The two officers had decided not to interfere with the farmers until the crops were gathered; but as Winslow’s force was greatly outnumbered by the Acadians, he put up a palisade around the church, graveyard, and vicarage, thus making a kind of fort. Before doing so, however, he had directed the Acadians to remove from the church all sacred emblems lest through the bigotry and fanaticism of the Puritan soldiers these revered treasures should be destroyed. The New Englander expressed his own feelings thus, in a letter to his commanding officer: “Although it is a disagreeable path of duty we are put upon, I am sensible it is a necessary one, and shall endeavor strictly to obey your excellency’s orders.” Winslow and Murray arranged to summon the habitans at the same day and hour, in order that the stunning blow might fall on their respective districts at once. A natural antipathy, needless to say, existed betwixt the Puritan soldiers of New England and the habitans of Acadia. The former, moreover, were hardened by a life of struggle and difficulty in a climate and with a soil less genial than that of Acadie; and these soldiers belonged to the same age and race that put to death helpless women for witchcraft and hanged harmless Quakers for the crime of refusing to leave the colony of Massachusetts. Yet even they must at times have felt some pity for the unfortunate peasants, driven from their peaceful homes. Le Loutre, however, had felt none during all the years he had been at the same work. When the hour arrived in which the assembled Acadians were to be told that they were prisoners, Gabriel had begged of Winslow’s clemency that he might be absent from the church; and now, as he stood sadly at the window of the vicarage parlor, the door of the room was softly pushed open, and Marin stood before him. His little eyes were restless with fear, and his naturally crafty countenance was drawn and pale. Gabriel uttered an exclamation, and sprang forward. “Tchut!” The peasant put his finger to his lips. “I was in Halifax, eh, _M. le Capitain_?” he whispered. “Nay, but here am I at Grand Pré—and so much the worse for a good Catholic! I said, I have tricked these heretics before and I will trick them again. It is a good deed—but this time the holy saints were not with me.” The young officer made a gesture of despair and disgust. “But, friend Marin, what of thy given word? Didst thou not promise me that if I obtained permission for thee to go to Halifax, thither thou wouldst go?” The man shrugged his shoulders. “Assuredly. But what of that? One more or less—what matters it? At Grand Pré no foolish oath was then required—at Halifax, yes!” “But how didst thou escape from the church?” “Oh, that was not difficult. We were caught, we men, as rats in a trap; but the general yielded to our tears and prayers, and we are to choose daily twenty to go home and console the wives and children. I am among the first lot chosen, and——”