exercised supervision over the affairs of Nova Scotia,
seeing in this a real menace to British power in the
colony, raised a thousand New Englanders and dispatched
them to Annapolis. Of these only four hundred and seventy,
under Colonel Arthur Noble of Massachusetts, arrived at
their destination. Most of the vessels carrying the others
were wrecked by storms; one was driven back by a French
warship. In December, however, Noble's New Englanders,
with a few soldiers from the Annapolis garrison, set out
to rid Acadia of the Canadians; and after much hardship
and toil finally reached the village of Grand Pre in the
district of Minas. Here the soldiers were quartered in
the houses of the Acadians for the winter, for Noble had
decided to postpone the movement against Ramesay's position
on the isthmus until spring. It would be impossible, he
thought, to make the march through the snow.

But the warlike Canadians whom Ramesay had posted in the
neck of land between Chignecto Bay and Baie Verte did
not think so. No sooner had they learned of Noble's
position at Grand Pre than they resolved to surprise him
by a forced march and an attack by night. Friendly Acadians
warned the British of the intended surprise; but the
over-confident Noble scouted the idea. The snow in many
places was 'twelve to sixteen feet deep,' and no party,
even of Canadians, thought Noble, could possibly make a
hundred miles of forest in such a winter. So it came to
pass that one midnight, early in February, Noble's men
in Grand Pre found themselves surrounded. After a plucky
fight in which sixty English were killed, among them