Piau. Bruce Monk Murray

composure, I was able to get right to the point, as was my custom.

      “Monsieur Bernard, I know you are aware, and have been since before I arrived at Gaudet Village, of my intention to court your daughter. In our time together I have discovered that, for me, a life without Jeanne would be unimaginable. I believe she feels the same, although she has never said so in so many words. It is time for me to marry. I request permission to ask for Jeanne’s hand. If you are so kind as to grant it, I promise I will strive to make her happy.”

      There was a deep silence. I saw tears in Bernard’s eyes. After a pause, he spoke.

      “Piau, you had my permission back in Annapolis, the day we met. I felt a sense of destiny in our first meeting. To unite our families by marriage is beyond anything I could hope for. God will bless both our houses with this union.”

      He then embraced me wordlessly. Bernard turned and walked toward the storehouse.

      Ecstasy, ecstasy! I was free to express my feelings to Jeanne. My desire now was for her to share her feelings with me. What a romantic I had become!

      When Jeanne and I sat on the garden bench under the harvest moon that evening, I wasted no time in getting right to the point. “Your father has given me permission to ask for your hand in marriage. I told him you would most certainly accept my proposal. Was that presuming too much?”

      She rose from where we were seated and slowly walked to the garden gate. Gazing up at the night sky, she spoke. “Do you see the Big Dipper, there?” She pointed to the constellation I knew as the Big Bear. “It is filled to the brim, much like my heart.”

      Jeanne did not look at me when she uttered those words. There was a deafening silence between us, but I had said all I was able to say short of declaring my love outright. There was no need. She turned to me and smiled that extraordinary smile of hers, and our eyes met. She broke the silence and declared in a quiet voice, “Where you go, I will follow, where you lodge, I will lodge, and your home will be my home.”

      “The Book of Ruth!”

      “Certainement.”

      She placed her arm in mine and nonchalantly suggested, “Shall we go into the house and make the announcement?”

      Charles returned to Gaudet Village as planned at the end of September. His arrival filled me with mixed feelings. The news he brought did not.

      Charles reported that since I had been upriver things in Annapolis had gone from bad to miserable. The Acadian members of the council were still locked up in the jail, and many in the colony had chosen to spend long periods away from the town. They had sought excuses to be out at sea fishing or hunting in the woods. Many found reasons to assist the most distant villages with their harvests, neglecting their own. Their women and children became responsible for collecting the crops and managing the farms.

      Armstrong was living up to his name. He was determined to have his way on the oath, and Mangeant was always at his side to reinforce his position. As an interpreter, the royal favourite intimidated the Acadians because he shared their language. It was difficult to hold their ground when everything they said could be adversely interpreted.

      The most astonishing news was that the lieutenant-governor had declared the church upriver, the Chapelle St. Laurent, henceforth closed. The parishioners there were to be refused the services of a priest, forcing all Acadians to worship at St. Jean Baptiste, the parish church in Annapolis. This required the people to hold all their baptisms and marriages, and to receive the Eucharist, under the watchful eye of the lieutenant-governor. His spy, Mangeant, attended these functions.

      The impact was felt strongly in the Gaudet home. My marriage to Jeanne now had to be celebrated in Annapolis. Given the disruption in the timing of our ceremony, we would have to postpone it until after Christmas, causing problems with winter travel. As the river froze and the snow collected in the woods, the coming together of the communities to celebrate our marriage would be impossible. We would begin our life together faced with the first of many challenges we were to endure. Looking back, I now know that it was the least significant one.