Speechless at first they stood, then cried aloud in their

anguish,

"We shall behold no more our homes in the village of Grand-Pré !"

Loud on a sudden the cocks began to crow in the farm

yards,

Thinking the day had dawned; and anon the lowing of

cattle

Came on the evening breeze, by the barking of dogs interrupted.

Then rose a sound of dread, such as startles the sleeping

encampments

Far in the western prairies or forests that skirt the Ne

braska,

When the wild horses affrighted sweep by with the speed of the whirlwind,

Or the loud bellowing herds of buffaloes rush to the river. Such was the sound that arose on the night, as the herds and the horses

Broke through their folds and fences, and madly rushed o'er the meadows.

Overwhelmed with the sight, yet speechless, the priest and the maiden

Gazed on the scene of terror that reddened and widened

before them;

And as they turned at length to speak to their silent com

panion,

Lo! from his seat he had fallen, and stretched abroad on

the sea-shore

Motionless lay his form from which the soul had departed. Slowly the priest uplifted the lifeless head, and the maiden Knelt at her father's side, and wailed aloud in her terror. Then in a swoon she sank, and lay with her head on his bosom.

Through the long night she lay in deep, oblivious slumber; And when she woke from the trance, she beheld a multi

tude near her.

Faces of friends she beheld, that were mournfully gazing upon her,

Pallid, with tearful eyes, and looks of saddest compassion. Still the blaze of the burning village illumined the land

scape,

Reddened the sky overhead, and gleamed on the faces around her,

And like the day of doom it seemed to her wavering

senses,

Then a familiar voice she heard, as it said to the people'Let us bury him here by the sea. When a happier season Brings us again to our homes from the unknown land of our exile,

Then shall his sacred dust be piously laid in the churchyard."

Such were the words of the priest. And there in haste by the sea-side,

Having the glare of the burning village for funeral torches, But without bell or book, they buried the farmer of Grand

Pré.

And as the voice of the priest repeated the service of sorrow, Lo! with a mournful sound, like the voice of a vast con

gregation,

Solemnly answered the sea, and mingled its roar with the dirges.

'T was the returning tide, that afar from the waste of the

ocean,

With the first dawn of the day, came heaving and hurrying landward.

Then recommenced once more the stir and noise of em

barking;

And with the ebb of that tide the ships sailed out of the aarbor,

Leaving behind them the dead on the shore, and the village in ruins.

"Having the glare of the burning village for funeral torches,
But without bell or book, they buried the farmer of Grand-Pré."

66

Long among them was seen a maiden who waited and wandered,
Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all things."

PART THE SECOND.

I.

Pré,

When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed, Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile, Exile without an end, and without an example in story. Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed; Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the northeast

Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the Banks of Newfoundland.

Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to

city,

From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern

savannas

From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where the

Father of Waters

Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to the

ocean,

Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the mammoth.

Friends they sought and homes; and many, despairing, heart-broken,

Asked of the earth but a grave, and no longer a friend nor a fireside.

Written their history stands on tablets of stone in the church-yards.

Long among them was seen a maiden who waited and wandered,

Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all things.

Fair was she and young; but, alas! before her extended, Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life, with its

pathway

Marked by the graves of those who had sorrowed and suffered before her,

Passions long extinguished, and hopes long dead and abandoned,

As the emigrant's way o'er the Western desert is marked by Camp-fires long consumed, and bones that bleach in the

sunshine.

Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, unfinished;

As if a morning of June, with all its music and sunshine, Suddenly paused in the sky, and, fading, slowly descended

Into the east again, from whence it late had arisen.

Sometimes she lingered in towns, till, urged by the fever within her,

Urged by a restless longing, the hunger and thirst of the spirit,

She would commence again her endless search and endeavor;

Sometimes in church-yards strayed, and gazed on the crosses and tombstones,