CHAPTER II

… The Neutral French lived so much like one large family, it was not uncommon to spend the nighl at a neighbor’s house (3).They

(1) Comparer tout ce passage avec le premier chant d’Evangéline.

(2) Tout ce passage (complété par cet autre, p. 109 : « They had all quietly given up their arms, and « the very manner in which this was done », says an English historian, « should have been convincing of their sincerity and peaceable intentions »), nous semble avoir inspiré directement la longue conversation entre Benoît Bellefontaine, Basile Lajeunesse et le notaire René Leblanc. Voir notamment : Evangeline, v. 237-257, 290-302.

(3) Il nous paraît indéniable que Longfellow s’est inspiré de ce chapitre des

were eminently social, and the remnant of them, to this day, spend much of their time in visiting each other. They used never to fasten their doors. or leave any protection except the faithful watch-dog, who protected their flocks etc. from the beasts of the forest. In fact, they had nothing to fear until the proximity of the English. We have it from their enemies, that the crimes of theft, adultery, and murder, were crimes unknown among them. But since their acquaintance and neighborhood with the subjects of his Britannie Majesty — « with the most refined and Christian nation on earth », as they term themselves, the darkeyed daughters of Acadia had rather abridged their walks by moonlight...

[93] They closed the door and windows of the apartment, and drew near the hearth, where a cheerful fire had been lighted, to remedy the dampness arising from the near neighborhood of the river, and counteract the increasing chill of the atmosphere.

The family drew near the hearth — the spinning-wheel was brought for madam, and the knitting for the girls ; but they were untouched, and each sat lost in deep thought. The sprightly Pauline was the first to break silence.

« Dear grandfather », said she, « do you not wish we had the Baron Castine to resort to for advice and assistance ?.…. Will you please to tell us something of him this dreary evening ?.…..

[L’aïeul raconte tout au long la vie aventureuse du célèbre Baron de Saint- Castin.]

Neutral French. La plupart des éléments de cette description se retrouvent longuement développés dans Evangeline. Un détail : They used never to fasten their doors, a clairement inspiré le vers célèbre, si souvent tourné en dérision (parce qu’on veuty voir une preuve manifeste de l’exagération de Longfellow quant aux vertus des Acadiens) :

Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to their windows.

(Evangeline, v. 55.)

Ce détail ne se trouvait ni dans l’abbé Raynal ni dans Haliburton. Mais nous le trouvons cependant dans une lettre inédite du commisaire de la marine, Guillot, chargé des Acadiens rapatriés à Saint-Malo, que nous donnons plus loin.

Enfin, il est probable quel’histoire du célèbre Baron de Saint-Castin racontée par Catherine Williams a inspiré dès ce moment à Longfellow son poème du même nom : The Baron of Saint-Castine (Tales of a wayside Inn, Il).

Sur ce Baron de Saint-Castin, ef. : Robert Le Blant : Une figure légendaire de l'histoire acadienne, le Baron de Saint-Castin (Ed. Pradeu. Dax, 1933).