Evangeline | Page 6

were riding at anchor.?Life had long been astir in the village, and clamorous labor?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.?Many a glad good morrow and jocund laugh from the young folk?Made the bright air brighter, as up from the numerous meadows,?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 together,?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:?For Evangeline stood among the guests of her father;?Bright was her face with smiles, and words of welcome 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,?Bending with golden fruit, was spread the feast of betrothal.?There in the shade of the porch were the priest and the notary seated;?There good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the blacksmith.?Not far withdrawn from these, by the cider-press and the beehives,?Michael the fiddler was placed, with the gayest of hearts and of waistcoats.?Shadow and light from the leaves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?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,?And anon with his wooden shoes beat time to the music.?Merrily, merrily whirled the wheels of the dizzying dances?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 summons sonorous?Sounded the bell from its tower, and over the meadows a drum beat.?Thronged erelong was the church with men. Without, in the churchyard,?Waited the women. They 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?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 portal?Closed, and in silence the crowd awaited the will of the soldiers.?Then uprose their commander, and spake from the steps of the altar,?Holding aloft in his hands, with its seals, the royal commission.?"You are convened this day," he said, "by his Majesty's orders.?Clement and kind has he been; but how you have answered his kindness,?Let your own hearts reply! To my natural make and my temper?Painful the task is I do, which to you I know must be grievous.?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?Be transported to other lands. God grant you may dwell there?Ever as faithful subjects, a happy and peaceable people!?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 enclosures;?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!?Death to these foreign soldiers, who seize on our 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 contention,?Lo! the door of the chancel opened, and Father Felician?Entered, with