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despoiled as is a fly fallen into a spider's web, it is to be sent to their death.

In 1746, Louis XV equips a formidable fleet which The sends with an army of debarkation under the command of the Duke d'Anville, to re-conquer the lost province. Terrible tempests disperse and break up the fleet. With the remnants, gathered together at Chibouctou (the Halifax of today), it is thought possible to take Port Royal. A rendezvous is arranged at this point with the Indians who were to take part in the assault. Another storm assails the reduced fleet off Cape Sable and disperses it. The English vessels complete the work of destruction.

The flower of Canadian chivalry, three hundred officers and soldiers, under the command of de Villiers, set out in the depth of winter, and after traversing on snow-shoes a distance which would appear incredible were it not vouched for, fall upon a detachment of five hundred and twenty-five English cantoned at Grand-Pré, kill one hundred and thirty of them, and force the remainder to surrender at discretion. The Acadians, despite pressing solicitations followed by threats of death, preserve a scrupulous neutrality; and because of their oath, refuse to join the Canadians for the purpose of driving the English out of their country. Mascarene, the governor of Annapolis, gives them due credit for their action when, in a letter to the Lords of Trade, he writes: "Had the Acadians not remained neutral, this province would have been lost." This, however, does not prevent his successors, Lawrence among others, from imputing to the Acadians as a crime their not having warned the English of the Canadians' arrival, or from making this lack of warning a pretext for confiscating their property.

Abbé le Loutre represents to his flock, with considerable reason, it must be admitted, that it is quite