making preparations for their
departure, and on the following morning they set out on their journey.

[Illustration: Tailpiece to Chapter II]

[Illustration: Headpiece to Chapter III]

CHAPTER III.

The capture of Louisburg was at once followed up by a descent upon the
French settlements on the Acadian coast by Sir Charles Hardy, with half
a dozen ships of the line and some frigates, carrying with them a small
land force under the command of Wolfe. This was intended partly as a
measure of retaliation and partly to draw away a portion of the enemy's
forces from the theatre of war on the lakes. Miramichi and the
villages along the Bay of Chaleurs and at Point Gaspe were partially or
wholly destroyed, and although no needless cruelty may have been added
to the inevitable horrors involved in such an expedition, the
sufferings of the peaceful inhabitants of the devoted districts cannot
but excite the deepest commiseration. Their dwellings were burnt, and
the stores of provisions laid up for the winter totally destroyed,
whilst the people themselves were either killed, taken prisoners, or
driven out into the woods, where many perished with cold and hunger.
Some of course managed to escape, and a few betook themselves to other
places on the St. Lawrence, or, like Isidore de Beaujardin, ultimately
joined the army under Montcalm.

It was in company with some of these fugitives, who had been organised
at Quebec, that Isidore and Boulanger at last reached Crown Point, on
Lake Champlain, where they found that no operations of any importance
had been undertaken since the great repulse of the English at
Ticonderoga. Skirmishes indeed occasionally took place along the
border, and one expedition under Major Rogers, on the shore of Lake
Champlain, kept the French on the alert. Whilst Montcalm was unable
for want of a sufficiently numerous army to undertake any great
offensive movement, Abercromby, disheartened by his late fruitless
attempt on Ticonderoga, lay almost inactive in the neighbourhood of
Lake George.

Such a state of things was distasteful enough to Isidore, who had hoped
in the excitement of a busy campaign to be able to forget his sorrows,
and who fretted continually over the mean and miserable position he was
now condemned to occupy. He had begun to think seriously of returning
to Quebec in the hope of meeting with his uncle the Baron de Valricour,
when an event occurred which put an end, at all