PS 2263 
 
 .PI 
 1886a 
 Copy 1 
 
 [/ Numt>€rT 
 
 March 17, 1886 
 
 
 jiTiiF . iui.;iira- ■rar*^'i«j 
 
 EVANGELINE 
 
 BY 
 
 H. W. LONGFELLOW 
 WITH NOTES 
 
 AND 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
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2Dl)e Htoersiitie ^literature ^eriesi 
 
 EVANGELINE 
 
 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 
 
 V/ITH NOTES 
 
 A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 Boiton : 4 Park Street ; New York : 11 East Seventeenth StrMt 
 Chicago: 28 Lakeside Building 
 
 ,v 
 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. are the only authorized publishers 
 of the works of Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Holmes, Emeb- 
 BON, Thoreau, a7id Hawthorne. All editions which luc/c the 
 imprint or authorization of Houghton, Mifflin <fc Co. are issued 
 tvithout the consent and contrary to the wishes of the authors or 
 their heirs. 
 
 
 CV- 
 
 Copyright, 1866, 
 Bt henry WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Copyright, 1879, 
 By HOUGHTON, OSGOOD & CO. 
 
 Copyright, 1883, 
 Bt HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 ^U rights reserved. 
 
 404426 
 '30 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 
 Blectrotyped and Printed bj H. O. Houghton & Company, 
 
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, 
 Maine, February 27, 1807. He was a classmate of Haw- 
 thorne at Bowdoin College, graduating there in the class of 
 1825. He began the study of law in the ofi&ce of his father, 
 Hon. Stephen LongfeUow; but receiving shortly the ap- 
 pointment of professor of modern languages at Bowdoin, 
 he devoted himself after that to literature, and to teaching 
 in connection with literature. Before beginning his work 
 at Bowdoin he increased his qualifications by travel and 
 study in Europe, where he stayed three years. Upon his 
 return he gave his lectures on modern languages and litera- 
 ture at the college, and wrote occasionally for the North 
 American Review and other periodicals. The first volume 
 which he published was an Essaij on the Moral and Devo- 
 tional Poetry of Spain, accompanied by translations from 
 Spanish verse. This was issued in 1833, but has not been 
 kept in print as a separate work. It appears as a chapter 
 in Outre-Mer, a reflection of his European life and travel, 
 the first of his prose writings. In 1835 he was invited to 
 succeed Mr. George Ticknor as professor of modern lan- 
 guages and literature at Harvard College, and again went 
 to Europe for preparatory study, giving especial attention 
 to Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries. He held 
 his professorship until 1854, but continued to live in Cam- 
 bridge until his death, March 24, 1882, occupying a house 
 known from a former occupant as the Craigie house, and 
 
EVANGELINE: A TALE OF ACADIE. 
 
 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 [The country now known as Nova Scotia, and called 
 formerly Acadie by the French, was in the hands of the 
 French and English by turns until the year 1713, when, by 
 the Peace of Utrecht, it was ceded by France to Great Brit- 
 ain, and has ever since remained in the possession of the 
 English. But in 1713 the inhabitants of the peninsula were 
 mostly French farmers and fishermen, living about Minas 
 Basin and on Annapolis River, and the English government 
 exercised only a nominal control over them. It was not till 
 1749 that the English themselves began to make settlements 
 in the country, and that year they laid the foundations of 
 the town of Halifax. A jealousy soon sprang up between 
 the English and French settlers, which was deepened by the 
 great conflict which was impending between the two mother 
 countries ; for the treaty of peace at Aix-la-ChajDelle in 
 1748, which confirmed the English title to Nova Scotia, was 
 scarcely more than a truce between the two powers which 
 had been struggling for ascendency during the beginning 
 of the century. The French engaged in a long controversy 
 with the English respecting the boundaries of Acadie, which 
 had been defined by the treaties in somewhat general terms, 
 and intrigues were carried on with the Indians, who were 
 generally in sympathy with the French, for the annoyance 
 of the English settlers. The Acadians were allied to the 
 French by blood and by religion, but they claimed to have 
 the rights of neutrals, and that these rights had been 
 
EVANGELINE. 5 
 
 gi'anted to them by previous English officers of the crown. 
 The one point of special dispute was the oath of allegiance 
 demanded of the Acadians by the English. This they re- 
 fused to take, except in a form modified to excuse them 
 from bearing arms against the French. The demand was 
 repeatedly made, and evaded with constant ingenuity and 
 persistency. Most of the Acadians were probably simple- 
 minded and peaceful people, who desired only to live undis» 
 turbed upon theii* farms ; but there were some restless spir- 
 its, especially among the young men, who compromised the 
 reputation of the community, and all were very much under 
 the influence of their priests, some of whom made no secret 
 of their bitter hostility to the English, and of their deter- 
 mination to use every means to be rid of them. 
 
 As the English interests grew and the critical relations 
 between the two countries approached open warfare, the 
 question of how to deal with the Acadian problem became 
 the commanding one of the colony. There were some who 
 coveted the rich farms of the Acadians ; there were some 
 who were inspired by religious hatred ; but the prevailing 
 spirit was one of fear for themselves from the near presence 
 of a community which, calling itself neutral, might at any 
 time offer a convenient ground for hostile attack. Yet to 
 require these people to withdraw to Canada or Louisburg 
 would be to strengthen the hands of the French, and make 
 these neutrals determined enemies. The colony finally re- 
 solved, without consulting the home government, to remove 
 the Acadians to other parts of North America, distributing 
 them through the colonies in such a way as to preclude any 
 concert amongst the scattered families by which they should 
 return to Acadia. To do this required quick and secret 
 preparations. There were at the service of the English 
 governor a number of New England troops, brought thither 
 for the capture of the forts lying in the debatable land about 
 the head of the Bay of Fundy. These were under the com- 
 mand of Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow, of Massachu- 
 
b HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 setts, a great-grandson of Governor Edward Winslow, of 
 Plymouth, and to this gentleman and Captain Alexander 
 Murray was intrusted the task of removal. They were in- 
 structed to use stratagem, if possible, to bring together the 
 various families, but to prevent any from escaping to the 
 woods. On the 2d of September, 1755, Winslow issued a 
 written order, addressed to the inhabitants of Grand-Pre, 
 Minas, Rive.r Canard, etc., " as well ancient as young men 
 and lads," — a proclamation summoning all the males to 
 attend him in the church at Grand-Pre on the 5th instant, 
 to hear a communication which the governor had sent. As 
 there had been negotiations respecting the oath of allegiance, 
 and much discussion as to the withdrawal of the Acadians 
 from the country, though none as to their removal and dis- 
 persal, it was understood that this was an important meet- 
 ing, and upon the day named four hundred and eighteen 
 men and boys assembled in the church. Winslow, attended 
 by his officers and men, caused a guard to be jDlaced round 
 the church, and then announced to the people his majesty's 
 decision that they were to be removed with their families 
 out of the country. The church became at once a guard- 
 house, and all the prisoners were under strict surveillance. 
 At the same time similar plans had been carried out at Pisi- 
 quid under Captain Murray, and less successfully at Chig- 
 necto. Meanwhile tliere were whispers of a rising among 
 the prisoners, and although the transports which had been 
 ordered from Boston had not yet arrived, it was determined 
 to make use of the vessels which had conveyed the troops, 
 and remove the men to these for safer keeping. This was 
 done on the 10th of September, and the men remained on 
 the vessels in the harbor until the arrival of the transports, 
 when these were made use of, and about three thousand 
 souls sent out of the country to North Carolina, Virginia, 
 Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and Mas- 
 sachusetts. In the haste and confusion of sending them off, 
 — a haste which was increased by the anxiety of the offi- 
 
EVANGELINE. 1 
 
 cers to be rid of the distasteful business, and a confusion 
 which was greater from the difference of tongues, — many- 
 families were separated, and some at least never came to- 
 gether again. 
 
 The story of Evangeline is the story of such a separation. 
 The removal of the Acadians was a blot upon the govern- 
 ment of Nova Scotia and upon that of Great Britain, which 
 never disowned the deed, although it was probably done 
 without direct permission or command from England. It 
 proved to be unnecessary, but it must also be remembered 
 that to many men at that time the English power seemed 
 trembling before France, and that the colony at Halifax 
 regarded the act as one of self-preservation. 
 
 The authorities for an historical inquiry into this subject 
 are best seen in a volume published by the government of 
 Nova Scotia at Halifax in 1869, entitled Selections from 
 the Public Documents of the Province of Nova Scotia^ 
 edited by Thomas B. Akins. D. C. L., Commissioner of 
 Public Records ; and in a manuscript journal kept by Col- 
 onel Winslow, now in the cabinet of the Massachusetts His- 
 torical Society in Boston. At the State House in Boston 
 are two volumes of records, entitled French Neutrals, which 
 contain voluminous papers relating to the treatment of the 
 Acadians who were sent to Massachusetts. Probably the 
 work used by the poet in writing Evangeline was An His- 
 torical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, by Thomas 
 C. Haliburton, who is best known as the author of The Clock- 
 Maker, or The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of 
 Slickville, a book which, written apparently to prick the 
 Nova Scotians into more enterprise, was for a long while the 
 chief representative of Yankee smartness. Judge Halibur= 
 ton's history was published in 1829. A later history, which 
 takes advantage more freely of historical documents, is A 
 History of Nova Scotia, or Acadie, by Beamish Murdock, 
 Esq., Q. C, Halifax, 1866. Still more recent is a smaller, 
 well-written work, entitled The History of Acadia from its 
 
8 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 First Discovery to its Surrender to England hy the Treaty 
 of Paris, by James Hannay, St. John, N. B., 1879. W. J. 
 Anderson published a paper in the Transactions of the Lit- 
 erary and Historical Society of Quebec, New Series, part 7, 
 1870, entitled Evangeline and the Archives of Nova Sco^ 
 tia, in which he examines the poem by the light of the vol- 
 ume of Nova Scotia Archives, edited by T. B. Akins. The 
 sketches of travellers in Nova Scotia, as Acadia, or a Month 
 among the Blue Noses, by F. S. Cozzens, and Baddeck, by 
 C. D. Warner, give the present appearance of the country 
 and inhabitants. 
 
 The measure of Evangeline is what is commonly known 
 as English dactylic hexameter. The hexameter is the mea- 
 sure used by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey, and by 
 Virgil in the uEneid, but the difference between the Eng- 
 lish language and the Latin or Greek is so great, especially 
 when we consider that in English poetry every word must 
 be accented according to its customary pronounciation, 
 while in scanning Greek and Latin verse accent follows the 
 quantity of the vowels, that in applying this term of hexa^ 
 meter to Evangeline it must not be supposed by the reader 
 that he is getting the effect of Greek hexameters. It is the 
 Greek hexameter translated into English use, and some 
 have maintained that the verse of the Iliad is better repre- 
 sented in the English by the trochaic measure of fifteen syl- 
 lables, of which an excellent illustration is in Tennyson's 
 Locksley Hall ; others have compared the Greek hexameter 
 to the ballad metre of fourteen syllables, used notably by- 
 Chapman in his translation of Homer's Iliad. The mea= 
 sure adopted by Mr. Longfellow has never become very 
 popular in English poetry, but has repeatedly been at- 
 tempted by other poets. The reader will find the subject 
 of hexameters discussed by Matthew Arnold in his lectures 
 On Translating Homer ; by James Spedding in English 
 Hexameters, in his recent volume. Reviews and Discus- 
 sions, Literary, Political and Historical, not relating to 
 
EVANGELINE. 
 
 9 
 
 Bacon ; and by John Stuart Blackie in Remarks on Eng- 
 lish Hexameters, contained in his volume EorcB Eelle- 
 
 niece. 
 
 The measure lends itself easily to the lingering melan- 
 choly which marks the greater part of the poem, and the 
 poet's fine sense of harmony between subject and form is 
 rarely better shown than in this poem. The fall of the 
 verse at the end of the line and the sharp recovery at the 
 beginning of the next will be snares to the reader, who 
 must beware of a jerking style of delivery. The voice nat. 
 urally seeks a rest in the middle of the line, and this rest, 
 or c^sural pause, should be carefully regarded ; a little 
 practice will enable one to acquire that habit of reading the 
 hexameter, which we may liken, roughly, to the climbing of 
 a hill, resting a moment on the summit, and then descend- 
 ing the other side. The charm in reading Evangeline 
 aloud, after a clear understanding of the sense, which is the 
 essential in aU good reading, is found in this gentle labor of 
 the former half of the line, and gentle acceleration of the 
 latter half.] 
 
 This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines 
 
 and the hemlocks, 
 Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct 
 
 in the twilight. 
 Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and pra^ 
 phetic, 
 
 1. A primeval forest is, strictly speaking, one which has never 
 i'oeen disturbed by the axe. 
 
 3. Druids were priests of the Celtic inhabitants of ancient 
 Gaul and Britain. The name was probably of Celtic origin, but 
 its form may have been determined by the Greek word drus, an 
 oak, since their places of worship were consecrated groves of 
 oak. Perhaps the choice of the image was governed by the 
 analogy of a religion and tribe that were to disappear before a 
 stronger power. 
 
10 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their 
 bosoms. 
 
 Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neigh- 
 boring ocean 5 
 
 Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail 
 of the forest. 
 
 This is the forest primevaF; ^but where are the 
 hearts that beneath it 
 
 Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland 
 the voice of the huntsman ? 
 
 Where is the thatch-roofed village, the home of Aca- 
 dian farmers, — 
 
 Men whose lives glided on like rivers that water the 
 woodlands, 10 
 
 Darkened by shadows of earth, but reflecting an image 
 of heaven ? 
 
 Waste are those pleasant farms, and the farmers for- 
 ever departed ! 
 
 Scattered like dust and leaves, when the mighty blasts 
 of October 
 
 Seize them, and whirl them aloft, and sprinkle them 
 far o'er the ocean. 
 
 Naught but tradition remains of the beautiful village 
 of Grand-Pre. is 
 
 I 
 
 Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endureSj 
 and is patient, 
 
 4. A poetical description of an ancient harper will be found 
 in the Introduction to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, by Sir Walter 
 Scott. 
 
 8. Observe how the tragedy of the story is anticipated by this 
 picture of the startled roe. 
 
EVANGELINE. 11 
 
 Te who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's 
 
 devotion, 
 List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines 
 
 of the forest ; 
 List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy. 
 
 PART thp: first. 
 
 I. 
 In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of 
 
 Minas, ''] 
 
 Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre 
 Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched 
 
 to the eastward. 
 Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks 
 
 without number. 
 Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with 
 
 labor incessant, 
 
 19. In the earliest records Acadie is called Cadie ; it after- 
 wards was called Arcadia, Accadia, or L'Acadie. The name is 
 probably a French adaptation of a word common among the 
 Micmac Indians living there, signifying place or region, and used 
 as an affix to other words as indicating the place where various 
 things, as cranberries, eels, seals, were found in abundance. The 
 French turned this Indian term into Cadie or Acadie ; the Eng= 
 lish into Quoddy, in which form it remains when applied to the 
 Quoddy Indians, to Quoddy Head, the last point of the United 
 States next to Acadia, and in the compound Passamaquoddy, or 
 Pollock-Ground. 
 
 21. Compare, for effect, the first line of Goldsmith's The 
 Traveller. Grand- T^rd will be found on the map as part of the 
 township of Horton. 
 
 24. The people of Acadia are mainly the descendants of the 
 colonists who were brought out to La Have and Port Royal by 
 Isaac de Razilly and Charnisay between the years 1633 and 1638. 
 
12 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, 
 
 Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the 
 flood-gates 2.\ 
 
 Opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er 
 the meadows. 
 
 West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards 
 and cornfields 
 
 Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the j)lain ; and away 
 to the northward 
 
 Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the 
 mountains 
 
 Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty- 
 Atlantic 30 
 
 Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their sta- 
 tion descended. 
 
 There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the Acadian 
 village. 
 
 Strongly built were the houses, with frames of oak and 
 of hemlock. 
 
 Such as the peasants of Normandy built in the reign 
 of the Henries. 
 
 These colonists came from Rochelle, Saintouge, and Poitou, so 
 that they were drawn from a very limited area on the west coast 
 of France, covered by the modern departments of Vendue and 
 Charente Infdrieure. This circumstance had some influence on 
 their mode of settling the lands of Acadia, for they came from a 
 country of marshes, where the sea was kept out by artificial 
 dikes, and they found in Acadia similar marshes, which they dealt 
 with in the same way that they had been accustomed to practise 
 in France. Hannay's History of Acadia, pp. 282, 283. An excel- 
 lent account of dikes and the flooding of lowlands, as practised 
 in Holland, may be found in A Farmer's Vacation, by George E. 
 Waring, Jr. 
 
 29. Blomidon is a mountainous headland of red sandstone, sur- 
 mounted by a perpendicular wall of basaltic trap, the whole about 
 four hundred feet in height, at the entrance of the Basin of 
 Miuas. 
 
EVANGELINE. 1^ 
 
 Thatched were the roofs, with dormer-windows ; and 
 
 gables projecting ^ 
 
 Over the basement below protected and shaded the 
 
 doorway. 
 There in the tranquil evenings of summer, when 
 
 brightly the sunset 
 Lighted the village street, and gilded the vanes on the 
 
 chimneys, . 
 
 Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in 
 
 kirtles 
 Scarlet and blue and green, with distaffs spinning the 
 
 golden 
 Flax for the gossiping looms, whose noisy shuttles 
 
 within doors 
 Mingled their sound with the whir of the wheels and 
 
 the songs of the maidens. 
 Solemnly down the street came the parish priest, and 
 
 the children 
 Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to 
 
 bless them. 
 Reverend walked he among them ; and up rose ma- 
 trons and maidens, , 
 Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate 
 
 welcome. 
 Then came the laborers home from tne field, and se- 
 renely the sun sank 
 36 The characteristics of a Normandy village may be further 
 learned by reference to a pleasant little sketch-book, pubhshed 
 a few years since, called Normandy Picturesque, by Henry B ack- 
 burn, and to Through Normandy, by Katharine S Macqnoid. 
 
 39. The term kirtle was sometimes applied to the jacket only 
 sometimes to the train or upper petticoat attached to it. A tull 
 kirtle was always both; a half kirtle was a term apphed to 
 either. A man's jacket was sometimes called a kirtle ; here the 
 reference is apparently to the full kirtle worn by women. 
 
14 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from 
 
 the belfry 
 Softly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the 
 
 village 
 Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense 
 
 ascending, so 
 
 Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace and 
 
 contentment. 
 Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian 
 
 farmers, — 
 Dwelt in the love of God and of man. Alike were 
 
 they free from 
 Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice 
 
 of republics. 
 Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their 
 
 windows ; 55 
 
 But their dwellings were open as day and the hearts 
 
 of the owners ; 
 There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in 
 
 abundance. 
 
 Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the 
 
 Basin of Minas, 
 Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of 
 
 Grand-Pre, 
 Dwelt on his goodly acres ; and with him, directing 
 
 his household, eo 
 
 Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of 
 
 the village. 
 
 49. Angelus Domini is the full name given to the bell which, at 
 morning, noon, and night, called the people to prayer, in com- 
 memoration of the visit of the angel of the Lord to the Virgin 
 Mary. It was introduced into France in its modern form in the 
 alxteenth century. 
 
EVANGELINE. 15 
 
 Stalworth and stately in form was the man of seventy 
 
 winters ; 
 Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered with 
 
 snow-flakes ; 
 White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as 
 
 brown as the oak-leaves. 
 Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen sum- 
 mers ; 65 
 Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the 
 
 thorn by the wayside. 
 Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown 
 
 shade of her tresses ! 
 Sweet was her breath as the breath of kine that feed 
 
 in the meadows. 
 When in the harvest heat she bore to the reapers at 
 
 noontide 
 Flagons of home-brewed ale, ah ! fair in sooth was the 
 
 maiden. "o 
 
 Fairer was she when, on Sunday morn, while the bell 
 
 from its turret 
 Sprinkled with holy sounds the air, as the priest with 
 
 his hyssop 
 Sprinkles the congregation, and scatters blessings upon 
 
 them, 
 Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of 
 
 beads and her missal. 
 Wearing her Norman cap and her kirtle of blue, and 
 
 the ear-rings 75 
 
 Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as 
 
 an heirloom, 
 Handed down from mother to child, through long gen- 
 erations. 
 But a celestial brightness — a more ethereal beauty — 
 Shone on her face and encircled her form, when, after 
 
 confession, 
 
16 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Hopaeward serenely she walked with God's benedic- 
 tion upon her. so 
 (^When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of 
 exquisite music^ 
 
 Firmly builded with rafters of oak, the house of 
 
 the farmer 
 Stood on the side of a hill commanding the sea ; and 
 
 a shady 
 Sycamore grew by the door, with a woodbine wreath- 
 ing around it. 
 Rudely carved was the porch, with seats beneath ; and 
 
 a footpath ss 
 
 Led through an orchard wide, and disappeared in the 
 
 meadow. 
 Under the sycamore-tree were hives overhung by a 
 
 penthouse, 
 Such as the traveller sees in regions remote by the 
 
 roadside. 
 Built o'er a box for the poor, or the blessed image of 
 
 Mary. 
 Farther down, on the slope of the hill, was the well 
 
 with its moss-grown 9fl 
 
 Bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough for 
 
 the horses. 
 Shielding the house from storms, on the north, were 
 
 the barns and the farm-yard ; 
 There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique 
 
 ploughs and the harrows ; 
 There were the folds for the sheep ; and there, in his 
 
 feathered serasflio, D s^ f} ^ J 
 
 'SZ. The accent ki on the first syllasl^le of antique, where it re* C 
 
 mains in the form antic, which once Tiad the same general mean- 
 ing. 
 
EVANGELINE. 17 
 
 Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock, with 
 the selfsame 95 
 
 Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent 
 Peter. 
 
 Bursting with hay were the barns, themselves a vil- 
 lage . In each one 
 
 Far o'er the gable projected a roof of thatch ; and a 
 staircase, 
 
 Under the sheltering eaves, led up to the odorous corn= 
 loft. 
 
 There too the dove-cot stood, with its meek and inno- 
 cent inmates 100 
 
 Murmuring ever of love ; while above in the variant 
 breezes 
 
 Numberless noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of, 
 mutat 
 
 Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer 
 
 of Grand-Pre 
 Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed 
 
 his household. 
 Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened 
 
 his missal, 105 
 
 Fixed his eyes upon her as the saint of his deepest 
 
 devotion ; 
 
 99. Odorous. The accent here, as well as in line 403, is npon 
 che first syllable, where it is commonly placed ; but Milton, who 
 of all poets had the most refined ear, writes 
 " So from the root 
 Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves 
 More airy, last the bright consummate flower 
 Spirits odorous breathes." 
 
 Par Lost, Book V., lines 479-482. 
 
 But he also uses the more familiar accent in other passages, 
 as, " An amber scent of 6dorous perfume," in Samson AgonisteSf 
 Une 720. 
 
18 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem 
 of her garment ! 
 
 Many a suitor came to her door, by the darkness be- 
 friended, 
 
 And, as he knocked and waited to hear the sound of 
 her footsteps, 
 
 Knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the 
 knocker of iron ; uo 
 
 Or, at the joyous feast of the Patron Saint of the vil- 
 lage, 
 
 Bolder grew, and pressed her hand in the dance as he* 
 whispered 
 
 Hurried words of love, that seemed a part of the 
 music. 
 
 But among all who came young Gabriel only was 
 welcome ; 
 
 Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the black- 
 smith, na 
 
 Who was a mighty man in the village, and honored 
 of all men ; 
 
 For since the birth of time, throughout all ages and 
 nations. 
 
 Has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the 
 people. 
 
 Basil was Benedict's friend. Their children from 
 earliest childhood 
 
 Grew up together as brother and sister ; and Father 
 Felician, 120 
 
 Priest and pedagogue both in the village, had taught 
 them their letters 
 
 Out of the selfsame book, with the hymns of the 
 church and the plain-song. 
 122. The plain-song is a monotonic recitative of the collects. 
 
EVANGELINE. 19 
 
 But when the hymn was sung, and the daily lesson 
 
 completed, 
 Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the 
 
 blacksmith. 
 There at the door they stood, with wondering ej^es to 
 
 behold him 125 
 
 Take in his leathern lap the hoof of the horse as a 
 
 plaything. 
 Nailing the shoe in its place ; while near him the tire 
 
 of the cart-wheel 
 Lay like a fiery snake, coiled round in a circle of 
 
 cinders. 
 Oft on autumnal eves, when without in the gathering 
 
 darkness 
 Bursting with light seemed the smithy, tlu'ough every 
 
 cranny and crevice, 130 
 
 Warm by the forge within they watched the laboring 
 
 bellows. 
 And as its panting ceased, and the sparks expired in 
 
 the ashes. 
 Merrily laughed, and said they were nuns going into 
 
 the chapel. 
 Oft on sledges in winter, as swift as the swoop of the 
 
 eagle, 
 Down the hillside bounding, they glided away o'er the 
 
 meadow. 135 
 
 Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests 
 
 on the rafters. 
 Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which 
 
 the swallow 
 Brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight 
 
 of its fledglings ; 
 
 133. The French have another saying similar to this, that they 
 were guests going in to the wedding. 
 
20 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the 
 
 swallow ! 
 Tims passed a few swift years, and they no longer 
 . were children. i4g 
 
 He was a valiant youth, and his face, like the face of 
 
 the morning. 
 Gladdened the earth with its light, and ripened 
 
 thought into action. 
 She was a woman now, with the heart and hopes of a 
 
 woman. 
 " Sunshine of Saint Eulalie " was she called ; for that 
 
 was the sunshine 
 Which, as the farmers believed, would load their 
 
 orchards with apples ; 145 
 
 She too would bring to her husband's house delight 
 
 and abundance. 
 Filling it full of love and the ruddy faces of children. 
 
 II. 
 
 Now had the season returned, when the nights grow 
 colder and longer. 
 And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion en- 
 ters. 
 
 139. In Pluquet's Cofites Populaires we are told that if one of 
 a swallow's young is blind the mother bird seeks on the shore of 
 the ocean a little stone, with which she restores its sight ; and 
 he adds, " He who is fortunate enough to find that stone in j? 
 swallow's nest holds a wonderful remedy." Pluquet's book 
 treats of Norman superstitions and popular traits. 
 
 144. Pluquet also gives this proverbial saying : — 
 
 " Si le soleil rit le jour Sainte-Eulalie, 
 II y aura pommes et cidre a folie." 
 
 (If the sun smiles on Saint Eulalie's day, there will be plenty 
 of apples, and cider enough.) 
 
 Saint Eulalie's day is the 12th of Febmsyry, 
 
EVANGELINE. 21 
 
 Birds of passage sailed through the leaden air, from 
 the ice-bound, iso 
 
 Desolate northern bays to the shores of tropical is- 
 lands. 
 
 Harvests were gathered in ; and wild with the winds 
 of September 
 
 Wrestled the trees of the forest, as Jacob of old with 
 the angel. 
 
 All the signs foretold a winter long and inclement. 
 
 Bees, with prophetic instinct of want, had hoarded 
 their honey 155 
 
 Till the hives overflowed ; and the Indian hunters as- 
 serted 
 
 Cold would the winter be, for thick was the fur of the 
 foxes. 
 
 Such was the advent of autumn. Then followed that 
 beautiful season, 
 
 Called by the pious Acadian peasants the Summer of 
 All-Saints ! 
 
 Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light ; 
 and the landscape leo 
 
 Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of child- 
 hood. 
 
 Peace seemed to reign upon earth, and the restless 
 heart of the ocean 
 
 Was for a moment consoled. All sounds were in 
 harmony blended. 
 
 Voices of children at play, the crowing of cocks in the 
 farm-yards, 
 
 159. The Summer of All-Saints is our Indian Summer, All- 
 Saints Day being JSTovember 1st. The French also give this sea- 
 son the name of Saint Martin's Summer, Saint Martin's Day 
 being November 11th. 
 
22 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Whir of wings in the drowsy air, and the cooing of 
 
 pigeons, i65 
 
 All were subdued and low as the murmurs of love, 
 
 and the great sun 
 Looked with the eye of love through the golden va= 
 
 pors around him ; 
 While arrayed in its robes of russet and scarlet and 
 
 yellow. 
 Bright with the sheen of the dew, each glittering tree 
 
 of the forest 
 Flashed like the plane-tree the Persian adorned with 
 
 mantles and jewels. no 
 
 Now recommenced the region of rest and affection 
 and stillness. 
 
 Day with its burden and heat had departed, and twi- 
 light descending 
 
 Brought back the evening star to the sky, and the 
 herds to the homestead. 
 
 Pawing the ground they came, and resting their necks 
 on each other. 
 
 And with their nostrils distended inhaling the fresh- 
 ness of evening. 175 
 
 Foremost, bearing the bell, Evangeline's beautiful 
 heifer, 
 
 Proud of her snow-white hide, and the ribbon that 
 waved from her collar. 
 
 Quietly paced and slow, as if conscious of human 
 affection. 
 
 170. Herodotus, in his account of Xerxes' expedition against 
 Greece, tells of a beautiful plane-tree which Xerxes found, and 
 was so enamored with that he dressed it as one might a woman, 
 and placed it under the care of a guardsman (vii. 31). Anothei 
 writer, ^lian, improving on this, says he adorned it with a neck«« 
 lace and bracelets. 
 
EVANGELINE. 23 
 
 Then came the shepherd back with his bleating flocks 
 from the seaside, 
 
 Where was their favorite pasture. Behind them fol- 
 lowed the watch-dog, iso 
 
 Patient, full of importance, and grand in the pride of 
 his instinct, 
 
 Walking from side to side with a lordly air, and 
 
 superbly- 
 Waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the strag- 
 glers ; 
 
 Regent of flocks was he when the shepherd slept; 
 their protector. 
 
 When from the forest at night, through the starry 
 silence, the wolves howled. i85 
 
 Late, with the rising moon, returned the wains from 
 the marshes, 
 
 Laden with briny hay, that filled the air with its odor. 
 
 Cheerily neighed the steeds, with dew on their manes 
 and their fetlocks. 
 
 While aloft on their shoulders the wooden and pon- 
 derous saddles. 
 
 Painted with brilliant dyes, and adorned with tassels 
 of crimson, 190 
 
 Nodded in bright array, like hollyhocks heavy with 
 blossoms. 
 
 Patiently stood the cows meanwhile, and yielded their 
 udders 
 
 Unto the milkmaid's hand ; whilst loud and in regular 
 cadence 
 
 193. There is a charming milkmaid's song in Tennyson's drama 
 of Queen Mary, Act III., Scene 5, where the streaming of the 
 milk into the sounding pails is caught in the tinkling ^'6* of such 
 lines as 
 
 " And you came and kissed me, milking the cow." 
 
24 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Into the sounding pails the foaming streamlets de^ 
 
 scended. 
 Lowing of cattle and peals of laughter were heard in 
 
 the farm-yard, 195 
 
 Echoed back by the barns. AnoH they sank into 
 
 stillness ; 
 Heavily closed, with a jarring sound, the valves of the 
 
 barn-doors, 
 Rattled the wooden bars, and all for a season was silent. 
 
 In-doors, warm by the wide-mouthed fireplace, idly 
 the farmer 
 
 Sat in his elbow-chair, and watched how the flames 
 and the smoke-wreaths 200 
 
 Struggled together like foes in a burning city. Be- 
 hind him. 
 
 Nodding and mocking along the wall with gestures 
 fantastic, 
 
 Darted his own huge shadow, and vanished away into 
 darkness. 
 
 Faces, clumsily carved in oak, on the back of his arm- 
 chair 
 
 Laughed in the flickering light, and the pewter plates 
 on the dresser 205 
 
 Caught and reflected the flame, as shields of armies 
 the sunshine. 
 
 Fragments of song the old man sang, and carols of 
 Christmas, 
 
 Such as at home, in the olden time, his fathers before 
 him 
 
 Sang in their Norman orchards and bright Burgundian 
 vineyards. 
 
 Close at her father's side was the gentle Evangeline 
 seated, 2i« 
 
EVANGELINE. 25 
 
 Spinning flax for the loom that stood in the corner 
 
 behind her. 
 Silent awhile were its treadles, at rest was its diligent 
 
 shuttle, 
 While the monotonous drone of the wheel, like the 
 
 drone of a bagpipe, 
 Followed the old man's song, and united the fragments 
 
 together. 
 As in a church, when the chant of the choir at inter- 
 vals ceases, 215 
 Footfalls are heard in the aisles, or words of the priest 
 
 at the altar. 
 So, in each pause of the song, with measured motion 
 
 the clock clicked. 
 
 Thus as they sat, there were footsteps heard, and, 
 
 suddenly lifted. 
 Sounded the wooden latch, and the door swung back 
 
 on its hinges. 
 Benedict knew by the hob-nailed shoes it was Basil 
 
 the blacksmith, 220 
 
 And by her beating heart Evangeline knew who was 
 
 with him. 
 " Welcome ! " the farmer exclaimed, as their footsteps 
 
 paused on the threshold, 
 " Welcome, Basil, my friend ! Come, take thy place 
 
 on the settle 
 Close by the chimney-side, which is always empty 
 
 without thee ; 
 Take from the shelf overhead thy pipe and the box of 
 
 tobacco ; 225 
 
 Never so much thyself art thou as when, through the 
 
 curling 
 Smoke of the pipe or the forge, thy friendly and jovial 
 
 face gleams 
 
26 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Round and red as the harvest moon through the mist 
 
 of the marshes." 
 Then, with a smile of content, thus answered Basil the 
 
 blacksmith, 
 Taking with easy air the accustomed seat by the fire= 
 
 side : — 23e 
 
 " Benedict Belief ontaine, thou hast ever thy jest and 
 
 thy ballad ! 
 Ever in cheerfuUest mood art thou, when others are 
 
 filled with 
 Gloomy forebodings of ill, and see only ruin before 
 
 them. 
 Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up 
 
 a horseshoe." F 
 Pausing a moment, to take the pipe that Evangeline 
 
 brought him, 235 
 
 And with a coal from the embers had lighted, he 
 
 slowly continued : — 
 " Four days now are passed since the English ships 
 
 at their anchors 
 Ride in the Gaspereau's mouth, with their cannon 
 
 pointed against us. 
 What their design may be is unknown ; but all are 
 
 commanded 
 On the morrow to meet in the church, where his 
 
 Majesty's mandate 240 
 
 Will be proclaimed as law in the land. Alas ! in the 
 
 mean time 
 Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the peo- 
 ple." 
 Then made answer the farmer : — " Perhaps some 
 
 friendlier purpose 
 
 239. The text of Colonel Winslow's proclamation will be found 
 in HalibiirtoUf i. ^75. 
 
EVANGELINE, 27 
 
 Brings these ships to our shores, l^erhaps the har- 
 vests in England 
 
 By untimely rains or untimelier heat have been 
 blighted, 245 
 
 And from our bursting barns they would feed their 
 cattle and children." 
 
 " Not so thinketh the folk in the village," said warmly 
 the blacksmith. 
 
 Shaking his head as in doubt ; then, heaving a sigh, 
 he continued : — 
 
 " Louisburg is not forgotten, nor Beau Sejour, nor 
 Port Royal. 
 
 Many already have fled to the forest, and lurk on its 
 outskirts, 250 
 
 Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons 
 of all kinds ; 
 
 Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the 
 scythe of the mower." 
 
 Then with a pleasant smile made answer the jovial 
 farmer : — 
 
 249. Louisburg, on Cape Breton, was built by the French as a 
 military and naval station early in the eighteenth century, but 
 was taken by an expedition from Massachusetts under General 
 Pepperell in 1745. It was restored by England to France in the 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and recaptured by the English in 
 1757. Beau Sejour was a French fort upon the neck of land 
 connecting Acadia with the mainland which had just been cap- 
 tured by Winslow's forces. Port Royal, afterwards called Anna- 
 polis Royal, at the outlet of Annapolis River into the Bay of 
 Fundy, had been disputed ground, being occupied alternately by 
 French and English, but in 1710 was attacked by an expedition 
 from New England, and after that held by the English govern- 
 ment and made a fortified place. 
 
28 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 " Safer are we unarmed, in the midst of our flocks 
 
 and our cornfields, 255 
 
 Safer within these peaceful dikes besieged by the ocean, 
 Than our fathers in forts, besieged by the enemy's 
 
 cannon. 
 Fear no evil, my friend, and to-night may no shadow 
 
 of sorrow 
 Fall on this house and hearth ; for this is the night 
 
 of the contract. 
 Built are the house and the barn. The merry lads of 
 
 the village 26O 
 
 Strongly have built them and well ; and, breaking the 
 
 glebe round about them. 
 Filled the barn with hay, and the house with food for 
 
 a twelvemonth. 
 Rene Leblanc will be here anon, with his papers and 
 
 inkhorn. 
 Shall we not then be glad, and rejoice in the joy of 
 
 our children ? " 
 As apart by the window she stood, with her hand in 
 
 her lover's, 26.'^ 
 
 Blushing Evangeline heard the words that her father 
 
 had spoken, 
 And, as they died on his lips, the worthy notary en- 
 tered. 
 
 III. 
 
 ( Bent like a laboring oar, that toils in the surf of 
 the ocean, 
 
 267. A notary is an officer authorized to attest contracts or 
 writings of any kind. His authority varies in different coun- 
 tries ; in France he is the necessary maker of all contracts where 
 the subject-matter exceeds 150 francs, and his instruments, 
 which are preserved and registered by himself, are the origi- 
 nals, the parties preserving only copies. 
 
EVANGELINE. 29 
 
 Bent, but not broken, by age was the form of the no^ 
 tary public ; 
 
 Shocks of yellow hair, like the silken floss of the 
 maize, hung 270 
 
 Over his shoulders ; his forehead was high ; and 
 glasses with horn bows 
 
 Sat astride on his nose, with a look of wisdom supernaL 
 
 Father of twenty children was he, and more than a 
 hundred 
 
 Children's children rode on his knee, and heard his 
 great watch tick. 
 
 Four long years in the times of the war had he lan- 
 guished a captive, 275 
 
 Suffering much in an old French fort as the friend of 
 the English. 
 
 Now, though warier grown, without all guile or sus- 
 picion. 
 
 Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple, and 
 childlike. 
 
 He was beloved by all, and most of all by the chil- 
 dren ; 
 
 For he told them tales of the Loup-garou in the for- 
 est, 280 
 
 275. King George's War, which broke out in 1744 in Cape 
 Breton, in an attack by the French upon an English garrison, 
 and closed with the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 ; or, the 
 reference may possibly be to Queen Anne's war, 1702-1713; 
 when the French aided the Indians in their warfare with the col- 
 onists. 
 
 280. The Loup-garou, or were-wolf, is, according to an old su- 
 perstition especially prevalent in France, a man with power to 
 turn himself into a wolf, which he does that he may devour chiL 
 dren. In later times the superstition passed into the more iuna 
 cent one of men having a power to charm wolves. 
 
30 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 And of the goblin that came in the night to water the 
 
 horses, 
 And of the white Letiche, the ghost of a chikl who 
 
 unchristened 
 Died, and was doomed to haunt unseen the chambers 
 
 of children ; 
 And how on Christmas eve the oxen talked in the 
 
 stable, 
 And how the fever was cured by a spider shut up in 
 
 a nutshell, 285 
 
 And of the marvellous powers of four-leaved clover 
 
 and horseshoes. 
 With whatsoever else was writ in the lore of the village. 
 Then up rose from his seat by the fireside Basil the 
 
 blacksmith, 
 Knocked from his pipe the ashes, and slowly extend- 
 ing his right hand, 
 " Father Leblanc," he exclaimed, " thou hast heard 
 
 the talk in the village, 290 
 
 And, perchance, canst tell us some news of these ships 
 
 and their errand." 
 Then with modest demeanor made answer the notary 
 
 public, — 
 /" Gossip enough have I heard, in sooth, yet am never 
 \^ the wiser ; 
 
 282. Pluquet relates this superstition, and conjectures that the 
 white, fleet ermine gave rise to it. 
 
 284. A belief still lingers among the peasantry of England, as 
 well as on the Continent, that at midnight, on Christmas eve, the 
 cattle in the stalls fall down on their knees in adoration of the 
 infant Saviour, as the old legend says was done in the stable at 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 285. In like manner a popular superstition prevailed in Eng- 
 land that ague could be cured by sealing a spider in a goose- 
 quill and hanging it about the neck. 
 
EVANGELINE. 31 
 
 And what their errand may be I know no better than 
 
 others. 
 Yet am I not of those who imagine some evil inten- 
 tion 295 
 Brings them here, for we are at peace ; and why then 
 
 molest us ? " 
 "God's name ! " shouted the hasty and somewhat iras- 
 ^- cible blacksmith ; 
 
 '^ *' Must we in all things look for the how, and the why, 
 
 and the wherefore ? 
 Daily injustice is done, and might is the right of the 
 
 strongest ! 'J 
 But, without heeding his warmth, continued the notary 
 
 public, — 300 
 
 V^^an is unjust, but God is just) and finally justice 
 Triumphs ; and well I remem^r a story, that often 
 
 consoled me. 
 When as a captive I lay in the old French fort at 
 
 Port Royal." 
 This was the old man's favorite tale, and he loved to 
 
 repeat it 
 When his neighbors complained that any injustice was 
 
 done them. 305 
 
 " Once in an ancient city, whose name I no longer re- 
 member. 
 Raised aloft on a column, a brazen statue of Justice 
 Stood in the public square, upholding the scales in its 
 
 left hand. 
 And in its right a sword, as an emblem that justice 
 
 presided 
 Over the laws of the land, and the hearts and homes 
 
 of the people. sio 
 
 302. This is an old Florentine story ; in an altered form it is 
 the theme of Kossiui's opera of La Gazza Ladra. 
 
32 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Even the birds had built their nests in the scales of 
 the balance, 
 
 Having no fear of the sword that flashed in the sun- 
 shine above them. 
 
 But in the course of time the laws of the land were 
 corrupted ; 
 
 Might took the place of right, and the weak were 
 oppressed, and the mighty 
 
 Ruled with an iron rod. Then it chanced in a noble- 
 man's palace 315 
 
 That a necklace of pearls was lost, and ere long a sus- 
 picion 
 
 Fell on an orphan girl who lived as maid in the house- 
 hold. 
 
 She, after form of trial condemned to die on the scaf- 
 fold, 
 
 Patiently met her doom at the foot of the statue of 
 Justice. 
 
 As to her Father in heaven her innocent spirit as- 
 cended, 320 
 
 Lo ! o'er the city a tempest rose ; and the bolts of the 
 thunder 
 
 Smote the statue of bronze, and hurled in wrath from 
 its left hand 
 
 Down on the pavement below the clattering scales of 
 the balance, 
 • And in the hollow thereof was found the nest of a 
 magpie, 
 
 Into whose clay-built walls the necklace of pearls was 
 inwoven." 325 
 
 Silenced, but not convinced, when the story was ended^ 
 the blacksmith 
 
 Stood like a man who fain would speak, but findetb 
 no language ; 
 
EVANGELINE, 33 
 
 All his thoughts were congealed into lines on his face, 
 
 as the vapors 
 Freeze in fantastic shapes on the window-panes in the 
 
 winter. 
 
 Then Evangeline lighted the brazen lamp on the 
 table, 33G 
 
 Filled, till it overflowed, the pewter tankard with 
 home-brewed 
 
 Nut-brown ale, that was famed for its strength in the 
 village of Grand-Pre ; 
 
 While from his pocket the notary drew his papers and 
 inkhorn. 
 
 Wrote with a steady hand the date and the age of the 
 parties. 
 
 Naming the dower of the bride in flocks of sheep and 
 in cattle. 33s 
 
 Orderly all things proceeded, and duly and well were 
 completed, 
 
 And the great seal of the law was set like a sun on 
 the margin. 
 
 Then from his leathern pouch the farmer threw on the 
 table 
 
 Three times the old man's fee in solid pieces of sil- 
 ver; 
 
 And the notary rising, and blessing the bride and 
 bridegroom, 340 
 
 Lifted aloft the tankard of ale and drank to their 
 welfare. 
 
 Wiping the foam from his lip, he solemnly bowed and 
 departed. 
 
 While in silence the others sat and mused by the fire- 
 side. 
 
34 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Till Evangeline brought the draught-board out of its 
 corner. 
 
 Soon was the game begun. In friendly contention 
 the old men 345 
 
 Laughed at each lucky hit, or unsuccessful manoeuvre, 
 
 Laughed when a man was crowned, or a breach was 
 made in the king-row. 
 
 Meanwhile apart, in the twilight gloom of a window's 
 embrasure. 
 
 Sat the lovers and whispered together, beholding the 
 moon rise 
 
 Over the pallid sea and the silvery mist of the mead- 
 ows. 350 
 
 Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven. 
 
 Blossomed the lovel3( stars, the forget-me-nots of the 
 
 Thus was the evening passed. Anon the bell from 
 
 the belfry 
 Rang out the hour of nine, the village curfew, and 
 
 straightway 
 Rose the guests and departed ; and silence reigned in 
 
 the household. 355 
 
 344. The word draughts is derived from the circumstance of 
 drawing the men from one square to another. 
 
 354. Curfew is a corruption of couvre-feu, or cover fire. In 
 the Middle Ages, when police patrol at night was almost un- 
 known, it was attempted to lessen the chances of crime by mak- 
 ing it an ofPence against the laws to be found in the streets in 
 the night, and the curfew bell was tolled, at various hours, ac- 
 cording to the custom of the place, from seven to nine o'clock in 
 the evening. It warned honest people to lock their doors, cover 
 their fires, and go to bed. The custom still lingers in many 
 places, even in America, of ringing a bell at nine o'clock in the 
 evening. 
 
EVANGELINE. 35 
 
 Many a farewell word and sweet good-night on the 
 door-step 
 
 Lmgered long in Evangeline's heart, and filled it with 
 gladness. 
 
 Carefully then were covered the embers that glowed 
 on the hearth-stone, 
 
 And on the oaken stairs resounded the tread of the 
 farmer. 
 
 Soon with a soundless step the foot of Evangeline fol- 
 lowed. ^^^ 
 
 Up the staircase moved a luminous space in the dark- 
 ness. 
 
 Lighted less by the lamp than the shining face of the 
 maiden. 
 
 Silent she passed through the hall, and entered the 
 door of her chamber. 
 
 Simple that chamber was, with its curtains of white, 
 and its clothes-press 
 
 Ample and high, on whose spacious shelves were care- 
 fully folded 365 
 
 Linen and woollen stuffs, by the hand of Evangeline 
 woven. 
 
 This was the precious dower she would bring to her 
 husband in marriage. 
 
 Better than flocks and herds, being proofs of her skill 
 as a housewife. 
 
 Soon she extinguished her lamp, for the mellow and 
 radiant moonlight 
 
 Streamed through the windows, and lighted the room, 
 
 till the heart of the maiden 370 
 
 Swelled and obeyed its power, like the tremulous tides 
 
 of the ocean. 
 Ah! she was fail', exceeding fair to behold, as she 
 stood with 
 
36 HENRY WADISWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 t 
 Naked snow-white feet on the gleaming floor of her 
 
 chamber ! 
 Little she dreamed that below, among the trees of the 
 
 orchard, 
 Waited her lover and watched for the gleam of her 
 
 lamp and her shadow. 375 
 
 Yet were her thoughts of him, and at times a feeling 
 
 of sadness 
 Passed o'er her soul, as the sailing shade of clouds in 
 
 the moonlight 
 Flitted across the floor and darkened the room for a 
 
 moment. 
 And, as she gazed from the window, she saw serenely 
 
 the moon pass 
 Forth from the folds of a cloud, and one star follow 
 
 her footsteps, ' ssd 
 
 As out of Abraham's tent young Ishmael wandered 
 
 with Hagar. 
 
 /'■■ ■■" 
 
 Pleasantly rose next morn the sun on the village 
 
 of Grand-Pre. 
 Pleasantly gleamed in the soft, sweet air the Basin of 
 
 Minas, 
 Where the ships, with their wavering shadows, were 
 
 riding at anchor. 
 Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous 
 
 labor 385 
 
 Knocked with its hundred hands at the golden gates 
 
 of the morning. 
 Now from the country around, from the farms and 
 
 neighboring hamlets, 
 Came in their holiday dresses the blithe Acadian 
 
 peasants. 
 
EVANGELINE. 37 
 
 Many a glad good-morrow and jocund laugh from the 
 young folk 
 
 Made the bright air brighter, as up from the numer- 
 ous meadows, 390 
 
 Where no path could be seen but the track of wheels 
 in the greensward. 
 
 Group after group appeared, and joined, or passed on 
 the highway. 
 
 Long ere noon, in the village all sounds of labor were 
 silenced. 
 
 Thronged were the streets with people; and noisy 
 groups at the house-doors 
 
 Sat in the cheerful sun, and rejoiced and gossiped to- 
 gether. 395 
 
 Every house was an inn, where all were welcomed and 
 feasted ; 
 
 For with this simple people, who lived like brothers 
 together. 
 
 All things were held in common, and what one had 
 was another's. 
 
 Yet under Benedict's roof hospitality seemed more 
 
 abundant : 
 
 396. "Real misery was wholly unknown, and benevolence 
 anticipated the demands of poverty. Every misfortune was re- 
 lieved as it were before it could be felt, without ostentation on 
 the one hand, and without meanness on the other. It was, in 
 short, a society of brethren, every individual of which was 
 equally ready to give and to receive what he thought the com- 
 mon right of mankind." — From the Abb^ Raynal's account of 
 the Acadians. The Abbd Guillaume Thomas Francis Raynal 
 was a French writer (1711-1796), who published A Philosophi- 
 cal History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the 
 East and West Indies, in which he included also some account of 
 Canada and Nova Scotia. His picture of life among the Aca- 
 dians, somewhat highly colored, is the source from which after 
 writers have drawn their knowledge of Acadian manners. 
 
38 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 For Evangeline stood among the guests of her 
 father ; 400 
 
 Bright was her face with smiles, and words of wel- 
 come and gladness 
 
 Fell from her beautiful lips, and blessed the cup as 
 she gave it. 
 
 Under the open sky, in the odorous air of the 
 orchard, 
 
 Stript of its golden fruit, was spread the feast of be- 
 trothal. 
 
 There in the shade of the porch were the priest and 
 the notary seated ; 405 
 
 There good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the black- 
 smith. 
 
 Not far withdrawn from these, by the cider-press and 
 the beehives, 
 
 Michael the fiddler was placed, with the gayest of 
 hearts and of waistcoats. 
 
 Shadow and light from the leaves alternately played 
 on his snow-white 
 
 Hair, as it waved in the wind ; and the jolly face of 
 the fiddler 410 
 
 Glowed like a living coal when the ashes are blown 
 from the embers. 
 
 Gayly the old man sang to the vibrant sound of his 
 fiddle, 
 
 Tous les Bourgeois de Chartres^ and Le Carillon de 
 Dunkerque^ 
 
 413. Tous les Bourgeois de Chartres was a song written by 
 Ducauroi, maltre de chapelle of Henri IV., the words of which 
 are : — 
 
 Vous connaissez Cybele, You remember Cybele, 
 
 Qui sut fixer le Temps ; Wise the seasons to unfold ; 
 
 On la disait fort belle, Very fair, said men, was she, 
 
 Mgme dans ses vieux ans. Even when her years grew old. 
 
EVANGELINE. 39 
 
 And anon with bis wooden shoes beat time to the 
 
 music. 
 Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying 
 
 dances 415 
 
 Under the orchard-trees and down the path to the 
 
 meadows ; 
 Old folk and young together, and children mingled 
 
 among them. 
 Fairest of all the maids was Evangeline, Benedict's 
 
 daughter ! 
 Noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the 
 
 blacksmith ! 
 
 So passed the morning away. And lo ! with a sum- 
 mons sonorous 420 
 
 Sounded the bell from its tower, and over the mead- 
 ows a drum beat. 
 
 Thronged ere long was the church with men. With- 
 out, in the churchyard, 
 
 CHORUS. CHORUS. 
 
 Gette divinity, quoique deja grand'mere A grandame, yet by goddess birth 
 
 Avait les yeux doux, le teint frais, She kept sweet eyes, a color warm, 
 
 Avait mgme certains attraita And held through everything a charm 
 
 Fermes comme la Terre. Fast like the earth. 
 
 Le Carillon de Dunkerque was a popular song to a tune played 
 on the Dunkirk chimes. The words are : — 
 
 Le Carillon de Dunkerque. The Carillon of Dunkirk. 
 
 Imprudent, t^m^raire Reckless and rash, 
 
 A I'instant, je I'espere Take heed for the flash 
 
 Dans mon juste courroux, Of mine anger, "tis just 
 
 Tu vas tomber sous mes coups ! To lay thee with its blows in the dust. 
 
 — Je brave ta menace. — Your threat I defy. 
 
 — Etre moi ! quelle audace ! — What ! You would be I ! 
 Avance done, poltron ! Come, coward ! I '11 show — 
 Tu trembles ? non, non, non. You tremble ? No, no ! 
 
 — J'^touffe de colere ! — I 'm choking with rage ! 
 
 — Je rifl de ta colore. . — A fig for your rage ! 
 
 The music to which the old man sang these songs will be found 
 in La Cle du Caveau, by Pierre Capelle, Nos. 564 and 739, 
 Paris : A. Cotelle. 
 
40 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Waited the women. Tliey stood by the graves, and 
 
 hung on the headstones 
 Garlands of autumn-leaves and evergreens fresh from 
 
 the forest. 
 Then came the guard from the ships, and marching 
 
 proudly among them 425 
 
 Entered the sacred portal. With loud and dissonant 
 
 clangor 
 Echoed the sound of their brazen drums from ceiling 
 
 and casement, — 
 Echoed a moment only, and slowly the ponderous por- 
 tal 
 Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of 
 
 the soldiers. 
 Then uprose their commander, and sjDake from the 
 
 steps of the altar, 430 
 
 Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal 
 
 commission. 
 " You are convened this day," he said, " by his Maj- 
 esty's orders. 
 Clement and kind has he been ; but how you have 
 
 answered his kindness 
 Let your own hearts replj^ 1 To my natural make and 
 
 my temper 
 Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must 
 
 be grievous. 43e 
 
 Yet must I bow and obey, and deliver the will of our 
 
 monarch : 
 Namely, that all your lands, and dwellings, and cattle 
 
 of all kinds 
 Forfeited be to the crown ; and that you yourselves 
 
 from this province 
 
 432. Colonel Winslow has preserved in his Diary the speech 
 n^hich he delivered to the assembled Acadians, and it is copied 
 by Haliburton in his History of Nova Scotia, i. 166, 167. 
 
EVANGELINE. 41 
 
 Be transported to other lands. God grant you may 
 
 dwell there 
 Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable peo- 
 ple ! ^« 
 Prisoners now I declare you, for such is his Majesty's 
 
 pleasure ! " 
 As, when the air is serene in the sultry solstice of 
 
 summer. 
 Suddenly gathers a storm, and the deadly sling of the 
 
 hailstones 
 Beats down the farmer's corn in the field, and shatters 
 
 his windows. 
 Hiding the sun, and strewing the ground with thatch 
 
 from the house-roofs, ^ 
 
 Bellowing fly the herds, and seek to break their en- 
 closures ; 
 So on the hearts of the people descended the words of 
 
 the speaker. 
 Silent a moment they stood in speechless wonder, and 
 
 then rose 
 Louder and ever louder a wail of sorrow and anger. 
 And, by one impulse moved, they madly rushed to the 
 
 door-way. ^^^ 
 
 Vain was the hope of escape; and cries and fierce 
 
 imprecations 
 Rang through the house of prayer ; and high o'er the 
 
 heads of the others 
 Rose, with his arms uplifted, the figure of Basil the 
 
 blacksmith, 
 As, on a stormy sea, a spar is tossed by the billows. 
 Flushed was his face and distorted with passion ; and 
 wildly he shouted, — ^ 
 
 ^ Down with the tyrants of England ! we never have 
 sworn them allegiance ! 
 
42 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on oui 
 
 homes and our harvests ! " 
 More he fain would have said, but the merciless hand 
 
 of a soldier 
 Smote him upon the mouth, and dragged him down to 
 
 the pavement. 
 
 In the midst of the strife and tumult of angry con- 
 tention, 460 
 Lo! the door of the chancel opened, and Father Feli- 
 
 cian 
 Entered, with serious mien, and ascended the steps of 
 
 the altar. 
 Raising his reverend hand, with a gesture he awed 
 
 into silence 
 All that clamorous throng ; and thus he spake to his 
 
 people ; 
 Deep were his tones and solemn ; in accents measured 
 
 and mournful 465 
 
 Spake he, as, after the tocsin's alarum, distinctly the 
 
 clock strikes. 
 " What is this that ye do, my children ? what madness 
 
 has seized you ? 
 Forty years of my life have I labored among you, and 
 
 taught you. 
 Not in word alone, but in deed, to love one another ! 
 Is this the fruit of my toils, of my vigils and prayers 
 
 and privations ? 470 
 
 Have 3^ou so soon forgotten all lessons of love and 
 
 forgiveness ? 
 This is the house of the Prince of Peace, and would 
 
 you profane it 
 Thus with violent deeds and hearts overflowing with 
 
 hatred ? 
 
EVANGELINE. 43 
 
 Lo! where the crucified Christ from His cross is gaz- 
 ing upon you ! 
 
 See ! in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy 
 coQipassion ! '*^^ 
 
 Hark! how those lips still repeat the prayer, 'O 
 Father, forgive them ! ' 
 
 Let us repeat that prayer in the hour when the wicked 
 assail us. 
 
 Let us repeat it now, and say, ' O Father, forgive 
 them!'" 
 
 Few were his words of rebuke, but deep in the hoarts 
 of his people 
 
 Sank they, and sobs of contrition succeeded the pas- 
 sionate outbreak, ^^ 
 
 While they repeated his prayer, and said, " O Father, 
 forgive them ! " 
 
 Then came the evening service. The tapers gleamed 
 
 from the altar ; 
 Fervent and deep was the voice of the priest, and the 
 
 people responded, 
 Not with their lips alone, but their hearts ; and the 
 
 Ave Maria 
 Sang they, and fell on their knees, and their souls, 
 
 with devotion translated, ^85 
 
 Rose on the ardor of prayer, like Elijah ascending to 
 
 heaven. 
 
 Meanwhile had spread in the village the tidings of 
 
 ill, and on all sides 
 Wandered, wailing, from house to house the women 
 
 and children. 
 Long at her father's door Evangeline stood, with hei 
 
 rieht hand 
 
44 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Shielding her eyes from the level rays of the sun, 
 that, descending, m 
 
 Lighted the village street with mysterious splendor, 
 and roofed each 
 
 Peasant's cottage with golden thatch, and emblazoned 
 its windows. 
 
 Long within had been spread the snow-white cloth on 
 the table ; 
 
 There stood the wheaten loaf, and the honey fragrant 
 with wild flowers ; 
 
 There stood the tankard of ale, and the cheese fresh 
 brought from the dairy ; 495 
 
 And at the head of the board the great arm-chair of 
 the farmer. 
 
 Thus did Evangeline wait at her father's door, as the 
 sunset 
 
 Threw the long shadows of trees o'er the broad am- 
 brosial meadows. 
 
 Ah ! on her spirit within a deeper shadow had fallen, 
 
 And from the fields of her soul a fragrance celestial 
 ascended, — 5011 
 
 Charity, meekness, love, and hope, and forgiveness, 
 and patience ! 
 
 Then, all forgetful of self, she wandered into the vil- 
 lage. 
 
 Cheering with looks and words the mournful hearts of 
 the women. 
 
 As o'er the darkening fields with lingering steps they 
 departed. 
 
 Urged by their household cares, and the weary feet of 
 their children. sos 
 
 492. To emblazon is literally to adorn anything with ensigns 
 armorial. It was often the custom to work these ensigns into 
 the design of painted windowSc 
 
EVANGELINE. 45 
 
 Down sank the great red sun, and in golden, glimmer- 
 ing vapors 
 
 Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descend- 
 ing from Sinai. 
 
 Sweetly over the village the bell of the Angelus 
 sounded. 
 
 Meanwhile, amid the gloom, by the church Evange- 
 line lingered. 
 All was silent within ; and in vain at the door and the 
 
 windows 510 
 
 Stood she, and listened and looked, until, overcome by 
 
 emotion, 
 " Gabriel ! " cried she aloud with tremulous voice ; 
 
 but no answer 
 Came from the graves of the dead, nor the gloomier 
 
 grave of the living. 
 Slowly at length she returned to the tenantless house 
 
 of her father. 
 Smouldered the fire on the hearth, on the board was 
 
 the supper untasted. 515 
 
 Empty and drear was each room, and haunted with 
 
 phantoms of terror. 
 Sadly echoed her step on the stair and the floor of her 
 
 chamber. 
 In the dead of the night she heard the disconsolate 
 
 rain fall 
 Loud on the withered leaves of the sycamore-tree by 
 
 the window. 
 Keenly the lightning flashed ; and the voice of the 
 
 echoing thunder 520 
 
 Told her that God was in heaven, and governed the 
 
 world He created) 
 
46 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Then she remembered the tale she had heard of the 
 
 justice of Heaven ; 
 Soothed was her troubled soul, and she peacefully 
 
 slumbered till morning. J 
 
 V. 
 
 Four times the sun had risen and set ; and now on 
 the fifth day 
 
 Cheerily called the cock to the sleej)ing maids of the 
 farm-house. 525 
 
 Soon o'er the yellow fields, in silent and mournful pro- 
 cession. 
 
 Came from the neighboring hamlets and farms the 
 Acadian women, 
 
 Driving in ponderous wains their household goods to 
 the sea-shore. 
 
 Pausing and looking back to gaze once more on their 
 dwellings. 
 
 Ere they were shut from sight by the winding road and 
 the woodland. 539 
 
 Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on 
 the oxen, 
 
 While in their little hands they clasped some frag- 
 ments of playthings. 
 
 Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth they hurried ; and 
 
 there on the sea-beach 
 piled in confusion lay the household goods of the 
 
 peasants. 
 All day long between the shore and the ships did the 
 
 boats ply ; 535 
 
 All day long the wains came laboring down from the 
 
 village. 
 Late in the afternoon, when the sun was near to his 
 
 setting, 
 
EVANGELINE. 47 
 
 Echoed far o'er the fields came the roll of drums from 
 the churchyard. 
 
 Thither the women and children thronged. On a sud- 
 den the church-doors 
 
 Opened, and forth came the guard, and marching in 
 gloomy procession 540 
 
 Followed the long-imprisoned, but patient, Acadian 
 farmers. 
 
 Even as pilgrims, who journey afar from their homes 
 and their country, 
 
 Sing as they go, and in singing forget they are weary 
 and wayworn, 
 
 So with songs on their lips the Acadian peasants de- 
 scended 
 
 Down from the church to the shore, amid their wives 
 and their daughters. 545 
 
 Foremost the young men came ; and, raising together 
 their voices. 
 
 Sang with tremulous lips a chant of the Catholic 
 Missions : — 
 
 " Sacred heart of the Saviour ! O inexhaustible foun- 
 tain ! 
 
 Fill our hearts this day with strength and submission 
 and patience ! " 
 
 Then the old men, as they marched, and the women 
 that stood by the wayside 550 
 
 Joined in the sacred psalm, and the birds in the sun- 
 shine above them 
 
 Mingled their notes therewith, like voices of spirits 
 departed. 
 
 Half-way down to the shore Evangeline waited in 
 silence. 
 Not overcome with grief, but strong in the hour of 
 affliction, — 
 
48 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Calmly and sadly she waited, Tintil the procession ap 
 proached her, 555 
 
 And she beheld the face of Gabriel pale with emotion. 
 
 Tears then filled her eyes, and, eagerly running to 
 meet him. 
 
 Clasped she his hands, and laid her head on his 
 shoulder, and whispered, — 
 
 '' Gabriel ! be of good cheer ! for if we love one 
 •another 
 
 Nothing, in truth, can harm us, whatever mischances 
 may happQn ! " seo 
 
 Smiling she spake these words ; then suddenly paused, 
 for her father 
 
 Saw she, slowly advancing. Alas ! how changed v/as 
 his aspect ! 
 
 Gone was the glow from his cheek, and the fire from 
 his eye, and his footstep 
 
 Heavier seemed with the weight of the heavy heart 
 in his bosom. 
 
 But with a smile and a sigh, she clasped his neck and 
 embraced him, 565 
 
 Speaking words of endearment where words of com- 
 fort availed not. 
 
 Thus to the Gaspereau's mouth moved on that mourn- 
 ful procession. 
 
 There disorder prevailed, and the tumult and stir of 
 
 embarking. 
 Busily plied the freighted boats ; and in the confusion 
 Wives were torn from their husbands, and mothers, 
 
 too late, saw their children 57« 
 
 Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest 
 
 entreaties. 
 So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried, 
 
EVANGELINE, 49 
 
 While in despair on the shore Evangeline stood with 
 
 her father. 
 Half the task was not done when the sun went down, 
 
 and the twilight 
 Deepened and darkened around ; and in haste the 
 
 refluent ocean 575 
 
 Fled away from the shore, and left the line of the 
 
 sand-beach 
 Covered with waifs of the tide, with kelp and the slip- 
 pery sea-weed. 
 Farther back in the midst of the household goods and 
 
 the wagons, 
 Like to a gypsy camp, or a leaguer after a battle, 
 All escape cut off by the sea, and the sentinels near 
 
 them, 580 
 
 Lay encamped for the night the houseless Acadian 
 
 farmers. 
 Back to its nethermost caves retreated the bellowing 
 
 ocean, 
 Dragging adown the beach the rattling pebbles, and 
 
 leaving 
 Inland and far up the shore the stranded boats of the 
 
 sailors. 
 Then, as the night descended, the herds returned from 
 
 their pastures ; sss 
 
 Sweet was the moist still air with the odor of milk 
 
 from their udders ; 
 Lowing they waited, and long, at the well-known bars 
 
 of the farm-yard, — 
 Waited and looked in vain for the voice and the hand 
 
 of the milkmaid. 
 Silence reigned in the streets ; from the church no 
 
 Angelus sounded. 
 Rose no smoke from the roofs, and gleamed no lights 
 
 from the windows. 590 
 
50 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 But on the sliores meanwhile the evening fires had 
 
 been kindled, 
 Built of the drift-wood thrown on the sands from 
 
 wrecks in the tempest. 
 Round them shapes of gloom and sorrowful faces were 
 
 gathered, 
 Voices of women were heard, and of men, and the 
 
 crying of children. 
 Onward from fire to fire, as from hearth to hearth in 
 
 his parish, 595 
 
 Wandered the faithful priest, consoling and blessing 
 
 and cheering, 
 Like unto shipwrecked Paul on Melita's desolate sea- 
 shore. 
 Thus he approached the place where Evangeline sat 
 
 with her father, 
 And in the flickering light beheld the face of the old 
 
 man. 
 Haggard and hollow and wan, and without either 
 
 thought or emotion, 600 
 
 E'en as the face of a clock from which the hands have 
 
 been taken. 
 Vainly Evangeline strove with words and caresses to 
 
 cheer him. 
 Vainly offered him food ; yet he moved not, he looked 
 
 not, he spake not. 
 But, with a vacant stare, ever gazed at the flickering 
 
 fire-light. 
 " Benedicite ! " murmured the priest, in tones of com- 
 passion. • 605 
 More he fain would have said, but his heart was full, 
 
 and his accents 
 Faltered and paused on his lips, as the feet of a child 
 
 on a threshold, 
 
EVANGELINE. 51 
 
 Hushed by the scene he beholds, and the awful pres 
 
 ence of sorrow. 
 Silently, therefore, he laid his hand on the head of the 
 
 maiden, 
 Kaising his tearful eyes to the silent stars that above 
 
 them 610 
 
 Moved on their way, unperturbed by the wrongs and 
 
 sorrows of mortals. 
 Then sat he down at her side, and they wept together 
 
 in silence. 
 
 Suddenly rose from the south a light, as in autumn 
 
 the blood-red 
 Moon climbs the crystal walls of heaven, and o'er the 
 
 horizon 
 Titan-like stretches its hundred hands upon mountain 
 
 and meadow, . eis 
 
 Seizing the rocks and the rivers, and piling huge 
 
 shadows together. 
 Broader and ever broader it gleamed on the roofs of 
 
 the village. 
 Gleamed on the sky and the sea, and the ships that 
 
 lay in the roadstead. 
 Columns of shining smoke uprose, and flashes of 
 
 flame were 
 Thrust through their folds and withdrawn, like the 
 
 quivering hands of a martyr. 620 
 
 615. The Titans were giant deities in Greek mythology who 
 attempted to deprive Saturn of tlie sovereignty of heaven, and 
 were driven down into Tartarus by Jupiter, the son of Saturn, 
 who hurled thunderbolts at them. Briareus, the hundred- handed 
 giant, was in mythology of the same parentage as the Titans, 
 but was not classed with them. 
 
52 HENRY WADJSV/OKTH LONGFELLOW, 
 
 Then as the wind seized the gleeds and the burning 
 thatch, and, uplifting. 
 
 Whirled them aloft through the air, at once from a 
 hundred house-tops 
 
 Started the sheeted smoke with flashes of flame inter- 
 mingled. 
 
 These things beheld in dismay the crowd on the 
 shore and on shipboard. 
 
 Speechless at first they stood, then cried aloud in their 
 anguish, 625 
 
 " We shall behold no more our homes in the village of 
 Grand-Pre ! " 
 
 Loud on a sudden the cocks began to crow in the farm- 
 yards. 
 
 Thinking the day had dawned ; and anon the lowing 
 of cattle , 
 
 Came on the evening breeze, by the barking of dogs 
 interrupted. 
 
 Then rose a sound of dread, such as startles the sleep- 
 ing encampments eao 
 
 Far in the western prairies of forests that skirt the 
 Nebraska, 
 
 When the wild horses affrighted sweep by with the 
 speed of the whirlwind, 
 
 621. Gleeds. Hot, burning coals ; a Chaucerian word : — 
 
 " And wafres piping hoot out of the gleede," 
 
 Canterbury Tales, 1. 3379. 
 
 The burning of the houses was in accordance with the instruc- 
 tions of the Governor to Colonel Winslow, in case he should fail 
 in collecting all the inhabitants : " You must proceed by the most 
 vigorous measures possible, not only in compelling them to em- 
 bark, but in depriving those who shall escape of all means of 
 shelter or support, by burning their houses and by destroying 
 everything that may afford them the means of subsistence in the 
 country." 
 
EVANGELINE. 53 
 
 Or the loud bellowing herds of buffaloes rush to the 
 river. 
 
 Such was the sound that arose on the night, as the 
 herds and the horses 
 
 Broke through their folds and fences, and madly- 
 rushed o'er the meadows. 635 
 
 Overwhelmed with the sight, yet speechless, the 
 priest and the maiden 
 
 Gazed on the scene of terror that reddened and 
 widened before them ; 
 
 And as they turned at length to speak to their silent 
 companion, 
 
 Lo ! from his seat he had fallen, and stretched abroad 
 on the seashore 
 
 Motionless lay his form, from which the soul had de- 
 parted. ^ 
 
 Slowly the priest uplifted the lifeless head, and the 
 maiden 
 
 Knelt at her father's side, and wailed aloud in her 
 terror. 
 
 Then in a swoon she sank, and lay with her head on 
 his bosom. 
 
 Through the long night she lay in deep, oblivious 
 slumber ; 
 
 And when she woke from the trance, she beheld a 
 multitude near her. ^^ 
 
 Faces of friends she beheld, that were mournfully gaz- 
 ing upon her. 
 
 Pallid, with tearful eyes, and looks of saddest com- 
 passion. 
 Still the blaze of the burning village illumined the 
 landscape, 
 
54 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Reddened the sky overhead, and gleamed on the faces 
 
 around her, 
 And like the day of doom it seemed to her wavering 
 
 senses. eso 
 
 Then a familiar voice she heard, as it said to the peo= 
 
 pie,-— 
 " Let us bury him here by the sea. When a happier 
 
 season 
 Brings us again to our homes from the unknown land 
 
 of our exile. 
 Then shall his sacred dust be piously laid in the 
 
 churchyard." 
 Such were the words of the priest. And there in 
 
 haste by the sea-side, 655 
 
 Having the glare of the burning village for funeral 
 
 torches. 
 But without bell or book, they buried the farmer of 
 
 Grand-Pre. 
 And as the voice of the priest repeated the service of 
 
 sorrow, 
 Lo ! with a mournful sound like the voice of a vast 
 
 congregation, 
 Solemnly answered the sea, and mingled its roar with 
 
 the dirges. eeo 
 
 'T was the returning tide, that afar from the waste of 
 
 the ocean. 
 With the first dawn of the day, came heaving and hur- 
 rying landward. 
 Then recommenced once more the stir and noise of 
 
 embarking ; 
 
 657. The bell was tolled to mark the passage of the soul into 
 the other world ; the book was the service book. The phrase 
 " bell, book, or caudle " was used in referring to excommunica- 
 tion. 
 
EVANGELINE. 55 
 
 And with the ebb of the tide the ships sailed out of 
 
 the harbor, 
 Leaving behind them the dead on the shore, and the 
 
 village in ruins. 665 
 
 PART THE SECOND. 
 
 I. 
 
 Many a weary year had passed since the burning of 
 
 Grand-Pre, 
 When on the falling tide the freighted vessels de- 
 parted, 
 Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into 
 
 exile. 
 Exile without an end, and without an example in 
 
 story. 
 Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians 
 
 landed ; 670 
 
 Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, wlien the 
 
 wind from the northeast 
 Strikes aslant through the fogs th^t darken the Banks 
 
 of Newfoundland. 
 Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from 
 
 city to city, 
 From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern 
 
 savannas, — 
 From the bleak shores of the sea to the lands where 
 
 the Father of Waters 675 
 
 Seizes the hills in his hands, and drags them down to 
 
 the ocean, 
 Deep in their sands to bury the scattered bones of the 
 
 mammoth. 
 677. Bones of the mastodon, or mammoth, have been found 
 
56 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Friends they sought and homes ; and many, despairing, 
 
 heart-broken, 
 Asked of the earth but a grave, and no longer a friend 
 
 nor a fireside. 
 Written their history stands on tablets of stone in the 
 
 churchyards. eso 
 
 Long among them was seen a maiden who waited and 
 
 wandered. 
 Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all 
 
 things. 
 Fair was she and young ; but, alas ! before her ex- 
 tended, 
 Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life, with its 
 
 pathway 
 Marked by the graves of those who had sorrowed and 
 
 suffered before her, 685 
 
 Passions long extinguished, and hopes long dead and 
 
 abandoned. 
 As the emigrant's way o'er the Western desert is 
 
 marked by 
 Camp-fires long consumed, and bones that bleach in 
 
 the sunshij^e. 
 Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, 
 
 unfinished ; 
 As if a morning of June, with all its music and sun- 
 shine, 690 
 Suddenly paused in the sky, and, fading, slowly de= 
 
 scended 
 Into the east again, from whence it late had arisen. 
 Sometimes she lingered in towns, till, urged by the 
 
 fever within her, 
 
 scattered all over the territory of the United States and Canada, 
 but the greatest number have been collected in the Salt Licks of 
 Kentucky, and in the States of Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and 
 Alabama. 
 
EVANGELINE. 6T 
 
 Urged by a restless longing, the hunger and thirst of 
 the spirit, 
 
 She would commence again her endless search and en- 
 deavor ; - 695 
 
 Sometimes in churchyards strayed, and gazed on the 
 crosses and tombstones, 
 
 Sat by some nameless grave, and thought that perhaps 
 in its bosom 
 
 He was already at rest, and she longed to slumber be- 
 side him . ... , ^^^ '<A-^j.-<^ ^ c^ 
 
 Sometimes a rumor, a hearsay, an inarticulate whis- 
 per, 
 
 Came with its airy hand to point and beckon her for- 
 ward. 700 
 
 Sometimes she spake with those who had seen her be- 
 loved and known him. 
 
 But it was long ago, in some far-off place or forgot- 
 ten. 
 
 " Gabriel Lajeunesse ! " they said ; " Oh, yes ! we have 
 seen him. 
 
 He was with Basil the blacksmith, and both have gone 
 to the prairies ; 
 
 Coureurs-des-bois are they, and famous hunters and 
 trappers." 705 
 
 699. Observe the diminution in this line, by which one is led 
 to the airy hand in the next. 
 
 705. The coureurs-des-bois formed a class of men, very early in 
 Canadian history, produced by the exigencies of the fur-trade. 
 They were French by birth, but by long affiliation with the In- 
 dians and adoption of their customs had become half-civilized 
 vagrants, whose chief vocation was conducting the canoes of the 
 traders along the lakes and rivers of the interior. Bushrangers 
 is the English equivalent. They played an important part in the 
 Indian wars, but were nearly as lawless as the Indians them- 
 selves. The reader will find them frequently referred to in 
 
68 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 " Gabriel Lajeimesse ! " said others ; '' Oh, yes ! we 
 
 have seen him. 
 He is a voyageur in the lowlands of Louisiana." 
 Then would they say, " Dear child ! why dream and 
 
 wait for him longer ? 
 Are there not other youths as fair as Gabriel ? others 
 Who have hearts as tender and true, and spirits as 
 
 loyal ? 710 
 
 Here is Baptiste Leblanc, the notary's son, who has 
 
 loved thee 
 Many a tedious year ; come, give him thy hand and be 
 
 happy ! 
 Thou art too fair to be left to braid St. Catherine's 
 
 tresses." 
 Then would Evangeline answer, serenely but sadly, 
 
 " I cannot ! 
 Whither my heart has gone, there follows my hand, 
 
 and not elsewhere. 715 
 
 For when the heart goes before, like a lamp, and 
 
 illumines the pathway. 
 Many things are made clear, that else lie hidden in 
 
 darkness." 
 Thereupon the priest, her friend and father confessor, 
 Said, with a smile, " O daughter ! thy God thiis 
 /- sj)eaketh within thee ! 
 
 ( Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was 
 ^ wasted ; 72» 
 
 Parkman's histories, especially in The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 
 The Discovery of the Great West, and Frontenac and New France 
 under Louis XIV. 
 
 IQl. A voyageur is a river boatman, and is a term applied 
 usually to Canadians. 
 
 713. St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Catherine of Siena 
 were both celebrated for their vows of virginity. Hence the say- 
 ing to braid St. Catherine's tresses, of one devoted to a single life. 
 
( 
 
 EVANGELINE. 59 
 
 If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters, re- 
 turning 
 
 Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full 
 of refreshment J 
 
 That which the founmin sends forth returns again to 
 the fountain. 
 
 Patience ; accomplish thy labor ; accomplish thy work 
 of affection ! 
 
 Sorrow and silence are strong, and patient endurance 
 is godlike.^ 725 
 
 Therefore accomplish thy labor of love, till the heart 
 is made godlike. 
 
 Purified, strengthened, perfected, and rendered more 
 worthy of heaven ! " 
 
 Cheered by the good man's words, Evangeline labored 
 and waited. 
 
 Still in her heart she heard the funeral dirge of the 
 ocean. 
 
 But with its sound there was mingled a voice that 
 whispered, " Despair not ! " 730 
 
 Thus did that poor soul wander in want and cheer- 
 less discomfort. 
 
 Bleeding, barefooted, over the shards and thorns of 
 existence. 
 
 Let me essay, O Muse ! to follow the wanderer's foot- 
 steps ; — 
 
 Not through each dexious path, each changeful year 
 of existence ; 
 
 But as a traveller follows a streamlet's course through 
 the valley : 735 
 
 Far from its margin at times, and seeing the gleam of 
 its water 
 
 Here and there, in some open space, and at intervals 
 only ; 
 
60 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Then drawing nearer its banks, through sylvaja, glooms 
 
 that conceal it, 
 Though he behold it not, he can hear its continuous 
 
 murmur ; 
 Happy, at length, if he find a spot where it reaches 
 
 an outlet. 740 
 
 n. 
 
 It was the month of May. Far down the Beautiful 
 River, 
 
 Past the Ohio shore and past the mouth of the Wa- 
 bash, 
 
 Into the golden stream of the broad and swift Mis- 
 sissippi, 
 
 Floated a cumbrous boat, that was rowed by Acadian 
 boatmen. 
 
 It was a band of exiles : a raft, as it were, from the 
 shi23wrecked 745 
 
 Nation, scattered along the coast, now floating tov 
 gether. 
 
 Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a com- 
 mon misfortune ; 
 
 Men and women and children, who, guided by hope 
 or by hearsay. 
 
 Sought for their kith and their kin among the few- 
 acred farmers 
 
 On the Acadian coast, and the prairies of fair Ope= 
 
 loUSaS. 75(1 
 
 741. The Iroquois gave to this river the name of Ohio, or the 
 Beautiful River, and La Salle, who was the first European to 
 discover it, preserved the name, so that it was transferred to 
 maps very early. 
 
 750. Between the 1st of January and the 13th of May, 1765, 
 about six hundred and fifty Acadians had arrived at New Or- 
 
EVANGELINE, 61 
 
 With them Evangeline went, and her guide, the 
 Father Felician. 
 
 Onward o'er sunken sands, through a wilderness 
 sombre with forests. 
 
 Day after day they glided adown the turbulent river \ 
 
 Night after night, by their blazing fires, encamped on 
 its borders. 
 
 Now through rushing chutes, among green islands, 
 where plumelike 755 
 
 Cotton-trees nodded their shadowy crests, they swept 
 with the current. 
 
 Then emerged into broad lagoons, where silvery sand- 
 bars 
 
 Lay in the stream, and along the wimpling waves of 
 their margin. 
 
 Shining with snow-white plumes, large flocks of pel- 
 icans waded. 
 
 Level the landscape grew, and along the shores of the 
 river, 76o 
 
 Shaded by china-trees, in the midst of luxuriant gar- 
 dens. 
 
 Stood the houses of planters, with negro cabins and 
 dove-cots. 
 
 They were approaching the region where reigns per- 
 petual summer, 
 
 leans. Louisiana had been ceded by France to Spain in 1762j 
 but did not really pass under the control of the Spanish until 
 1769. The existence of a French population attracted the wan- 
 dering Acadians, and they were sent by the authorities to form 
 settlements in Attakapas and Opelousas. They afterward formed 
 settlements on both sides of the Mississippi from the German 
 Coast up to Baton Rouge, and even as high as Pointe Coupde. 
 Hence the name of Acadian Coast, which a portion of the banks 
 of the river still bears. See Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana : 
 The French Dominion, vol. ii. 
 
62 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Where through the Golden Coast, and groves of 
 orange and citron, 
 
 Sweeps with majestic curve the river away to the east- 
 ward. 765 
 
 They, too, swerved from their course ; and, entering 
 the Bayou of Plaquemine, 
 
 Soon were lost in a maze of sluggish and devious 
 waters. 
 
 Which, like a network of steel, extended in every 
 direction. 
 
 Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs 
 of the cypress 
 
 Met in a dusky arch, and trailing mosses in mid- 
 air 770 
 
 Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient 
 cathedrals. 
 
 Deathlike the silence seemed, and unbroken, save by 
 theJierons ^u^A,^^ 
 
 Home to their roosts in the cedar-trees returning at 
 sunset. 
 
 Or by the owl, as he greeted the moon with demoniac ' 
 laughter. 
 
 Lovely the moonlight was as it glanced and gleamed 
 on the water, 775 
 
 Gleamed on the columns of cypress and cedar sustain- 
 ing the arches, 
 
 Down through whose broken vaults it fell as through 
 chinks in a ruin. 
 
 Dreamlike, and indistinct, and strange were all things 
 around them ; 
 
 And o'er their spirits there came a feeling of wonder 
 and sadness, — 
 
 Strange forebodings of ill, unseen and that cannot be 
 compassed. 7M 
 
EVANGELINE. 63 
 
 As, at the tramp of a horse's hoof on the turf of the 
 
 prairies, 
 Far in advance are closed the leaves of the shrinking 
 
 mimosa, 
 So, at the hoof -beats of fate, with sad forebodings of 
 
 evil, 
 Shrinks and closes the heart, ere the stroke of doom 
 
 has attained it. 
 But Evangeline's heart was sustained by a vision, that 
 
 faintly 785 
 
 Floated before her eyes, and beckoned her on through 
 
 the moonlight. 
 It was the thought of her brain that assumed the 
 
 shape of a phantom. 
 Through those shadowy aisles had Gabriel wandered 
 
 before her. 
 And every stroke of the oar now brought him nearer 
 
 and nearer. 
 
 Then in his place, at the prow of the boat, rose one 
 
 of the oarsmen, V90 
 
 And, as a signal sound, if others like them peradven- 
 
 ture 
 Sailed on those gloomy and midnight streams, blew a 
 
 blast on his bugle. 
 Wild through the dark colonnades and corridors leafy 
 
 the blast rang. 
 Breaking the seal of silence and giving tongues to the 
 
 forest. 
 Soundless above them the banners of moss just stirred 
 
 to the music. '95 
 
 Multitudinous echoes awoke and died in the distance. 
 Over the watery floor, and beneath the reverberj 
 
 branches ; 
 
64 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 But not a voice replied ; no answer came from the 
 
 darkness ; 
 And when the echoes had ceased, like a sense of pain 
 
 was the silence. 
 Then Evangeline slept ; but the boatmen rowed 
 
 through the midnight, soc 
 
 Silent at times, then singing familiar Canadian boat- 
 songs. 
 Such as they sang of old on their own Acadian rivers. 
 While through the night were heard the mysterious 
 
 sounds of the desert, 
 Far off, — indistinct, — as of wave or wind in the 
 
 forest. 
 Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of 
 
 the grim alligator. sos 
 
 Thus ere another noon they emerged from the 
 shades ; and before them 
 
 Lay, in the golden sun, the lakes of the Atchafalaya. 
 
 Water-lilies in myriads rocked on the slight undula- 
 tions 
 
 Made by the passing oars, and, resplendent in beauty, 
 the lotus 
 
 Lifted her golden crown above the heads of the boat- 
 men. 810 
 
 Faint was the air with the odorous breath of magno- 
 lia blossoms. 
 
 And with the heat of noon ; and numberless sylvan 
 islands, 
 
 Fragrant and thickly embowered with blossoming 
 hedges of roses. 
 
 Near to whose shores they glided along, invited to 
 slumber. 
 
 Soon by the fairest of these their weary oars were sus- 
 pended. 81ft 
 
EVANGELINE. 66 
 
 Under the boughs of Wachita wiUows, that grew by 
 
 the margin, 
 Safely their boat was moored ; and scattered about on 
 
 the greensward, 
 Tired with their midnight toil, the weary travellers 
 
 slumbered. 
 Over them vast and high extended the cope of a 
 
 cedar. 
 Swinging from its great arms, the trumpet-flower and 
 
 the grapevine ^^] 
 
 Hung their ladder of ropes aloft like the ladder ot 
 
 Jacob, J. 1 
 
 On whose pendulous stairs the angels ascending, cle- 
 
 scendiu*''. 
 
 Were the swift" humming-birds, that flitted from blos- 
 som to blossom. 
 
 Such was the vision Evangeline saw as she slumbered 
 beneath it. 
 
 Filled was her heart with love, and the dawn of an 
 opening heaven 
 
 Lighted her soul in sleep with the glory of regions 
 celestial. 
 
 Nearer, ever nearer, among the numberless islands. 
 Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o'er the 
 
 Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters 
 
 and trappers. i j r xi 
 
 Northward its prow was turned, to the land of the 
 
 11 830 
 
 bison and beaver. 
 At the helm sat a youth, with countenance thoughtful 
 
 and careworn. ^ 
 
 Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow, and 
 
 a sadness 
 
66 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Somewhat beyond liis years on his face was legibly 
 
 written. 
 Gabriel was it, who, weary with waiting, unhappy and 
 
 restless, 
 Sought in the Western wilds oblivion of self and of 
 
 sorrow. 835 
 
 Swiftly they glided along, close under the lee of the 
 
 island. 
 But by the opposite bank, and behind a screen of pal- 
 mettos ; 
 So that they saw not the boat, where it lay concealed 
 
 in the willows ; 
 All undisturbed by the dash of their oars, and unseen, 
 
 were the sleepers ; 
 Angel of God was there none to awaken the slumber- 
 ing maiden. 84o 
 Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of a cloud on 
 
 the prairie. 
 After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died 
 
 in the distance. 
 As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, and the 
 
 maiden 
 Said with a sigh to the friendly priest, "O Father 
 
 Felician ! 
 Something says in my heart that near me Gabriel 
 
 wanders. sis 
 
 Is it a foolish dream, an idle and vague superstition ? 
 Or has an angel passed, and revealed the truth to my 
 
 spirit?" ^ M'^' 
 
 Then, with a blush, she added, "Alas for my crgil«i^ 
 
 lous fancy ! 
 Unto ears like thine such words as these have no 
 
 meaning." 
 But made answer the reverend man, and he smiled as 
 
 he answered, — 85i 
 
 A? 
 
EVANGELINE. 67 
 
 " Daughter, thy words are not idle ; nor are they to 
 
 me without meaning, 
 Feeling is deep and still ; and the word that floats on 
 
 the surface 
 Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where the anchor 
 
 is hidden. 
 Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world 
 
 calls illusions. 
 Gabriel truly is near thee ; for not far away to the 
 
 southward, ess 
 
 On the banks of the Teche, are the towns of St. Maur 
 
 and St. Martin. 
 There the long-wandering bride shall be given again 
 
 to her bridegroom. 
 There the long-absent pastor regain his flock and his . 
 
 sheepfold. 
 Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of 
 
 fruit-trees ; 
 Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of 
 
 heavens seo 
 
 Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of 
 
 the forest. 
 They who dwell there have named it the Eden of 
 
 Louisiana." 
 
 With these words of cheer they arose and continued 
 their journey. 
 
 Softly the evening came. The sun from the western 
 horizon 
 
 Like a magician extended his golden wand o'er the 
 landscape ; 865 
 
 Twinkling vapors arose ; and sky and water and forest 
 
 Seemed all on fire at the touch, and melted and min- 
 gled together. 
 
68 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Hanging between two skies, a cloud with edges of 
 silver, 
 
 Floated the boat, with its dripping oars, on the mo- 
 tionless water. 
 
 Filled was Evangeline's heart with inexpressible sweet- 
 ness. 870 
 
 Touched by the magic spell, the sacred fountains of 
 feeling 
 
 Glowed with the light of love, as the skies and waters 
 around her. 
 
 Then from a neighboring thicket the mocking-bird, 
 wildest of singers. 
 
 Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung o'er the 
 water. 
 
 Shook from his little throat such floods of delirious 
 
 music, 875 
 
 That the whole air and the woods and the waves 
 
 seemed silent to listen. 
 Plaintive at first were the tones and sad ; then soaring 
 
 to madness 
 Seemed they to follow or guide the revel of frenzied 
 
 Bacchantes. 
 Single notes were then heard, in sorrowful, low lam- 
 entation ; 
 Till, having gathered them all, he flung them abroad 
 
 in derision, m 
 
 As when, after a storm, a gust of wind through the 
 
 tree-tops 
 Shakes down the rattling rain in a crystal shower on 
 
 the branches. 
 
 878. The Bacchantes were worshippers of the god Bacchus, 
 who in Greek mythology presided over the vine and its fruits. 
 They gave themselves up to all manner of excess, and theii 
 songs and dances were to wild, intoxicating measures. 
 
EVANGELINE. 69 
 
 With such a prelude as this, and hearts that throbbed 
 
 with emotion, 
 Slowly they entered the Teche, where it flows through 
 
 the green Opelousas, 
 And, through the amber air, above the crest of the 
 
 woodland, 885 
 
 ^Saw the column of smoke that iirose from a neighbor^ 
 
 ing dwelling ; — 
 Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant lowing 
 
 of cattle. 
 
 III. / 
 
 Near to the bank of the river, o'ershadowed by oaks 
 from whose branches 
 
 Garlands of Spanish moss and of mystic mistletoe 
 flaunted. 
 
 Such as the Druids cut down with golden hatchets at 
 Yule-tide, 89o 
 
 Stood, secluded and still, the house of the herdsman. 
 A garden 
 
 Girded it round about with a belt of luxuriant blos- 
 soms, 
 
 Filling the air with fragrance. The house itself was 
 of timbers 
 
 Hewn from the cypress-tree, and carefully fitted to- 
 gether. 
 
 Large and low was the roof ; and on slender columns 
 supported, 895 
 
 Rose-wreathed, vine-encircled, a broad and spacious 
 veranda, 
 
 Haunt of the humming-bird and the bee, extended 
 around it. 
 
 At each end of the house, amid the flowers of the 
 garden. 
 
70 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Stationed the dove-cots were, as love's perpetual sym- 
 bol, 
 
 Scenes of endless wooing, and endless contentions of 
 rivals. 900 
 
 Silence reigned o'er the place. The line of shadow 
 and sunshine 
 
 Ran near the tops of the trees ; but the house itself 
 was in shadow, 
 
 And from its chimney-top, ascending and slowly ex- 
 panding 
 
 Into the evening air, a thin blue column of smoke 
 rose. 
 
 In the rear of the house, from the garden gate, ran a 
 pathway 905 
 
 Through the great groves of oak to the skirts of the 
 limitless prairie. 
 
 Into whose sea of flowers the sun was slowly descend- 
 ing- 
 Full in his track of light, like ships with shadowy 
 
 canvas 
 Hanging loose from their spars in a motionless calm 
 
 in the tropics. 
 Stood a cluster of trees, with tangled cordage of 
 
 grapevines. 9W 
 
 Just where the woodlands met the flowery surf of 
 
 the prairie. 
 Mounted upon his horse, with Spanish saddle and 
 
 stirrups, 
 Sat a herdsman, arrayed in gaiters and doublet of 
 
 deerskin. 
 Broad and brown was the face that from under the 
 
 Spanish sombrero 
 Gazed on the peaceful scene, with the lordly look of 
 
 its master. sis 
 
EVANGELINE. 71 
 
 Round about him were numberless herds of kine that 
 
 were grazing 
 Quietly in the meadows, and breathing the vapory 
 
 freshness 
 That uprose from the river, and spread itself over the 
 
 landscape. 
 Slowly lifting the horn that hung at his side, and ex^ 
 
 panding 
 Fully his broad, deep chest, he blew a blast, that re^ 
 sounded ^^^* 
 
 Wildly and sweet and far, through the still damp air 
 
 of the evening. 
 Suddenly out of the grass the long white horns of the 
 
 cattle 
 Rose like flakes of foam on the adverse currents of 
 
 ocean. 
 Silent a moment they gazed, then bellowing rushed 
 
 o'er the prairie. 
 And the whole mass became a cloud, a shade in the 
 distance. ^^^ 
 
 Then, as the herdsman turned to the house, through 
 
 the gate of the garden 
 Saw he the forms of the priest and the maiden ad- 
 vancing to meet him. 
 Suddenly down from his horse he sprang in amaze- 
 ment, and forward 
 Pushed with extended arms and exclamations of won- 
 
 der ; 
 When they beheld his face, they recognized Basil the 
 blacksmith. ^"^ 
 
 Hearty his welcome was, as he led his guests to the 
 
 garden. 
 There in an arbor of roses with endless question and 
 answer 
 
72 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Gave they vent to their hearts, and renewed their 
 
 friendly embraces, 
 Laughing and weeping by turns, or sitting silent and 
 
 thoughtful. 
 Thoughtful, for Gabriel came not; and now dark 
 
 doubts and misgivings 935 
 
 Stole o'er the maiden's heart ; and Basil, somewhat 
 
 embarrassed. 
 Broke the silence and said, "If you came by the 
 
 Atchafalaya, 
 How have you nowhere encountered my Gabriel's 
 
 boat on the bayous ? " 
 Over Evangeline's face at the words of Basil a shade 
 
 passed. 
 Tears came into her eyes, and she said, with a trem- 
 ulous accent, 940 
 " Gone ? is Gabriel gone ? " and, concealing her face 
 
 on his shoulder, 
 AH her o'erburdened heart gave way, and she wept 
 
 and lamented. 
 Then the good Basil said, — and his voice grew blithe 
 
 as he said it, — 
 " Be of good cheer, my child ; it is only to-day he 
 
 departed. 
 Foolish boy ! he has left me alone with my herds and 
 
 my horses. 945 
 
 Moody and restless grown, and tried and troubled, his 
 
 spirit 
 Could no longer endure the calm of this quiet exis= 
 
 tence. 
 Thinking ever of thee, uncertain and sorrowful ever, 
 Ever silent, or speaking only of thee and his troubles, 
 He at length had become so tedious to men and to 
 
 maidens, 950 
 
EVANGELINE. 73 
 
 Tedious even to me, that at length I bethought me, and 
 
 sent him 
 Unto the town of Adayes to trade for mules with the 
 
 Spaniards. 
 Thence he will follow the Indian trails to the Ozark 
 
 Mountains, 
 Hunting for furs in the forests, on rivers trapping the 
 
 beaver. 
 Therefore be of good cheer ; we will follow the fugi- 
 tive lover ; ^^^ 
 He is not far on his way, and the Fates and the 
 
 streams are against him. 
 Up and away to-morrow, and through the red dew of 
 
 the morning, 
 We will follow him fast, and bring him back to his 
 
 prison." 
 
 Then glad voices were heard, and up from the 
 
 banks of the river. 
 Borne aloft on his comrades' arms, came Michael the 
 
 fiddler. 
 Long under Basil's roof had he lived, like a god on 
 
 Olympus, 
 Having no other care than dispensing music to mor^ 
 
 Far renowned was he for his silver locks and his 
 
 fiddle. , ,. 
 
 ■' Long live Michael," they cried, " our brave Acadian 
 
 niinsti-el ! " . , 
 
 As they bove him aloft in triumphal procession; and 
 
 straightway 
 Father Felician advanced with Evangeline, greetmg 
 
 the old man 
 Kindly and oft, and recalling the past, while Basil, 
 enraptured. 
 
74 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Hailed with hilarious joy his old companions and gos- 
 sips, 
 
 Laughing loud and long, and embracing mothers and 
 daughters. 
 
 Much they marvelled to see the wealth of the ci-devant 
 blacksmith, 97c 
 
 All his domains and his herds, and his patriarchal 
 demeanor ; 
 
 Much they marvelled to hear his tales of the soil and 
 the climate, 
 
 And of the prairies, whose numberless herds were his 
 who would take them ; 
 
 Each one thought in his heart, that he, too, w^ould go 
 and do likewise. 
 
 Thus they ascended the steps, and, crossing the breezy 
 veranda, 975 
 
 Entered the hall of the house, where already the sup- 
 per of Basil 
 
 Waited his late return ; and they rested and feasted 
 together. 
 
 Over the joyous feast the sudden darkness de- 
 scended. 
 All was silent without, and, illuming the landscape 
 
 with silver, 
 Eair rose the dewy moon and the myriad stars ; but 
 
 within doors, 980 
 
 Brighter than these, shone the faces of friends in the 
 
 glimmering lamplight. 
 Then from his station aloft, at the head of the table, 
 
 the herdsman 
 Poured forth his heart and his wine together in endless 
 
 profusion. 
 Lighting his pipe, that was filled with sweet Natchv 
 
 toehes tobacco ^ 
 
EVANGELINE. 75 
 
 Thus he spake to his guests, who listened, and smiled 
 
 as they listened : — 985 
 
 " Welcome once more, my friends, who long have been 
 
 friendless and homeless, 
 Welcome once more to a home, that is better per- 
 chance than the old one ! 
 Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the 
 
 rivers ; 
 Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the 
 
 farmer ; 
 Smoothly the ploughshare runs through the soil, as a 
 
 keel through the water. 990 
 
 All the year round the orange-groves are in blossom ; 
 
 and grass grows 
 More in a single night than a whole Canadian summer. 
 Here, too, numberless herds run wild and unclaimed 
 
 in the prairies ; 
 Here, too, lands may be had for the asking, and 
 
 forests of timber 
 With a few blows of the axe are hewn and framed 
 
 into houses. 995 
 
 After your houses are built, and your fields are yellow 
 
 with harvests, 
 No King George of England shall drive you away from 
 
 your homesteads. 
 Burning your dwellings and barns, and stealing your 
 
 farms and your cattle." 
 Speaking these words, he blew a wrathful cloud from 
 
 his nostrils. 
 While his huge, brown hand came thundering down 
 
 on the table, 1000 
 
 So that the guests all started ; and Father Felician, 
 
 astounded. 
 Suddenly paused, with a pinch of snuff half-way to 
 
 his nostrils. 
 
76 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 But the brave Basil resumed, and his words were 
 milder and gayer : — 
 
 " Only beware of the fever, my friends, beware of the 
 fever ! 
 
 For it is not like that of our cold Acadian climate, loos 
 
 Cured by wearing a spider hung round one's neck in a 
 nutshell ! " 
 
 Then there were voices heard at the door, and foot- 
 steps approaching 
 
 Sounded upon the stairs and the floor of the breezy 
 veranda. 
 
 It was the neighboring Creoles and small Acadian 
 planters, 
 
 Who had been summoned all to the house of Basil the 
 herdsman. loio 
 
 Merry the meeting was of ancient comrades and 
 neighbors : 
 
 Friend clasped friend in his arms; and they who 
 before were as strangers. 
 
 Meeting in exile, became straightway as friends to each 
 other. 
 
 Drawn by the gentle bond of a common country 
 together. 
 
 But in the neighboring hall a strain of music, pro- 
 ceeding ii'is 
 
 From the accordant strings of Michael's melodious 
 fiddle. 
 
 Broke up all further speech. Away, like children 
 delighted. 
 
 All things forgotten beside, they gave themselves to 
 the maddening 
 
 Whirl of the dizzy dance, as it swept and swayed to 
 the music. 
 
 Dreamlike, with beaming eyes and the rush of flutter- 
 ing garments. 1020 
 
EVANGELINE. 11 
 
 Meanwhile, apart, at the head of the hall, the priest 
 
 and the herdsman 
 Sat, conversing together of past and present and 
 
 future ; 
 While Evangeline stood iike one entranced, for within 
 
 her 
 Olden memories rose, and loud in the midst of the 
 
 music 
 Heard she the sound of the sea, and an irrepres- 
 sible sadness 1025 
 Came o'er her heart, and unseen she stole forth into 
 
 the garden. 
 Beautiful was the night. Behind the black wall of 
 
 the forest. 
 Tipping its summit with silver, arose the moon. On 
 
 the river 
 Fell here and there through the branches a tremulous 
 
 gleam of the moonlight, 
 Like the sweet thoughts of love on a darkened and 
 
 devious spirit. i03i 
 
 Nearer and round about her, the manifold flowers 
 
 of the garden 
 Poured out their souls in odors, that were their prayers 
 
 and confessions 
 Unto the night, as it went its way, like a silent 
 
 Carthusian. 
 
 1033. The Carthusians are a monastic order founded in the 
 twelfth century, perhaps the most severe in its rules of all reli- 
 gious societies. Almost perpetual silence is one of the vows; the 
 monks can talk together but once a week ; the labor required of 
 them is unremitting and the discipline exceedingly rigid. The 
 first monastery was established at Cliartreux near Grenoble in 
 France, and the Latinized form of the name has given us the 
 word Carthusian. 
 
78 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Fuller of fragrance than they, and as heavy with 
 shadows and night-dews, 
 
 Hung the heart of the maiden. The calm and the 
 magical moonlight 1035 
 
 Seemed to inundate her soul with indefinable long- 
 ings, 
 
 As, through the garden gate, and beneath the shade 
 of the oak-trees. 
 
 Passed she along the path to the edge of the measure- 
 less prairie. 
 
 Silent it lay, with a silvery haze upon it, and fire-flies 
 
 Gleaming and floating away in mingled and infinite 
 numbers. io40 
 
 Over her head the stars, the thoughts of God in the 
 heavens. 
 
 Shone on the eyes of man, who had ceased to marvel 
 and worship. 
 
 Save when a blazing comet was seen on the walls of 
 that temple, 
 
 As if a hand had appeared and written upon them, 
 " Upharsin." 
 
 And the soul of the maiden, between the stars and 
 the fire-flies, 1045 
 
 Wandered alone, and she cried, " O Gabriel ! O my 
 beloved ! 
 
 Art thou so near unto me, and yet I cannot behold 
 thee? 
 
 Art thou so near unto me, and yet thy voice does not 
 reach me ? 
 
 Ah ! how often thy feet have trod this path to the 
 prairie ! 
 
 Ah ! how often thine eyes have looked on the wood- 
 lands around me ! 105c 
 
 Ah ! how often beneath this oak, returning from labor, 
 
EVANGELINE. 79 
 
 Thou hast lain down to rest, and to dream of me in 
 
 thy shimbers ! 
 When shall these eyes behold, these arms be folded 
 
 about thee ? " 
 Loud and sudden and near the note of a whippoor- 
 
 will sounded 
 Like a flute in the woods ; and anon, through the 
 
 neighboring thickets, 1055 
 
 Farther and farther away it floated and dropped into 
 
 silence. 
 " Patience ! " whispered the oaks from oracular cav- 
 erns of darkness ; 
 And, from the moonlit meadow, a sigh responded, 
 
 " To-morrow ! " 
 
 Bright rose the sun next day ; and all the flowers 
 of the garden 
 
 Bathed his shining feet with their tears, and anointed 
 his tresses loeo 
 
 With the delicious balm that they bore in their vases 
 of crystal. 
 
 '^Farewell!" said the priest, as he stood at the 
 shadowy threshold ; 
 
 *^See that you bring us the Prodigal Son from his 
 fasting and famine, 
 
 A.nd, too, the Foolish Virgin, who slept when the 
 bridegroom was coming." 
 
 ^'Farewell! " answered the maiden, and, smiling, with 
 Basil descended loes 
 
 Down to the river's brink, where the boatmen already 
 were waiting. 
 
 Thus beginning their journey with morning, and sun- 
 shine, and gladness, 
 
 Swiftly they followed the flight of him who was speed- 
 ing before them, 
 
80 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Blown by the blast of fate like a dead leaf over the 
 
 desert. 
 Not that day, nor the next, nor yet the day that suc- 
 ceeded, 1070 
 Found they trace of his course, in lake or forest or 
 
 river. 
 Nor, after many days, had they found him ; but vague 
 
 and uncertain 
 Rumors alone were their guides through a wild and 
 
 desolate country ; 
 Till, at the little inn of the Spanish town of Adayes, 
 Weary and worn, they alighted, and learned from the 
 
 garrulous landlord 1075 
 
 That on the day before, with horses and guides and 
 
 companions, 
 Gabriel left the village, and took the road of the 
 
 prairies. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Far in the West there lies a desert land, where the 
 
 mountains 
 Lift, through perpetual snows, their lofty and lumi- 
 nous summits. 
 Down from their jagged, deep ravines, where the 
 
 gorge, like a gateway, loso 
 
 Opens a passage rude to the wheels of the emigrant's 
 
 wagon, 
 Westward the Oregon flows and the Walleway an<^ 
 
 Owyhee. 
 Eastward, with devious course, among the Wind-river 
 
 Mountains, 
 Through the Sweet-water Valley precipitate leaps the 
 
 Nebraska ; 
 And to the south, from Fontaine-qui-bout and the 
 
 Spanish sierras, 108I 
 
EVANGELINE. 81 
 
 Fretted with sands and rocks, and. swept by the wind 
 
 of the desert, 
 Numberless torrents, with ceaseless sound, descend to 
 
 the ocean. 
 Like the great chords of a harp, in loud and solemn 
 vibrations. 
 
 Spreading between these streams are the wondrous, 
 beautiful prairies, 
 
 Billowy bays of grass ever rolling in shadow and sun- 
 shine, 1090 
 
 Bright with luxuriant clusters of roses and purple 
 am or ph as. 
 
 Over them wandered the buffalo herds, and the elk 
 and the roebuck ; 
 
 Over them wandered the wolves, and herds of rider- 
 less horses ; 
 
 Fires that blast and blight, and winds that are weary 
 with travel ; 
 
 Over them wander the scattered tribes of Ishmael's 
 children, i093 
 
 Staining the desert with blood ; and above their terri- 
 ble war-trails 
 
 Circles and sails aloft, on pinions majestic, the vul- 
 ture. 
 
 Like the implacable soul of a chieftain slaughtered 
 in battle, 
 
 By invisible stairs ascending and scaling the heav- 
 ens. 
 
 Here and there rise smokes from the camps of these 
 savage marauders ; noo 
 
 Here and there rise groves from the margins of swift- 
 rimning rivers; 
 
 And the grim, taciturn bear, the anchorite monk of 
 the desertj 
 
82 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Climbs down their dark ravines to dig for roots by 
 
 the brook-side, 
 And over all is the sky, the clear and crystalline 
 
 heaven. 
 Like the protecting hand of God inverted above 
 
 them. no5 
 
 Into this wonderful land, at the base of the Ozark 
 
 Mountains, 
 Gabriel far had entered, with hunters and trappers 
 
 behind him. 
 Day after day, with their Indian guides, the maiden 
 
 and Basil 
 Followed his flying steps, and thought each day to 
 
 o'ertake him. 
 Sometimes they saw, or thought they saw, the smoke 
 
 of his camp-fire mo 
 
 Eise in the morning air from the distant plain ; but 
 
 at nightfall. 
 When they had reached the place, they found only 
 
 embers and ashes. 
 And, though their hearts were sad at times and their 
 
 bodies were weary, 
 Hope still guided them on, as the magic Fata Morgana 
 Showed them her lakes of light, that retreated and 
 
 vanished before them. ni5 
 
 1114. The Italian name for a meteoric phenomenon nearly- 
 allied to a mirage, witnessed in the Straits of Messina, and less 
 frequently elsewhere, and consisting in the appearance in the 
 air over the sea of the objects which are upon the neighboring 
 coasts. In the southwest of our own country, the mirage is very 
 common, of lakes which stretch before the tired traveller, and 
 the deception is so great that parties have sometimes beckoned 
 to other travellers, who seemed to be wading knee-deep, to come 
 over to them w^here dry land was. 
 
EVANGELINE, 83 
 
 Once, as they sat by their evening fire, there silently 
 
 entered 
 Into the little camp an Indian woman, whose features 
 Wore deep traces of sorrow, and patience as great as 
 
 her sorrow. 
 She was a Shawnee woman returning home to her 
 
 people, 
 From the far-off hunting-grounds of the cruel Ca= 
 
 manches, 1120 
 
 Where her Canadian husband, a coureur-des-bois, 
 
 had been murdered. 
 Touched were their hearts at her story, and warmest 
 
 and friendliest welcome 
 Gave they, with words of cheer, and she sat and 
 
 feasted among them 
 On the buffalo-meat and the venison cooked on the 
 
 ' embers. 
 But when their meal was done, and Basil and all his 
 
 companions, 1125 
 
 Worn with the long day's march and the chase of the 
 
 deer and the bison. 
 Stretched themselves on the ground, and slept where 
 
 the quivering fire-light 
 Flashed on their swarthy cheeks, and their forms 
 
 wrapped up in their blankets. 
 Then at the door of Evangeline's tent she sat and re= 
 
 peated 
 Slowly, with soft, low voice, and the charm of her In- 
 dian accent, 1130 
 All the tale of her love, with its pleasures, and pains, 
 
 and reverses. 
 Much Evangeline wept at the tale, and to know that 
 
 another 
 Hapless heart like her own had loved and had been 
 
 disappointed. 
 
84 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Moved to the depths of her soul by pity and woman's 
 
 compassion, 
 Yet in her sorrow pleased that one who had suffered 
 
 was near her, uss 
 
 She in turn related her love and all its disasters. 
 Mute with wonder the Shawnee sat, and when she had 
 
 ended 
 Still was mute ; but at length, as if a mysterious hor 
 
 ror 
 Passed through her brain, she spake, and repeated the 
 
 tale of the Mowis ; 
 Mowis, the bridegroom of snow, who won and wedded 
 
 a maiden, ii40 
 
 But, when the morning came, arose and passed from 
 
 the wigwam. 
 Fading and melting away and dissolving into the sun- 
 shine. 
 Till she beheld him no more, though she followed far 
 
 into the forest. 
 Then, in those sweet, low tones, that seemed like a 
 
 weird incantation. 
 Told she the tale of the fair Lilinau, who was wooed 
 
 by a phantom, ii45 
 
 That, through the pines o'er her father's lodge, in the 
 
 hush of the twilight. 
 Breathed like the evening wind, and whispered love to 
 
 the maiden, 
 Till she followed his green and waving plume through 
 
 the forest. 
 And nevermore returned, nor was seen again by hei 
 
 people. 
 
 1145. The story of Lilinau and other Indian legends will be 
 found in H. R. Schoolcraft's Algic Researches. 
 
EVANGELINE. 85 
 
 Silent with wonder and strange surprise, Evangeline 
 listened uso 
 
 To the soft flow of her magical words, till the region 
 around her 
 
 Seemed like enchanted ground, and her swarthy guest 
 the enchantress. 
 
 Slowly over the tops of the Ozark Mountains the 
 moon rose, 
 
 Lighting the little tent, and with a mysterious splen- 
 dor 
 
 Touching the sombre leaves, and embracing and filling 
 the woodland. n5-> 
 
 With a delicious sound the brook rushed by, and the 
 branches 
 
 Swayed and sighed overhead in scarcely audible whis- 
 pers. 
 
 Filled with the thoughts of love was Evangeline's 
 heart, but a secret. 
 
 Subtile sense crept in of pain and indefinite terror, 
 
 As the cold, poisonous snake creeps into the nest of 
 the swallow. neo 
 
 It was no earthly fear. A breath from the region of 
 spirits 
 
 Seemed to float in the air of night ; and she felt for a 
 moment 
 
 That, like the Indian maid, she, too, was pursuing a 
 pharftom. 
 
 With this thought she slept, and the fear and the 
 phantom had vanished. 
 
 Early upon the morrow the march was resumed, and 
 the Shawnee ii«^ 
 
 Said, as they journeyed along, — " On the western 
 slope of these mountains 
 
86 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Dwells in his little village the Black Robe chief of 
 
 the Mission. 
 Much he teaches the people, and tells them of Mary 
 
 and Jesus ; 
 Loud laugh their hearts with joy, and weep with pain, 
 
 as they hear him." 
 Then, with a sudden and secret emotion, Evangeline 
 
 answered, ino 
 
 " Let us go to the Mission, for there good tidings 
 
 await us ! " 
 Thither they turned their steeds ; and behind a spur 
 
 of the mountains. 
 Just as the sun went down, they heard a murmur of 
 
 voices, 
 And in a meadow green and broad, by the bank of a 
 
 river. 
 Saw the tents of the Christians, the tents of the Jesuit 
 
 Mission. n75 
 
 Under a towering oak, that stood in the midst of the 
 
 village. 
 Knelt the Black Robe chief with his children. A 
 
 crucifix fastened 
 High on the trunk of the tree, and overshadowed by 
 
 grapevines. 
 Looked with its agonized face on the multitude kneel- 
 ing beneath it. 
 This was their rural chapel. Aloft, throiigh the intri- 
 cate arches use 
 Of its aerial roof, arose the chant of their vespers. 
 Mingling its notes with the soft susurrus and sighs of 
 
 the branches. 
 Silent, with heads uncovered, the travellers, nearer 
 
 approaching. 
 Knelt on the swarded floor, and joined in the evening 
 
 devotions. 
 
EVANGELINE. 87 
 
 But when the service was done, and the benediction 
 had fallen nss 
 
 Forth from the hands of the priest, like seed from the 
 hands of the sower, 
 
 Slowly the reverend man advanced to the strangers, 
 and bade them 
 
 Welcome ; and when they replied, he smiled with be- 
 nignant expression. 
 
 Hearing the homelike sounds of his mother-tongue in 
 the forest. 
 
 And, with words of kindness, conducted them into his 
 wigwam. neo 
 
 There upon mats and skins they reposed, and on cakes 
 of the maize-ear 
 
 Feasted, and slaked their thirst from the water-gourd 
 of the teacher. 
 
 Soon was their story told ; and the priest with solem- 
 nity answered : — 
 
 " Not six suns have risen and set since Gabriel, seated 
 
 On this mat by my side, where now the maiden re- 
 poses, 1195 
 
 Told me this same sad tale ; then arose and continued 
 his journey ! " 
 
 Soft was the voice of the priest, and he spake with an 
 accent of kindness ; 
 
 But on Evangeline's heart fell his words as in winter 
 the snow-flakes 
 
 Fall into some lone nest from which the birds have 
 departed. 
 
 " Far to the north he has gone," continued the priest ; 
 " but in autumn, 1200 
 
 When the chase is done, will return again to the Mis- 
 sion." 
 
 Then Evangeline said, and her voice was meek and 
 submissive. 
 
88 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 " Let me remain with thee, for my soul is sad and af- 
 flicted." 
 So seemed it wise and well vmto all ; and betimes on 
 
 the morrow, 
 Mounting his Mexican steed, with his Indian guides 
 
 and companions, 1205 
 
 Homeward Basil returned, and Evangeline stayed at 
 
 the Mission. 
 
 /^^^ 
 Slowly, slowly, slowly the days succeeded each 
 
 other, — 
 Days and weeks and months ; and the fields of maize 
 
 that were springing 
 Green from the ground when a stranger she came, 
 
 now waving about her. 
 Lifted their slender shafts, with leaves interlacing, 
 
 and forming 1210 
 
 Cloisters for mendicant crows and granaries pillaged 
 
 by squirrels. 
 Then in the golden weather the maize was husked, 
 
 and the maidens 
 Blushed at each blood-red ear, for that betokened a 
 
 lover. 
 But at the crooked laughed, and called it a thief in 
 
 the corn-field. 
 Even the blood-red ear to Evangeline brought not her 
 
 lover. 1215 
 
 ^^ Patience ! " the priest would say ; " have faith, and 
 
 thy prayer will be answered ! 
 Look at this vigorous plant that lifts its head from 
 
 the meadow. 
 See how its leaves are turned to the north, as true as 
 
 the magnet ; • 
 
EVANGELINE. 89 
 
 It is the compass-flower, that the finger of God has 
 
 planted 
 Here in the houseless wild, to direct the traveller's 
 
 journey 1220 
 
 Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the 
 
 desert. 
 Such in the soul of man is faith. ^ The blossoms of 
 
 passion, -^ 
 
 Gay and luxuriant flowers, are brighter and fuller of 
 
 fragrance, 
 But they beguile us, and lead us astray, and their 
 
 odor is deadly. 
 Only this humble plant can guide us here, and here- 
 after 1225 
 Crown us with asphodel flowers, that are wet with the 
 
 dews of nepenthe." 
 
 So came the autumn, and passed, and the winter — 
 
 yet Gabriel came not ; 
 Blossomed the opening spring, and the notes of the 
 
 robin and bluebird 
 Sounded sweet upon wold and in wood, yet Gabriel 
 
 came not. 
 But on the breath of the summer winds a rumor was 
 
 wafted 1230 
 
 1219. SilpUum laciniatum or compass-plant is found on the 
 prairies of Michigan and Wisconsin and to the south and west, 
 and is said to present the edges of the lower leaves due north 
 and south. 
 
 1226. In early Greek poetry the asphodel meadows were 
 haunted by the shades of heroes. See Homer's Odyssey, xxiv, 
 13, where Pope translates : — 
 
 " In ever flowering meads of Asphodel." 
 
 The asphodel is of the lily family, and is known also by the 
 name king's spear 
 
90 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Sweeter than song of bird, or hue or odor of blos- 
 som. 
 
 Far to the north and east, it said, in the Michigan 
 forests, 
 
 Gabriel had his lodge by the banks of the Saginaw 
 Kiver. 
 
 And, with returning guides, that sought the lakes of 
 St. Lawrence, 
 
 Saying a sad farewell, Evangeline went from the Mis- 
 sion. 1235 
 
 When over weary ways, by long and perilous 
 marches, 
 
 She had attained at length the depths of the Michigan 
 forests. 
 
 Found she the hunter's lodge deserted and fallen to 
 ruin ! 
 
 Thus did the long sad years glide on, and in sea- 
 sons and places 
 Divers and distant far was seen the wandering 
 
 maiden ; — 1240 
 
 Now in the Tents of Grace of the meek Moravian 
 
 Missions, 
 Now in the noisy camps and the battle-fields of the 
 
 army. 
 Now in secluded hamlets, in towns and populous 
 
 cities. 
 Like a phantom she came, and passed away unremem- 
 
 bered. 
 Fair was she and young, when in hope began the long 
 
 journey ; 1245 
 
 Faded was she and old, when in disappointment it 
 
 ended. 
 1241, A rendering of the Moravian Gnadenhiitteno 
 
EVANGELINE. 91 
 
 Each succeeding year stole something away from her 
 beauty, 
 
 Leaving behind it, broader and deeper, the gloom and 
 the shadow. 
 
 Then there aj)peared and spread faint streaks of gray 
 o'er her forehead. 
 
 Dawn of another life, that broke o'er her earthly hor- 
 izon, 1250 
 
 As in the eastern sky the first faint streaks of the 
 morning. 
 
 V. 
 
 In that delightful land which is washed by the Dela- 
 ware's waters, 
 
 Guarding in sylvan shades the name of Penn the 
 apostle. 
 
 Stands on the banks of its beautiful stream the city 
 he founded. 
 
 There all the air is balm, and theA)each is the emblem 
 of beaut}^ 1255 
 
 And the streets still reecho the names of the trees of 
 the forest, 
 
 As if they fain would appease the Dryads whose 
 haunts they molested. 
 
 There from the troubled sea had Evangeline landed, 
 an exile, 
 
 Finding among the children of Penn a home and a 
 country. 
 
 There old Kene Leblanc had died; and when he 
 departed, 1260 
 
 Saw at his side only one of all his hundred descend- 
 ants. 
 
 1256. The streets of Philadelphia, as is well known, are many 
 of them, especially those running east and west, named for trees, 
 as Chestnut, "Walnut, Locust, Spruce, Pine, etc. 
 
92 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Something at least there was in the friendly streets of 
 the city, 
 
 Something that spake to her heart, and made her no 
 longer a stranger ; 
 
 And her ear was pleased with the Thee and Thou of 
 the Quakers, 
 
 For it recalled the past, the old Acadian country, 1265 
 
 Where all men were equal, and all were brothers and 
 sisters. 
 
 So, when the fruitless search, the disappointed en- 
 deavor, 
 
 Ended, to recommence no more upon earth, uncom- 
 plaining. 
 
 Thither, as leaves to the light, were turned her 
 thoughts and her footsteps. 
 
 As from a mountain's top the rainy mists of the morn- 
 ing 127« 
 
 Eoll away, and afar we behold the landscape below us, 
 Sun-illumined, with shining rivers and cities and ham- 
 lets. 
 So fell the mists from her mind, and she saw the 
 
 world far below her. 
 Dark no longer, but all illumined with love ; and the 
 
 pathway 
 Which she had climbed so far, lying smooth and fair 
 
 in the distance. 1275 
 
 Gabriel was not forgotten. Within her heart was his 
 
 image. 
 Clothed in the beauty of love and youth, as last she 
 
 beheld him. 
 Only more beautiful made by his deathlike silence and 
 
 absence. 
 Into her thoughts of him time entered not, for it was 
 
 not. 
 
k 
 
 EVANGELINE. 93 
 
 Over him years had no power ; he was not changed, 
 
 but transfigured ; 1280 
 
 He had become to her heart as one who is dead, and 
 
 not absent ; 
 Patience and abnegation of self, and devotion to others, 
 This was the lesson a life of trial and sorrow had 
 
 taught her. 
 So was her love diffused, but, like to some odorous 
 
 spices, 
 Suffered no waste nor loss, though filling the air with 
 
 aroma. 1285 
 
 Other hope had she none, nor wish in life, but to 
 Meekly follow, with reverent steps, the sacred feet of 
 
 her Saviour. 
 Thus many years she lived as a Sister of Mercy ; fre- 
 quenting 
 Lonely and wretched roofs in the crowded lanes of 
 
 the city. 
 Where distress and want concealed themselves from 
 
 the sunlight, 1290 
 
 Where disease and sorrow in garrets languished neg- 
 lected. 
 Night after night when the world was asleep, as the 
 
 watchman repeated 
 Loud, through the dusty streets, that all was well in 
 
 the city, 
 High at some lonely window he saw the light of her 
 
 taper. 
 Day after day, in the gray of the dawn, as slow 
 
 through the suburbs 1295 
 
 Plodded the German farmer, with flowers and fruits 
 
 for the market, 
 Met he that meek, pale face, returning home from its 
 
 watchings. 
 
 / 
 
94 HENRY WADS WORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Then it came to pass that a pestilence fell on the 
 city, 
 
 Presaged by wondrous signs, and. mostly by flocks of 
 wild pigeons. 
 
 Darkening the sun in their flight, with naught in their 
 craws but an acorn. isoo 
 
 And, as the tides of the sea arise in the month of Sep- 
 tember, 
 
 Flooding some silver stream, till it spreads to a lake 
 in the meadow, 
 
 So death flooded life, and, o'erflowing its natural mar- 
 
 Spread to a brackish lake the silver stream of ex- 
 istence. 
 
 Wealth had no power to bribe, nor beauty to charm, 
 the 023pressor ; 1305 
 
 But all perished alike beneath the scourge of his 
 anger ; — 
 
 Only, alas ! the poor, who had neither friends nor at- 
 tendants. 
 
 Crept away to die in the almshouse, home of the 
 homeless. 
 
 Then in the suburbs it stood, in the midst of meadows 
 and woodlands ; — 
 
 1298. The year 1793 was long remembered as the year when 
 yellow fever was a terrible pestilence in Philadelphia. Charles 
 Brockden Brown made his novel of Arthur Mervyn turn largely 
 upon the incidents of the plague, which drove Brown away from 
 home for a time. 
 
 1308. Philadelphians have identified the old Friends' alms- 
 house on Walnut Street, now ik* longer standing, as that in which 
 Evangeline ministered to Gabriel, and so real was the story that 
 some even ventured to point out the graves of the two lovers. 
 See Westcott's The Historic Mansions of Philadelphia, pp. 101, 
 102. 
 
EVANGELINE. 95 
 
 Now the city surrounds it ; but still, with its gateway 
 
 and wicket ^^^® 
 
 Meek, in the midst of splendor, its humble walls seem 
 
 to echo 
 Softly the words of the Lord: — "The poor ye al- 
 ways have with you." 
 Thither, by night and by day, came the Sister of 
 
 Mercy. The dying 
 Looked up into her face, and thought, indeed, to be- 
 hold there 
 Gleams of celestial light encircle her forehead with 
 splendor, ^ ^^^^ 
 
 Such as the artist paints o'er the brows of saints and 
 
 apostles, 
 Or such as hangs by night o'er a city seen at a distance. 
 Unto their eyes it seemed the lamps of the city celes- 
 tial. 
 Into whose shining gates erelong their spirits would 
 enter. 
 
 Thus, on a Sabbath morn, through the streets, de- 
 serted and silent, ^^ 
 
 Wending her quiet way, she entered the door of the 
 almshouse. 
 
 Sweet on the summer air was the odor of flowers in 
 the garden. 
 
 And she paused on her way to gather the fairest 
 among them. 
 
 That the dying once more might rejoice in their frar 
 grance and beauty. 
 
 Then, as she mounted the stairs to the corridors, 
 cooled by the east-wind, ^"^ 
 
 Distant and soft on her ear fell the chimes from the 
 belfry of Christ Church, 
 
96 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, 
 
 While, intermingled with these, across the meadows 
 
 were wafted 
 Sounds of psalms, that were sung by the Swedes in 
 
 their church at Wicaco. 
 Soft as descending wings fell the calm of the hour on 
 
 her spirit ; 
 Something within her said, " At length thy trials are 
 
 ended ; " 1330 
 
 And, with light in her looks, she entered the cham- 
 bers of sickness. 
 Noiselessly moved about the assiduous, careful attend- 
 ants, 
 Moistening the feverish lip, and the aching brow, and 
 
 in silence 
 Closing the sightless eyes of the dead, and concealing 
 
 their faces. 
 Where on their pallets they lay, like drifts of snow ^ 
 
 by the roadside. 1335 
 
 Many a languid head, upraised as Evangeline entered, 
 Turned on its pillow of pain to gaze while she passed, 
 
 for her presence 
 Fell on their hearts like a ray of the sun on the walls 
 
 of a prison. 
 And, as she looked around, she' saw how Death, the 
 
 consoler. 
 Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it 
 
 forever. im 
 
 1328. The Swedes' church at Wicaco is still standing, the 
 oldest in the city of Philadelphia, having been begun in 1698. 
 Wicaco is within the city, on the banks of the Delaware River. 
 An interesting account of the old church and its historic associa- 
 tions will be found in Westcott's book just mentioned, pp. 56-67. 
 Wilson the 4:)rnithologist lies buried in the churchyard adjoining 
 the church. 
 
EVANGELINE. 97 
 
 Many familiar forms had disappeared in the night 
 
 time ; 
 Vacant their places were, or filled already by strangers. 
 
 Suddenly, as if arrested by fear or a feeling of 
 wonder. 
 Still she stood, with her colorless lips apart, while a 
 
 shudder 
 Ran through her frame, and, forgotten, the flowerets 
 dropped from her fingers, 1345 
 
 And from her eyes and cheeks the light and bloom of 
 
 the morning. 
 Then there escaped from her lips a cry of such terri- 
 ble anguish. 
 That the dying heard it, and started up from their 
 
 pillows. 
 On the pallet before her was stretched the form of an 
 
 old man. 
 Long, and thin, and gray were the locks that shaded 
 his temples ; ''^^^ 
 
 But, as he lay in the morning light, his face for a 
 
 moment 
 Seemed to assume once more the forms of its earlier 
 
 manhood ; 
 So are wont to be changed the faces of those who are 
 
 dying. 
 Hot and red on his lips still burned the flush of the 
 
 fever. 
 As if life, like the Hebrew, with blood had besprinkled 
 its portals, ^^^ 
 
 That the Angel of Death might see the sign, and pass 
 
 over. 
 
 Motionless, senseless, dying, he lay, and Ms spirit 
 exhausted 
 
98 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 Seemed to be sinking down through infinite depths in 
 
 the darkness, 
 Darkness of slumber and death, forever sinking and 
 
 sinking. 
 Then through those realms of shade, in multiplied 
 
 reverberations, iseo 
 
 Heard he that cry of pain, and through the hush that 
 
 succeeded 
 Whispered a gentle voice, in accents tender and saint^| 
 
 like, 
 "Gabriel! O my beloved!" and died away into 
 
 lence. 
 Then he beheld, in a dream, once more the home of 
 
 his childhood ; 
 Green Acadian meadows, with sylvan rivers among 
 
 them, 1365 
 
 Village, and mountain, and woodlands ; and, walking 
 
 under their shadow. 
 As in the days of her youth, Evangeline rose in his 
 
 vision. 
 Tears came into his eyes ; and as slowly he lifted his 
 
 eyelids. 
 Vanished the vision away, but Evangeline knelt by his 
 
 bedside. 
 Vainly he strove to whisper her name, for the accents 
 
 unuttered mo 
 
 Died on his lips, and their motion revealed what his 
 
 tongue would have spoken. 
 Vainly he strove to rise; and Evangeline, kneeling 
 
 beside him. 
 Kissed his dying lips, and laid his head on her bosom. 
 Sweet was the light of his eyes ; but it suddenly sank 
 
 into darkness, 
 As when a lamp is blown out by a gust of wind at a 
 
 casement. i37« 
 
EVANGELINE. 99 
 
 All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and the 
 
 sorrow, 
 All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatisfied 
 
 longing, 
 All the dull, deep pain, and constant anguish of 
 
 patience ! 
 And, as she pressed once more the lifeless head to her 
 
 bosom, 
 Meekly she bowed her own, and murmured, " Father, 
 
 I thank thee ! " isao 
 
 Still stands the forest primeval ; but far away from 
 its shadow. 
 
 Side by side, in their nameless graves, the lovers are 
 sleeping. 
 
 Under the humble walls of the little Catholic church- 
 yard. 
 
 In the heart of the city, they lie, unknown and un- 
 noticed. 
 
 Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside 
 them, 1385 
 
 Thousands of throbbing hearts, where theirs are at 
 rest and forever, 
 
 Thousands of aching brains, where theirs no longer 
 are busy. 
 
 Thousands of toiling hands, where theirs have ceased 
 from their labors. 
 
 Thousands of weary feet, where theirs have completed 
 their journey I 
 
 Still stands the forest primeval; but under the 
 
 shade of its branches i^^o 
 
 Dwells another race, with other customs and language. 
 
100 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 
 
 n 
 
 Only along the shore of the mournful and misty 
 
 Atlantic 
 Linger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from 
 
 exile 
 Wandered back to their native land to die in its 
 
 bosom. 
 In the fisherman's cot the wheel and the loom are still 
 
 busy ; 1395 
 
 Maidens still wear their Norman caps and their kirtles 
 
 of homespun, ■ 
 
 And by the evening fire repeat Evangeline's story, f 
 
 While from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neigh- 
 boring ocean 
 Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail 
 
 of the forest. 
 
PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY 
 
 OF PROPER NAMES AND FOREIGN WORDS IN 
 EVANGELINE. 
 
 The diacritical marks given below are those found in the latest edition of Web- 
 Bter's International Dictionary. 
 
 EXPLANATION OF MARKS. 
 
 A Dash (~) above the vowel denotes the long sound. 
 A Curve ( " ) above the vowel denotes the short sound. 
 
 A Circumflex Accent C) above the vowels a or u denotes the sound of a in cSra 
 or of u Ln tQrn ; above the vowel o it denotes the sound of o in 8rb. 
 A Dot ( ■ ) above the vowel a denotes the sound of a in past. 
 A Double Dot (") above the vowel a denotes the sound of a in star. 
 A Double Dot ( ^^ ) below the vowel u denotes the sound of u in trije. 
 A Wave C**) above the vowel e denotes the sound of e in her. 
 
 g sounds like z. 
 q soimds like s. 
 g sounds like j. 
 a, e, 6 are similar in sound to &, e, o, but are not pronounced so long. 
 
 Note that the pronunciation of French words can be given only approximately 
 by means of signs and English equivalents. A living teacher is requisite to enable 
 one to read and speak the language with elegance. 
 
 Abb6 Guillaume Thomas Francis Raynal 
 
 (Sb-ba' ge-yom', etc.). 
 Acadie (a-ka-de'). 
 Acca'dii. 
 Xda'yes. 
 Aelian (e^i-Sn). 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle (aks-la-sha-p51'). 
 Amorphas (a-m8r'faz). 
 Angelus Domini (Sn'je-lQs d5m'i-nT). 
 Xrca'^dia. 
 
 asphodel (Ss'fo-dSl). 
 Atchafalaya (Sch-4-fa-li'i). 
 Attakapas (St-tuk'a-paw). 
 Bacchantes (bSk-kSn^ez). 
 Bacchus (bSk'Qs). 
 
 Beau S^jour (bo sa-zhoor'). 
 
 BSnedignrte. 
 
 Bgn'edTct Bgllefontaine'. 
 
 BlSmtdSn. 
 
 Briareus (bri'a-rus). 
 
 Bruges (br^zh). 
 
 Cadie^. 
 
 CSmSn'cheg. 
 
 CSnard'. 
 
 Cape Brgt'on. 
 
 ggl'tic. 
 
 Charente Inferieure (shSr-anhf Snh-fa- 
 
 re-er'). 
 Chamisay (shar-nY-za'). 
 Chartreux (shar-tre')- 
 
102 
 
 PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY. 
 
 ci-devant (se-de-vanh'). 
 
 Cotelle'. 
 
 coureurs-des-bois (koo'rer-da-bvva). 
 
 Contes Populaires (kSnht pop-u-lS;r'). 
 
 couvre-feu (koo'vr-fe). 
 
 Dante's Divina Commedia (di-ve'na 
 
 com-ma'dT-a). 
 Ducauroi (dii-ko-rwa^). 
 EvSn'gel'ine. 
 Fii'ta M6rga'na. 
 Father Felician (fe-lTsh'i-an). 
 Foutaine-qui-bout (f8nh'tan-ke-b6o). 
 Gabriel Lajeunesse (la-zhe-ugs'). 
 Gaspereau (gas-pe-ro'). 
 Gayarr^ (gi-a-ra'). 
 Gnadenhlitten (gna-den-hut'gn). 
 Grand-Pr6 (granh-pra'). 
 Herod'Stus. 
 
 Horae Hellenicae (ho're hel-lSn'I-se). 
 Isaac de Razilli (de rii-ze-ye'). 
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 Le Carillon de Dunkerque (le k5r-e- 
 
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 mattre de chapelle (ma'tr de sha-p51'). 
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 Minas Basin (me'uas basin). 
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 Natchitoches (nSck'e-tosh). 
 
 nepen'the. 
 
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 Passamaqu5d'dy. 
 
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 PTs'TquTd. 
 
 Plaquemine, Bayou of (plSk-men', bi'oo). 
 
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 Pointe Couple (pwSnht koo-pa'). 
 
 Poitou (pwa-too'). 
 
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 Sam'son Xgonis'tes. 
 
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 Tous les Bourgeois de Chartreb ^too la 
 
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 voyageur (vwa-ya-zher'). 
 Wachita (wosh'e-taw). 
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 were-wolf. 
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 Xerxes (zerks'ez). 
 
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