Acadians -- History -- Juvenile fiction; Nova Scotia -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction; Vacations -- Juvenile fiction
"After all," she said gently, "I suppose it was the 'fortune of war'
that your people suffered so much."
"Oh, yes," responded Eunice, "that is what I often say to my mother; and
then I tell her too, that in one hundred and twenty-five years the
family probably would have lost all the property they had before the
Revolution."
Finding that the subject was getting a little beyond her, Priscilla
ventured a more general remark.
"There must be many interesting historical incidents connected with
Annapolis; I mean, incidents that are not French," she concluded
hastily. "I am just a little tired, myself, of the Acadians."
"I don't know of many very entertaining things," responded Eunice, "but
I remember one story that might amuse you. During the Revolution, the
people of Annapolis were awfully afraid of attacks from Privateers. You
see, after the Acadians were driven out a large colony from New England
came down here. They received grants of land from the government, and
were very prosperous when the war began. Many were on the side of the
Yankees, but in the end England was able to hold Nova Scotia. However,
the small privateering vessels were constantly coming into Nova Scotia
ports, and even Annapolis wasn't perfectly safe. One night two rebel
schooners came up to the mouth of the river; they had about eighty men,
and landed them safely, because the sentry at the fort was asleep. They
entered the houses and stirred people up immensely; they seemed more
bent on making mischief than in doing any real violence. There were not
many citizens here in the town then, but one of them, looking from the
window when he heard a noise in the street, saw two of the rebels
disputing over something they had stolen; when they saw him at the
window, they dashed into his house, and a minute or two afterwards
another Annapolis man, only half dressed, rushed excitedly into the room
to tell his friend that the Yankees were plundering the town; this was
unnecessary information, because, as I have said, two rebels were
already in the house. He discovered them with their bayonets pointed at
him just as he had finished telling his story, and he was so surprised
that he fell backward over a cradle, with his feet in the air. His
comical appearance made the rebels laugh so, that he afterwards said
that this saved his life, for before they had recovered he had jumped to
his feet and run away. But later he and all the other able-bodied
citizens were shut up in the fort, while the men from the schooners went
through the houses and carried away everything movable. They allowed the
ladies to keep their shoes, though they first removed the silver
buckles. The schooners disappeared in the morning, when the report was
spread around that the militia of the county were gathering and coming
to Annapolis. That, I believe, was the only attack on Annapolis during
the Revolution. It happened two or three years before the arrival of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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