ; Montaigne ; Dante ; and, for the construc-
tion of a travesty and comedy, Calvin's Institutes.
The Comedy of the Reformation was enacted upon
the evening of the fourteenth of July; Fra Marie
playing the part of Luther, Roland Capon the part of
Calvin, and Charnac^ figuring as the Pope. It had a
great run in Paris, the winter following, where it was
brought out under the author's supervision. Between
his summer-time light reading and play writing, his
fishing, and hunting — for which he was now in better
mood than in midwinter — the weeks of beleaguering
the La Tour Castle wore away very pleasantly.

When Captain Hawkins and Israel Fife appeared,
Charnac^ was in the midst of a knot of ecclesiastic
and military comrades, under an awning upon his
quarter deck, reading to them aloud that Canto of
Dante's Inferno, in which the poet peered into the
depths, and saw the Great Dragon grinning over the

216

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

■ l\
I

satisfactory horrors in the ever ascending circles of
the amphitheatre of Woe around him.

"Here comes the Dragon, wing and wing," cried
Capon, upon seeing the Puritan fleet.

It required no time to decide what to do. They
hove anchor, dropped down on the tide; and the,
blockade was ended.

For six weeks the Castle had been as silent as a
tomb sealed for ages ; and as little showing signs of
life, save that the Lilies of France were always flying.
Now suddenly, as the sound of the resurrection trum-
pet, every bastion burst into fire, saluting La Tour's
return to the river. To Henrietta was accorded the
honor of first touching a gun.

Although La Tour had added to his fleet the armed
pinnace Henrietta, picked up at the Shoals, outward
bound for Spain, yet with the Clement and the four
Puritans, they could not all, even with a fair wind,
spread over any considerable area. The tide being in
favor of Charnac^, he had no difficulty in making his
escape by an early start, before his new enemy could
close upon him. Neither did General La Tour, having
raised the blockade, wish to risk the damages of an
open sea fight.

The French, by their local knowledge of the tide
and of prevailing winds, and of channels between
islands, kept clear of their foes, who chased them into
the Penobscot.^ Charnac^ sought to make Biguyduce,

^ There is a curious discrepancy between Winthrop and Hutch-
inson upon this point, as to where Charnac^ led his pursuers.

PASSAGES WAKE AG.

217

to bring his ships under shelter of Pentagoiiet, but
La Tour under cover of night secured such position for
the Seabridge and Increase as to compel his enemy
to make the trysting place of ghosts at Belfast, then
known as Passageewakeag ; where Cliaruacd grounded
two of his ships to prevent their capture, — the others
escaping down the west channel.

Charnac^ hastily threw up intrenchments upon tlie
present town-site. Captain Hawkins sent up a letter
from Governor Winthrop; but Charnacd refused to
open it, — since it was not addressed to him by his
official title as Lieutenant General for the King.

General La Tour now landed his troops from the
Clement ; and, with thirty volunteers from the Boston
force, fell with such fury upon Charuacd that the en-
emy broke for the spruce and disappeared, leaving
three men dead in the trenches. Charnacd, well
armed, retired slowly with his face to the foe.

It being no part of his contract, Hawkins would
not aid in a land assault. And, — since Israel Fife had
at a small premium taken a moderate war-risk upon
such of his company as were best able to pay, —
sixty-two of the Boston set gave La Tour only their
moral support ; standing soberly and well armed upon
their decks, picking salt fish out of their teeth, it being
just after breakfast on a Saturday morning. Enough,
however, is as good as more. The thirty, plucky
enough to volunteer, were enough; and not one of
them received a scratch. Three young men of the La
Ptochelle troop were wounded.

S18

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Captain Fife, however, who had been so prudent of
the lives of his men as to form them into a reserve
corps in the morning, undertook a night expedition
requiring ready wit without risk. The solitary prisoner
secured from Charnac^'s trenches, was taken in hand
by Fife and by the officers of his ship, the slow sailing
Greyhound, who had been jeered at for having been
a little late ever since they left Long Island. They
sharply questioned the Breton, who rejoiced in the
cognomen Lancelot Vitet, as to the depth of water
where a French pinnace lay, in the mouth of the
Biguyduce under the gims of the fort. By a little
brandy and no great amount of silver, he was per-
suaded to act as guide to Captain Fife, — the night
promising to be dark.

Landing with two boat-loads of soldiers upon the
west side of the Magabiguyduce peninsula, Fife found
his way, cautiously guarding against treachery, to the
mud-flats of the Biguyduce, it being then low tide ;
and they marched stealthily to the channel side of
the pinnace, the Castor, which had been left by the
tide. Vitet in a low voice called to the watch for
a ladder. The watch was covered by muskets, and
pronounced to be dead if he should resist ; and he
was informed that fire would be set to the vessel at
once if the ladder was not forthcoming. As soon as
the tide served, the Castor and the Puritans sailed
away from the fort guns before daybreak. The cargo
of the Castor had been made up for France, com-
prising four hundred beaver skins, and four hundred

PASSAOEEWAKEAO.

219

moose hides ; which, according to Winthrop,^ were
sold by outcry in Boston, and the prize money divided
among the soldiers and sailors of the expedition.

The Philip and Mary, — Captain Hawkins's ship, —
returned at La Tour's invitation to the St. John, to
load with the coal of Grand Lake; which also was
sold by the outcry and divided. The more substantial
business men of the expedition went upon this trip
to Jemsek and Grand Lake; and on their return
were handsomely entertained in the Castle La Tour ;
Henrietta in the absence of Madame La Tour, offering
the hospitality of the house, as best she could after
so long a siege.

General La Tour and his little child and nurse,
with Claude la Tour and his wife, embarked in
Constance's shallop, the Sable, to accompany Captain
Hawkins down the Bay; thinking to cruise near
Cape Sable until Constance should appear in the Sea
Spray. They had not long to wait. She had already
spoken the Philip and Mary, and learned the success
of the expedition.

The men of Massachusetts returned in high feather.
The country members bore their chagrin in silence.
Governor Winthrop was more popular than ever.
The codfish smiled so perceptibly, that the skin was
drawn into that perennial pucker which it now wears
in the Hall of Eepresentatives.

Matthew Nanney, who would not risk his own
ship but urged his rival Hawkins to go, now ad-

1 II. 383.

220

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

mitted to Ensign Tyons that he ought to have risked
it; but he changed his tune, and said that the
State was foolish, and that the Governor never
should have allowed it, when he heard of the anger
of Charnac^.

The besieger had been surprised at the ability of
La Tour to persuade the prudent Puritans into a
course, which was made safe only by the fact that
France had just then too much to do to give suitable
attention to American affairs.

Fra Marie was disguised as a civilian, and sent
to Boston with a saucy and savage letter to the
Governor, and a claim upon the Colony for £8000
damages.

" Do not haggle with them," said Charnacd curling
his lip. " Take whatever they are mean enough to
give. Make no fuss about a little money. But look
well at their fortifications. France may have use for
the information some day ; or I shall."

The people of the Bay having learned something
of French compliments, were very hospitable to Char-
nacd's envoy. The Governor entertained him with
wine and sweetmeats; and allowed him the use of
the gubernatorial yard for exercise, it being Sunday
when M. Marie arrived at the Puritan mansion. The
authorities made a commercial treaty with him, so
that Boston shipping /ould have new avenues for
trade ; and they promised to make him a present.

One Captain Cromwell of Boston, having in priva-
teering captured a Spanish pirate, found in her hold

PA8SA GEE WAKE A Q.

221

a sedan elaborately carved and gilded, worth £50,
intended for the sister of the Viceroy of Mexico ; not
knowing what to do with it, when he returned home,
lie gave it to Governor Winthrop. Winthrop, not
knowing what to do with it, made a present of it to
Charnacd.

The Governor sent with it a long letter about
Christian duty; and stated, that it was one of the
independent principles by which those who controlled
the Colony were governed, to sell for cash.

A small amount of powder was burned, as a salu-
tation, when the envoy took his chair, and left for
Acadia.

222

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

1 i

XXVI.

VERSAILLES.

T TPON the day that Charnucc? sent Fra Marie to
^^ Boston, he embarked for France, — seeking to
enter the St. John castle via Versailles. The one
great thought which filled his mind, — as he began,
continued, and ended his voyage, — was that he had
been in small business.

Did he not carrv that in his own heart, which
made him despise entering into a petty quarrel with
the sectaries of the Bay, or a St. John's fur trader ?
There was Constance in America, and she was worth
living for, contending for; aside from that, he would
throw up all the cat-skins, and filthy Indians, and the
bickering colonists of a new world, — settle down
in some quiet district of France, to study. If Con-
stance were only in France, he would do this and
let the world take its course. What a pity that she
should be immured in the feudal hold of that un-
spiritual, coarse-grained La Tour. It would be truly
a revival of the spirit of chivalry, if he should arouse
a crusade to rescue her.

Of happy temperament were his old mates, who
greeted his return. He yielded to the influences of

VERSAILLES.

223

the hour, and spent charmed weeks in the recreation
of intellectual companionship and the literary trea-
sures of the capital. The eminent divines of the Or-
der greeted him almost as an equal ; they were the
most genial of men, of sunny hearts and unclouded
brows, — to them the world was apparently " congru-
ous," " obedient," so that they little needed to have a
care. How grand it seemed to the Acadian Governor
to get somewhere, — out of the woods, into the town.
Even the forty houses of Boston were contemptible in
comparison with Paris. "What then might be said of
solitary Pentagoiiet, and the shaggy forests which
covered the back of a whole hemisphere ? He could
now for the moment forget the wild creatures and
wild men of America. How delightful would be the
day, when the bridle in his mouth should be so guided
by his Superior that he could quit the New World
forever. To-day, however, and to-morrow, he would
do his duty. The reward could not be far off.

Conscious of his own great powers, he could not
but look forward to the twenty-five years next com-
ing. How short seemed the period since Richelieu
was a soldier seizing the crosier of the Bishop of
LuQon, — now risen to such undreamed-of heights
of power. If, in the Acadian woods, he had dared
think the claims of the papacy inimical to the free
development of individual manhood, he was glad now
at least that he belonged to a body whose presence
was felt throughout the world. He did not remem-
ber that he had ever seen a meaner set of people on

224

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

the footstool, than the small-minded, bitter-spirited
Protestants of the New World The ancient Church,
after all, offered the only spliore for really able men.

Charnacd stood well in France ; being connected
with tlie most noble families of Bas-Berry,^ as well
as with Richelieu.'^ The Cardinal was the more cor-
dial to Charnac(5 on account of the surpassing ability
of his uncle the great ambassador, who if not the first
of his age was easily first in France, giving his coun-
try an honorable place among the nations.

The points against La Tour, presented to Eichelieu
by Charnacd and his genial Jesuit friends, were, —
that he had fortified with treasonable intent; that
one of his fortresses was upon property belonging to
Charnacd ; that he had made an offensive and defen-
sive league with the traditional enemies of France —
the English ; that he had entered into a league with
Protestants against the interests of the Church ;
that he and his allies had made an attack upon
Charnacd, killing certain of his men, destroying bis
property, and -depriving him of his rights. These
charges were, — so far as might be needful to make
up a case for the King's approval, — supported by
forged documents of particular proof.

La Tour's commission as Lieutenant General was
revoked. He was formally charged with treason.

^ Rameau, p. 68.

2 Murdoch's Nova Scotia I. 92. Hanney's Acadia, p. 144, men-
tions it as a disadvantage to La Tour that he was not personally
known in France ; his rival having influence with the Cardinal.

VERSAILLES.

225

Aud to Charuac^ was given authority to seize his
rival and hold him for trial.

" Shall we include his wife ? " asked Richelieu.
*' I hear that she is a very able woman,"

"Yes," answered Charnac^, after dreaming a mo-
ment. " She is no traitor. No one is more loval to
France than she j but she is now at one with La Tour.
Yes, you may as well insert her name until we catch
them both. Slie will be loyal enough, if we can be
rid of La Tour; and, if she is so, her name can
be dropped before trial. No records are kept, I
believe.'"

"No records have been kept; I keep records,"
answered Richelieu, "but of this we will keep no
record after the King signs the order." ^

In respect to the means for carrying on the war
for arresting the fortified La Tour, it appeared that the
Hundred Associates were practically bankrupt, —
the prescience of Constance proving true sooner
than might have been anticipated. The loss had
been in the Canadian not the Acadian part of New
France ; at Quebec it had been so great that not one
of them would put in more money. In fact they
had been obliged to turn over Quebec to Emery de
Caen, the Huguenot, who had lost so heavily in the
embryo city when the Jesuits came in and changed

^ There is a difference between the two leading authorities. Mur-
doch, I. 99, indicates, that there were no specific charges ; that the
action against La Tour was obtained by influence ; Hanney, p. 146,
that the slanders against La Tour, upon which the charge of treason
was brought, were discovered after the death of his rival.

-\.

226

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

the rule. De Caen was to reclaim the trading post
from the English, who had given it up by treaty;
and was to have the fur monopoly during one year
then return it to the Associates. Under these cir-
cumstances, the eminent divines with whom Charnac^
associated, — and to whom he looked for counsel, and
who appeared to prize his counsels so highly, — were
not at a loss what to do.

The beautiful system, of which Charnac^ was a
part, was loose and fast at the same time. He had
been freed from his vows of poverty in order that he
might hold property in his own name ; and the^ by a
voluntary obedience lie would — if obedient — use it
in the interests of the Church. To this end Charnac^,
being a relative of M. Eazilly, had at his death bought,
the Governor's holdings in Acadia from his brother,
and although he had taken immediate possession the
papers had not been passed. The sum was nominal ;
fourteen thousand livres, with seventeen years in
which to pay it. Charnac^ was young with the
world before him; he would have great wealth, a
kingdom of his own, — but his heart held it for the
uses of the Church.

He was now directed, — if the word " advised " is
not strong enough, — to make a loan, upon this prop-
erty, from some Protestant merchant for the purpose
of carrying on the war against Protestantism in
Acadia.

As Charnacd conversed with his uncle at the din-
ing table, the Baron was pleased to remark, that, " In

VERSAILLES.

227

the courts of Europe, lying is considered the least of
evils. It is deprived of power to harm, by its univer-
sality. No one acts upon the supposition that what
he hears is true. Intelligent persons are governed
solely by community of interest. Only parties having
a common interest can be depended upon to tell the
truth to each other, and that solely in relation to the
interest common to both."

" It has now come to that pass," responded the
General of the Society of Jesus, who had been
invited to the house to meet young Charnacd, " that
the written lies almost outnumber those spoken.
We have just compiled the statistics of the secrets
of the confessional, and find that one hundred thou-
sand persons have confessed forgery in France within
the past year ; and no one dares estimate the number
not confessed."

Inasmuch as the younger Charnac^ had been
closeted for some days with eminent divines and
their secretaries in preparing the ruin of his rival ;
and since he would start in a day or two for La
Eochelle to initiate a transaction which would not
unlikely ruin some Huguenot merchant, — he was
glad to know that his course had the merit of not
being singular.

The conversation drifted to the schemes for Ameri-
can colonization.

" We are, I believe, at fault in our management,"
was the proposition of the Governor of Acadia, "in
the affairs of the Hundred Associates. The com-

228

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

pany handles Acadia solely for fur ; for the intro-
duction of religious priests; and sends there from
France only a hireling population. This method can
never compete with the English, who make it an
ohject for small capitalists to go and invest in the
country ; and make it easy for poor men to acquire
property. More than twenty thousand colonists have
gone to Massachusetts Bay within ten years ; and
they are a thrifty people. It is only a question of
time when they will overrun Acadia, unless we can
people that region with Catholic colonists."

"Acadia would be crowded with Huguenots," re-
plied the General of the Order, "if we would let
them go. But it would rob the nation of a great
amount of wealth, and serve only to build up a
Protestant France over the sea, as the Due de Kohan
wished to have one in Aunis and Languedoc."

" I have thought of that," said the Baron ; " but I
think, that, when we are stronger at home, Eichelieu
will not object to sending them ; on the score that it
may sometime help France to hold America against
the English. We shall certainly lose our grip, and
have no New France, unless we can colonize."

"Our Catholic population are just as well off here,"
answered the General ; " and the plan we have is the
only one that will work, — to convert the Indians,
and make them our allies to fight the English."

"There is nothing nobler," replied Charnace the
younger, " than the self devotement of our mission-
aries, facing perils unknown in new areas of the con-

VERSAILLES.

229

tinent; carrying iu their hearts, and bearing before
God, all the woes of the pagan people. And they
certainly benefit the Indians; raising them in the
scale a little. But I often fear that our Christianity
itself will be lost in the forests, by the compromise
our missionaries make with pagan notions, beliefs
and customs. There is glory in it for the Church,
and for our Order, and for the missionaries ; and I
hope that some of the savages will find the glory of
the heavenly state, — but of true religion they get
little."

" Still our entire mission system throughout the
world would come to a stand-still, if we did not
accommodate the Christian doctrine and practice to
the pagan mind and habit," replied the General.

" I presume," interposed the Baron, " that in New
France, it will be needful to secure the practical alli-
ance of the aborigines with our French rulers, as soon
as possible, in the absence of French emigration. And
this can be soonest done by the priests; and the
priests can succeed best by accommodating them-
selves to the natives, meeting them halfway, or more
than half if need be."

"Exactly," answered the General, "we must send
out influential Frenchmen who will practically be-
come Indians, in order to become their leaders re-
ligiously and in war. Then we can hold the country
against the English Protestants."

" Tliere is one tribe of Indians, who will, I believe,
have much to say about this fine scheme," said the

230

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

young Governor of Acadia, in a modest tone. "I
fear that the Iroquois, — who murdered Father Bre-
beuf, — will annihilate those tribes which we most
depend upon for our influence in Canada; and if
the English get a permanent footing in Canada,
then our Catholic Acadia will be ground between
the upper millstone of the English on the St. Law-
rence and the lower millstone of the settlers in New
England, — so that the Iroquois will ultimately dis-
possess the French King and the Society of Jesus
together, and give America to the Protestants."

" God avert it," was the devout answer of the Gen-
eral of the Order, assuming the attitude and the tone
of prayer.

The hour now struck, and the Acadian Governor,
bade good night to his host and to his Superior; and
completed his preparations to leave next day for La
Rochelle.

1'. I

LA ROCHELLE,

231

XXVII.

LA ROCHELLE.

'T^HE war news, and as the gift of the peace the
•*• sight of her own child, and of the manly form
of her hilarious husband, who had grown perceptibly
taller since he had escaped from the weight of moral
delinquency heaped upon him by the cobbling theo-
logians of the Bay, and which had come so near
crushing not him but his wife, — this toned up the
heart of Constance as she lost sight of her Sable
shallop and its precious burden, and found herself
alone again upon the great deep. She thought of
her husband's great capacity for business, his frank-
hearted, sunny ways ; and she thought of the ages of
history in her native France, in which it had pleased
the All Father to light by his sun so great multitude
of men and women of noble qualities, who certainly
had little spiritual discernment, — if she herself and
John Calvin were to judge. The mysteries of the
final Judgment were yet far off, and she would not
burden her heart with carrying the woes of to-morrow.
Committing her home to the care of God, she ceased
to carry it as a care.

232

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Day by day, week by week, upon the summer sea,
Constance was as much at home as the happy Sea
Spray, which was endowed with life like a bird living
upon the salt waves, responding to every motion of the
waters and the winds. The great heart of the ocean
touched her own heart with new life, and infinite
hope for the world. " The sea is His, and He made
it." Has He then forgotten the restless, heaving, des-
olate, expanse of human life, covering the continents,
as the waters cover the sea beds ? The width of the
ocean, the presence of the stars, the innumerable
hosts of heaven gleaming over the vast expanses of
the world of water, — suggested to the solitary voyager
the extent of the kingdom of Love, the shining array
of the saints of all ages, and gave her buoyancy of
spirit when she left all cares with the Infinite
Friend.

For the most part, Constance did not wear out her
days and nights in seeking to govern the universe ;
but led a happy, joyous life, — none the less happy
for the carnal lore her husband had seized as a war
prize from Charnac^. When his rival took to the
timber, La Tour could with difficulty hinder his men
from privately plundering the grounded ships. Joe
had insisted upon taking as many of Charnacd's books
as he could conveniently bring away upon one arm,
for his mistress. So that Constance, in the middle
of thv. sea, had the fun of laughing alone over the
same pages, which had amused both her and her
friend when Charnacd first came into possession of

LA ROCHELLE.

233

the books ten years since. Happily the editions of
Dante and Calvin in folio had been too heavy for
Joe's light lingers, and he had left them for Charnacd
to console himself with. Her thoughtful husband
had therefore brought to Constance only what the
world in that day considered its light literature.

Between the ocean tonic and the delightful conceits
of her books, Constance was in high spirits, when the
lone coast birds far at sea told news of the land.
Welcome was the hour, when the Sea Spray began to
feel the heavy swell of the Bay of Biscay.

Making 1° W. of Greenwich, 46° 20' latitude, Con-
stance began, afar off, to sight the low marshy mono-
tonous coast ; and rising above it La Lanterne still
standing, — so long a light to the Huguenot mariners,
and so long a prison into which were cast the most
eminent of the Protestant merchants in times of reli-
gious persecution. Tacking this way and that in
the outer harbor, she strained her eyes for the first
glimpse of the roof that sheltered her childhood.

Entering the narrow passage to the inner port,
between those honorable protectors of the Geneva of
the West, the forts La Chalne and St. Nicholas, which
Louis had left standing after pulling down the long
walls next the sea, she was soon walking the narrow
winding streets, appearing even then to her a little
quaint after her threading so long the forest avenues
of the New World, — streets dark with arcades and
porches which covered the walks.

She paused now and then before some small door

' 234

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

without ornament, and looked up to the rich carving
of the upper stories, and remembered the elaborate
architectural display within the house, where perhaps
one of her father's old neighbors had lived. Here
was the house of the merchant Pierre Jay ; there the
home of Koch Chastaignier whose family dated back
to the eleventh century; here lived Henri Bau-
douin the Counsellor, of a family the most important
in the history of the city, and among the first to
embrace the reformed faith ; there was the dwelling
place of Benjamin Faneuil, who had married a rela-
tive of Constance, Marie the daughter of Andr^
Bernon.

Amid these crowding memories, the tears so blinded
her eyes that it was long before she could read the
Bible text, which was inscribed over the doorway of
her old home : " Ye are the light of the world."

Her youngest brother, then a mere child, met her at
the door, — Sieur Samuel Bernon, who became a great
merchant, having enormous warehouses in Quebec ; ^
whose son Gabriel Bernon emigrated to America
upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, —
uttering those memorable words, " I might have re-
mained in France, and kept my property, my qua-
lity, and my titles, if I had been willing to submit
to slavery."

It was in this house, that there was held the first
meeting for the reformed faith in La Rochelle ; here
the nucleus of that great movement
^ La Honton.

was gathered

LA ROCHELLE.

- 235

which changed the face of the city, and marked an
era in the history of the nation.^

When the father of Constance had been threatened
by the Governor, he replied : —

" Sir, you would have me lose my soul. Since it
is impossible for me to believe what the religion you
bid me embrace, teaches."

" Much do I care, whether you lose your soul or
not," was the reply, "provided you obey."

Falling early in the siege, his body was buried in
his own garden ; there reposing until the peace, — a
peace that must have seemed worse than the siege to
the Huguenot population surviving.

Not yet were the very foundations of the walls so
removed that the plow, alluded to in the edict of the
King, could prepare the land for tillage. The Grand
Temple of which Henry, Prince of Condd, laid the
corner stone, which had been so long crowded with a
vast congregation of Calvinistic worshippers, was now
a Catholic cathedral.

The city was still a great religious power; the
Protestant faith losing little of its grip upon the
commercial and moral world until a generation later,
when the dormant cruelties of the decree of Louis XIII.
we.e revived, and nearly two thousand Huguenots

^ The priests and monks were among the first converts, —
1542-8 ; and the nuns forsook the cloisters. In 1561, the priests
of St. Sauveur began matins before daybreak, so as to accommodate
Protestant worship in the same church. For nearly fifty years fol-
lowing 1573, there was no other worship in the city than that of
the Reformers.

236

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

were ejected from the city at two weeks' notice, —
thrown out into floods of rain, — the aged, the babes,
the bed-ridden.

Constance found herself dealing with traders of
great wealth, even after the city had lost its military
leadership. Many were enlisted in the fur trade and
the fisheries, and general shipping-business of New
France. La Rochelle was still the great shipping
port for the Atlantic trade, — even the Jesuit mis-
sionaries sailing thence. Hardy sailors, and fierce
soldiers, as well as enterprising tradesmen, had their
homes in the Huguenot city. Self-poised, well-bal-
anced, accustomed to think for themselves, to act
promptly in matters religious or secular, they made
the best of colonists.

Almost a stranger in the land of her youth, — so
great the change in the desolated city within so brief
a period of time, that it seemed to her that ages had
elapsed, — Constance became the guest of the Duchess
de Rohan, Catherine de Purthenai. She it was who
composed the tragedy of Holofernes, which was rep-
resented in the midst of the first siege of the city.
Having lost the principal part of her fortune in the
recent disasters, she still held herself in position to
rally those who were true to their convictions in the
changing times.

The house of Rohan was blessed with a sound
physique. The Duchess in advancing years, and her
daughter Elizabeth, little older than Constance, were
in sound health ; and the shocks, so terrible, of the

LA BOCHELLE,

237

change ia their own home and in their beloved city,
had told on them little more than the Atlantic waves
liad told upon the French coast; sighs and storms
and salt tears and woundings still left substantial
pliysical and mental power lor life's service. Tliey,
too, had been preserved by their unfailing life within
the life, spirits easily rising above their surroundings
to commune with superior beings, seeking evermore
the Supreme Friend, and looking at this world's af-
fairs in a large way as related to ages and eternities
and the universe of God. With them there was a
present King higher than Louis XIII., a Presence
needing no pope, a Kevealing Spirit not limited by
the logic of Calvin.

Constance found here all the freedom of thought
which she had found in her transatlantic woods ; and
the house resounded with song from morning till
night, as if her myriads of Acadian birds had been
there.

As the weeks went by, and her business had pros-
pered, she sent away her cargo and colonists and sol-
diers in the Sea Spray, and would now go to London
to complete her purchases, and return to Acadia.

It was in this house of Rohan, that Constance was
conscious of being tempted to thoughts of disloyalty
toward Castle La Tour. Not five years had gone by
since she left her child-hearth; and she had almost
grown old in that time. Aside from the desolation
of her old home the great sorrow in her new home
— weighting her heart — was the irreligious spirit of

238

CONSTANCE OB' ACADIA.

Charles la Tour. Tlie hollownesa of the Papacy had
never seemed to her so ghostly as now, — the uneasy
spirit of a dead faith filling the cathedral, where she
had worshipped after the Huguenot method when
a child. It niiglit have been the contrast, which
exaggerated the faults of Home. And now that her
judgment was ripened, she felt an indefinable dread
that when Charles la Tour should grow old, he would
be as worldly minded, as ungrateful to God, as grasp-
ing and selfish as some of the older citizens, who had
been neither Protestants nor Papists, who had served
the God of this world.

The old phrases of the Huguenot faith, she con-
stantly heard in the house of Eohan. And the clear
sighted, kindly, motherly Duchess had uttered one
word, which struck deeply into the heart of Constance.

"Why did you not marry that beautiful boy Charles
de Menou, whom they now call Charnac^, the Man of
Sin ? If you had married him, he would have become
a Protestant. Your mental and moral constitution is
stronger than his. You have more body of character.
And God woidd have used you, my dear, to win
Charles to himself."

The accents were of the utmost tenderness, — such
as her own mother had used, when she urged Con-
stance to marry according to her heart, not according
to her judgment and what was perhaps a mistaken
view of religious duty, — and they seemed to Con-
stance like a voice out of heaven. A voice was
awakened within the chambers of her heart, — "Come

LA nOCHELLE,

239

forth thou dead and buried love ; this is the morning
of the resurrection."

These words were uttered at the breakfast table, of
that gray November day, observed tliroughout France
from time immemorial as the Day of the Dead; when
the whole population goes forth to visit tombs, and
strew the memorials of affection upon their mounds
in the city of the dead.

As she entered her sedan to go to the grave of her
mother, Constance said so distinctly as to startle
herself: — "It is my thought now, that the apostle
would not advise young men and maidens to seek to
be unequally yoked with unbelievers, or be careless
in forming friendships with those who are deaf to the
call of conscience and the Saviour of men ; yet on the
other hand, if by long acquai itance their hearts are
drawn toward marriage, they ought to marry, and
trust that God will use the believing wife or husband
to win over the unbeliever. Might it not have been
wiser, if I had observed this rule, — wiser than my
marrying * in the Lord * upon short acquaintance ? ^
And might not my life even in the wilderness have
been happier, more complete, more useful, if I had
cUmg solely to the company of my Guardian Angel
after my brother's death, and been content with the
abiding presence of the Heavenly Bridegroom, than
either to have married out of the Lord, or to have
married in undue haste ? "

The sedan had to pass the house where Charles de

1 1 Cor. 7-89 ; 2 Cor. 6-14.

.r-.

240

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Menou's mother died, when Constance was ten years
old. And the pale but glorified features of the dying
returned to her mind as if in a vision. Constance
remembered how in her childish love, she had tried
to kiss away the fast falling tears from the cheeks of
her playmate, who was then like one of her brothers.
And she recalled the long evenings in which they had
studied together, before her father's great open lire ;
until Charles was led by Palladio into other employ-
ment for the most of his evenings.

She recalled the dread day when the Baron Hercule
Charuacd, who had been appointed the legal guardian
of the orphaned Charles de Menou, came to La Eo-
chelle bringing Palladio. How pale the Baron looked.
She had since heard that he was at that time very
ill, made so by the death of his young wife; that
for three years his reason, if not life itself, had been
endangered by his great sorrow.

Kecalling all this, her early love returned again.
She wished that she could see Charnacd once more.

In these thoughts she almost forgot the errand
upon which she was going, until the sedan began to
be jostled by the crowds of mourners entering the
gates of the cemetery. It seemed as if the world
itself had left its traffic for one day, and that upon
this one day every citizen was bearing in his arms
some token of grief.

Constance could not stay. It was all too public,
although every visitor appeared to be occupied by his
own mound of sacred earth.

LA ROCHELLE.

241

She had re-entered her chair, which had been
brought to the graveside, when she saw a man kneel-
ing upon the grave of Madame de Menou; kissing
the sod, and forming upon the grave a cross of costly
flowers out of season. It was not far away. She saw
him rising from the grave : it was Charnacd.

Hastily dropping her curtains, she asked her
bearers to move down the path.

" Stop, stop," cried the voice in her heart.

" I do not dare to stop," answered Constance. " I
see a great gulf opening at my feet. I do not know
how deep it is, or how wide it is."

" Can you not trust yourself to wait, and watch for
him, and see his face ? "

" I do not dare to trust myself to-day. My heart
has gone back ten years."

"Move quickly, and get away from the crowd,"
spoke Constance in a tremulous tone, urging her
bearers to hasten.

A breath from the sea now veiled the streets. The
bearers were directed this way and that through cross
streets. Within the hour Constance had bidden fare-
well to the Eohans, hoisted sail, and stolen out into
the Atlantic. The weather was thick, but she had
accustomed herself to varying conditions upon the
Acadian coast; so she hastened to take advantage
of the wind, — which had veered to the right quarter
just as her bearers were leaving the cemetery.

It was all over now. The sea seemed to her
domestic and homelike. And when she retired to

242

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

rest, rocked by the billows, she read, — "He shall
give his angels charge concerning thee.**

And when she kneeled to pray for her husband
and her child, she said, — "There is no 'What if.'
Conscious now of chagrins and disappointments in
my married life, fixed in a yoke unequal, — it is only
that I may bear up under it in a true womanly and
wifely way. May God bless my home.*'

Then in a moment, she added, — " May God bless
my early friend, Charnac^ ; and lead him, even if
by strange paths, to find spiritual rest. Is he not
now, Infinite Father, like a storm-tossed bird up^n
the ocean ? Oh, Thou, without whom no sparrow
falls, remember the prayers of his dying mother, ana
remember the cry of his own heart to be led ii?. Thy
ways."

THE ACADIAN WREATH.

jj>.

243

XXVIII.

THE ACADIAIT WREATH.

/^^HARNACE, en route for La Rochelle, passed
^^ through Orleans, down the Loire to Tours,
athwart the tributaries, the Cher, the Indre to the
mouth of the Creuse, then up the right fork of the
Vienne through Poitiers. The roads were very beau-
tiful in the late autumn, which had not parted with
all its leaves. The fine weather was inspiriting.
Charnac^ recalled the memory of his varied jour-
neyings in his native country, in former years. He
had forgotten how wonderful it all was, when com-
pared with monotonous and bleak Acadia.

His letters opened the doors of hospitality ; and he
made the journey last as many days as possible. All
France seemed to him to rise in contrast with the
New World. The rivers ; the cultivated grounds ; the
vineland^; the church spires of country towns; the
monastery by the waterside ; a picturesque crag sur-
mounted by some holy house, pointed by the cross,
where the devout were chanting songs to God as if
in a bell tower ; honored cloisters where venerated stu-
dents, famed of the world, have scourged their backs and
prayed in the hours of darkness ; small fortified cities.

.\ ■

244

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

with buildings already old and quaint, and the hoar
0) centuries upcn them ; orderly soldiers at city gates,
or lined upon the defences; towers commanding a
wide area of hill, dale, forest, and stream; ancient
houses hung with weapons, and the relics of the wars
of many generations; massive fortresses that have
stood the shock of centuries ; the military homes of
feudal lords upon some shelf among mountain crags
and the wild eagles ; the ruins of Eoman greatness in
the days of the conquest of Gaul, where one would
pause and listen for the tramp of armies ; obelisks in
the ornamented squares of the larger cities ; the me-
mentos of the great men of the nation ; cathedrals, in
which a city might meet upon the tesselated floor to
worship before the great altar, — all this now seemed
new to the hermit of Penobscot Bav, as if he had
never before seen it.

At Orleans he was attracted by Henry the Fourth's
new cathedral with its towers of two hundred and
eighty feet ; by the house of Francis I. ; by that of
Agnes of Sorel, and of Diana of Poitiers. Twelve
centuries had passed, since the veuerable city had
been besieged by Attila ; and it was now more than
two hundred years since it was delivered from the
English siege by Joan of Arc. How strongly did
this countrywoman remind him of Constance, whose
purposes were not less clearly defined than if they
had been forced upon her attention by St. Michael
out of heaven; whose religious enthusiasm had so
nearly swept him off his ^eet into the Calvinistic

THE ACADIAN WREATH.

245

heresy in his youth ; whose power over him, even
now, was like that exercised by the Holy Maid
over the wild birds and the living creatures in the
forest.

The studies of Calvin and Beza at Orleans awak •
ened in the mind of Charnace a train of reflections,
which prepared him better to appreciate the Protes
tant population of Tours, then not far from forty
thousand,^ who had grown up under the very shadow
of the great abbey St. Martin, which had held the
ground for more than a thousand years. Find-
ing the Cathedral doors open for private worship,
Charnac^ entered the richly carved portals, gazed a
moment upon the flne windows, — then devoutly
bowed at the great altar, praying to the Father
who seeth in secret.

At Poitiers, the Roman Limoneum, on the Clain,
he visited the ruins of the vast amphitheatre built by
men who expected to hold their own for ages; he
went to the battle grounds, where Clovis had defeated
Alaric, then eleven centuries since, and where Charles
Martel drove back the Saracers in A. D. 732. The
steep, the crooked, the narrow streets of the city ;
the deep ravines on every side save one ; the great
chain of hills reaching southwest, — all interested
him, just as they did upon the day when he first
saw it with the BernonS; in seaiuhing out the place

* The removal of this manufacturing population by the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, inflicted a blow upon the prosperity of the
city from which it has not recovered to this day.

246

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

of Calvin's concealment from his enemies, where the
seeds of the Reformation were first sown in the hearts
of a few young men of promise, who bore the new life
to La Rochelle.

Still no siren song came to Charnac^ from out
the centuries, bidding him distrust his Church,
Grateful now to the ecclesiastical soldier of Acadia,
was the thought of the motherhood of the Church of
God ; age after age brooding over the civilized world,
sheltering beneath her wings the poor and the rich,
and proclaiming the reign of God as paramount to
all earthly interests.

The mass of mankind, he reasoned with himself
are receptive not creative ; they need to lean hard
upon some great and strong nature ordained of
heaven to take the responsibility of the earth's con-
trol. To such, how great the boon of the Church,
the authorized ruler of mankind.

He could not but remember the motherly kindness
of Palladio in his orphaned boyhood. His own father,
like his uncle, was easy about his religion, not given
to worrying about the morals of the world ; of fine
executive qualities, and ability as a business man.
His mother was of the noblest, — the most unselfish
in nature, delicate, refined, devout, — but never an in-
dependent thinker; they were, as he reasoned, both by
nature Catholics, who should have taken the dictum
of the Mother Church, — although his mother by early
influence had happened to take the Bernon doctrine
instead of the pope's. How nearly he came to doing

THE ACADIAN WREATH.

24'

that, himself. The Bernons were by nature kings
and queens of the world.

" It is all in the blood," he said, thinking out loud;
" in the training. It is not in me to do as Constance
does. But I thank God for the faith I have in the
Infinite Love, whether administered through priests,
prophets, apostles, or the saints living or dead, — al-
ways the same love manifesting itself to those whose
hearts are sore, and who long after some supreme
affection."

His wandering, wondering heart, — in these de-
lightful days of journeying, when a thousand mem-
ories came back awakened by the changing scenery
of every hour, — could not fail to people the country,
through which he passed, with his own loved ones.

" Of course," he said, talking to himself, " the an-
cestors of Constance in the far off generations were
all Catholics ; and why might not she have been one,
also ? A woman so capable as she, — in some other
sphere than La Rochelle rocked by the war tempest,
or Acadia in the wilderness, — would have left grate-
ful memories of herself upon the soil of France, in
some uplifting and abiding work for the spiritual
gain of her nation."

Nobody ri^^ing up to deny this proposition, he
made another. " How foolish I was to give up Con-
stance as my religious teacher, when I was privileged
to call her my friend. With her expanding woman-
hood, she might, under changed circumstances, have
become eminent in the Church, with her great heart.

248

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

ready to mother the whole needy world. If she were
here now, I almost believe that I could persuade her
to take charge of one of these houses of holy womon
or of orphaned children."

lie even went so far as to select a site for the
erection of religious houses witli the fortune he
would bring from Acadia. It was a harmless mode
of amusiijg his journey.

He wondered how Constance would greet him, if
he could see her.

It never seemed to occur to Charnac^, that Con-
stance had married. He considered La Tour a
nobody.

When he came so near to his native city as to
recognize familiar objects, his heart began to break
down. Charnac^ was, like hib uncle, of a singularly
sensitive spirit. He saw now, that, in all the city,
not one heart would turn to him with affection. He
alone of all the old Protestant families had left the
faith ; he must go in and go out, like a stranger.
With a wail, like a man in the lowest depths of
despair, with a heart hungering for human love
and sympathy, he cried, in low piercing tones, —
" Constance ! Constance ! "

But the Acadian wilds were far off; and there was
no answer.

He entered the city upon the morning of the Day
of the Dead. He had almost forgotten that there
was such a day. Hastening to purchase the most
costly of flowers, so late in the season, an early day

THE ACADIAN WREATH.

249

id there was

in November, he joined the throngs entering the
burial place, — a place made memorable by the
dust of heroes for many generations. He easily
found his mother's grave.

Charnacd had taken no time to compose his mind
for visiting such a spot. He had come in with the
great throng. Holding his flowers, at the headstone,
he thought how he would divide them. He would
carry a part to adorn the grave .)f Constance's mother.
Raising his eyes to look for the spot, he saw a figure
clad in deep mourning, kneeling at the door of the
well known ancient tomb of the Bernons.

Charnacd became pale as the marble upon which
his hand rested, and still as the marble. It might be
some domestic friend ; possibly Elizabeth de Rohan.
If it were Constance ! He had in his pocket the
order for her arrest. In it she was named as a
traitor. He had procured it by a thousand lies.
He had in his heart a thousand ignominies to be
poured out upon her Acadian home. He could not
cross this gulf, and speak to her, — even if she were
Constance.

" The figure moved. It was Constance. He flung
himself upon his knees upon his mother's grave, and
tried with palsied fingers to arrange the flowers.

When he ventured to look again, she had gone.
He would follow ; but his feet were like lead. He
had committed treason against her in his heart, and
he had no right to follow. This saint of the living
God stood upon the one side, and he, — a lying, per-

250

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

jured ecclesiastic, and no friend to her, — stood upon
the other; and there was a measureless abyss between
them.

Then and there, he took his parchment order of
arrest, and cut out the name of Constance. But
what should he do with it? The name was too
sacred to be mutilated. "What a madman was he
to have it inserted. He took from next his heart the
Thomas k Kempis, and placed the name of Constance
in it. Now, what ?

He threw himself in bitter agony upon his mother's
grave, and poured out his blinding tears. " Have I
come to this, my God, that there is an unsounded
depth morally between me and my dead mother, and
between me and the living Constance ? "

Ho thought of the infamies of his life, which sep-
arated him from the upright in heart.

Feeling a chill from the sea change, which had
come into the November day, he arose and went to
the Bernon tomb. He found a wreath of Acadian
feather flowers ; made from the brilliant tints of
humming birds and variegated plumage of songsters
and waterfowl. Attached to it he saw a card, in*
the handwriting of Constance : — " Many children of
the Souriquois, who owe their spiritual life to my
mother's teaching, send this gift with their gratitude,
by Constance."

Should he cut off the card, and rob the dead ? He
could not do that.

Pressing the card to his lips, he kneeled, and

THE ACADIAN WREATH. ,..^ 261

' ■ (i

prayed, — " God forgive me for being untrue to Con-
stance even in my thought ; and make me such, that
I may be willing to meet her."

He timidly found his way that night to the house
of Eohan, wondering whether the Guardian Angel of
Constance would stand at the door with a drawn
sword. He was met by Elizabeth, the comely
daughter of the house. A cordial welcome was ex-
tended to him by the Duchess. Constance had
never breathed a word in the house, of the course
taken by Charnac^ in Acadia against the peace of
her home ; so that the Duchess and her daughter
talked with him, as if he and Constance were on the
same plane as years ago, save that Constance had
married. Charaacd had no heart to stay; every
word they spok^ cut him to the quick. He made
no inquiry for Constance; but they spoke of her
sudden departure, — she had been waiting only for
the wind to change.

He returned to the Bernon tomb next morning,
and cut off the card ; and put it into his Thomas k
Kempis, where it was found after his death, by Joe
Takouchin, — and it was buried with him.

• K

252

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

XXTX.

BARON CHARNACE.

" i ''HERE are few stories of domestic life in France
-^ so pathetic as that of the brief married life, fol-
lowed by overwhelming grief, of the Baron Hercule
Charnac(5. His only consolation in a world emptied
by the hand of death was to fill the world with the
fame of his country. Pre-eminent for purity of life,
and his knowledge of the affairs of nations and those
principles which underlie statecraft, he was little dis-
turbed by the contending religious factions of his age,
preferring to satisfy his own conscience and make his
peace with God in his own way. As very rarely
a communicant, upon such occasions as were made
sacred to him by the memory of his sainted dead,
he won the approval of the ecclesiastical authorities,
and silently pursued his private studies when not
engaged in his diplomatic calling.

Taking great pleasure in the company of his
nephew, his ward, whom he had made his heir,
and who promised so well to honor their ancient
house, he urged the younger Charnac^ to winter in
Paris; the business in hand requiring time, and an

BARON CHARNAC&.

253

acquaintance with leading men being of prospective
advantage.

To the younger Charnac^ his spirited Comedy gave
the recognition of those lettered men, who had been
formed into The Academy by scholarly Richelieu.
And he pursued special studies under the direction
of the learned men of tlie Benedictine community;
and gave nmch time to history and politics, under
the guidance of his uncle.

Fascinated by the genius of Ri( lelieu, he sought to
forward the views of this mast; r by securing the as-
sent of the papal authorM :. to settle ti a Huguenot
question by a fair discuosion, so hoping at least to
win some by reason. In advancing this end he was
commissioned to negotiate \vith Urban VIII., unhap-
pily without effect ; the leading ecclesiastics of France
being opposed to it.

In another way, however, the Acadian Governor
was of service, — that of securing for the army men
eminent among the Protestants. By this means the
chagrins of La - >'or;helle were diminished ; and France
as a nation had the ability of her noblest sons, native
and adopted. This could not but have had, although
unknown to himself at the time, the happiest influ-
ence upon the character of Charnac^.

Who could even for a moment be brought into
contact with Marshal Gession without being made
the better for it ? Said the fierce fighter to an offi-
cer, who thought an enterprise impracticable, — "I
have that in my head, and at my side, all that is

254

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

requisite for victory." His sword being able to do
all that his brain prompted. To Richelieu he said, —
" I will serve you in everything, except in that which
is underhanded." " This may hinder your promotion
but it will not hinder my esteem," was the regal reply.

Greater still was his good fortune in securing,
through letters from his uncle, the service to France
of Marshal Eautzau ; who, by the proverb, was shot
everywhere except in his heart, — who carried to a
peaceful grave one eye, one arm, one leg, and sixty
honorable wounds.

The liberal views entertained by the Baron, of the
practical working of Protestantism in affecting favor-
ably the public morals, as seen by him at Geneva and
in Sweden, were not without weight with the younger
Charnac^ ; who was as hospitable as his uncle to new
views, and, like him, easily took on the color of his
immediate surroundings. The character of Gustavus
Adolphus, as delineated by the ambassador, bore fruit
in Acadia. The greatness of his military genius ; his
personal bravery, without passion, without cruelty,
never ungenerous to a foe; his even balance; his
practical wisdom; his simple and almost faultless
character, — made him a peer in the house of that
divine order of nobility which numbers so few in all
countries and all ages. That he, being such a man,
planted himself so squarely upon his clear under-
standing of the Word of God, commended to Baron
Charnacd the Protestant faith, more than could have
been done by cartloads of Calvinistic Institutes.

BABON C EARN ACE.

255

It was when the Baron one morning gave to his
nephew a copy of the Scriptures, which he had re-
ceived from the Swedish King, that a conversation
ensued touching young Charnace's early life. Charles
of La llochelle has spoken of the motto still lettered
upon the door casements of his mother's house
"Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye
have eternal life."

" You rejected the crudities of Calvinism, only to
accept the crudities of a Spanish soldier," — said
Charuacd the elder.

"I did it, sir," replied the nephew, "under the
instruction of the teacher provided by my guardian
in my tender years."

"I made a great mistake," was the answer, "for
which I offer to you as a mt.n, the apology due for
the practical misdirection which I gave you as a boy.
The Jesuits then most easily furnished private
teachers of great ability as well as fine scholarship.
And with the Jesuits was hidden the key of political
promotion. I thought to serve you, not to hamper
you. Would you not do wisely to cut clear of your
Superior forever, in respect to what you call your
voluntary obedience ? "

"What then would become of my promotion, as
you are pleased to call it? Only yesterday the
General of the Society was pleased to urge upon
me priestly vows, in order that I might be placed
in charge of the Order in America; it being proposed
now to enlarge the work."

-«~«^^«-

256

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

I trust give him an evasive answer.

"You will

Defer your decision until your Acadian business
turns to vour mind. It will not then be too late, if
civil position does not offer."

"There is little safety in delaying obedience to
one's Superior, unless one throws up the system
altogether," returned the Acadian.

"You can suitably deceive him in your own in-
terest," answered the diplomatist. "You are not
bound to speak the truth to him, except in matters
of common interest. He does not expect you to do
it. Your own interest is personal, yours ; the Order
has not just claim upon it. You will never reach the
highest position in the State, unless you use the Or-
der; do not allow it to use you, except at your
convenience."

" I have noticed," said the nephew, " that the Car-
dinal protects the Jesuits rather than seeks their
protection; puts forward the Franciscans; leagues
with Lutherans; takes nations out of the Catholic
League which the Pope is trying to tie together, —
in short he acts like a man not a tool."

"Yes," was the answer, "he uses, in fact, his re-
ligious position to aid his political movements ; and
makes all Europe tributary to the upbuilding of his
own individual thought and plan. He has boldly
said to the Pope, that France can never be the el-
dest son of the Church, unless first of all there is a
France, respected by Europe ; and how to make
France respected, he must be the judge, not the

BARON CHARNACE.

257

Pope. But he could never compass his end, if he
had not the qualities of a diplomatist of the highest
rank, — as well as the position of prime minister, and
paramount influence in the Church. He works be-
low the surface, concealing his methods, moving as
secretly as the hidden cause of the lightning, or the
earthquake, or the principle of life in all growing
things."

To his uncle, Charnacd unbosomed all his secret
life, — his love for Constance. There could be no
more profound f.nd tender sympathy than that of
him, whose home had been so much to him that his
life was blighted all his years, when it was destroyed
by death. The nephew was urged to establish his
worldly ambitions upon the basis of a home, to aban-
don all possible dreams of priestly solitude.

"Our family stock," said the Baron, ''is so con-
stituted that we all yearn with an unspeakable long-
ing for the felicities of domestic life. We are not
made for priests, to wed the Church. The holy
evangel can never train men, unless thev:- -ire men
to train. We must have full and finely developed
manhood; and there is no fair proportion to life
without the inspiration of noble women. Mere me-
chanical obedience to an ecclesiastical power, which
is to do ail the thinking and all the acting for all the
world, without one iota of personal responsibility on
the part of any man save to obey a Superior, — would
ruin the world, and make manliness impossible. I
hope, my dear sir, that you will get out of the ma-

258

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

was so thoughtless as

chine, within whose grasp I
to place you. Then marry. The motherhood of
the Church is good ; but you want a wifa You
are incomplete without a home."

All this was said in a tender, subdued tone, as of
one voicing a great sorrow ; and the Baron arose from
the table, and sought seclusion for the remainder of
tht'. day.

The Acadian loan was, after many delays, effected
"With Emmanuel Le Borgue of La Eochelle ; to whom
"was given as security an area half as large as France,
— no small part of which was owned by La Tour
and the Scotch, and nobody knew who would claim
it before Le Borgue's money might be due. He
advanced, first and last an enormous amount for such
security. The transactions were completed at the
Baron's house, 16 Eue de Grenelle, which is described
in the papers as the house which has for a sign the
flcur de lys, near the olive tree.^

The legal transfer of the M. Eazilly property to
Charnac^ appears to have been made at the same
time ; the acknowledgment being before Messieurs
Platrier and Chappelin, Notaries.

It was one of the felicities enjoyed by Charnacd
that he belonged to a spy system which wired the
world before telegraphs, reaching every part of the
civilized and no small part of the barbaric world, —
the system of Loyola. By this he kept himself
informed of the doings of Constance, as she was

1 Murdoch's Nova Scotia, I. 96, 97,

BARON CHARNACE.

259

y property to
at the same
ore Messieurs

completing her purchases in London; and he learned,
when too late to intercept her, of her contract with
Captain Bayley master of the Dolphin, one of Alder-
man Berkly's ships, to transport her and her freight
to St. John.

Charnacd's return voyage to Acadia was to he in a
government ship, the St. Francis ; whose commander
would bear La Tour as prisoner of State to France.
After long delays he made ready; and embarked
from the port of the Associates in Morbihan, some
four months later than the sailing of Constance.

t.ii'g.l

'■■■ Ai

I ;

2C0

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

THi: l\tIDDLE O- THE SEA.

A SEA voyagb suited the mood of Charnac^,
after his life in Paris. He had become almost
as eager to return to Acadia as he had been to leave
j't. The great city seemed far off, and its citizens
lonely, upon the first morning after the shores of
France had gone down behind the horizon. He found
that his individuality had been favored by America.
When alone he sought to imitate his ideal, not pat-
tern after a neighbor who might be small or great.

He easily adjusted himself to se" -'^ing ways, and
kept watch with the officers ; not for serving the ship
but for serving himself. With the close habits of a
student, he observed regular seasons for thinking over
his reading, and for self comm anion ; the dog watch
of sunrise or sunset, the long hours before midnight,
and sometimes four small hours of the morning.
His deck-walkiD'^; in all weathers was oI'teD ?ike
being alone in A. ■'■■ iia.

Perhaps he '3 -ed his calling, and should have
been a po^ . :e had that sympathetic power by
which he ocdd throw himself inli the situation of

p'' «?

THE MIDDLE OF THE HEA.

261

anothpx*; and rhetorical equipment by which to ex-
press another's life. Often he had amused himself
in this way. In Acadia, Charnacd had learned, at
times, to feel as the savages did, to think as they"
thought ; in Paris, he occasionally imagined himself,
for the hour, in place of Richelieu, or the General of
his Order ; in Kome he fancied what might be the
interior life of Urban.

It came to him when floating upon the St. Francis,
a mere chip upon the ocean, — why not for some
days and nights imagine myself to be Constance ?
It would be next to having her companionship ;
and at least he would understand her better. Per-
haps it was a strange and unwarrantable notion.
And what he might think would be doubtless as
little like her, as if he were to fancy himself stand-
ing in the place of Ariel in the sun. Still, the
thought pleased him. It would be not unlike in-
venting, for his own private sight, a play of Con-
stance, in which she would figure as the principal
character.

Night was spreading over the face of the deep, and
the stars were coming out, and the surface of the
waters was becoming dark, — when this idea of per-
sonating Constance first occurred to him, after he had
been some wee'iuS at sea.

He had at once a strong feeling of isolation.
Sure] .' there was but one Constance; and she must
have an abiding seiiso oi being alone, as if upon a
small craft in. a great ocean, or in a slight shelter

■K

262

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

embosomed in a forest covering a hemisphere, or a
snow hut in the frozen north, — living alone with her
Guardian Angel.

This would never do ; he could not easily imagine
himself — with all his longing for a home — as so
situated. He gazed long and dreamily upon the
phosphorescent light in the wake of the ship, or
went to the prow to see the lights dash up out of
the sea in the little waves tossed from the bows.
He even thought to take the place of the figure-
head, St. Francis, and stand in his place, — as Con-
stance in lonely watch over the paths of ocean.

When his watch was over, he saw before retiring
the Bible, which his uncle had given to him as a
memento of Gustavus Adolphus, having in it the
King's autograph. Did Constance ever close the day
without her Bible ? With sleepy eyes he opened the
lid. He saw the phrase, in his uncle's handwriting,
" Look to this as yocr Superior."

He had read the Bible to controvert, read it as a
theologian, read it for the literature; but the next
morning he read, as Constance would do, — for spirit-
ual direction. It could not, he reasoned, be trifling
with sacred things, if in his imaginative humor he
should hold his mind open to receive the Word as a
conclusive moral authority, as Constance would do.

Taking a turn upon deck at noon he saw a solitary
sail upon the horizon, the only one sighted in tbp,
whole voyage except on either coast. Turning h^s
eyes away for a moment, the shij disappearea as

THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA.

263

completely as if she had gone down. A slight mist,
80 far away as not to be noticed, had intervened.
To Charnacd it brought to mmd the suddenness
with which he had lost sight of Constance at La
Eochelle. It was perhaps her fate, perliaps his, to
be alone; and how soon might they both be veiled
from all earthly sight, and sleep in graves which were
already waiting.

When he began his deck watch from eight to
twelve, the wind was dropping. The St. Francis very
sluggishly responded to what little air there was ; so
that Charnacd, — who imagined himself to be a little
sensitive to the heat of the day which continued
after sundown, — was glad like a woman to stand in
draughts made by the can, as. It may have been in
the spirit of Constance that felt that night, as
never before, the mysterious silence of the sea. The
air was too still to bring a sound from the rigging,
and the sea too still to awaken creaking and moan-
ing among the timbers. The waves were asleep, i*nd
the sails idle. Forward, the low voices of the sea-
men w^ere soon hushed. It may be that the rough
forecastle hands were av"^'' ^y an unusual presence,
as if Constance were upuh the man-of-war. There
was no need of an officer's footfall, so that Char-
nacd or Constance heard no sound save the ship's
bell.

He kept a double watch ; and gave the entire
night to reflection upon his studies of the day. It
was apparent that the Bible was addressed to every

^ Vji^w

264

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

man alone ; God revealinf? himself to the individual,
and holding each man to an account for himself.

He thought over the points in his own career, and
his plans for the future. His own isolation bore wit-
ness ^'''♦^^ the Scriptures, that he must make his own
destiny. The individuality of the Bible phrases
made a great impression upon his mind. "The
God with wliom we have to do," he said to himself,
" must be the God of Constance. Her Superior is
the Supreme. With Him, she is ready to die alone,
and to go forward to the Judgment alor';. She needs
no priest, save tlie Son of Man."

"How delightful it is," he added, as if he were
Constance, " that He " ^ called the ^on of Man, at
no great remove from the sinning • td sorrow ugj
and that we can go straight to him, — v. ithout Alary,
or a Saint, or a Vicar."

"This never will do," said the solitary wat el i nan,
as he heard the step of the second officer, anc saw
him look aloft. The wind was beginning to draw a
little abaft the port beam. "But why will it not
do ? Have I no right to think for myself ? Is not
my will free t Is not my conscience individual ? In
all earthly busineod I decide for myself, why not in
Mie ttifairs of my soul ? Why may I not receive here

thf good ship St. Francis a new revelation, as prop-
erly as Loyola in the cave of Manresa ? Henceforth,
I will call no man master. One is my Master, even
Christ."

The next afternoon, however, after his long sleep.

THE MIDDLE OF THE 8EA,

265

sorro'"^ ig;

he was timid. "I am going," he said, "too far. I
will no longer play the part of Constance. But her
life is world wide from mine, if she accepts this Book
as it is, without priestly comment."

It was one of those days which make a sailor's
heart glad ; and he imagined himself for the two
hours, in which he strode the deck, to be none other
than Gilberto the boatswain, of simple faith, and of
dutiful love for his toil upon the high seas. It was
blowing very fresh, the canvas was stretching to the
breeze, St. Francis was rushing through the water, as
eagerly as the original saint hastened to seek martyr-
dom among the Turks. The sun had begun to weaken
early in the afternoon, peering out dimly upon the
gathering storm. The surface of the sea was rugged.
After nightfall, it was of inky blackness. The ship
was moving at a great pace. Charnacd turned in, to
the music of water bubbling through the starboard
scuppers.

True to Gilberto's character, Charnac^ prayed to
various respectable Italian Saints; and, in his dreams,
he again walked the streets of Eome, and he attended
service at St. Peter's.

For his next morning studies, he turned, alter-
nately, to Loyola's Letter on Obedience, and to the
Swedish King's Bible ; having returned to his fancy,
that Constance was there studying in his place.
"Obedience to whom?" he asked, just as he was
called to his mess table. " To God. I find no Bible
rule by which all interpretation is to be shifted oft"

266

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

upon another. If I do not obliterate the Word of
God and get on without it, — I must decide for ray-
self what it means, as I make my decisions indepen-
dently in secular afl'airs."

The evening watch in the long late hours, found
the ship pitcliing a good deal, as Charnacd walked
the deck. The waves were heavier, the sky was
thick, the wind half a gale. " There can be no
middle ground," he said, having by some effort
imagined Constance exercising in the wind on
deck, — as indeed she might be, for aught he knew,
in some other part of the wide ocean. " Either God
is manifest now to every disciple, as to those in the
Gospel stcx'y, or He is not. If He is not, then we
need a Vicar; if He is, then we do not need a
Vicar."

He listened to the creaking of the spars, and the
roaring of the wind on high; and heard the men
stumbling along the deck, in obeying the orders of
the first officer. He looked astern at the seething
foam, the only light in the great darkness, — and
said, " Good night, Constance."

" In any event," he though t^^ to himself, going down
the companion way, "the course pursued by Con-
stance seems more reasonable, when I imagine my-
self in her place. I do not see how she can do
otherwise and be loyal to her God. And if she
really seeks the guidance of the Divine Spirit to
interpret to her the Word, as she used to say, and
as I find hei directed to do in the Word itself, she

THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA,

267

is probably as near right as she can be outside the
pale of the true Cliurch."

The next walk, by day, Charnac^ tried to place
himself in imagiuative sympathy with Francisco
Brogi, whom he had detested at sight, who was
nevertheless — as a special favor to his old con-
fessor Arrighi — to be one of his own military
household. He was an Italian officer; who had
won a great reputation in Portugal, in aiding John,
duke of Braganza to recover his kingdom. Having
never been upon a long voyage before, he was now
thoroughly sea-sick, and nearly dead, as he expressed
it. This tickled the risibles of Charnacd, who con-
jured up all sorts of odd contrasts, between the
famous fights General Brogi had been in, and his
present condition. He fancied the terror produced
in Brogi's mind by the sight of the hilly horizon,
and the foaming succession of waves ; by the boom-
ing of the seas against the bows of the ship ; by the
howling of the wind; by the shaking of the sails ;
by the clanking of the chain sheets ; by the plung-
ing of the vessel; by the seas shipped over the
bulwarks.

Suddenly he lost his cue, and said — to the face of
the wind — " Even Constance would beat him for a
sailor, — perhaps as a soldier."

The occupation of Charnacd had been serious as
well as amusing. He had desired to see things from
the stand point occupied by Constance. And now
he was more than ever persuaded, that the universal

268

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

harmonies demanded their union even in this life.
He must have a home. He was done with the
Church, as a profession.

Now in these wild hours of storm he was exhila-
rated, and lifted above himself; and as he had often
walked with Constance upon the fortifications of La
Eochelle when they were children together, to watch
the violence of the sea and the curling crests, when
the Atlantic broke, shock on shock, against the im-
movable battlements, so now he imagined that she
was with him, hand in hand, outlooking upon the
illimitable drifts of foam white as the snows of
Acadia, or listening in strange glee to the heavy
flapping of the canvas and the rigging screeching
in the gale.

"Perhaps Constance is praying for me at this
moment," said Charnac^, as a heavy thud — like an
iron billow — struck the bows of the ship.

When he still keeping to his usual thoughts
opened his Bible, later in the day, he stumbled
upon a passage that threw light upon the duty of
a married woman, as Constance must understand it.
He searched, and satisfied himself of how she must feel,
or was bound by her Book to feel toward him. He
carried the Book on deck, and flung it into the boil-
ing sea. "With her fanaticism," he said, "she may
think it her religious duty never even to see me.
Shall I be separated from her forever, without one
word?"

And he listened gladly to the sullen thunder of

THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA.

269

the sea striking the St. Francis. He gazed upon
the desolate gloom of the ocean around him. The
straining timber of the ship was music to his ears.
Charnac4 had felt annoyed with himself, that he had
been so near Constance, and yet so far from her, at
his mother's grave. He ought to have spoken to her ;
even if his own wickedness had startled the dead.
"Perhaps," he thought, "she saw me; and would
net speak to me. She may have distrusted me.
My love could not have been known to her, I
will see her ; and show her my heart, my repentance
toward her and my God."

He could not sleep, he would not sleep. His heart
complained louder than the groaning ship. Would
it not have been better if he had chosen his portion
with the fat and oiled priests he saw in Paris, who
had been his schoolmates ? Alas for him, he said,
that he had a conscience, — that he could not do as
they did.

Past midnight the clouds were torn by the chang-
ing wind, as it cross-plowed the skies. The rising
and falling of the ship amid the thumping seas ; the
appearance of the planets ; the paling of the stars be-
fore the moon slowly rising from the deep ; the sheen
of the low satellite upon the troubled waters j the
skurrying clouds ; the struggling light of the dawn
faintly appearing, — all awakened in the heart of the
lonely watcher echoes as tempestuous as the sea.

He briefly rehearsed his religious experience ; but
he could awaken no interest in his heart for the sal-

270

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

vation of meD. He was conscious of one absorbing
passion, — to gain his point against La Tour, to see
Constance, to establish his home.

But when the moon was high, illuminating distant
spaces of the sea, his illuminating conscience also
arose, and he determined to quit Constance forever.
How could he appear as her lovt :• ? The great gulf
yawning before him at La RocheUe, was now deeper
and wider. Would he not at this season come upon
some body of floating ice from the north ? Could he
not make some excuse to ride the seas upon an ice
floe ? Could he not find some way of escape, before
the St. Francis should enter tlie Bay of Fundy ?

At day dawn, however, it was clear enough that
he was still Governor of Acadia ; upon a government
ship, — in pursuit of a deadly enemy. His passions
had been awakened by the war ; and they could
not be stilled. He would fight for a home ; make a
home for himself at the cannon's mouth.

Within the hour, Constance was under the guns
of the St. Francis.

THE SUIT OF THE DOLPHIN.

271

XXXI.

THE SUIT OF THE DOLPHIN.

TF Constance had set up for a saint, the devil's
•^ advocate — commissioned by the usages of the
Church to oppose her canonization by cataloguing
her sins — would have made much of her exaspeiated
stat • of mind in regard to Captain John Bay ley, who
had been six months in a voyage requiring two, —
having spent his time in trading with the Indians in
the Bay of Chaleurs, and at Cape Breton. If Con-
stance had known in early May what she knew late
in August about Captain Bayley, she would have had
her light stuff set ashore, and packed across the
country from Point Du Chene or either of several
trading statioLvs made by the Dolphin, — then she
could have summered at home, and her goods could
have been handled ; as it was, the La Tour trade for
the season was nearly ruined by the Captain's delay.
But Bayley was not in the slightest degree savage
or ugly about it; upon the other hand he was the
most accommodating creature in the world. He was
always about to move on.

Constance talked to Roger Williams — who was on
board with his Ehode Island Charter — and Roger

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Williams talked to Constance ; until they were both
as dry as the Breton herring. They read the Are-
opagitica together, — then new to the reading world ;
and discussed English politics. And Williams vol-
unteered his views in regard to the peculiar govern-
ment of Massachusetts Bay. Constance and Willio,ms
both improved in piety, and in their notions of civil
freedom ; and chey grew old together. But Captain
Bayley kept on trading with the Indians.

Wh°n he was satisfied that he could not make
anything more out of his peltry — for that season,
he began to think about Williams, who had remarked
that the nations were waiting to see his Charter un-
rolled upon Narragansett Bay ; and to think about
the French woman, who insisted that her husband's
fort might be lost altogether before the arrival of her
London guns and powder, and that in such event the
Captain would lose his freight and passage money.

Captain Bayley finally drew his lumbering old
brig out upon the road he ought to have travelled
over early in the seaso.1, — just in time to be caught
in the late August storm. Aside from what gave way
by decay, through lapse of time, the Dolphin suffered
little damage, and was proceeding as leisurely as she
could toward Cape Sable, when she was overhauled
by the St. Francis.

The night visions of Constance had been upon the
high hills and bold cliffs of Acadia, and the rushing
seas of Fundy ; where the flashing brine was Salter,
and the sparkling waters brighter, than any other in

THE SUIT OF THE DOLPHIN.

273

the world to her. Awakened early by her mother
heart upon the day when she hoped to reach home,
she thought to look out, and see the swell break over
ledges far from shore; possibly she might see the
white line upon the coast. It was so near the day-
dawn, that she had little expectation of discerning
anything, save the tumult of the waves after the
storm.

She saw the St. Francis, — looming up largely in
the imperfect light, — and bearing down upon the
Dolphin. Constance could only make out that it
was a French man-of-war, — lying over to the star-
board ; and steplthily advancing through the heavy
water. Charnac^, at the same moment, heard, against
the wind, the famt songs of the seamen and the rum-
bling of the yards, as the Dolphin was making more
sail. The wind was dying out, and likely to fall
calm ; but the St. Francis was a good seagoing craft,
and was soon sliding past the brig .vithin hail.

It had now become light enough for Charnac^ to
read the name of the Englishman, The Dolphin. It
was the ship Constance had sailed in from London.
He saw a woman near the wheel. Could it be Con-
stance ? Constance saw a form at the prow of the
stranger ; and the light so shone upon his features as
to suggest to her the thought of Charnac^. She went
below quickly. Meeting Captain Bayley at the com-
panion way, she communicated her belief that the
Frenchman was bound for Castb La Tour, and that
the Dolphin might be wanted.

f««l

274

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

The hail of Novelais, the St. Francis commander,
brought out the information that Captain John Syn-
derlaud of the Dolphin, straight from the Thames
and bound for Massachusetts Bay,^ would like to get
his bearings, if the St. Francis had any idea what
part of the sea they were in, after the blow.

" We want to talk with Captain Bayley."

" Captain Bayley is in London. He came out in
the Dolpliin last spring, and returned to England in
June."

This tallied with what Charnac^ knew of the sail-
ing of the Dolphin under Bayley in February or
March, and was not unlikely true. Incredible as it
might be to the religious mind of Novelais, that he
was liable to pick up a Protestant in the ocean who
would tell him the truth, it was more incredible to
Charnac^ that Bayley had been six months cruising
the Atlantic with Constance in search of St. John.
So Charnac^ and Constance sailed away from each
other as fast as they could.

Captain Synderland proved to be of much more
lively temperament than Bayley had been for the
past six months ; and he shook out his reefs, crowded
on what sail he could, and headed for Boston. He
had a voice like a ship's gun ; and was better armed
than most merchantmen. This probably saved him
some impertinence from the Saint with his bla^-k
tiers of guns.

Captain John Bayley had better success with the

1 Compare with Winthrop's account, II. 192.

THE SUIT OF THE DOLPHIN.

275

French man-of-war Francis, than with the French
woman-of-war Constance. She sued him for dam-
ages. Without cash in hand, she could do nothing
in Boston. Fra Marie was reported, as still cruising
for the Dolphin, as he had been all summer. Bay-
ley's failure to land her, according to contract, made
it needful for Constance to hire an armed escort to
take her and her freight to St. John. Bayley, and
his owner, Alderman Berkly of London, must pay
the cost of carrying her to Acadia ; and make good
to General La Tour the losses occasioned by delay.

Light hearted La Tour had been made heavy
hearted, thinking that Constance and the Ehode
Island Charter had foundered at sea. Perhaps the
Bay people took the more kindly to Constance and
her suit, since her genial husband had left Boston
only eight days before her arrival. He had been
treated with the utmost honor and respect. Unlim-
ited hospitality had been proffered ; and much pow-
der was burned upon the occasion of his sailing down
the harbor, — this time a salute from the Castle, the
solitary occupant of former months having been re-
inforced. General La Tour's vast energy, his power
to combine men, his ability to command confidence,
and his apparently inexhaustible resources, made him
a ho«t of friends. Madame La Tour met, therefore,
with a cordial reception, — as well on his account as
upon her own.

To the credit of the Endicott government be it
spoken, — Cap'^aiix Bayley was not hung at sight;

276

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

public indignation was great, — but the forms of law
were observed. Roger Williams had prepared the
mind of Constance for that. He had told her, that
the Bay people would do just what tiiey had a mind
to ; but they would legalize it.

That freedom from English law and precedent,
which led in the end to the largest liberty, was al-
ready manifest in the spirit of the colonial leaders.
They had centuries of the elements of English liberty
behind them, and the civil wars at home made it im-
possible for the government to take effective notice
of any irregularities alleged concerning colonists over
the sea.^

1 Lechford's Plaine Dealing shows that he labored with the
" lords- brethren " to do things regularly, as to legal proceedings,
and at least to keep records. He ibought they exercised powers
beyond the intent of the home government, and made pretensions
of being wiser than the English law (pp. 83-80). The not record-
ing appears to have been of set purpose ; they intended to create an
American law and liberty, and did not want their work overhauled
by the crown. The French Refugee of 1687 could not persuade the
wily authoritiep to tell him about their courts ; they professed to
know nothing about them. The bright Frenchman's report, how-
ever, gives us the most that we know about the early legal proceed-
ings of the Bay, — save the important information in Lechford. It
appears that the magistrates advised the parties to a quarrel ; ^ then
acted the part of advocates ;2 then adjudicated upon them ! They
considered this fairer than the employment of lawyers ; and allowed
Lechford to try only one case. In that one, he lobbied with the
juiy jmvately ; it was probably a habit he brought from England.
After two years, he tried his hand at hoeing corn, and at advising
the colony for its better ordering and for the conversion of Indians;
then returned whence he came.

1 Mem. Hist. Boston, I. p. 503.

3 Lechford, p. 86.

THE SUIT OF THE DOLPHIN.

277

The disposition of the Bay authorities to act
promptly in the direction they thought to be right,
whether it was legal or not, had been illustrated
within sixty days of the arrival of Bayley. A
Frenchman, whose name has not come down to us,^
was suspected of being an incendiary. Nothing was
proved against him ; but he was compelled to pay
the cost of the so called court of justice, stand in the
pillory, have both ears cut off, and give £500 bonds
for good behavior 1

Bayley and his consignee were arrested ; and they
had to surrender a part of the ship's cargo, subject to
the findings of the court, before they could be re-
leased. The trial came off in the n.eeting house.^
It was at a special session, before all the magistrates,
and a jury of the principal men.^ After giving her
testimony, Constance retired to her chamber at Major
Gibohcs* house.

It v\'js argued upon the one side, that Madame
La Tour ought not to go to St. John ; that it would
make trouble with Charnac(5. Upon the other side,
the facts were presented, and the justice of the claim.
In making the plea for Madame La Tour, the Rev-
erend John Wilson created a great sensation, by an-
nouncing the news, which had just arrived, of the
battle of Marston Moor, July second.

^ Savage's Police Records, p. 18.

2 Plaine Dealing, p. 84, indicates this as the place of holding the
gi'eat quarter courts.

8 Hanney's Acp.dia, p. 166.

.»

i ;

278

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

The jury gave Madame La Tour £2000 damages.
The attached cargo proved to be vvrorth only £1100 ;
and the Boston merchants took £700 of that, for
three ships to escort, vi et armis, Madame to her
husband.^

The delays of the law kept Constance in Boston
longer than had been anticipated. Socially, a great
number were added to her friends. A profound re-
spect filled her miud for the deep piety, and good
sense of the men she met. The possibilities of a new
country opened before her. It cost only £20, to
make a good settlement for a family of four persons.
At Rodislan, Eoger Williaihs' country, that amount
of money would buy one hundred acres of good land ;
and if one chose to put part of the money into fur-
nishing his log cabin, he could have three years in
which to pay for the land, by adding one fifth to his
purchase money. The £30 paid to Blaxton for all
the Shawmut peninsula, save six acres reserved, had
already proved a sagacious investment.

The heart of Constance was full of those plans for
JTew France, which had they been successful would
have put a new face upon Acadia, making it one of
the most thriving States of the world. She had
thrown off the French notion of dividing the soil

* Aldennan Berkly of Loudon, — Captain Bayley's principal, —
soon afterwards arrested Governor Winthrop's son Stephen, the Re-
corder of the Court, and Captain James Weld, one of the jury, when
they visited England ; and would have made them much trouble
by legal proceedings, — which in th&t age were more lawless in
London than in Boston, — had not Sir Henry Vane interfered.

TBE SUIT OF THE DOLPHIN.

279

between lord«? ; and sought to build up in Acadia the
domes' • home, the Christian home of Protestant
faith, asbarinj^ to each settler an ownership of the
full "'o U^.ng the foundation of perman'. "■ pros-
pe itj

o" the mere handful of four hi.aJred
Freuc igrants to Acadia, who naked of means

broke ti^j ground, with determination not to give the
lie to the traditions of thrifty France, — now about
one hundred thousand in number, all descended from
the four hundred old Acadians, — we should have
had a grand Protestant French nation, who even if
under English rule would exercise a vast influence
upon this continent. But upon the other hand, by
the time this feeble band of four hundred had in-
creased to two thousand, the English colonies south
had a population of more than a quarter of a million.
The English themselves neglected Acadia, when it
came into their possession ; and it has been accorded
no such place in the world's history, as it had in the
dreams and wise plans of Constance. Since each of
the original French colonists is now represented by
two hundred and fifty souls, her work would have
become one of the great world-forces had she not so
early won the crown of martyrdom.^

Constance was, at the time of her second visit to
Boston, in all the flush and fire of the earlier years of
her womanhood ; at twenty eight, — of modest de-

1 Consult M. Ramean, Colonie Feodale en America.
Paris, 1877. Pages 272, 273, 354, 360-62.

L'Acadie.

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280

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

meanor, of singular beauty, with eyes which became
one of the traditions of the Bay, of clear cut religious
character, of strong personal magnetism, and the
mental acuteness and practical benevolence of Anne
Hutchinson, — without her taste for discussing doubt-
ful, difficult, and nonessential points in theology, and
without her sharpness ot speech. No wonder that
Madame La Tour won the hearts of Winthrop and
Cotton and the eminent men of the colony.

Of all the noble women figuring in the early Eec-
ords, there is no one to whom so high praise is given
by every historian alluding to her, as Constance of
Acadia. The men of that day, who had it in them
to found a nation, looked upon her as every way their
equal in the handling of affairs. And Louis the
king, and the intriguers at his court, accounted her
a full match, — to be overcome only by heavy artil-
lery. She must be met by battalions, as Joan of
Arc.

"It is not of my choosing," said Constance to
Margarett Gibones, as she embarked for Castle La
Tour ; " but I must go, and engage in this warfare."

CASTINE.

281

r^\

» .-.

XXXII.

CASTmE.

WHEN" General La Tour declined to be ironed
and bundled alive into the St. Francis and
the Bastile, Eoland Capon certified to the fact that he
declined, and the certificate was sent to Louis XIII.
by the St. Francis.

Charnacd returned to the Bay of the Kio Hermoso,^
not a little out of humor. He cannot be said to have
been of violent temper, unless at times ; but his self
will now and then got the better of him, and main-
tained itself in a quiet way for a long time against
his reason and his conscience. It had been perhaps
this great moral blunder, which was the cause of all
his woes. His early decision to follow Palladio in-
stead of Constance, was, in part, a decisiori not to give
up his will to a woman. He could decide for him-
self, and he did decide.

When Fra Marie saw, at the landing, that his
master was out of tune, it pleased his humor to make
the Governor more so, by placing in a conspicuous
position the £50 sedan, which Winthrop had shipped

1 Charnacd made an elaborate attempt, in his correspondence
and official reports, to revive the name given to the Penobscot by
Spanish explorers, — Bio Hermoso, the Beautiful Biver.

282

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

to Pentagotiet as an offset for the damages and chagrins
of Passageewakeag.

Charnac^ was furious. He had hated sedans, —
then recently invented, — since he saw the one by
which Constance escaped at La Rochelle.

"A Puritan city in truth!" he said, his nostrils ex-
panding, and his lips curling in scorn. " The Gover-
nor takes a gift from a pirate, and bestows it on the
chief magistrate of a neighboring jurisdiction, in pay-
ment of a just debt. If I were in the second-hand
furniture business, I would ask Winthrop to send out
his pirates, and bring me twelve dozen such chairs as
this ; and then I 'd call it square between us."

He took up a four foot birch stick from the hearth-
side, and laid it across his knees ; as he sat fronting
the low fire, upon that early September night.
Ciphering upon it, he asked Marie, —

" Did you give him a receipt the bill of

damages ? "

" Certainly not. I gave him plenty of palaver for
his present, and put the bill in my pocket. We
shall, I suppose, collect it, — after we take Fort
La Tour."

"The saints sink La Tour!" exclaimed Charnac^,
throwing his birch upon the fire. When the fresh
blaze lighted up the room, and sent the deep shadows
slinking behind the tables and benches, the Governor
of Acadia arose and strode up and- down the low long
room, — his shadow moving up and down the south
wall.

CASTINE.

rr-

283

" I Ve just reckoned," he said to Marie, " that it
will take tl^rteen dozen and four of this sample to
pay my bill. If I had enough of them, it would pay
me to go into the business. You can take the pin-
nace, the St. Joe, to-morrow, and, under my hand and
seal, ask the Puritans to send me down twelve dozen
sedans of this pattern. Then I '11 charter a Bos-
ton ship, and hire Winthrop for a supercargo ; and
have him go round to all the viceroys in the world
and their sisters, and peddle them out. I suppose the
Bay people would rather pay in barter than in money ;
and they '11 make something handsome in disposing
of them."

Early next morning, pacing up and down in front
of his blazing hearth, waiting for the breakfast call,
he said to liis apparently obsequious companion in
the office, — "Marie, I have decided to teach the
Tarratines the use of firearms ; then let the Puritans
look to it, if they impose on their neighbors. You
may set an effigy of John Cotton in the sedan ; and
give the thing to our Indians to shoot at."

The wickerwork was taken out, and made up into
pots for catching silver eels ; and the sedan, and the
puritan preacher in it, were shot to pieces within a
few months.

" For downright lying, commend me to the Protes-
tants," said Francisco Brogi to the Governor. " Ma-
dame La Tour was upon the Dolphin, after all."

Fra Marie, in the St. Joe, went to Boston with
ten men, before Constance left ; and demanded that

284

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Endicott should allow no aid to be rendered in send-
ing her to St. John.

** She is," he reported, " the cause of all La Tour's
contempt and rebellion ; and her flight from France
was contrary to the order of the king." ^

Marie had no hope of getting Constance from
Gibones and Hawkins and Winthrop in their own
town, — particularly under the guns of the Castle
garrison. But he did expect to learn when she would
sail. Her escort narrowly escaped attack upon the
open seas, by the failure of the fleet's commander to
take, the wind according to Marie's calculation.

Ex-Governor Winthrop was gathering his apples,
when Marie sailed down the harbor ; and Governor
Charnac^ was at his farm up the Biguyduce, — when
the envoy returned from observing the lay of the land
for making a French attack on Boston whenever
occasion should serve. The French, though few in
Acadia, did not doubt their ability to take whatever
they wanted in America by help of the home govern-
ment.

In all of Marie's acquaintance with Charnacd, he
had never known him to be so enraged. The Gover-
nor did well to be angry. About the time Marie left
for Boston, Charnac6 m cruising came upon Messrs.
Vine of Saco, Shirt of Pemaquid, and Wamerton of
Mason's Grant, en route for St. John, as they said,
to collect bills from La Tour. Charnacd kept them as
prisoners for several days ; experimenting upon them,

^ Hubbard, second ed., 487.

CAS TINE.

is-

285

as to how they liked the different kinds of Boston
dishes, — which his cook was attempting upon Fra
Marie's suggestion. Wamerton was of ungovernable
temper, and, upon his return from St. John, picked up
twenty men well armed, and went to the Governor's
farm. The laborers ran for the house. The irate
New Hampshire man rapped with knuckles of gran-
ite. The laborers fired, killing Wamerton and another
man, and wounding several more. The building
and outhouses were burned, and the cattle and farm-
animals killed, and the crops destroyed.

Marie was sent back to Boston with a threat, that
the Governor of Acadia would burn every colonial
ship venturing east of the Penobscot. Endicott wrote
a fierce letter in reply. Marie was sent to Versailles
with Endicott's letter, and a long account of the out-
rage upon the fort-farm. The French court returned
a dignified letter, stating that they would help him
against La Tour, but they could not properly make
war with the English on account of his cows and
keepers and fodder.^

Charnac^ had no taste for farming. He loved to
wander over the fertile lands, and the agreeable envi-
rons of the fort.2 A taste to be always shooting
something was now developed in him Jby his mood.
He frequented the cranberry meadows, to watch for
wild geese settling near.

^ The fann is said, in the Wamerton account, to have been called
Penobscot, — very likely on account of its being a "rocky place."
It was at the head of the Northern Bay, on the Biguyduce.

^ Charlevoix. ,.- — -

286

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

The Indians fringed the rivers with their weirs ;
no small shipments of fish were made to Europe.
Charnac^ was in no temper to study; and he en-
gaged in fishing, or almost anything that offered, to
take up his time. He was dissatisfied with himself
and everybody else. He had a work to do, not to his
mind ; to the end — that his mind might be suited.
His moral sensibilities were in his way; his mind
was at war with itself.

It being his wish to inure himself to every kind of
'hardi^hip, until he should be as tough as an Indian,
— l^nowing not what strain there might be upon his
nervous system in months next coming, — he as-
cended, before the winter set in, the Rio Hermoso,
upon a long hunting trip; thinking, devout as he
was, that he would undertake the conversion of the
Tarratines in their own country. He was perhaps in
as good a frame as he could well expect to be, either
to convert savages or to shoot moose. Wild meat
might be prepared for the expedition ; and wild In-
dians made into allies, whatever might become of
their souls.

£10 HEBMOSO, ,

287

XXXIII.

RIO HERMOSO.

•pNTEEING, by the still reaches of the Hermoso,
-■— ' into the mighty wilderness, Charnac^ became at
once more robust in body and spirit. There had come
to be now no doubt in his mind, that peoples and in-
dividuals, when brought into direct contact with the
Word of God and the All-revealing Spirit by prayer,
were as likely to carry forward life's duties intel-
ligently as if guided by any Vicar or General not
omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, or infinite in
wisdom and love.

He could, however, and would cling to what was
highest and holiest in the life of a Jesu't: missionary.
Might he wholly renounce his ambitions >f glory in
the Old World ? Could he wholly devote himself to
the improvement of the Acadian aborigines ? This
work, although not so much to his mind as fingering
the court at Versailles, was possible. He would now
stop at the mouth of the Kenduskeag stream, where
he might sometime establish the mission of St. Igna-
tius, and persuade Indian youth to go down the
river to Era Leo's school.^

1 The coppei* sheet, 8X10, which was placed by the Franciscan
in the foundation of his new school building after the death of

288

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Charnac^ had ceased to use the devotional manu-
als of his church, contenting himself with occasion-
ally reading in the Psalms of David, — which had
just enough of a warlike vindictive spirit to suit him,
— and extempore prayer, or the prayer of our Lord.

It was when he was teaching the Kenduskeag In-
dians the Lord's prayer, that he came to a perfect
stand still. In expounding to the savages, he caught
a glimpse of his own savage unforgiving spirit ; and
telling his hearers that there was no more of the
prayer — for that day — he climbed to the highest
point of land south of the Kenduskeag, and there
reviewed the situation.

His present feeling toward La Tour was that of
contempt. He had seen men since going abroad.
La Tour was a mere backwood's man, fit for the com-
pany of the Indians, but with no soul for art, poetry,
literature, or even religion ; with absolutely no appre-
ciation of the intellectual character and moral beauty
of Constance. Charnac^ did not admit to himself,
that there was jealousy at the bottom of his heart ;
although he never could forget, that, when he caught
a glimpse of Thomas k Kempis at Cape Sable, his
first impulse had been to sabre his rival upon the
spot. He did remember, — and it came up to him so
vividly as the sun was going down over the vast for-
est in the west, and the lights were changing on the

Chamac^, erected by the Governor's money, was discovered at Cas-
tine in 1863: — "1648, Jan. 8. I, Fra Leo, of Paris, Capuchin
Missionary, laid this foundation in honor of our Lady of Hope."

BIO HERMOSO.

289

stretches of the Hermoso, — that his heart had never
ceased to beat with uncontrollable anguish whenever
he thought of Constance, as connected even remotely
with La Tour ; and that the name La Tour aroused
the demon in his breast.

He put it solely upon a suitable revenge for La
Tour's affront in raising the blockade, and defeating
him in battle. He had been humiliated by his ad-
versary in the eyes of Paris, — not to allude to the
New Englanders.

When he sat gloomily among the saturnine war-
riors at the night fire, he felt a strange sympathy for
the revenges they cherished in their hearts. The
flaming fires of the aurora were lighting up the north,
like the kindlings of war. He could not, however,
lose himself in sleep, without asking, — "What would
Constance say, if she could read my heart? She
would pray for me, just as she used to do when we
were children."

Next morning, although it was a sharp air, he took
his long gun, and vealked up the Tight bank of the
Kenduskeag. He paused on the verge of the great
cliff of sheer rock, a little way up the picturesque
stream ; and under an arbor vitee shelter kneeled to
pray. He stopped short at " Thy will be done." He
impiously said, — "My will be done;" and strode
grimly along through the thick forest, following the
windings of the water.

It had been made clear to him, that his intellectual
knowledge of God had never led him to submit his

290

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

will; that his tastes, liis ambitions, liad been his
own ; that even his religious exercises, if not looked
upon as meritorious, were at least pleasing to his po-
etic sentiment, which was gratified by the tliought of
a God somewhere in the universe. Conscious of self-
seeking, he saw now that his own love for Constance
had been selfish. He had desired his own happi-
ness, not hers.

It made him intolerably wretched, when he dis-
covered there, — under a wild apple tree, gnarled and
scrubby, upon the margin of a deep pool where he
was watching the leaping of the trout, — that the
true definition of friendship is an unselfish love. He
had never even loved Constance, he had loved him-
self. To gratify himself he had desired her; as if
this messenger of God had no other mission than to
become his companion.

Then he wept with the strong agony of a man in
the fulness of his years. He could not make up his
mind to accept the inevitable outcome of his intellec-
tual processes. His will had never been thwarted
by any one save Constance ; and the contest was not
even yet decided between them. It was to be de-
cided soon. His will rose straight against the wall.

" I will," he said, " at least be frank with God. If
I mean ' my will be done,' I will not say 'Thy will be
done.' "

He strode on with his long gun, and his heart of
iron. He moved over the charred highlands ; amid
burdocks, thistles, and fire weed killed by frosts;

RIO HERMOSO, r^

291

[)een bis
)t looked
his po-
lougbt of
LIS of aelf-
^onstance
m happi-

n lie dia-
larled and
where he
-that the
love. He
ioved him-
her; as if
3n than to

f a man in
ake up his
lis intellec-

thwarted
ist was not

to be de-

the wall.
God. If

hy will be

lis heart of
mds; amid
by frosts;

amid hazel clumps and small birches, — or under
gaunt hornbeams towering over the burnt district.
He gazed on the desolate rocks bemoaning their stern
destiny, under bare branches swaying in the chilling
wind. Then he turned toward the sunlighted, gently
moving stream ; over which dead trees — rising
weird-like above the live growth — were leaning
to catch their own images mirrored below.

He saw the timid fawn approach to drink ; and
there was game in all his pathless wandering, — jut
he never di^scharged his piece that day. He stood
motionless, if he saw a fox stealing along the edge of
an opening, or if a buck was nibbling tufts of grass
upon the sunny side of a thicket of hemlocks. " These
creatures," he said, "do not think. They have no
sense of right and wrong ; no conscience, no God."

He came upon a wolf, in the great patch of burned
timber five miles from the mouth of the stream. Re-
maining in one position, — as if he had been a dead
tree, or a man cut out of the heartless rockS; — he
saw the wolf make a find of a young doe killed
yesterday, for which the Indian hunter had not yet
returned. The wolf slunk away to call his pack.
Charnacd shouldered the doe, carried it some distance
and threw it across a boulder ; then watched for the
wolfs return. The pack killed the wolf, which had
— as they believed — lied to them.

" If all human liars," said the philosophic hunter,
to the avenging wolves, " had been treated the same
way, I should not be here to see."

-%m^mJlk^

292

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

" I cannot pray honestly, if I have no true desire
that God's will may be done," repeated Chamac^ to his
shadow, when before sunset he had crossed the stream,
and stood upon the hill he climbed the evening be-
fore. " I can, however, read Thomas k Kempis for
my devotions."

He opened first at this page, then th?t. finding
nothing to which he would give willing assent : —
" The glory and privilege of a good man consists in
the testimony of his own mind; for this is a perpetual
feast and triumph." " Prosperity itself cannot procure
ease and content to a guilty, and self-condemning
breast." " The man thou seest so gay, so seemingly
full of delight, is galled and stung within." " Man
himself is his own worst enemy."

In the evening, however, Chamac^ re-read all these
passages, at the great fire ; and, out of the fulness of
his heart, preached a long sermon to the Indian warriors.

Next morning he resumed his trip up the river,
ascendi:jg the "West Branch. Upon the great slide
of Katahdin, so desolate, he dreamed of Constance.
In his waking moments, — it was the Sabbath, — he
asked himself : —

" Has she always climbed upward, since coming to
Acadia ? Have I stood still ? Or am I even worse ?
If I am worse, do I care ? "

Charnac^, upon Lake Millenoket, moved about in
the shadow of the planet ; setting on fire one after
another of the wooded islands in the night. The
fringes of fire along the water side pleased his wild

BIO HERMOSO,

293

le desire
tc^ to his
e stream,
ning be-
mpis for

b. finding
ssent : —
insists in
perpetual
3t procure
ndemning
seemingly
." " Man

d all these
ulness of
warriors,
he river,

Treat slide

Constance.

bath, — he

coming to
^en worse ?

about in
one after
ight. The
}d his wild

humor ; and the great illumination, when the wind
arose and the fires were well under way, made the
heavens black as sackcloth, — which also pleased his
grim humor. The crackling flames, the leaping lights,
diverted him, like a storm of fire.

The run down the Hermoso was soon made; his
last night of camping being upon the heights near
those great ledges that rise on the east side of the
Beautiful Kiver, a little above the mouth of the Ken-
duskeag stream. Tne clouds of the first great snow
fall were already filling the sky.

By this time, Charnac^'s mental pendulum was
swinging violently, uncontrollably, toward his great
love. He would brook no obstacle. He had now
decided it to be foolish for him to analyze his friend-
ship for Constance, whether it were selfish or un-
selfish ; he only knew, that his heart was desolate ;
that he was going to a fort, — not to a home ; that
he had no home, unless in the presence of Constance.
Whether she might love him, was not to the point ;
he loved her. He envied Castle La Tour every hour
of joy in it. Ambitions were, for now, set one side ;
he would first have a home.

" Luther," he muttered through his teeth as he
watched his shadow among the pines, when he walked
in front of his great camp fire that night, " embroiled
the Holy Church, and disturbed all Europe, for the
love he bore his wife. He was a domestic sort of a
man, and he wanted to marry. I do not blame him.
I want a home."

■>v

294

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Still, the next morning, gliding down the river
in the fast falling snow, Charnac^ could not but
return to the question, whether Constance would
smile upon him, when he should see her, now so
soon. Could he hope to win her love, — by battle ?
His secret life, — the state of his will before God
and the spirit he exercised toward all made in God's
image, — must be such as Constance would approve ;
or she would never love him.

The course he was to pursue was, however, all
marked out for him ; although he did not know it.

ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

295

XXXIV.

ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

WHEN Constance returned home after her long
absence of almost a year and a half, the body
of Claude la Tour had been laid to rest upon the
banks of the Ouangondy, to await the resurrection.
Already many months had gone by ; and the grass
had grown thriftily upon the new grave, and been
nipped by the early frosts ; and the mound was now
covered by dead leaves, and awaiting the snowfall.

No change of earthly circumstances, not even the
neighborhood of the death-angel, the absence of his
wife, or the danger to his home, could quite subdue
the never failing spirits of Charles la Tour; who,
perhaps enlivened by his wife's return, kept the
castle roaring with his mirth for six weeks. Hen-
rietta had spent the autumnal evenings upon the
latest book order from England, — Fuller's Holy
and Profane State, and his Holy War ; and the last
three books of Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity; but
La Tour had seized upon the works of Ben Jonson ;
and the brightest of his retainers he drilled in Shak-
spere, — in an illuminated clearing, thickly set about

296

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

with hemlock and cedar, where the uproariousness of
the evening theatricals would amuse his savages,
without compromising the dignity of the military
post he held under Louis XIII. That his King had
already turned traitor to him who held Pentagoiiet
for France, excited no wonder on La Tour's part ; and
hardly clouded the face of the gay Frenchman.

Takouchin and Pitchibat brought news of the for-
midable war preparations at the Bay of Kio Hermoso ;
and La Tour bestirred himself in every way possible
to prevent the fall of calamity. He had been put
to great loss upon his season's trade by Bayley's
delay in delivering his goods ; so that in August he
had mortgaged his fort and all his real and personal
property to Major Gibones for a £2500 loan. The
goods at hand would be of little service till next
season. La Tour, therefore, opened logging camps,
and set his men to make the most of their winter ;
then went to Boston to procure if practicable more
ammunition, and — if it could be compassed — tem-
porary service of men against Charnac^.

He had no sooner gone, than Mirabaud and Ori-
ani, friars whom La Tour still maintained in his alle-
giance to Louis, began so to conduct themselves that
Constance contemptuously sent them adrift, instead
of hanging them, as the spies of Charnac^?. They at
once communicated with the enemy ; reporting La
Tour as absent, — only fifty men in the fort, — and
the magazine \o\v} In his later days, it was one of

1 Consult Hanney's Acadia, pp. 143, 170.

ARTILLEBT PRACTICE.

297

the stings in his unrest, that he had ever sent them
into the fort ; but it was the knowledge Charnacd had
of her kindness of heart, that emboldened him to
impose upon her. He did not believe that Constance
would hang them.

The hour had now come; the favorable con-
dition for an attack. When Charnac^ returned from
his expedition up the Hermoso, he found, by no
great penetration, that he was not wholly the mas-
ter. He had set in motion influences now beyond
his control. The great machine was whirling by a
power not his own. The slightest individual re-
sistance on his part would grind him to powder.
It was known to his Superior, that he could not
quite be depended upon, that he might have ulte-
rior views in regard to Constance. His Jesuitical
secretary, Roland Capon, was under instructions
from head-quarters. Fra Marie, just then absent,
was under instructions other than those of the Gov-
ernor. And General Francisco Brogi, who had come
out as chief ofi&cer to Charnac^, proved to be the
special emissary of the Jesuit authorities in Paris ;
and already, not knowing what he did, the Governor
had placed him in practical charge of the war upon
Castle La Tour.

The war spirit could not now be quenched by any
variation in the mood of Charnacd : who upon some
days felt like a Governor carrying out a plan in the
name of France; and upon other days like a lover,
not knowing how best to win his way; and again

298

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

like a man with moral sense uppermost,- — deter-
mined to do right come what would. The con-
science of Charnace was not unlike the moon; of
varying phases of fulness, and occasionally eclipsed
altogether. He was so susceptible to the influences
by which he was surrounded, during December and
January, that Charuac^ felt very keenly the belittling
circumstances in which he was placed.

When alone with his God, he only lacked a little
of courageously confessing that he had been in the
wrong. He almost proposed to himself to do right
by La Tour. He even dreamed one night, that he
saw Constance surrounded by armed legions of angels ;
and that they disappeared or reappeared according
to his changing purpose, to do what was right or to
continue in the wrong.

Midwinter days, however, found him in the lawless
temper of a feudal lord, who knew no will but his
own. And he even placed his hand upon the re-
morseless iron wheel, to make it move the faster, to
crush Castle La Tour and Protestantism in Acadia.
He could not stay its motion ; and he would not, if
he could: He became inexpressibly tired of the great
white world in which he lived, the interminable win-
ter ; any thing but this. He was glad then, when he
heard the report of the false friars, that the hour was
drawing near for which they had waited.

With explicit instructions to Brogi to spare life,
and to insure that no harm should come to Con-
stance, — to which the wily Jesuit soldier readily

ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

299

assented, — Charnace set sail in three ships for the
St. John.

In answer to the fire of the men-of-war, Constance
took her place in one of the bastions, and directed the
firing.^ Her first Shot killed three men upon Chat-
nacd's own ship ; and the second as many more.
Charnace had forgotten that, when as a boy he had
learned the artillery practice with Constance at La
Kochelle, she had far surpassed him in the accuracy
of her firing.

By the time the ships had delivered their third
broadside, with no more effect upon the stone fort
than if they had fired into the rocky cliffs over-
lianging the tide, the fort was all ablaze with guns.
The ships were riddled. Twenty men were killed,
and thirteen wounded. The water rushed in at the
apertures made in the wooden walls by the cannon
shot ; and still Castle La Tour maintained its deadly
fire. The wind had sprung up from the east, and
they could not get out of range without warping.
They had to run ashore behind Bruyeres' Point,
to keep from sinking. Brogi's confidence in his
much boasted improved artillery which he had him-
self selected had kept the ships in position too long.
The great precision of the gun service from the fort
gave occasion to the New England historians to speak
gallant words for Madame La Tour.^

1 Hanney's Acadia, p. 170.

2 There is, however, no occasion for the contrast made between
the courage and militaiy efficiency of Constance and her husband,
by Hubbard, — pp. 493, 497.

-t :-"-^

300

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

\ Lemoine, one of the men who had visited Boston
with Fra Marie, and who was not lacking in humor,
was put in irons by the infuriated Brogi for ventur-
ing to tell the pertinent story of John Josselyn, Gent.,
who gathered a live wasps'-nest in the woods on Nod-
dle's Island, mistaking it for fruit, growing like a
pineapple.

The shock of his defeat was to Charnac^ like the
opening of the earth by powers of darkness below
the crust. While the ships were repairing, making
them safe to return to Pentagoiiet, he went to the
height of Partridge Island ; and there lay down under
a juniper tree, more disconsolate than any disap-
pointed man of God in far off ages. He was tho-
roughly angry, — angry with himself, angry with La
Tour, angry with Constance, angry with his Jesuits.
But anger is the least of the evils of war. The dark-
ness and ruin of the hour, the world of woe within
him, had been preparing of long time.

The more he thought of it, the more angry he be-
came. He believed that he did well to be angry.
Had he set up and worshipped the image of Con-
stance in his heart for all these years, only to be
beaten by her in a fair fight with great guns ? He
had pictured her as still the angelic heroine of La
Rochelle ; he had forgotten the generations of fighting
blood in her veins.

If he had now remaining in his bosom one unex-
tinguished spark of manhood, he would take that fort,
or die in doing it. Should he succeed, or not succeed,

ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

301

after having beeu baffled so many times in his at-
tempt to seize the person of Constance ? Lives
might be lost; but many had been already lost.
Why not more ? The death of the first was a vain
sacrifice, unless he should finally succeed, even if
more should perish. The worst elements in his
heart were aroused by actual war. It was not now
a matter of will, but of temper.

It is not clear from the meagre records just when
it was that he uttered it, but his secretary, Eoland
Capon, reported that Charnac^ had sworn by a great
oath, that when he should capture the fort, he
would hang Madame La Tour. The words were
not forgotten.

It occurred to Charnac^ to reconnoitre. He would
ascertain whether the fort might not be safely ap-
proached by land through some cavin. As he was
standing alone, he was seen by Constance, within
gunshot of the inner bastion. Leaving Simon Imbert
at the guns covering her pathway, she went out to
meet him. Constance waved her kerchief for a truce
flag; and when Charnac^ responded by like signal,
she advanced.

Charnacd and Constance were of the same age.
He could not but admire her womanly beauty,
as well as her soldierly bearing; his very near-
ness to the object of his passion, softened his
heart.

When within earshot, Constance asked, — and her
tones were the same that had thrilled Charnac^ to

-Hk

302

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

his finger tips in former years, — " Can I be of any
service in the relief of the wounded ?"

" The only service you can render me, Constance,
is to surrender yourself as my prisoner, and surrender
the fortress."

Tiie words of Constance were more effective even
than her artillery. It is the tender loving words that
break human liearts; not the harsh unkind words.
Charnacd had now seen her of whom the world was
not worthy. This vision, so suddenly appearing,
then lost from sight, had the effect upon his mind
of clearing it up, — showing him his moral bearings ;
much as the mysterious shifting scenery of the coast,
so often losing itself in a fog bank, looms out of the
dissolving mist under a light land-breeze which lets
in the sun.

Eeturning to his solitary post upon the wretched
flats of the Biguyduce, and walking up and down
among the gloomy fir trees, the sad and fierce Char-
nac^ lived long in the two months next following.
What he thought and felt, — when his conscience
was full, and when it waned, — when Mars paled
his fires, — when Venus glowed in the sky above
him, — all these bitter secrets of his lonely hours
had no perceptible effect in making Charnacd less
susceptible to the influences by which he was in-
cessantly surrounded.

His despicable tools, — whose tool he was, — his
friars, his priests, his brotherhood of Indian teachers,
and his very Indians, and the very few womenfolk

ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

303

in the settlement, — all derided him with their eyes,
their tones, their hems, their haws, tlieir gait, and
by what they did not say, and did not do. Char-
nacd felt that his kingdom was departing. He
wondered what his King would say. What his
God had already said, he did not hear or know.

They were all angry. It would have been political
madness to have held them back. Richelieu's echo
again sounded upon the Bay. Charnacd felt a strange
kinship for the arbitrary spirit of the great minister.
Singularly introspective, he questioned his own con-
science, — " Am I not hard, haughty, tyrannical ?
Does not ray repulse make it necessary for me to
steel my heart, for the glory of God ? " His papal
piety began to assert its claims. The Mother Church
pleaded over against Constance.

Word came one day, that his uncle, the Baron
Charnacd, had been killed in the trenches in the
siege of Breda; his soldier spirit leading him to
risk himself in a cau&e to which he was devoted, —
even though his service as ambassador might have
excused him. His brave heart had been carried into
France, and buried in the church of the Carmelites
at Angers.

Upon that March day when this news came, the
Governor of Acadia had been trying to school his
mind by prayer, and the reading of God's word, to
seek the divine companionship, to win the promise
that the Holy One would abide with those loving
Him, Now his heart was torn in pieces by this

304

CONSTANCH: OF ACADIA.

affliction, bringing up as it did all the emptines:*. of
his uncle's heart afte" liis wife died, the long years
o/f distressing melancnoly, now happily ended by
death.

What could he now do, otherwise than reaffirm all
his old vows of love to Constance, and capture her in
the Castle? And if he himself should be slain in
the battle, would not that be infinitely better t];an
to live as now ? His heart drew him back from every
thought of relinquishing his undertaking. Charnacd
could not but admire the virility of his lair foe.
Were she a man, what blame could attach to her
that she had fought for the place she called her
home ? It was his fault, if he had not taken the
fort; not hers, that sb'? had defended it. She was
a woman worth \v inning, even at the cannon's
mouth.

Then suddenly he saw the clouds breaking against
the heights of the Meguuticut in tlie west, like the
great rollers breaking upon the outermost rocks seen
down the Bay. This presaged a storrn : so his mood
changed, — with the changing weather. His early
inclination to the priesthood, his erly rcjention by
Constance, his life-loug flame of lo'<^.- 'j'.y^onchabl
for this ablest as well as most amiauiu and most self
devoted of womankind, had kept his heart single.
Why should he marry ?

Tl.en i^' was, that there dawned upon him with
ocr :e f'lluess the great thought of a divine presence
filii*ig his solit.ade, the dawning of a better hope, —

ARTILLERY PRACTICE.

but even this he could not free from the influence of
Constance. He vowed i.iost solemnly, and recorded
it: —

"God do to me as I would do to Charles la Tour,
if I ever once think of taking to myself a wife. But
my soul craves company in this wilderness of woods
close upon the wilderness of waves. And be La Tour
dead or alive, I will see Constance ; and be of her
company, — as I was when we were babe« crawling
out of our cradles into each other's houses, as when
we went to school hand in hand, as we were for
seven blissful years in our teens, as we were after
that when we argued theology for more than three
years, — as I was until my demoniacal Jesut con-
fessor — whom may God call to an account for my
soul at the Great Day — made it a point of con-
science that I forsake an angel and keep company
with him and his infernal companions, — promising
me high usefulness for the honor of God in establish-
ing his kingdom m a new world. When I get lack
to Constance, from whom I never should have been
separated, then my falsely directed life will be ed
aright ; then I will seek unto God anew ; then I w ill
be at rest in God. Not now, my soul, I cannot
rest in God now."

Then he cursed himself for the life he had led, —
as bad as La Tour's, a mere hunting for pelts and
provinces, without one hour of God and peace at
heart. Then the wretched man vowed, that, as an
earthly means to divine illumination, he would in

306

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

taking Castle La Tour keep Saint Constance chained
in the chapel ; and there kneel before her. " And if,"
closes this strange paper, — written under the dis-
tracting claims of the Governor's duty as an officer
of France, of his churchly relations, his conscience,
and his love, — " she is silent to me forever, and
only now and then drops a tear — like the sham
Virgin which Fra Cupavo has made for our Indians,
— I shall have all the peace I can have in this
world."

CONSTANCE AND CHARLES.

307

) chained
' And if,"
the dis-
m officer
(nscience,
ever, and
ihe sham
: Indians,
e in this

XXXV.

CONSTANCE AND CHARLES OF LA ROCHELLE.

A LONE with her Guardian Angel, and in the
■^^- presence of Him who is called the Heavenly
Bridegroom, was Constance at the dawn of the anx-
ious Easter morning. Charles la Tour had returned
empty handed from Boston. He had no present
money; he had no further mortgage to offer; and
all the fine talk of the two days' meeting about the
golden rule and helping the distressed — backed up
by Scripture — was explained to him in Boston, as
applicable only to those who could pay cash or give
sound security. La Tour now, therefore, turned to
the Indian trade, making an early trip to the woods,
hoping to convert his goods into furs, and his furs
into money. He had remained in his home but a
few days, — just after the defeat of Charnac^. His
promised early return would relieve Constance. But
Charnacd had now reappeared a few days before
Easter, to make an attack upon the land side of the
fortress. He had been repulsed, without having gained
the slightest advantage in three days' fighting.

At day dawn upon the morning of the Resurrec-
tion, Sunday, April the thirteenth, Constance had

. i

308

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

assembled all the garrison, who were not on guard,
for chapel service. While singing the twenty third
psalm : —

que quand au val viendroye
D'ombre de mort, rien de mal ne craindroye :
Car auec moy tu es k chacune heure ; —

the alarm was suddenly given, — that their foes were
scaling the walls.

When the forces of Charnac^ drew off Saturday
night with loss, they held for a short time aS prisoner,
then released, a soldier from the Perouse near L?i
Tour's old home, in fact one of his early mates. It
was through his treachery, that Brogi was to be ad-
mitted within the palisades at day break ; when, it
was believed, the walls could be scaled by the superior
force without meeting resistance. Charnac^ himself
saw the traitor; and was satisfied that the fortress
could be carried with little or no loss at that early
hour. Anxiously watching through the most of the
night, he secured the early movement of the men.
General Brogi had the work in hand, — his own life
in pledge to Charnacd that all should be well. The
Acadian Governor then awaited the result ; spending
the moments ostensibly with his confessor, Fra Cu-
pavo, who had been selected for his office mainly for
the light hold his religion had upon him, and his
lack of strictness in meddling with the conscience of
Charnac^.

Upon the moment of alarm, Constance rushed out
of chapel at the head of her fierce Huguenots to

■.. t

CONSTANCE AND CHARLES.

309

on guard,
jnty third

foes were

Saturday
,3 prisoner,
e near L^
mates. It

to be ad-
: ; when, it
iie superior
,cd himself
he fortress

that early
Dost of the
the men.
lis own life
well. The

; spending
)r, Fra Cu-

mainly for
m, and his
mscience of

rushed out
iguenots to

avenge the treason of her guard. Twelve of the
enemy were killed at the first fire, and many wounded.
Twice, the invaders were forced back to the wall;
then advanced again, being reinforced by the soldiers
pouring over the top of the fort. By a fresh onset,
and the transcendent power of courage, the Hugue-
nots repulsed the foe the third time. Constance
climbed the wall, to defend it at the head of her
garrison.^

General Brogi was led by the boldness of Madame
La Tour and her followers to believe that the garri-
son must be larger than had been reported. He pro-
posed the capitulation of the fort upon honorable
terms ; offering life and liberty. To this Constance
acceded, to save the blood of her men. She was
also moved to do it, from having a principal artery
cut by a buckshot.

Brogi had been long ill tempered and angry at
what he thought the indecision of Charnac^ ; and he
would now make an end. Had he not been sent
across the seas for this hour ? Pretending that he
had been deceived into offering terms by a false
showing of the size of the garrison, he gave orders to
hang the men at the door of the chapel ; and even
put a cord round the neck of Madame La Tour, —
who was pressing her thumb over the severed artery.

Charnac^ had distrusted Brogi from the beginning;
knowing how pertinaciously bad men were selected

1 Charlevoix, Histoire et Description Gdndrale de La Nouvelle
Franc*. 5 vols. Paris. 1744. Vol. II. page 197.

310

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

for the worst of work, as the most self devoted and
the holiest of priests were set to some work for which
they were best fitted. But he had felt that he was in
the toils, and could not escape. He had tried to
assure himself, that there was no danger in war, that
no resistance could be made at the early Sabbath
hour. When he heard the sharp rattle of musketry
he hurried to the fort, his conscience sounding thun-
der peals. Volley on volley alarmed him. But his
heart failed him, until all was suddenly still; and
then it failed him. Who could tell what he might
see next moment?

Charnacd entered the chapel, to which Constance
had retired. He killed Brogi with one blow of his
sabre. The hanging at the chapel door ceased.

He was now alone with Constance ; he had been
too long alone, stilling his mind for the agitations of
the hour in which he should meet her. Constance
was seated in the chair, by which she had stood at
the morning service leading her soldiery in prayer to
Him who rolled the rock away by angelic hands, —
to Him, who was thought by Mary to be the gar-
dener, as He walked among the flowers upon that
spring morning sixteen hundred years ago. •

Charnacd stood a moment uncovered. He saw
that Constance pressed her thumb upon a clot of
blood, with her clothing opened to the wound. It
was only a moment. He kneeled, as if in adoration ;
and was silent.

" Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy

CONSTANCE AND CEABLE8.

311

>ted and
3r which
e was in
tried to
war, that
Sabbath
nusketry
ng thun-
But his
bill; and
le might

laden; and I will give you rest:" — littering these
words, Constance removed her thumb from the wound,
and was dead. The open Bible, out of which she
had been reading to her soldiers, was covered by her
life blood.

Jonstance

)w of his

3d.

tiad been

;ations of

Jonstance

stood at
prayer to
hands, —

the gar-
pon that

He saw
a clot of
)und. It
doration ;

xe heavy

312

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA,

XXXVI.

THE TIDES OF FUNDY.

FRA CUPAVO, the rosy and rotund keeper of
Charnace's conscience, waited long for his vic-
torious penitent to appear at the confessional next
morning. Meeting his master at about noon, he
ventured, — with his features smoothed in the at-
tempt to smile with a solemnity befitting the sub-
ject, and ducking his head, and bending forward his
shoulders until he formed a short crescent, — to
remark :

"Your excellency has not forgotten the confes-
sional, I am confident; there are many cares in
conquest."

The Governor made no reply, except by a look,
which said, — " Go with me."

Uneasy in his gait — for he had come from Gen-
eral La Tour's pipe of Bourdeaux — he followed
slowly the firm even tread of Charnac^ into Mad-
ame la Tour's library.

" I wish to have you witness my signature to these
papers ; your hand is well known, and carries weight
with it in the Order of Jesus and at Versailles. "

y:i

.1 "

TEE TIDES OF FUNDT.

313

:eeper of
r his vic-
)nal next
noon^ he
I the at-
the sub-
?ward his
ent, — to

e confes-
cares in

y a look,

rom Gen-
followed
nto Mad-

e to these
es weight
les. "

Hastily signing his full name, Charles de Menou,
Sieur Hilaire Charnac^, to the two papers, — the
heavy friar nimbly peeping over his shoulders, —
he handed one of them to his father confessor to
witness.

Cupavo had at a glance read too much. He was
sobered. It was a document by which the money
value of all the real and personal property cap-
tured, — some £10,000, — was to be made over to
Charles, the son of Constance, under the guardianship
of Lamotte the young Huguenot clergyman, whom
Constance had selected to serve as her child's tutor.

His reverence eagerly snatched the proffered parch-
ment, and with eyes shot by wine and rage, he was
about to argue the point with the conscience of the
Governor, which had been occasionally in his keep-
ing when not in eclipse. To be sure Charnace had
confessed little since his return from France; now,
indeed, it was time for the Jesuit to assert the claims
of religion, — and speak he would.

Charnac^ had stepped back a pace or two: "My
holy and venerated father, and, during so many
years, my conscience, — if it is your part to guide
me to heaven, it is my part to rule you while on
earth. Time is of the utmost value to-day. You will
witness the paper, without commenting upon it."

Cupavo saw that his master was in no mood for
trifling or even delay. Still, as if the Governor's
conscience were incarnate in him, and he must be
heard, his mouth began to pucker, preparing to

314

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

make one or two brief observations in the way of
remonstrance.

He was however interrupted by a pistol shot,
taking off the lobe of his right ear.

Fra Conscience cried, — "As I am a man, I will
speak against this infamy. Will you snatch from
the Church this heretical plunder, and endow with it
a Huguenot whelp ? "

He would have said more ; but the lobe of his left
ear was cut off; — and another pistol was in hand.
He signed the paper; and stood transfixed in his
place.

Placing a guard over his conscience, Charnac^
within the hour had the child of Constance, the
guardian Lamotte, and Henrietta, on board one of
La Tour's cruisers, which rode in the harbor, con-
stantly armed and provisioned ; and they were under
way for Bretagne.

The other paper, which was witnessed later, was,
with other documents, sealed in a package addressed
to General La Tour; and committed to the care of
Madame La Tour's chaplain.

As the sun was going down, Charnace embarked
in the canoe, which Constance had so often used in
her missionary journeys among the Indians up the
river ; and the body of Constance, attired for burial,
was placed in it. Her faithful chaplain was at the
prow, and her childhood companion at the stern. A
grave had been made ready upon the hither side of
the river, under the moaning pines.

THE TIDES OF FUNDT.

315

) way of

tol shot,

in, I will
tch from
w with it

i his left
in hand,
d in his

Charnac^
mce, the
d one of
bor, con-
jre under

iter, was,
iddressed
B care of

A shot from a masked battery belonging to the
defences of the fort, upon the banks above, struck
the canoe mid river; and the body of Constance
was borne down the current upon the swift tides of
Fundy. The martial fir trees bristling on the heights,
the sombre spruces, the rocks dark and shaggy with
sea weed, and the screaming sea mews witnessed the
burial of Constance.

jmbarked
I used in
8 up the
yc burial,
IS at the
itern. A
jr side of

316

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

XXXVII.

IN THE ICE.

" I ^HE eccentricity of Charnacd's conduct toward
•*" the keeper of his conscience excited no small
wonder in Fra Le Vilin, to whom alone Cupavo, upon
his return to Pentagoiiet, told the secret of his ears,
and what he knew about Charnace''s love for the
Huguenot woman. In thinking over the conduct
of their Governor, during marv months, indeed
ever since La Tour escaped his blockade, it seemed
rational to suppose — if their own combined reason
couli be relied upon as sound — that Charnace was
not what he used to be, certainly not in his relations
to their Order.

Not long after his return to the Penobscot, Char-
nacd took two Indians and went out in a canoe upon
the Bay ; whether to search for seals, or to make his
way to the extreme southwestern headlands, where
he had talked of fortifying in encroachment upon
English ground, is not now known. The Indians
were Joe Takouchin, whom Charnac^ had brought
from the St. John ; and young Madockawando, after-
wards principal sachem of the Tarratines in the days
of Baron Castine. When they left the fort in the

m THE ICE.

317

gray of the morning, in passing Nautilus Island
about half a mile out, Charnac^ called the attention
of the Indians to the dense growth of pines, and to
the pleasant gurgling of the waters upon the shingle
and the base of the rocks. And for a mile or more,
he kept turning himself in the canoe to look at it ;
and finally reversed his position, so that he could
gaze upon it without turning. As the sun came
up, a singularly bright cloud overhung the pines,
and remained there till the island was out of sight.

It had been a long cold winter ; and the ice in the
Penobscot was late in breaking up, — indeed Char-
nacd did not know that the recent warm days and
southerly rains had started the great body of ice in
the river, until he was in the midst of the advance
guard of that northern army which floated down upon
the slack tide. A strong south-west wind, rising
toward night, choked the Bay with ice.

The night was spent upon one of the Fox Islands ;
where Charnacd had formerly erected a comfortable
shelter for the convenience of his huntsmen and fish-
ing folk. The wind grew sharper, bringing in a hurt-
ling sleet in the early part of the night.

The direction of Loyola to Mazzi of Brescia had
been running in the mind of Charnacd all the
evening : " When you wake this night, stretch your-
self out as if you were dead ; and think to yourself
how you will wish to have lived when that time
really draws near." The going down of the sun
had brought to Charnac^ a strange horror. He was

318

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

at bottom the cause of the death of Constance. Her
Guardian Angel had already avenged her, in the tor-
ture of soul he had endured since the morning of the
Lord's resurrection. The nightfall now found him
agonizing under the thought, that God had with-
drawn the light forever; but when the morning
rose, he said, — " Heaviness may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning."

Soon after day dawn, Charnacd descried to the
eastward his packet from France ; and decided to
return to the fort. The wind had hauled to the
north-west in the night ; and the air was full of
frost. Their progress was hindered by the ice.
The day became exceeding cold. Sometime before
noon, in bold water, they were caught in an ice pack.
They could still go forward or backward, but slowly
and not far; they were encircled by ice cakes, too
small for footing, yet so large as to present a great
obstacle to paddling ; and new ice formed so rapidly
that poling along the ice-rafts was soon out of the
question. Two or three hours after the noon, they
were locked, without tools for making suitable ad-
vance or retrogression.

Charnac^ diverted himself by watching the glitter-
ing light upon the various angles presented by the
ice, not far away ; and in peering into the depths of
the sullen waters ; or he lifted up his eyes to the
mountain sides on the west, where the pines looked
so still and warm ; or he gazed with a feeling of envy
upon the islands, so shaggy with their coats of fir.

IN THE ICE.

319

ce. Her
1 the tor-
ng of the
und him
ad with-
morning
a night,

d to the
jcided to
d to the
ls full of
the ice.
[le before
ice pack,
it slowly
lakes, too
t a great
rapidly
ut of the
oon, they
table ad-

le glitter-
by the
depths of
es to the
33 looked
g of envy
Lts of fir.

Then he watched the knitting together of the ice by
the frost needles.

The whole mass of loose ice was being united by
the invisible cold. Within twelve hours next com-
ing, if the weather should not moderate, a rough ice
field would be formed, upon which they could move
as upon a bridge. That is to say, if they, too, should
not be solidified, together with the chunks of ice ; for
they were cold already, with the penetrating wind, so
sharp, so severe, so out of season in the early May.
The Indians believed that they could handle the ca-
noe upon the fast forming ice, perhaps by midnight.

Charnacd said little, save to keep up the spirits of
his men, one of whom had been with him many
leagues of river and sea, in that canoe. He him-
self loved the very sinews and the pitch daubs of
this home of birch. Before the sun went down, Joe
was very sure that a half acre of thick slabs of ice to
the east of the birch, was strong enough to bear their
weight. With more care and cunning than any wild
creature of the forest, this half civilized man com-
pleted his reconnoitre; and it was determined to
work the canoe over the ice ; then turn it up edge-
wise, or bottom up, for a wind break ; and so pass
the night, — taking turns in watching the ice-making
and the weather, so as to make the earliest start pos-
sible over the ice floe toward land.

When Charnac^ took his turn first in the watch,
he felt that he was in no condition to endure much
exposure, but the situation itself pleased him. Wha!;

320

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

could be more fitting to his mental state than this
pacing up and down the small area of ice, stepping
softly lest he break through, daring not stamp his
feet to warm them, and fearing to build a fire lest
their little raft of ice should go to pieces under them.
The full moon shone clearly, and the ice was spark-
ling in the bitter north wind. His Indians were
asleep under the canoe.

If indeed his jolly and hot blooded confessor was
right in thinking him a little daft, he was now at
least in the full possession of all his faculties, in
circumstances which might easily madden one whose
nerves were slightly disturbed.

Now that he had been relieved of his stiffening,
crouched-up posture, in the cold canoe, and had
freedom of motion, he began to be warm again.
The very coldness of the air imparted warmth to
his blood, — or, at least, he was not conscious that
any of his limbs were freezing.

His mind was full of the roaring tides of Fundy.
Once he was absolutely sure, that he saw, approach-
ing him from the east, a form of light stepping airily
from one ice block to another. It approached so near,
that he closed his eyes for dazzling. A crown of ice
was placed upon his head. When he looked up, he be-
held the image of light moving north in the teeth of
the wind. And, before he could pluck up courage to
move, he saw this form of light turn, and blov7 upon
him new and fresher and colder and more icy and
more cutting wind out of the North, — as he had seen

1 .

IN THE ICE.

321

ihan this
stepping

tamp his
fire lest

ler them.

IS spark-

ms were

Bssor was
s now at
ulties, in
hq whose

stiffening,
and had
m again,
armth to
lous that

►f Fundy.
approach-
ling airily
d so near,
wn of ice
up, he be-
e teeth of
lourage to
lov7 upon
icy and
had seen

pictures of Boreas fanning the world with the breath
of his mouth.

He called up Joe, who took his turn in walking
up and walking down, face to the wind and back to
the wind. Charnacd warmed himself as well as he
could from the spirit jug ; and wrapped himself in his
skins, and lay down to sleep. No, not to sleep. It
was too light. A strange light was now in the west
casting its rays under that side of the birch most
open; a light which outshone the moonbeams that
now nearly touched his feet. His head was almost
burned, as if by strange fire. It was, he thought,
the crown of ice.

Failing to go to sleep, he remembered his life, as
if numbering his days ; how he had grown worse
instead of better in the wilderness, and had sought
meaner things than that spiritual good which was the
dream of his youth. Why did he not when a boy
follow the advice of his dying mother, and enter the
college so richly endowed by Jeanne d'Albret and the
princes, which furnished so many eminent Protestant
scholars ? He had given himself up, under the di-
rection of his uncle indeed, to be crooked and twisted
in soul by men for whose spiritual purpose he had not
now the slightest respect. For years he had forti-
fied himself in the worst positions he could take, by
laying aside his private judgment, and allowing his
conscience to waddle about on duck's legs, — for this
was the way his fat and oily confessor looked to him

in that strange light.

322

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

That God had not entered into judgment against
him was a source of great trouble. If he had only-
met reproof, disaster. But now all his worldly plans
had triumphed. He was at the very height of his
power; and he despised himself. That his wicked-
ness was not known, or recognized to be such, by
those around him, was a source of trouble. Did they
see how it all looked to him now, in that strange
light ?

"The good opinion of the world is my worst
enemy," he said, — startling Madockawando, who now
turned out to relieve Joe from pacing athwart their
fast enlarging area of ice. Joe turned in, upon the back
side of the birch, with his heels toward his master.

Charnac^ falling into a little drowse, remembered
the words spoken to him by Constance upon the
evening he last saw her in France, about the divine
companionship ; the mystical union, as she called it,
with the Son of Man ; the biblical idea of the friend-
ship of God offered personally to every man, as he
remembered that it dawned upon him on his last
voyage to Acadia.

It was now long since he had spoken. The chill
in his limbs was approaching his heart by a thou-
sand unseen avenues, as if moving silently along
every vein, every nerve, first freezing the extremi-
ties of the arterial currents.

He spoke but once: "I am guilty, weary, heavy
laden, and I will go to Him for rest." He then fell
asleep.

IN THE ICE.

323

The solitary sentinel outside could hardly keep his
blood circulating; but he was startled to hear the
words spoken by his master. The tones were like
those of a little child dreaming of some far away
land of the sun, — dreaming of light ; although
black clouds were fast rising, and sweeping over
the moon, — in token of an approaching change of
weather.

Stark and cold was the body of their master, which
was borne homeward when the shift of the wind re-
lieved them.

Dark hued mourners went about the streets of
still Castine, — so much more silent then than now.
The Tarratines, at least, sorrowed for the dead.

324

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

XXXVIII.

THE JESUIT FATHERS SAY MASS FOR THE
REPOSE OF THE DEAD.

■pRA CUPAVO, now in middle life, was the son
•'- of an old family servant of the house of Baron
Charnac^, in Bretagne. When the Governor of
Acadia was a student at St. Pol de Leon, in visit-
ing the family seat where his father was born, he
saw one day Silvestre Cupavo, in broad black hat,
long black hair, and square cut coat, advancing
toward him with slow and heavy step, and religious
mien. The old man had much to say about his own
son the friar, who, having completed his studies at
St. Pol de Leon, had long since gone as the first
Jesuit missionary to Acadia.

Poutrincourt, sorely against his own will, but in
obedience to his King, took out Fra Cupavo to
America. Biencourt was so far the sou of his
father, according to the Jesuits, as to prepare a
whipping post, to keep them to line. Cupavo was
put in such temper, not to say mass for three
months ; but finally he wrote a flattering letter to
the King, in regard to the master .of Port Royal, —
and sent with it a secret request for fitting out a

THE JESUITS' MASS.

325

colony for Pemetic. In this company came Fra
Le Vilin. Sir Samuel Argal of Virginia, violent,
cruel, rapacious, broke up this settlement.

Cupavo, upon being taken to Virginia, persuaded
the authorities to go under his guidance to destroy
Port Eoyal. Biencourt and six of his comrades sent
a petition to Governor Dale to hang the priest. But
Argal in returning south was driven to Fayal by a
storm ; and he was persuaded, as the easiest way to
get rid of his priests, to send them to England.

Cupavo had vowed, that, if he should escape, he
would change the hearts of many savages in Acadia;
so that he was eager to return with Oharnac^, — find-
ing special favor, for his father's sake.

Fra Le Vilin had made himself somewhat famous,
as being the only man in La Saussaye's Pemetic
colony, who — upon the sudden appearance of Ar-
gal — was plucky enough to pop up and fire a can-
non, after the commander had repeatedly yelled, —
" Fire ! Fire ! " To be sure, he did not think to aim
before he fired; but the old historian gravely re-
marked, that the gun made as much noise as if it
had been English.

If the Protestant clergy of England in that age of
Jameses and Charleses had lived more nearly by gos-
pel rule, the Catholic clergy of France in the age of
liichelieu might have been held to stricter account ;
a? it was, the rich curates spent their time in hunt-
ing, and the poor in drinking.^ Some of the worst of

^ Masson's Richelieu, p. 2.

326

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

men crept into the Society of Jesus. The French
settlers at Biguydnce were, says Wheeler's Castine,^
very ignorant and depraved ; and they were excessive
bigots in their religion: and the government was
purely a military despotism. Cupavo and Le Vilin
were not lacking in elasticity of conscience; and
their devices were protean shapes of the same re-
ligion. Of course what they did was religious.

The sudden judgment upon Charnac^ was all ex-
plained to the faithful and simple minded Indian
saints. The Governor had greatly erred by taking
with him, upon this fatal voyage, the blood stained
Bible, which had been his constant companion since
he left the St. John. It was sure to bring misfortune ;
indeed, he had never been quite himself since he had
it. The fathers, it is said, smiled perceptibly through
their tears, when they saw this book whose fine La
Rochelle letterpress had been stained by the blood of
an arch heretic.

Before the body of the Governor of Acadia could
be laid to rest in the fresh earth of Nautilus Island,
the fathers decided that it would be needful to say a
hundred masses for the repose of the inquiet dead.
In fact the mourning friars declared that a purse of
gold had been handed them by their late master, as
one of his last pious acts, to celebrate masses for his
soul, in event any casualty should ever overtake him
in his perilous jour. .eys.

Jean Cupavo did not, however, in his mourning,

1 p. 19.

h 1 ■

e French
Castine,^
excessive
aent was
Le Vilin
ice ; and
same re-
us.

as all ex-
jd Indian
by taking
)d stained
lion since
lisfortune ;
ice he had
y through
oe fine La
le blood of

idia could
lus Island,
il to say a
^uiet dead,
a purse of
master, as
ses for his
3rtake him

mourning,

■•' /•

THE JESUITS' MASS.

327

altogether lose his wits. "What is to become of
all the Governor's property ? " asked the priest.
" Is our mission of Saint Ignatius to exist only on
paper ? To be sure His Excellency left no will or
wife ; but with the Church all things are possible."

Was it possible, also, that the Church would avenge
the father «.• ufessor for the loss of the lobes of his
ears, which he had borne without a wrinkle or
apparent disturbance of temper ? Silent grudges
have often borne an important part in the great
crises of history. Why not in Acadia ?

The jolly confessor, late conscience to the rightful
ruler of New France, chuckled when he thought of
another grudge to gratify. He had a grudge, —
easily satisfied with some grim joke, — against the
widow Berni^res ; so long a resident, so fair, and
nnmated. To avenge his own ill success with her,
and to excuse his own multifarious wrong doing, it
had been his habit now for a long time to slander
her guardedly, — lest she know it, and his master
know it; — stating with due secrecy that she was
the Governor's wife. Had not his master confessed
it? The secret marriage might now surely be
declared.

He went to the widow. She was still young, and
of unfeded beauty. Her husband, Alexandr<^, a fur
trader, had been lost upon the Eipogenus Falls, a
few months after his arrival. With admirable good
sense, and the business turn displayed by so many
of her countrywomen, she had maintained herself

328

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

by trafficking in furs, in a small way, upon her own
account. She was amiable, bright, and the best of
company. The Governor had indeed now and then
laughed for an hour in her society, before he ceased
to smile.

Best of all, she was devout ; and her faith in the
absolute supremacy upon this earth of the Vicar of
God had never been in the slightest degree disturbed.
Fra Le Vilin, her confessor, who better observed his
vows than Cupavo, had used the utmost care never
to shock her faith in the immaculate living of the
representatives of the Church. And she had a pru-
dish antipathy to gossip, so that the few women in
the settlement had their mouths stopped when they
ventured into her presence. It was often said, that
the Governor ought to marry her; that perhaps he
would; and the story so slyly circulated, — by the
officiars confessor, — that he had done so in secret,
found easy credence. Everybody knew it, as soon
as the Governor was dead ; everybody expected her
to appear in mourning, — everybody except herself.

When Jean Cupavo, who was the brain of the
Jesuit mission in Acadia, went down to call upon
the widow, he thought he would break the news to
her — as gently as he could with his tongue of oil —
that she was indeed the widow of the Governor.

He knew that she had a nose of wax, for priestly
fingering, — if the good of the Church was plainly set
before her. Had not Laurent Le Vilin, her confessor,
told him so ?

THE JESUITS' MASS.

329

her own
3 best of
and then
[le ceased

h in the
Vicar of
listurbed.
3rved his
ire never
ng of the
id a pru-
i^omen in
hen they
said, that
srhaps he
— by the
in secret.
, as soon
3cted her
lerself.
n of the
all upon

news to
of oil —
nor.

priestly
lainly set
3onfessor,

To his surprise, she was unwilling to remain with
him alone. There might be scandal with him in the
house. She had heard nothing to the discredit of the
keeper of His Excellency's conscience, at least nothing
which she would allow, in her simple faith ; but she
had the fine instincts of a woman. She said, upon
learning that he had important matters about which
he wished to talk with her, that she would see him,
— if he would come with her confessor.

They talked no small part of the night, — the
three. And the night was very cold ; the fire upon
the hearth was low, but the wid<^w would not rise to
re-kindle it. She hoped they would freeze, and go.
But they had drank too much good wine to feel the
cold.

"The time requires haste in the decision," urged
Le Vilin, "The funeral cannot be long deferred;
and we have said twenty-five of the masses already."

It was explained to her, and she caught at it in an
instant, that all the property would be lost to the
mission ; that she was providentially there to save
it; that, in perfectly honorable widowhood, she
could bear the name of the Governor; that he had
greatly desired to make her his wife; that he had
often spoken Ox it to his confessor ; that he had, the
day before he embarked, drafted a will and executed
it in her favor, — naming her as his wife ; that the
will gave large money to the mission, and to estab-
lish the plantation and mission of St. Ignatius ; that
the neighbors already believed, since the Governor

■ i

330

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

had so often spoken of it, and spoken so freely, that
she was his wife by secret marriage.

It was all very wonderful. But had not Provi-
dence, — asked Le Vilin, — prepared her mind to
take such a step for the advancement of the interests
of the Church ? The widow did not need to be re-
minded, she knew the story too well, of the course
taken by Madame de la Peltrie the founder of the
Ursuline convent at Quebec ; who had, — upon ad-
vice of her confessor and the advice of the confessor
of Alexandra Bernieres older brother, and other emi-
nent divines, — feigned a marriage with M. de Ber-
nieres, a bachelor of rank and of great wealth and
devoted to the Church, in order to deceive her
own father, who had threatened to disinherit her if
she should pledge her patrimony to the Canadian
mission.

Still, it was all talked over again by her artful ad-
visers, as if she had never heard of it. And the points
in Madame de la Peltrie's piety were brought out
with remarkable skill, — and the holy life of Alex-
andra Bernieres' brother was well known to her.
What wonder, if her conscience, so informed, did
not shrink from following the cue given by Cupavo.

" If I should do it," said the nose of wax, " it would
be to please my Mother, the Church."

She demanded, however, to see the will. They
agreed to produce it, when they should meet again.

It all ended, at near day dawn ; and the widow's
pearl}^ teeth were chattering with the cold. She

THE JESUITS' MASS.

331

resorted late to restorative wine, and buried her-
, self in her furs, locked her house, and went to bed
to prevent dying of the cold she had taken. The
neighbors said that the poor thing was inconsolable
and physically prostrated with grief, — now widowed
a second time, and that too when so young.

The widow, H^loise, was not however do sick, but
that she could give strict attention to business. She
had more mind of her own than the fathers had given
her credit for. Long ambitious in secret to become the
Governor's wife, why not accept the situation ; and,
— as he did whom she admired, — use the Jesuits ?
She was devout, loyal to the Church: that might
be, — without her being led at will by the Society of
Jesus, whose refinements, justifying the worst, did not
please her. Their ethics, however, were suited to her
mind in the mood, — or her plan rather, — of the
hour.

If the graves of Castine were to give up their dead,
a strange story would be told of the masses said that
day over the cold clay in the little stone church with
its blood colored windows and ghastly walls.

Roland Capon, and the two friars, prepared the will
and witnessed it. The grim father confessor, so fat,
so ruddy, himself turned pale as the dead, when he
kneeled upon the cold stone floor, placed the parch-
ment upon the ice cold body, and forged the signa-
ture of the now dishonored Governor.

The widow Hdloise after dusk saw the will, and
consented ; being warmer than she was the night

332

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

before, with a roaring fire of walnut. Nothing more
was said or done that night. It was, however, sug-
gested that perhaps tlie widow would visit the church
privately upon the morrow ; and attend to tlie cele-
bration of more masses for the repose of tlio inquiet
dead, — and receive some portion of the property, in
order that she might better incur the expenses of the
funeral.

When the widow, — now indeed doubly a widow,
and that so young, — visited the clmrch upon the
morrow, she was surprised to see the festive air the
grisly church had put on, for the celebration of cere-
monies for the repose of the troubled dead.

There were a few white artificial flowers standing
upon a table, arranged in the figure of a cross. Be-
hind it was a curtain of crimson and gold. She was
requested to 'stand beside the table, to receive her
marriage portion. A liand, — which from a well
known scar, she knew to be the hand of the Gov-
ernor, — was extended between the folds of the cur-
tain of crimson and gold; and from his hand she
received her marriage portion, in a paper represent-
ing fifty thousand livres.

The widow Bernieres was requested now to take
the hand of the Governor in her right hand ; and
they were, hand in hand, pronounced to bo husband
and wife. She shrieked with terror, and fell to the
floor.

THE WIDOW BEBNll'IiES.

333

ung more
ever, sug-
[le cliurch
tlic cele-
10 inquiet
operty, in
ses of the

XXXIX.

THE WIDOW berniI:res.

a widow,
upon the
re air the
n of cere-

1 standing

ross. Be-
She was

ceive her
a well

the Gov-
the cur-

mnd she

represent-
to take

and ; and
husband

ill to the

/^HARLES LA TOUIl married tlie widow of his
^-^ worst enemy, — as if a farce should follow a
tragedy. The truth is always stranger than fiction ;
and no romance can be so wild as the sober story
of the seventeenth century in the coast towns of
dull and unromantic Maine, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick.

When La Tour returned on Easter rnorang from
his India traffic to the neighborhood of his home,
learniii^ from fugitives the extent of his disaster, he
set a watch upon the movements of Charnac^, with
the full purpose to take his life whenever he should
emerge from the fort. He had not seen the prepara-
tion of the funereal birch upon the lower side of the
fort, but in the distance he thouf!li: that he recognized
the dark plume of his enemy, and Jean Pitchibat
knew his peculiar paddle stroke ; — it was when the
Indian spy and his master were standing at the
masked battery.

One of the papers which Charnacd sent to General
La Tour by his chaplain, was a letter from
stance : —

Con-

334

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Home. Before the dawn of Easter,
My Beloved, —

I am always praying for you. God give you the
highest boon, even His own presence in the wilderness. I
long for your coming. Unless we have some traitor here,
which God forfend, I shall be able t^ hold the fortress.

If there is any real peril, and God so wills, — I shall
die in defence of our home and the religious purpose of
our lives.

I would that our dear child were in France.

Constance.

So long as Constance lived, Charles la Tour M^as
better than himself; he was upheld morally, and
kept to a moderately conscientious career. After her
death there was, as compared with his former self, a
collapse.

The communication sent by Charnac^ to La Tour
was a very remarkable one, and every way worthy
the better nature of the man, and going far to atone
for the well known faults of his character. He
enclosed the King's order for La Tour's arrest ; stat-
ing that he should not molest him, if he followed the
things making for peace. And, with far reaching
foresight, looking toward the peace of Acadia, he
3ent a document, witnessed by Jean Cupavo, ordering
his subordinates upon the Penobnot, in the event of
his own decease, — First, to recognize La Tour as
their superior ; and Second, to co-operate with him at
Versailles to secure his re-commission as Lieutenant
Governor of Acadia; and Third, to turn over to La

THE WIDOW BEBNl^BES.

335

'aster,

70X1 the
•ness. I
tor here,
stress.
-I shall
rpose of

CJSTANCE.

Dur was
lly, and
ifter her
31 self, a

La Tour
worthy
to atone
er. He
t; stat-
wed the
caching
idia, he
ordering
vent of
Tour as
1 him at
jutenant
jr to La

Tour any personal property that he might be possessed
of at the time of his decease. The amazing energy and
practical sagacity of La Tour were alluded to, as be-
ing of great future service to Acadia, in event of his
own demise.

Upon the strength of this document, General La
Tour ventured with a few faithful retainers, into the
neighborhood of Biguyduce, early in May ; in the
expectation, — if the way should prove clear, — of
offering to serve under Charnacd, for the develop-
ment of Acadia ; that henceforth they should work
together for the good of New France, rather than
contend with each other personally.

Of the two steep hills behind Castine, the one east
of the great hill on the Penobscot is the present site
of the Maine Normal School building. It was here
that La Tour stood upon the morning of Charnac^'s
burial. The cold wave had passed by ; the light and
glow of spring appeared for a few hours, — to be
succeeded by the chill, and warmth, and alternations
of an Acadian May. La Tour could not but think
how often he had stood there with Constance, sweep-
ing the horizon ; he looked north to the headland on
the river where Governor Pownal, a century and a
half later, built his fort, — to the Blue Hill rising
north of east, and the intervening expanse of the
winding Biguyduce, — to the Pemetic mountains on
the east, and to the heights southwest, standing as
mighty fortresses of the shining Bay on the south, —
to the great islands of the Bay westerly, and Megun-

336

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

ticut rising against the sky, — to Passageewakeag in
the northwest, where the strange story of recent
years has told us that La Tour's great enemy has been
seen under the clear waters ploughing up the harbor
bottom, to increase the depth near the spot where he
grounded his ships.

From this height La Tour saw the funereal cortege
emerge from the church ; and he watched the flotilla
of canoes which moved toward Nautilus Island ; and
saw afar the burial train when it re-formed upon
the shore, and disappeared in the pines. Constance
with her spiritual nature might have divined what
great man had fallen ; but Charles la Tour reasoned
like a military man, that it was a favorable time to
explore the settlement when the inhabitants and
even the garrison were for the most part absent.
Stealing with fox -like tread among the thickets, he
descended the slope, and approached the hamlet. He
saw a few Indian women, watching the water for the
reappearance of the mourners. And he listened to
their conversation.

They were debating the merits of tlie deceased. It
had been a shock to them, that a rumor of possible
heresy had been floating over the village ; so that on
this account the priests had been more willing to
adopt Joe Takouchin's notion to bury the Governor's
body upon the island, out of the church shadow.
Joe's wife settled the matter once for all by al-
luding to the character of Constance; and saying
that any one who was devoted as he was to such

THE WIDOW BERNIERE8.

337

ikeag in
recent
las been
I harbor
here he

. cortege
3 flotilla
ad ; and
3d upon
onstance
ed what
reasoned
time to
,nts and
; absent,
ckets, he
ilet. He
r for the
tened to

ased. It
possible
) that on
illiug to
overnor's
shadow.
I by al-
saying
to such

a woman, was as near to being a saint as Fra
Cupavo.

La Tour withdrew a little from Joe's lodge, and
awaited his return. By the aid of this trusty servant,
— who had made sure before daylight to bury Con-
stance's Bible in Charnacd's grave, stealing it away
from Cupavo's cabin, — a. private hour was secured
from the reverend father, when Joe might see him in
the evening. La Tour went with Joe to see the
' priest. His business was broached with such delicacy,
that General La Tour and the Jesuit were soon upon
c asy terms for conversation.

" The late Governor," remarked La Tour, after drain-
ing his second glass, and kindling his tobacco in
Cupavo's cosey bachelor's den, " sent to me a certain
paper looking toward the peace of Acadia ; for the
promotion of which he desired the co-operation of
the Society of Jesus. I have therefore determined,
for myself, although not yet convinced that you are
right, at least to make no stand upon matters of faith.
Why should we repeat here the religious wars which
have torn in pieces our beloved France ? "

"But you have no treasury to fall back upon,"
interposed the practicd priest.

" My money which I lost by the fortunes of war is
indeed in France, in the care of my son's guardian ;
but it can never earn so much in Brittany as it will
if reinvested in Acadia." Then he looked sharply at
the priest. He saw nothing but a still cold glitter in his
immovable eyes, so well walled up in adipose tissue.

■•^r*"

338

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

" The late Gc ernor," added La Tour, " executed a
pi; per, devoting t, my use iu our Acadian enterprises
whatever property he might have at his decease. You
must remember witnessing to the signature."

Je^n Cupavo involuntarily felt for the lobes of his
ears ; first one, then the other. " I could better re-
member, if I should sec the document."

La Tour produced the paper ; but so held it, that
the priest could read without taking it in hand.
Cupavo had not read it when witnessing to the Gov-
ernor's signature, and he desired to take it into his
own hands ; as he said, — for more convenient read-
ing. At this instant Joe drew near. The priest saw
at his side, gleaming in the fire light, a long knife
held in the Indian's right hand. The Jesuit's urgency
to take the document into his own hands was abated ;
but his face turned red with rage, like a Castine lob-
ster. But he checked himself from speaking.

Next moment, presto, the protean priest, who
had spent years in adapting himself to circum-
stances, burst into a most immoderate fit of laugh-
ter ; shaking his immense body, as if he had earth-
quakes within. It seemed that he would never be
done.

Discerning the manner of man before him, — pliant
as to his faith, keen for a bargain, not unwilling to
co-operate with the Brotherhood of Loyola, — it had
occurred to Cupavo to propose to La Tour a marriage
with the late Governor's widow, as the easiest and
wisest way to compromise.

THE WIDOW BERNIERE8.

339

eciited a
terprises
se. You

Bs of his
)etter re-

1 it, that
in hand,
the Gov-
; into his
ent read-
>riest saw
)ng knife
s urgency
IS abated ;
stine lob-

iest, who

circum-
of laugh-
lad earth-
never be

I, — pliant
willing to
— it had
I marriage
asiest and

Apologizing for his unseasonable mirth, he prof-
fered his guest the choicest of his wine ; and in what
was apparently the most irrelevant manner, began to
shift the conversation into a jovial come-and-go, —
touching La Tour here and there, as if he would
sound him through and through, and know every part
of his nature : —

"Are not the wines of France improved by sea-
voyaging and the quality of soil in our Acadian cel-
lars ? " " We could get on much better with you, in
the business you propose, if you were to take a devout
Catholic for your wife." "Let me fill your glass.
Which do you prefer, the brandy of Bayonne or of
N"antz ? " " Did you not know, that the Governor's
property went to his wife ? He was secretly married ;
and gave only a mere sop to the Church." " How
much was the lf>st year fur trade worth upon the St.
John ? " " The Governor's widow is very handsome.
I 'd marry her myself, if it were not for my vows."
"I fear that your pipe does not suit you." "The
woman is pious, and will do well by the Church with
her money ; and your Eastern trade will suppo. t you in
great expenditure, besides your contributions to our
poor mission. Then there will be peace in Acadia ;
and we shall have leisure to baptize the savages
instead of fighting you."

The jocund priest now renewed his untimely mirth ;
knowing not how horrible the proposition seemed to
La Tour. Cupavo had, however, used the liquors
freely ; and he ran on from one thing to another, with

340

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

execute an agreement
the basis for

a vast deal cf method in his mad talk, changing from
grave to gay, or mirth to melancholy, as might best
compel his guest to keep up his end of the conversa-
tion. La Tour observed that his host merely sipped
from his cup ; that his free rambling without reason
was nonsense only in appearance, as the Jesuit changed
from relevant to irrelevant topics in a gossiping way
hardly pausing for a reply.

The proposition was at last baldly made by the
priest, that La Tour should
to marry the Governor's widow, as
harmonizing all interests in Acadia.

For once La Tour's self-satisfaction and even-bal-
ance was disturbed ; although not visibly so in that
dim apartment, whose darkness was only made the
more apparent by the smoking wick upon the dark
and greasy table.

When the wood fire flickered, and for a moment
illuminated the rusty and baggy suit of Cupavo,
and kindled his red face, it only revealed to La
Tour sharp eyes penetrating his secret thoughts
and reading his decision in his indecision. There
was something almost jaunty in the priest's sombre
clothing, and in the way he wore his black cap
when he accompanied General La Tour to the
door. The point he had made, had punctured the
reserve of his guest; and he was likely to hear

iTom him further.

It was lighter out of doors than it was within the
Breton's rough hewn logs of cedar.

The dawn with

'V if.

THE WIDOW BERNIERES.

341

light tints was already touching the rnirror-like har-
bor of Biguyduce. La Touv's canoe was soon gliding
over the shining expanse ; and, before the sun was
up, he stood at the grave of Charnacd upon the isle of
Nautilus.

342

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

XL.

BEFORE SUNRISE aND AFTER SUNSET.

/^HARLES LA TOUR'S heart was troubled; he
^-^ had no home, — his child in Bretagne, his
wife singing among saints glorified. Should he now
think on God ? He thought on La Tour.

His enemy was dead. Here was his grave. This
was satisfactory. That he had been bewitched in his
last days seemed probable ; Era Cupavo was probably
right in this. His actions could not be accounted for
upon rational principles. Alas, he feared, that his
poor dying Constance must have had something to do
with it ; as Charnac^'s strange conduct had begun in
the very hour of victory.

Now here was this same Cupavo — with ears
wisely shortened — attempting to bewitch La Tour.
He did not like it. It was inappropriate at this
time.

But what should he do about the property ? The
widow had it. He had nothing. He would have
nothing till the return of his packet, — enough for a
trader, but not for a Governor. He would consider
the situation.

BEFORE SUNRISE AND AFTER SUNSET 343

With au excellent appetite, he drew from his hav-
ersack his simple Micmac fare, dried herring and
parched corn ; and, — stretching under the pines near
where Charnacd's body was at rest, — he broke his fast.

A strange light — not of the sun which was still,
below the horizon — kindled in the thicket of firs
upon the north ; and threw a strong shadow of the
trunk of the pine tree, under which he was lying,
athwart the grave. La Tour hardly noticed it. His
mind was confused by the coming in of thoughts
unusual to him.

What was there in the hour, the place, which exer-
cised a Rtrange spell over him ? Why had he been
the enemy of Charnac^ ? Taking from his pocket
the personal card which his enemy had left with him
upon their first interview at Cape Sable, he read it
over, — "Charles de Menou, Sieur lliiaire Charnacd."
Charles la Tour then arose, and laid the card rever-
ently upon the head of the grave toward the west ;
and he said : " God do so to me, — if I ever remem-
ber his faults, or say auglit but good of his memory."

Then he noticed the strange shadow across the sod ;
but the light was suddenly withdrawn, and he never
saw it again.

It might have been his dry herring which reminded
him of his rolling reverence Jean Cupavo, so dry, so
thirsty, so smoky, so little to his taste ; he must
be one of the worst of men, who would stop at
nothing.

It would, however, be proper for him to offer con-

344

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

dolence to the widow. He would like to see her.
Perhaps he would call.

And he wondered how much property his rival had
left. The income, for a long time, must have been
more than one hundred thousand livres. Fra Cupavo
ought, indeed, to havn a hearing. It would be difficult
to get possession, upon the strength of his document
under Charnacd's own hand, unless the fathers were
favorable and the widow with her later testament was
favorable. He must not fail to reflect upon the sit-
uation in which he found himself — alone in that
spring morning, upon the tide washed isle, at the new
grave of his fallen foe, and a scheming priest and
handsome but weeping widow across the harbor in
front of him.

A chill struck him through and through to the
marrow. He must be taking cold.

Leaving the fragments of his breakfast, which he
had hardly touched, — his hunger having strangely
left him, so that he loathed the food, — he went to
the water-side, hoping to find a sweet spring some-
where under the bank, and hoping that the birds
would be attracted to the grave of his sleeping foe by
the food he had left under the pines.

La Tour slept in his canoe in a sunny nook, in the
lee of the island no small part of the day. Late in
the afternoon, he paddled up the Biguyduce river to
the camp where he Jiad left his retainers. By the
message which they had left under a pointed stone,
he soon found their new place of concealment. Eat-

BEFORE SUNRISE AND AFTER SUNSET. 345

see her.

rival had
five been
a Cupavo
B difficult
locument
lers were
ment was
ti the sit-
in that
t the new
riest and
larbor in

;h to the

which he
strangely
e went to
ng some-
the birds
ng foe by

ak, in the
Late in

3 river to
By the

ed stone,

nt. Eat-

ing a hearty dinner of fresh trout and venison, he
prepared then to go and see the widow. He was un-
accountably cold ; he had, he believed, taken cold.
Putting on, under his outer garments, a short and
close fitting coon skin jacket, he drank a large
measure of hot rum, and left the camp.

The widow's house was damp and cold, with a sep-
ulchral closeness in the air. It seem- d to La Tour
like a tomb with a low fire in one end of it, when he
entered. It was dark : but — as he had secured a
note of introduction from Fra Cupavo in case he
should conclude to call, and since the late Governor's
holy confessor had been there that day with Fra Le
Vilin less in ill-humor than he was commonly, and
as they had mentioned that General la Tour was in
town with important papers from His Excellency her
honored husband now deceased, — the widow received
the distinguished stranger with great cordiality. She
even extended her hand, when he announced his
name.

It was like the hand of the dead. La Tour in-
stinctively dropped it ; unlocking as if by a spring
his large hearty hand-grasp, — like a steel trap sud-
denly opened to free its victim. The widow, twice a
widow, almost fell to the floor. There was heat in
La Tour's hand, — perhaps a hidden fire in it. She
had taken no human hand in her own since she was
for a moment riveted to that frozen hand out of the
realms of the dead.

As she half turned, La Tour quickly seized her left

S46

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

hand in his right, and led her to the settle by the fire.
" Madame, I fear that you are ill. I trust that I am
not intruding in the hour of your great sorrow."

But for the terror in her lip.art, the widow would
have smiled a little at this tender mention of her in-
expressible grief. She had hard schooled her mind
to her feigned second widowhood.

She had not thought that her right hand was cold ;
and had been quite unconscious of any peculiar
sensation in it, or lack of sensation.

" I fear," she answered, " that I shall sometime fall
from paralysis."

In a moment, using her left hand at first, she began
to disturb the low fire ; and then, as if forgetting her-
self, she applied both hands to that miracle-working
— the creation of sheets of flames out of dry sticks,
glowing coals and smouldering embers. Finally she
put on a fresh log. Gentle, genial, resolute, enter-
prising Charles la Tour, — withal teuder in the house
of sorrow as he had easily learned when with Con-
stance — was really making a good deal of an im-
pression upon the widow ; and stirring up the fire
might dry her tears, — and, possibly, take the chill
out of her right hand.

After that, she failed to notice any clammy chill
in her hand; but thenceforward, she found herself
shrinking from giving her hand to any neighbor or
old acquaintance. And no one touched her right
hand again, until a year after when La Tour took it
upon their wedding day, when she shrieked outright

BEFORE SUNRISE AND AFTER SUNSET. 347

and he dropped her hand, — as they stood in the
cold gray morning within the shivering church at
Pentagoiiet.^

Too much, however, has been now anticipated. It
is not likely that the widow — at that moment when
La Tour led her to the fire thought of anything more
than that she welcomed a human voice in place of
the sepulchral sound that had kept calling to her, as
she was engaged in her rounds of domestic service
and in her preparation for the funeral, and d' ring
that solemn service which had almost froz a her
heart's blood and stilled its beating.

La Tour had stood a momcint, after " jading her to
the settle ; but sat down, when she arose to finger the
fire. His heart had been indeed so cold, since his
wife died ; and cold since his little son had been
shipped so suddenly out of his sight, without his first
pressing him to his own bosom. And he felt glad,
that, instead of being in his lonely camp, or closeted
with an intriguing friar, or visiting the grave of one
so long hostile to him, he wa, row in the presence of

1 She finally died of paralysis ; having lived most happily with
General La Tour for many years. But after this wedding, she never
used her right hand again for friendly greeting or a friend's pledge.
Charles La Tour himself never knew what made her hand so cold;
and with great delicacy refrained from alluding to it, even upon the
wedding day. At that time, the priests — who had previously
oflficiated upon a similar occasion so ghastly that they must have
been terrified by it when they came to die — thought that the out-
cry of La Tour's bride was not strange, in that place, with such
memories as must have overwhelmed her.

348

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

a woman whose eyes were kindly, and whose lips were
of gentle accent.

He had feared, when he learned that Charnac^ left
a widow, that she must be strongly prejudiced against
himself as her husband's bitter antagonist. And it
puzzled him a little that the widow was not appar-
ently inconsolable. He did not want to ask her how
loEg she had been married to Charnacd, or to appear
curious. She plainly had no feeling of aversion to
him. He began once to say, —

" My interests — and — those of — your honored hus-
band — were, — you must have known — too well, —
were inimical." But he had hard work to get through
with the sentence. She looked at him in a quizzical
way; as a child would, innocent of wrong intent
when wrong in deed. Then she slowly answered,
hesitating as he had done, — looking him fixedly in
the eye : —

" It will be gratifying to me, if you do not allude
to my husband ; it is very painful for me to have you
do so." Then she dropped her eyes, and added tim-
idly, — "I would rather — you would talk — of your-
self, — and — of — myself ; — or of any business you
have with me. I understood — that — you had —
important papers."

What could La Tour do ? It was plain from the
widow's manner, that she could but keep her eyes on
his fine figure ; and that, when she made way for him
to sit at her side on the settle by the great fire-place,
she must be in a state of mind ready to receive favor-

BEFORE SUNRISE AND AFTER SUNSET. 349

ably any proposal he had to make — in a purely
business way.

" The papers which I have brought indicate a desire
that the past be forgotten, and that henceforth the
property interests, and the political interests, and the
social interests, and — I had almost said — the do-
mestic interests," — pausing and looking into the eyes
of the widow — "of Acadia should be so managed
that my interests shall not be separate from the in-
terests wl. "ch his Excellency sought to establish."

" As it is now," was the reply, " the Jesuits have
taken possession of two thirds of all the personal
property which Lieutenant General Charnac^ left,
giving me one third. His real property he had him-
self deeded outright to his sister at St. Omer's, — its
use to be at her control after his death."

Her voice indicated that the Jesuits were not favor-
ites with her, and that her recent confidence in them
had abated.

La Tour, after a moment's pause, as if looking at
the papers which he held in his hand, turning them
toward the fire light, in sucli a way that the widow at
his side could easily read with him, suggested, —

" It would appear, that the purpose of Charnacd
changed somewhat, and that his last will did not con-
firm this paper. Hereiu, he directed me to take pos-
session ; and to call apon the friars to co-operate with
me in securing everything : The name Jean Cupavo,
Missionary of the Society of Jesus, is attached hereto
as a witness. You will, I know pardon me, if I in-

350

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

quire whether you have yourself with your own eyes
seen the will ? "

" No, I have not. I saw only that part relating
to myself, and the signature, — which I have since
found does not correspond with the Governor's hand
upon my trading permit."

" But has not one third of the property been paid
to you ? "

The widow gasped, started from her seat, turned
pale, and fell upon the hearth.

Here was indeed some mystery.

La Tour, without thinking, touched her right hand.
It was like ice, but clammy like th o flesh of the dead.

Here was indeed some mystery. But the situation
was embarrassing. His hostess was evidently very
ill. He feared that she had fallen by a paralytic
stroke. With some care, he raised her to the settle ;
and placed under her head a fox-skin rug rolled for
a pillow ; and then he stood with his back to the fire,
watching for the revival of his patient. Turning,
after a little, he looked far up the throat of the great
chimney, — and he saw what appeared to be a coin-
bag black ■\ Hh smoke; and from it hung an icicle,
like a stalactite, — it was however so blackened that
he did not feel certain, — and a puff of smoke from
the fire, filling his eyes, he turned his head, and saw
that his patient had recovered from her swoon, and
was now sitting up.

Pressing her temples with the thumb and fore-
finger of her left hand, she said, — "I am giddy. If

BEFORE SUNr.'ISE AND AFTER SUNSET. 351

you ^vill heat the poker, we will burn a little brandy
infused with bluets, then my head will be clear. You
will find the bottle in the side-board."

As she delicately sipped the scorched brandy, La
Tour required no urging to visit the side-board for a
draught of wine.

Charnacd's widow was evidently not well enough
to talk further ; nor, at the late hour, was it desirable.

As he left the door, a red meteor blazed across the
sky, as if falling near, — and it divided into two balls
of fire, and dropped into the sea between the fort and
Nautilus Island.

352

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

XLI.

LA TOUK.

A FTER General La Tour had made such business
■^^- arrangements as seemed most likely to pro-
mote peace in Acadia, he sailed for France. Once
upon his ship, ploughing the waves of mid ocean, he
b::^,d time to think. And then it seemed as strange
to him, as to the prosaic historians to whom he has
been an enigma for two centuries, that after all he
had agreed — upon his return from France with a
renewed commission as Lieutenant General of Acadia
— to marry the widow of Gharnac^.

With a very large element of hopefulness in his
heart, he took the world easily, one day with another,
doing what seemed best for that day, and burdening
himself little with cares for the past or the future.
Ho reviewed his ground with some care; and be-
lieved that he had made no mistake, in carrying out
the plan he formed in his boyhood to have a sharp
eye to his own interests. And it was clearly for his
interest to have peace in Acadia.

This point, then, being settled, — he smoked his
pipe as he sat cross-legged upon the quarter deck, or
went forward and told yarns with the seamen.

his

^, or

LA TOUR.

353

Upon disembarking at Vannes, La Tour ma ie his
way to Vitrd, some seven leagues east of Kennes, and
there upon the picturesque bank of the Vilaine, he
found his son in the home of Henrietta, who had
married the child's guardian, Lamotte. They lived
in a house near the old feudal castle, in after ganera-
tions occupied by Madame de S^vignd.

Protestant character in France had begun to tell.
The able merchants and manufacturers of the re-
formed laith were found to be men worthy of trust.
The walls of Vitrd, and their flanking towers, offered
good shelter in troublous times ; so that public Prot-
estant worship was maintained here more than a
hundred years. The son of Constance came to be of
man's estate in just such a community as his mother
would have selected for him. And he was then con-
nected by marriage with the house of the most high
and mighty princess of Tarente.^

The Protestant religious services were observed at
her chateau, — it being her manorial right, — after
the authorities had prohibited public worship. Upon
the revocation of the Edict of JSTiiites, the princess
retired to Heidelberg ; ^ and Charles the son of Con-
stance removed to Frankfort, — the princess dying at
his house in 16^3. He returned to Vitrd in later
years, and lived to such age that he held in his arms

^ Emilie of Hesse, widow of Henri Charles de la Ti ..;;'>uille,
Prince de Tarente et de Talraond, due de Thouars. She was the
daughter of the landgrave William of Hesse Cassel.

'^ Certain families, who had worshipped in her house at Yitr^,
escaped to South Carolina.

t '?^'.;? .¥"•■' J.K4

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

his iuiant grardfjou Thdophile Malo Coiret de La
Tour D'AuvergL'S who fell at Oberhaufveu.J

Charles ia Tour of Acadia confirmed tho action of
Charnac«l in respect to property and the guardiansiiip
lor his son. And it was, in after years, upon a voy-
a,ge to visit this soii, that he perished by encounter-
ing an iceberg off t)ie American co 3,st. The son fuuni
that the name La Tour had been loni.^ honored fivmong
the facnlies t>f France, reaching jjack through Zxany
cen aied a name which, in subsequent generations,
has ffiir'o tallied a high place upon the roll of able and
useful rajn.

The Queen Kegent, — Louis XIII. being dead, and
Bichelieu his master dead, — gave Charles la Tour a
new commission, which recited a fornddable list of

1 Representing the last drop of the blood of Constance, the ca-
reer of him to whom Napoleon gave a sword inscribed '* To the First
Grenadier of France," but who returned the sword, saying that sol-
diers were equals ; who refused promotion, but had eight thousand
men put into his company a3 the vanguard ; who in the hour of
peace was a close student and an author whose works are in good
repute to-day, but who was terrible in the day of battle ; for whom
the whole French army mourned three days when he was slain ; ia
love for whom every soldier set apart a day's pay to purchasf a
silver urn to hold his heart, which was borne with his regiment ;
whose name was called at the daily muster roll for fourteen years,
till the very close of the Empire, before any one would answer that
La Tour had died upon the field of honor ; whr^e sabre was placed
in the Church of the Invalids; whose Spar v. .simplicity of life,
and self devotement to his country, is comru -ated by the mon-
ument sti'i tanding upon the old b8;*<^'le g ■ .. in Bavaria, — all
this may ■ -""v been foreshadowed in tb'.- .uf'. ,r seen by Constance
in that winter night in the Acadian VflC..

LA TOUR.

355

de La

tioo of
aiisiiip
a voy-
juntei-
L found
among
, niany
rations,
ble and

ad, and
Tour a
list of

e, the ca-
the First
that sol-
thousand
e hour of
e in good
for whom
slain ; in
)urchasp. a
egiment ;
een years,
aswer that
vas placed
ty of life,
r the mon-
ia, — all
Constance

good things which lie had never performed, and stated
in round terms that he had been lied about by his
enemies.^ It was his first appearance at court ; and
it was agreed that the wonderful suavity of the Aca-
dian woodsman would have opened for him a high
destiny had he chosen to be a courtier.

Governor La Tour's most marvellous performance
in France, however, was his persuading Suzanne, the
devout woman of St. Omer, sister of Charnac^, not
only to bequeath to him the real estate she had re-
ceived from her brother, but considerately to die
within a twelve month.^ The imperturbable self
complacency, and diplomatic skill of La Tour, were
a large part of his working capital ; and the interest
of La Tour was always uppermost in his mind. The
canoness was the more easily persuaded by a letter
addressed to her by — her late brother's confessor —
Fra Cupavo; in consideration of which La Tour
never disturbed the provisions made in the bogus
will for the benefit of the Jesuits. La Tour also had
letters from Fra Le Vilin to the learned men in the
Jesuit College at St. Omer's, where he had been a
student. "When Suzanne walked the ramparts of this
fortified town, — which have since been made so
beautiful by the planting of elms in peaceful genera-
tions, — she looked upon hi*Ti as the most pious per-
son in the New World; an opinion which, in La

* Hanney's Acadiu pp. 189, 190.

2 McGregor's British America, I. C81 ; flaliburton's Nova Sco-
tia, I. 60.

^''-^

356

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Tour's mind, went far toward healing the wound in-
flicted by Ward of Ipawicli who had spoken of him
so doubtingly in Boston. The sparkling fountains of
the city, and the floating islands upon which cattle
were feeding as upon green rafts drawn ashore at
night, and the gardens north of the city, — all in-
terested La Tour. He told the canoness, as he did
Winthrop about the Boston training, that he never
saw anything like it before, and that he would not
have believed it if he had not seen it.

The widow Berni^res, the relict of the late Gov-
ernor, was more ruddy upon the return of La Tour ;
the Acadian cli^nate being modified, and better
adapted to hei constitution. The articles set forth,
that the end and principal design of the marriage
was the peace and tranquillity of the country; the
ceremony being attested by the very reverend father
St. Leonard de Chartes, Vice Prefect, et custode de
la mission, who had charge of Charnac^'s Indian
Seminary at Port Koyal; by Frfere Jean Desnouse
St. Franqoise Marie ; by J. Jacquelin, Provost de St.
Martin ; and by La Verdure et Bourgeois, Temoins.*

If the religious sensibilities of H^loise had ever
suffered a shock, she had been amply reassured by
the pliant La Tour, and the assiduous attention of the
friars. Her mind was too broad to throw up her
faith in the whole Church, for any wrong doing of
local representatives; and she had no light to lead

1 Consult Murdoch's Nova Scotia, I. 113 ; Harney's Acadia,
p. 191 ; Wheeler's Castine, p. 19.

LA TOUR.

357

lead

her to question the Church itself. Accordingly, at
the suggestion of her confessor, she mingled, in her
husband's cup of the wedding wine, powder of relics
of the Saint Brdbeuf, the Jesuit father who suffered
martyrdom at the hands of the Iroquois, And after
that, neither she nor the friars had reason to suspect
Governor La Tour of heresy.

Particularly he clung to the Jesuitical maxims
when the Protestant Emmanuel Le Borgue, of La
Eochelle, appeared with improved artillery, and began
to take La Tour's stone forts one after another, in
enforcing his claims to the whole of Acadia, upon
the judgment of a French court of justice on ac-
count of Charnacd's debt to him of *^wo hundred
and sixty thousand livres. It would not be for
the interest of La Tour to pay debts contiit 3d in
fighting himself. He invoked the aid of England ;
and surrendered Acadia, forts and all, promptly to
Cromwell.

Then he flew upon swift wings over sea ; and
showed the Protector his original papers, — that ha
had been created by England a baronet, and that he
had received a great English land g' *■ he said
nothing about his shooting with great guns at his
own father and the English flag, but he asked to be
made the British Governor of Acadia. Cromwell
gave him the commission; and more land, — three
hundred miles inland measured around the shores of
Fundy, — it being agreed between the uncompromis- "
ing Cromwell and the compromising La Tour, that

<r%

^ '■■■y»-

358

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

none but "Protescati' should be permitted to reside
on this laud.^

As Governor of Acadia under the Commonwealth,
La Tour wrested their property from the irreligious
priest , of Pentagoiiet, and b '.".'' 1 the Jesuits out of
the country ; they on their part loudly proclaiming,
that such ingratitude and talse faith was just what
ipi^ht be expected of Protestants, who were no better
than the infidel Turks. La Tour did not even retort,
that it was no sin to lie to the Jesuits ; but that was
M'hat he thought.

He introduced Franciscans from Aquitane to carry
on the Micmac and Malachite mission work, the gray
friars Vimount, La Fl^che, Vieuxpont ; huml- :, self
devoted workers, who, even if they baptized with lit-
tle discrimination, exerted a most favorable influence.
They united the Indians of Acadia ; rendered them
friendly to the white,^ ; improved their social and
domestic condition ; and imparted the most simple
elements of rdigi(>'.s faith md practice, — which in
the lives of many brought forth good fruit. This
work was contir'ied generation after generation, an
influence more favorable e cry way than any other
attainable.

Governor La Tour t^ 'n established the Presbyte-
rian Church in Acadi Si ion Imbert, one of the
ruling elders, remarked to M. Rochet that La Tour
was full as good as the average, — so far as he could
see. Kochet replied that the Governor had only one

1 Haaney, p. 201.

LA TOUR.

359

fault : it was too apparent that he winced when Rev-
erend Hugh McLean preached on carnal-mindednesa.
That the Governor waa respectably religious, there is
no doubt.

Neither is it a matter of doubt, that he did not pay
Major Giboues his £2500, when he had the money.
La Tour had squeezed Boston like an orange; he
then tlirew it away, — why should he pick it up ?
The New Engl; J historians have avenged the Boston
merchants; but Acadia, La Tour's own country, is
kindly to his memory.

Charles La Tour knew Acadia too well to hold it.
It was liable to change masters any day; and be dealt
•mt to new parties in new grants. He therefore
beamed upon Sir Thomas Temple, through the fogs
of London ; and, like a sharp business man, crowded
through a sale of half his Cromwellian land grant,
while his stock was highest, — then retired to private
life. It was none too soon. Charles II. restored
Acadia to France ; and Temple was ruined.

La Tour and his wife Hdloise had a home, with
beautiful surroundings, at Port Eoyal, Their de-
scendants — of good family as this w orld goes — have
borne well their part in the Acadian history, improv-
ing their stock during more than two hundred years :
in marrying- and giving in marriage, the rearing of
children, the sawing of lumber, the sailing of ships,
the building of churches, the fighting of such battles
as offered, — living and dying, and entering into the
unseen.

360

CONSTANCE OF ACADIA.

Hdloise was always a devout Catholic ; and she
never told her husband of her false marriage. It was
reported, however, by Koland Capon upon his death-
bed after La Tour's decease. And the fishermen got
hold of it, and transformed it after their fashion in
tiie swift ])assing generations, — until to-day wherever
a man and woman and a roUy-poly priest are figured
in ice upon the rocks along the ancient Acadian
coast, — which sometimes occurs where the water-
brooks pour down liigh banks into the sea keeping
the bowlders and ragged ledges glistening with fresh
ice all winter, — tliere where icy hands are clasped
in marriage, no mL.n will fish summer or winter, and
crafts give a wide berth to the coast of ill omen.

And still, along the Acadian coast, are rarely seen
strange lights, moving hither and thither, perhaps
among icebergs from the north, most frequently upon
the reefs near Cape Sable. Is it not said, that this
light walked the waves like a spirit, smoothing down
the rough billows, before the ship of Bergier the
prominent La Kochelle merchant, whom Louis XIV.
named as his Lieutenant in Acadia, after the country
had passed from La Tour and the English rule to
France ? And is not the wreck of D'Anville's fleet
— the Armada inimical to the Protestant interests of
the New World — upon the ledges near Cape Sable,
attributed by some to a star-like dancing light which
misled the helmsman, and the sudden rise of a great
gale from the south ?

And the pleasant farm lands near Annapolis, the

LA TOUR,

361

old Port Royal, are sometimes visited, in the season
of vintage, by a singular illumination upon dark
nights. And men when alone in any trouble have
often spoken of it, particularly those who are very
poor, who live near tlie sea and draw their food from
the waters. And the light is always seen moving
over the surface of the Bay of the Rio Hermoso north
of the Fox islands, upon a certain night early in May.
Once it has been seen at low tide tracing the rem-
nants of .the ohl pier at Castine, and moving about
the depression in the soil which marks the old fort.
It has never been seen floating above the tides of
Fundy since the second night after the fall of La
Tour's fort, when the chaplain affirmed that be saw
it, sweeping swiftly into tlie open sea.

How little would Constance have been satisfied so
to live in the traditions of men. Was it not rather
her own expectation, the assurance in which she died,
that she would return home at last, and dwell in far
off spheres of light, endowed with perpetual youth ?

TO THE READER

A "NOVEL" way, or "new" "unusual" way, of
•*^^- sifting and combining historical events is often
attractive ; but its usefulness will be in proportion to
the nun.ber of readers »vho are led by it to study the
best authorities easily attainable, and to hold fast
only that which is good and beautiful and true.
Although the footnotes follow the rule of the " novel"
text, yet many of them carry their character upon
their faces, and lead to recognized standards : when
used in connection with a good historical chart, no
studious person can go amiss.

The writer is indebted most of all to private papers
in his possession: that these papers exhibit the es-
sential facts in a new light will be acknowledged by
every candid historical student.

If he has been led by them to locate the contest
described in chapters III. ond V. differently from some
other writers, it is to be remembered that authorities
differ to a surprising degree in regard to the whole
story. For example, the discrepancy between Win-
throp and Hutchinson alluded to upon page 216,

366

TO THE READER.

would indicate that one wrote upon rumor. The
point is not important. Haliburton's Nova Scotia,
I. 55, 59, is probably right. More singularly, the
historians differ in regard even to the locality of
the events alluded to in chapters XXXIV. and
XXX\'. Gesners New Brunswick London, 1847,
pp. 25, 26 ; Haliburton, 1. 58 ; and M. Kameau, —
are upon one side. Williamson's Maine, and Fer-
nald's Canada, although differing by two years in
the dates assigned; Charlevoix's History, II. 196;
and Hazard upon the Gibones' mortgage, — are
upon the other side : having the best of it, without
doubt. If these obscure passages in history are not
important enough to contend about, no discussion
need be raised as to the locality of the quarrel be-
tween the La Tours. Nor need any question be
raised if, — upon grounds justified by the wisdom
of the Greeks, — one character in the history has
been treated as if h^ had never existed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

TT would be entirely unjust to the authors men-
■*• tioned below, if the reader fails of instituting the
comparisons now indicated : —

Page 87. Vase of ice. Vide Noble's After Ice-
bergs with a Painter.

Page 116. Two wolves skulking. Alexander's
L'Acadie, p. 15.

Page 218. The taking of the Castor. Compare
with Hathaway's New Brunswick, Frederickton,
1846, p. 13.

Page 235. The reply of the father of Constance to
the Governor. Vide Baird's Huguenots in America ;
consulting " Bernon " in the index.

Page 302. " Tender loving words," etc., N. B. S.,
worthy of all honor.

Page 308. Twentj^-third Psalm. Vide Oevvres
De Clement Marot. Eoven, 1596. Tradvctions, p.
187.

Page 313. "It is your part to guide me to
heaven." Abbott's Maine, p. 69, evidently refers
to this. The words " Poutrincourt " and "Biard,"

■ I

368

ACKN0WLEDQMENT8.

in the Index of Parkman's Pioneers of France, will
lead to Lescarbot. The second of the worthies, Biard,
is an interesting character.

Page 318. " God had withdrawn the light forever."
There is a suggestive passage in the Talmud, relating
to the first night after our fallen parents were driven
from Paradise.

Page 330. Madame de la Peltrie. Vide Park-
man's Jesuits, pp. 171-3.

Page 357. Brdbeufs relics. Vide Baird's Hug.
in Am. pp. 119, 120.