alike untiring; and his ascendency over his savage flock, who had been
Christianized in name only, gave a terrible weapon into his hands.
Liberal were the rewards this fierce priest drew from the coffers of
Quebec and of Versailles.

In order to keep the symbol of French power and authority ever before
Acadian eyes, and to hinder the spread of English influence, a force
had been sent from Quebec, under the officers La Corne and Boishebert,
to hold the hill of Beausejour, which was practically the gate of Acadie.
From Beausejour the flourishing settlement of Beaubassin, on the English
side of the Missaguash, was overawed and kept to the French allegiance.
The design of the French was to induce all those Acadians whom they
could absolutely depend upon to remain in their homes within the English
lines, as a means whereby to confound the English counsels. Those,
however, who were suspected of leaning to the British, either from
sloth or policy, were to be bullied, coaxed, frightened, or compelled
by Le Loutre and his braves into forsaking their comfortable homes
and moving into new settlements on the French side of the boundary.

But the English authorities at Halifax, after long and astonishing
forbearance, had begun to develop a scheme of their own; and the fleet
which, on this April morning, excited such consternation among the
watchers on Beausejour, formed a part of it. Lord Cornwallis had decided
that an English force established in Beaubassin would be the most
effective check upon the influence of Beausejour; and the vessels now
at anchor off the mouth of the red and winding Missaguash contained
a little army of four hundred British troops, under command of Major
Lawrence. This expedition had been sent out from Halifax with a
commendable secrecy, but neither its approach nor its purpose could
be kept hidden from the ever-alert Le Loutre. Since Beaubassin was