When at length he reached Piziquid he little dreamed
that the child whose death he mourned was at that very moment sailing
down the river bound for Beausejour and a long sojourn among her
people's enemies.
In the house of Antoine Lecorbeau things went on more pleasantly than
with most of his fellow-Acadians. With the good will of Vergor, the
commandant of Beausejour, who made enormous profits out of the Acadian's
tireless diligence, Lecorbeau became once more fairly prosperous; and
Le Loutre had grown again friendly. But most of the Acadians found
themselves in a truly pitiable plight. There were not lands enough to
supply them all, and they pined for the farms of Acadie which Le Loutre
had forced them to forsake. Threatened with excommunication and the
scalping knife if they should return to their allegiance, and with
starvation if they obeyed the commands of their heartless superiors
at Quebec, they were girt about on all sides with pain and peril.
Vacillating, unable to think boldly for themselves, they were doubtless
much to blame, but their miseries were infinitely more than they deserved.
The punishments that fell upon them fell upon the wrong shoulders.
The English, who treated them for a long time with the most patient
forbearance, were compelled at length, in self-defense, to adopt an
attitude of rigorous severity; and by the French, in whose cause they
suffered everything, they were regarded as mere tools, to be used
till destroyed. At the door of the corrupt officials of France may be
laid all their miseries.
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