t
disadvantage of La Tour. He had sent commissioners, duly authorised to
conclude a treaty of peace and commerce with them, and also a letter,
signed by the vice admiral of France, which confirmed his right to the
government. To this was added a copy, or pretended copy, of certain
proceedings, which proscribed La Tour as a rebel and a traitor. Governor
Winthrop had, in vain, endeavored to heal the differences, which
subsisted between the French commanders in Acadia; D'Aulney refused to
accede to any conciliatory measures. Till then, the Massachusetts colony
had favored La Tour, on account of his religious principles; but the
authority of M. d'Aulney now seemed so well established, and his power
to injure them was so extensive, that they consented to sign the
articles in question. They, however, entered into no combination against
La Tour, nor debarred themselves from their usual friendly intercourse
with him.

M. de la Tour listened to these details with extreme indignation, and
felt an increased anxiety to depart without delay. The preparations
were, therefore, soon concluded, and they waited only for a favorable
wind, to convey them from the fort of St. John's.

CHAPTER X.

My fear hath catch'd your fondness--

* * * * *

Speak, is't so?
If it be so, you have wound a goodly clue;
If it be not, foreswear't: howe'er, I charge thee,
As heaven shall work in me for thine avail,
To tell me truly.

SHAKSPEARE.

Arthur Stanhope's protracted stay at St. John's, occasioned much
discontent and repining among the crew of his vessel. Many of them
became weary of their inactive life, and impatient to be restored to the
friends and occupations they had left; while the laxity of the French
soldiers,--the open celebration of popish ceremonies,--the very
appearance of the priest,--excited the indignation of the more rigid and
reflecting. The daily exhortations of Mad. de la Tour's chaplain were
not calculated to allay these irritated feelings. One of the most
austere of the Scotch dissenters, Mr. Broadhead, had been induced, by
religious zeal, to follow the fortunes of his patron, Sir William
Alexander, who, in 1621, received a grant of Acadia, or Nova Scotia,
and established the first permanent settlement in that country. It had,
till then, been alternately claimed and neglected, both by French and
English; and he was, a few year