complete exemption from French hostility if they would
promise to give no more aid to Old England either in ships or men. He
was told at the same time to approach the subject with great caution,
and unless he found willing listeners, to pass off the whole as a
pleasantry.[152] He went to Boston, where he was detained in consequence
of preparations then on foot for attacking Canada. He tried to escape;
but his vessel was seized and moored under the guns of the town, and it
is needless to say that his mission was a failure.

The idea of Costebelle, or rather of La Ronde,--for it probably
originated with him,--was not without foundation; for though there is no
reason to believe that in sending ships and soldiers against the French,
England meant to use them against the liberties of her own colonies,
there can be no doubt that she thought those liberties excessive and
troublesome; and, on the other side, while the people of Massachusetts
were still fondly attached to the land of their fathers, and still
called it "Home," they were at the same time enamoured of their
autonomy, and jealously watchful against any abridgment of it.

While La Ronde Denys was warning Massachusetts of the danger of helping
England to conquer Canada, another Frenchman, in a more prophetic
spirit, declared that England would make a grave mistake if she helped
her colonies to the same end. "There is an antipathy," this writer
affirms, "between the English of Europe and those of America, who will
not endure troops from England even to guard their forts;" and he goes
on to say that if the French colonies should fall, those of England
would control the continent from Newfoundland to Florida. "Old
England"--such are his words--"will not imagine that these various
provinces will then unite, shake off the yoke of the English monarchy,
and erect themselves into a democracy."[153] Forty or fifty years later,
several Frenchmen made the same prediction; but at this early day, when
the British provinces were so feeble and divided, it is truly a
remarkable one.

The anonymous prophet regards the colonies of England, Massachusetts
above all, as a standing menace to those of France; and he proposes a
drastic remedy against the danger. This is a powerful attack on Boston
by land and sea, for which he hopes that God will prepare the way. "When
Boston is reduced, we would call together all the chief men of the other
towns of New England, who would pay heavy sums t