What had you to fear?"
"_We_ didn't do it!" replied the boy. "It was monsieur the abbe and
his Indians; and they threatened to scalp us all if we didn't leave
before you came!"
The young officer's face grew very stern at the mention of the abbe,
whom he knew to mean Le Loutre.
"Ah!" he muttered, "I see it all now! We might have expected as much
from that snake! But tell me," he continued to Pierre, "what is going on
over on the hill this morning? They are not going to attack us, are
they? We are on English soil here. They know that!"
"I don't know," said Pierre, looking about him, and over at Beausejour.
"They _were_ very busy getting things ready for something when I left.
But I wanted my oxen, and I didn't wait to ask. May I take them away
now, monsieur?"
"Very well," answered the officer, and he offered Pierre a shilling.
To his astonishment Pierre drew himself up and wouldn't touch it. The
young man still held it out to him, saying: "Why, it is only a little
memento! See, it has a hole in it, and you can keep it to remember
Captain Howe by. I have many friends among your people!"
"My heart is French," replied Pierre, with resolution. "I cannot take
money from an enemy."
"But we English are _not_ your enemies. We wish to do you good, to win
your love. It is that wicked Le Loutre who is your enemy."
"Yes," assented Pierre, very heartily. "We all hate him. And many of us
love the English, and would be friends if we dared; but _I_ do not
love any but the Holy Saints and the French.
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