Opened, and forth came the guard, and marching in gloomy procession

Followed the long imprisoned, but patient, Acadian farmers.

Even as pilgrims, who journey afar from their homes and their country,

Sing as they go, and in singing forget they are weary and way-worn,

So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants descended

Down from the church to the shore, amid their wives and their daughters,

Foremost the young men came; and raising together their voices,

Sang they with tremulous lips a chant of the Catholic Missions :

"Sacred heart of the Saviour! Oh, inexhaustible fountain?

Fill our hearts this day with strength and submission and patience!"

Then the old men, as they marched, and the

women that stood by the way-side

Joined in the sacred psalm, and the birds in the

sunshine above them

Mingled their notes therewith, like voices of spirits departed.

Half-way down to the shore Evangeline waited in silence,

Not overcome with grief, but strong in the hour of affliction,

Calmly and sadly waited, until the procession approached her,

And she beheld the face of Gabriel pale with emotion.

Tears then filled her eyes, and, eagerly running to meet him,

Clasped she his hands, and laid her head on his shoulder, and whispered,

"Gabriel! be of good cheer! for if we love one another,

Nothing, in truth, can harm us, whatever mischances may happen!"

Smiling she spake these words; then suddenly

paused, for her father

Saw she slowly advancing. Alas! how changed was his aspect!

Gone was the glow from his cheek, and the fire from his eye, and his footstep

Heavier seemed with the weight of the weary heart in his bosom.

But with a smile and a sigh, she clasped his neck and embraced him,

Speaking words of endearment where words of comfort availed not.

Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mournful procession.

There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of embarking.

Busily plied the freighted boats; and in the confusion

Wives were torn from their husbands, and

mothers, too late, saw their children

F

Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest entreaties.

So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried,

While in despair on the shore Evangeline stood with her father.

Half the task was not done when the sun went down, and the twilight

Deepened and darkened around; and in haste the refluent ocean

Fled away from the shore, and left the line of the sand-beach

Covered with waifs of the tide, with kelp and the slippery sea-weed.

Farther back, in the midst of the household goods and the waggons,

Like to a gipsey camp, or a leaguer after a battle,

All escape cut off by the sea, and the sentinels

Lay encamped for the night the houseless Acadian farmers.

Back to its nethermost caves retreated the bel

lowing occean,

Dragging adown the beach the rattling pebbles, and leaving

Inland and far up the shore the stranded boats of the sailors.

Then, as the night descended, the hards returned from their pastures;

Sweet was the moist still air with the odour of milk from their udders;

Lowing they waited, and long, at the wellknown bars of the farm-yard

Waited and looked in vain for the voice and the hand of the milkmaid.

Silence reigned in the streets; from the church no Angelus sounded.

Rose no smoke from the roofs, and gleamed no lights from the windows.

But on the shores meanwhile the evening

fires had been kindled,