“There was a great deal of abominable cruelty in different parts. Wherever they could not make prisoners, they burned their houses, in the hope of starving them to death. Whole districts were thus devastated. The descendants of these peopie remember all this yet, and can tell many a tale of misery. Many of the exiles gradually worked their way back, and found new homes for themselves in other parts of the country, and their descendants are scattered all about the coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They are curiously like their ancestors. Simple, innocent, joyous, peaceful, there is but little crime among them; and though they are not so progressive as we are, yet they have other qualities which may compensate for the absence of our more practical faculties. They are certainly very stationary; so much so, indeed, that some acute observers declare that they have not advanced so much as their kindred in France. They say that our Aca-dians are more like the French peasantry of a hundred years ago than the French themselves are at the present day. This is particularly the case in the more remote districts, such as the Bay de Chaleur. I have often been there myself, and every time I visit one of their villages in that district, I recall some of the descriptions of the Grand Pré Acadians in Longfellow’s Evangeline.” Here the doctor began to tell some anecdotes, and then went on speaking of other things, until at length he stopped in front of a rusty cannonball, which lay on a table in the middle of the room. “Here,” said he, “is something which I received a few days ago, and I think it is almost equal to the Acadian plough.” “What is it?” “It’s a cannon-ball from Louisbourg; and though I don’t know, of course, for certain, yet I have made up my mind that it is a relic of the first siege.” “How can you tell, sir,” asked Bruce, “whether it is the first siege or the second.” “O, for that matter, I can’t tell at all very clearly; only the spot where this was found makes it more likely to have been fired at the first than the second. Besides, the first siege is far more interesting to us, since it was the act of British Provincials, and an exploit quite unparalleled in its way.” “Why, sir, I always thought that the second siege was one of the greatest achievements in war. Were there any generals in the first equal to Wolfe, or any other men equal to Boscawen, and Rodney, and Amherst?”