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Who would bear my message? The wind, or the birds, mademoiselle? I have exhausted every means known to send some message home, but in vain. The savages and the French would not believe me when I said I had friends who would redeem me."

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You want to escape, monsieur?" she asked in a low voice.

66

As does the captive bird."

Whist, monsieur! I will see that no one eavesdrops." She rose and went to each door to assure herself that no one was listening. Coming back to where the trembling prisoner sat, she said in a low, earnest tone:

"Monsieur, you shall be free."

66

Mademoiselle!" he cried, falling on his knees before her.

"Rise, monsieur. Not a word. Listen; can you bribe your keeper into letting you escape?" "If I had the money.

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"How much would it require?"

66 A few hundred francs."

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Here are one thousand. Conceal the money about your person. In the seam of the great rock

on which your chain gang worked, you will, three nights hence, find a suit of clothes suitable for a gentleman and five hundred francs more."

"Mademoiselle, you overwhelm me!" "Nay, monsieur, say no more.

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I must be very

brief, for this interview cannot last long." "What more would the mademoiselle say?" "When you have gained your liberty, you need not feel constrained to follow my wishes further." Mademoiselle, I swear that your wish shall be my pleasure, and whithersoever, or on whatsoever errand you send me, I will go most cheerfully." "I live at Grand Pre, in Acadia, and-come there."

"I will."

"Your dialect is good enough for a Frenchman. When you come, assume a French name, and be a French gentleman, travelling for pleasure.

"I will."

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"I can remain no longer. Adieu, until I see you at Grand Pre."

The galley slave rose, seized the hand of the fair Acadian and covered it with kisses; then she took her departure.

Four days later, number 39 was reported as having made his escape. Search was made for him; but, as he could not be found, it was supposed he had perished while attempting to swim the river.

CHAPTER III.

END OF QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.

When the British warrior queen,
Bleeding from the Roman rods,
Sought, with an indignant mien,
Counsel of her country gods,
Sage beneath the spreading oak
Sat the druid, hoary chief;
Every burning word he spoke

Full of rage and full of grief.

-COWPER.

ELMER STEVENS, returning from a cruise to Boston, learned that his brother George was among the missing at Deerfield. He wrote to his parents at Williamsburg, Virginia, and every effort was made to find the captive youth. As years rolled on, and the surviving captives of Rouville's foray returned, they brought tidings of the prisoner. He was last seen at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, and then came an uncertain report that he was dead. How such reports get started or become verified, it is difficult to tell; but the story was believed, especially as nothing was heard of the captive. At last Elmer gave up his brother for

dead, and continued to serve his country as a privateer on the sea.

Meanwhile, life on the frontier was one constant scene of horror. The New England colonies, on their northern boundary, suffered most. The story of the Williams family was repeated a score of times. Remote settlements were abandoned. The tillers of the soil gathered in palisaded villages and labored in the fields in groups, guarded by well-armed parties. In the methods of the French and Indians there was no semblance of civilized warfare, and their cruelty everywhere inspired good men with dread. With soul filled with horror and grief, the good Peter Schuyler, mayor of Albany, at last wrote to Vaudreuil, the French governor of Canada:

"I hold it to be my duty toward God and my neighbor to prevent, if possible, these barbarous and heathen cruelties. My heart swells with indignation when I think that a war between Christian princes, bound to the exactest laws of honor and generosity, which their noble ancestors have illustrated by brilliant examples, is degenerated into savage and boundless butchery. These are not the methods for terminating the war. Would that all the world thought with me on this subject."

Such protests were in vain. The French were both bigoted and ambitious and went to a degree

A few

of cruelty almost equal to the savages. pious missionaries tried to instil ideas of humanity in the breasts of the savages; but their efforts were more than counterbalanced by the ambitious officers, eager to enrich themselves. They argued that all the domain to the Kennebec was their own, and the way to conquer the English was to inspire them with such dread and horror, that they would be compelled to submit to them. They argued, as an excuse for slaying the innocent, that the way to intimidate the father, was to strike at the wife and children.

The savages, unrestrained by their Christian allies, went on in their wild career of blood and plunder, until their deeds, even at this day, pain the historian. What adds most to the shame of the matter is that they seem to have been upheld and even encouraged by the power of Church and State.

Long New England suffered, hoping to receive some relief from home; but none came, and at length she resolved to make some aggressive movements on her own account.

In 1707, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island resolved to carry war into the French domain on the east. Recruits were enlisted for the campaign, and, early in June of the above year, Colonel Marsh, with a thousand men, sailed

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