But in spite of all these stories, the wonderful Bernese is not captured, nor indeed seen by any, except that sometimes an English prisoner escaping from the enemy, comes to tell of his clemency and tenderness; he has bound up the wounds of these, he has saved the lives of those. At last a small settlement of French and Indians is attacked by Church's men at Penobscot, every person there being either killed or taken prisoner; among the latter a daughter of the great baron, with her children, from whom they learn that her unhappy father, ruined and broken-hearted, had returned to France, the victim of persecutors, who, under the name of saints, exhibited a cruelty and rapacity that would have disgraced the reputation of a Philip or an Alva! "It is a matter of surprise to the historical student," said the little man, "that with a people like yours, so conspicuous in many rare examples of erudition, that the history of Acadia has not merited a closer attention, throwing as it does so strong a reflective light upon your own. Such a task doubtless does not present many inviting features, especially to those who would preserve, at any sacrifice of truth, the earlier pages of discovery in America, pure, spotless, and unsullied. But I think this dark, tragic background would set off all the brighter the characters of those really good men who flourished in that period, of whom there were no doubt many, although now obscured by the dull, dead moonshine of indiscriminate forefathers' flattery. I know very well that in some regards we might copy the example of a few of the first planters of New England, but for the rest I believe with Adam Clark, that for the sake of humanity, it were better that such ages should never return." "We talk much," says he, "of ancient manners, their _simplicity and ingenuousness_, and say that _the former days were better than these_. But who says this who is a judge of the times? In those days of celebrated simplicity, there were not so _many_ crimes as at present, I grant; but what they wanted in _number_, they made up in _degree_; _deceit_, _cruelty_, _rapine_, _murder_, and _wrong_ of almost every kind, then flourished. _We_ are _refined_ in our vices, they were _gross_ and _barbarous_ in theirs. They had neither so many _ways_ nor so many _means_ of sinning; but the _sum_ of their moral turpitude was greater than ours. We have a sort of _decency_ and good _breeding_, which lay a certain restraint on our passions; they were boorish and beastly, and their bad passions ever in full play. Civilization prevents barbarity and atrocity; mental cultivation induces decency of manners--those primitive times were generally without these. Who that knows them would wish such ages to return?"[A] [A] Adam Clark's "Commentary on Book of Kings." II. Samuel, chap. iii. CHAPTER XIII.