When night fell the heavens were lit up with a glare that carried terror
to the women and children on Isle au Tantramar. Vergor had set fire
to the chapel, and to all the houses of Beausejour that might shelter
an approach to the ramparts. "Alas," cried the unhappy mother Lecorbeau
to the children about her, "we are once more homeless, without a roof
to shelter us!" and she and all the women broke into loud lamentations.
The children, however, seemed rather to enjoy the scene, and Edie told
an interested audience about the great blaze there was, and how red the
sky looked, the night her dear Pierre carried her away from Kenneticook.
For several days the English made no further advance, and to Pierre
and his fellow-Acadians in the fort the suspense became very trying.
The regulars took the delay most philosophically, seeming content
to wait just as long as the enemy would permit them. Pierre began
to wish he was with one of the guerilla parties outside, for these
were busy all the time, making little raids, cutting off foraging
parties, skirmishing with pickets, and retreating nimbly to the hills
whenever attacked in force. At length there came a change. A battalion
of New Englanders, about five hundred strong, advanced to within easy
range of the fort, and occupied a stony ridge well adapted for their
purpose.
A braggart among the French officers, one Vannes by name, begged
to be allowed to sally forth with a couple of hundred men and rout
the audacious provincials.
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