this exodus of the natural leaders of Canada was
in good part deferred till the next year, and though the number
of persons to be immediately embarked was reduced by the desertion
of many French soldiers who had married Canadian wives, yet the
English authorities were sorely perplexed to find vessels enough
for the motley crowd of passengers. When at last they were all on
their way, a succession of furious autumnal storms fell upon them.
The ship that carried Levis barely escaped wreck, and that which bore
Vaudreuil and his wife fared little better.[857] Worst of all was the
fate of the "Auguste," on board of which was the bold but
ruthless partisan, Saint-Luc de la Corne, his brother, his children,
and a party of Canadian officers, together with ladies,
merchants, and soldiers. A worthy ecclesiastical chronicler
paints the unhappy vessel as a floating Babylon, and sees in
her fate the stern judgment of Heaven.[858] It is true that New
France ran riot in the last years of her existence; but before
the "Auguste" was well out of the St. Lawrence she was so
tossed and buffeted, so lashed with waves and pelted with rain,
that the most alluring forms of sin must have lost their charm,
and her inmates passed days rather of penance than transgression.
There was a violent storm as the ship entered the Gulf; then a calm,
during which she took fire in the cook's galley. The crew and passengers
subdued the flames after desperate efforts; but their only food
thenceforth was dry biscuit. Off the coast of Cape Breton another gale
rose. They lost their reckoning and lay tossing blindly amid the tempest.
The exhausted sailors took, in despair, to their hammocks,
from which neither commands nor blows could rouse them,
while amid shrieks, tears, prayers, and vows to Heaven, the
"Auguste" drove towards the shore, struck, and rolled over
on her side. La Corne with six others gained the beach; and
towards night they saw the ship break asunder, and counted
a hundred and fourteen corpses strewn along the sand. Aided
by Indians and by English officers, La Corne made his way
on snow-shoes up the St. John, and by a miracle of enduring
hardihood reached Quebec before the end of winter.[859]

[Footnote 857: _Levis a Belleisle, 27 Nov. 1760_.]

[Footnote 858: Faillon, _Vie de Mademoiselle Le Ber_, 363-370.]

[Footnote 859: _Journal du Voyage de M. Saint-Luc de la Corne_. This is his
own narrative.]

The other ships weathered the November gale