y as well as a History of Romance. To the
former class belong many incidents in the early periods of New England
and its adjacent colonies. The following papers ... refer to two
persons, D'Aulnay and La Tour, ... individuals of respectable intellect
and education, of noble families and large fortune. While the first was
a zealous and efficient supporter of the Roman Church, the second was
less so, from his frequent connection with others of a different faith.
The scene of their ... prominent actions, their exhibition of various
passions and talents, their conquests and defeats, their career and end,
as exerting an influence on their associates as well as themselves, on
other communities as well as their own--was laid in Nova Scotia. This
phrase then comprised a territory vastly more extensive than it does
now as a British Province. It embraced not only its present boundaries,
which were long termed Acadia, but also about two thirds of the State of
Maine."

It startles the modern reader, in examining documents of the French
archives relating to the colonies, to come upon a letter from Louis
XIII. to his beloved D'Aulnay de Charnisay, thanking that governor of
Acadia for his good service at Fort St. John. Thus was that great race
who first trod down the wilderness on this continent continually and
cruelly hampered by the man who sat on the throne in France.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

Prelude. At the Head of the Bay of Fundy 1

I. An Acadian Fortress 13

II. Le Rossignol 21

III. Father Isaac Jogues 40

IV. The Widow Antonia 55

V. Jonas Bronck's Hand 64

VI. The Mending 73

VII. A Frontier Graveyard 82

VIII. Van Corlaer 96

IX. The Turret 107

X. An Acadian Poet 121

XI. Marguerite 133

XII. D'Aulnay 143

XIII. The Second Day 155

XIV. The Struggle between Powers 173

XV. A Soldier 191

XVI. The Camp 211