Dim grow its fancies,
Forgetton they lie;
Like coals in the ashes,
They darken and die.

Song sinks into silence,
The story is told,

The windows are darkened,

The hearthstone is cold.

Darker and darker

The black shadows fall; Sleep and oblivion Keign over aii.

Ebangeline,

A TALE OF ACADIE.

The story of "EVANGELINE" is founded on a painful occurrence which took place in the early period of British colonization in the northern part of America.

Some

In the year 1713, Acadia, or as it is now named, Nova Scotia, was ceded to Great Britain by the French. The wishes of the inhabitants seem to have been little consulted in the change, and they with great difficulty were induced to take the oaths of allegiance to the British government. time after this, war having again broken out between the French and British in Canada, the Acadians were accused of having assisted the French, from whom they were descended, and connected by many ties of friendship, with provisions and ammunition, at the siege of Beau Séjour. Whether the accusation was founded on fact or not, has not been satisfactorily ascertained; the result, however, was most disastrous to the primitive, simple-minded Acadians. The British government ordered them to be removed from their native colony, and dispersed throughout the other colonies, at a distance from their own much-loved land. This resolution was not communicated to the inhabitants till measures had been matured to carry it into immediate effect; when the Governor of the colony, having issued a summons, calling the whole people to a meeting, informed them that their lands, tenements, and cattle of all kinds were forfeited to the British crown; that he had orders to remove them in vessels to distant colonies, and they must remain in custody till their embarkation.

The poem is descriptive of the fate of some of the persons involved in these calamitous proceedings.

THIS is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,

Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic, Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.

Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighbouring

ocean

Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts that beneat. it

Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the voice of the buntsman ?

Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Acadian

farmers,

Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the woodlands,

Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image of heaven?

Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers for ever departed!

Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts of October

Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them far o'er the ocean.

Nought but tradition remains of the beautiful village Grand-Pré.

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures, and is patient,

Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's devotion,

List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines

the forest;

List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy.

Part the First.

I.

IN the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pré
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the
eastward,

Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number.

Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labour incessant,

Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates

Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er te meadows.

West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards an 1 cornfields

Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and awɛy to the northward

Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains