Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Delphi Poets Series Book 13)

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Rang out the hour of nine, the village curfew, and straightway

  Rose the guests and departed; and silence reigned in the household. 355

  Many a farewell word and sweet goodnight on the door-step

  Lingered 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 followed. 360

  Up the staircase moved a luminous space in the darkness,

  Lighted less by the lamp than the shining face of the maiden.

  Silent she passed 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 carefully 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 fair, exceeding fair to behold, as she stood with

  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, 380

  As out of Abrabam’s tent young Ishmael wandered with Hagar!

  IV

  Pleasantly rose next morn the sun on the village of Grand-Pré.

  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.

  Many a glad good-morrow and jocund laugh from the young folk

  Made the bright air brighter, as up from the numerous 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 together. 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:

  For Evangeline stood among the guests of her father; 400

  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,

  Stript of its golden fruit, was spread the feast of betrothal.

  There in the shade of the porch were the priest and the notary seated; 405

  There good Benedict sat, and sturdy Basil the blacksmith.

  Not far withdrawn from these, by the ciderpress 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 Dunquerque,

  And anon with his 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 summons sonorous 420

  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 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 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, 430

  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. 435

  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! 440

  Prisoners now I declare you; for such is his Majesty’s pleasure!”

  As, when the air is serene in 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, 445

  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. 450

  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, — 455

  “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, 460

  Lo! the door of the chancel opened, and Father Felician

  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 you 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?

  Lo! where the crucified Christ from his cross is gazing upon you!

  See! in those sorrowful eyes what meekness and holy compassion! 475

  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 hearts of his people

  Sank they, and sobs of contrition succeeded the passionate outbreak, 480

  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, 485

  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 her right hand

  Shielding her eyes from the level rays of the sun, that, descending, 490

  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 ambrosial meadows.

  Ah! on her spirit within a deeper shadow had fallen,

  And from the fields of her soul a fragrance celestial ascended, — 500

  Charity, meekness, love, and hope, and forgiveness, and patience!

  Then, all-forgetful of self, she wandered into the village,

  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. 505

  Down sank the great red sun, and in golden, glimmering vapors

  Veiled the light of his face, like the Prophet descending from Sinai.

  Sweetly over the village the bell of the Angelus sounded.

  Meanwhile, amid the gloom, by the church Evangeline lingered.

  All was silent within; and in vain at the door and the windows 510

  Stood she, and listened and looked, till, 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!

  Then she remembered the tale she had heard of the justice of Heaven;

  Soothed was her troubled soul, and she peacefully slumbered till morning.

  V

  Four times the sun had risen and set; and now on the fifth day

  Cheerily called the cock to the sleeping maids of the farm-house. 525

  Soon o’er the yellow fields, in silent and mournful procession,

  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. 530

  Close at their sides their children ran, and urged on the oxen,

  While in their little hands they clasped some fragments 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,

  Echoed far o’er the fields came the roll of drums from the churchyard.

  Thither the women and children thronged. On a sudden 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 descended

  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 fountain!

  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 sunshine 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, —

  Calmly and sadly she waited, until the procession approached 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 happen!” 560

  Smiling she spake these words; then suddenly paused, for her father

  Saw she slowly advancing. Alas! how changed was 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 comfort availed not.

  Thus to the Gaspereau’s mouth moved on that mournful 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 570

  Left on the land, extending their arms, with wildest entreaties.

  So unto separate ships were Basil and Gabriel carried,

  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 slippery 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; 585

  Sweet was the moist still air with the odor of milk from their udders;

  Lowing they waited, and long, at the wellknown bars of the farm-yard, —

  Waited and looked in vain for the voice and the hand of the milk-maid.

  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

  But on the shores 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