René was responsible for our practical use of numbers, allowing us to create imaginary ledgers of goods one might purchase or trade. He instructed us in measuring the size of properties, particularly community fields, weighing bags of grain produced in those fields, and predicting what each was likely to yield in a growing season.
He instructed us also in stonemasonry. This skill I was not to perfect until much later in life, for I was only in residence at Grand Pré in the winter. Benjamin, on the other hand, became a master stonemason like his father and grandfather before him.
As for Uncle Pierre, he supervised what we read in both languages and was able to produce any number of volumes from his massive library to improve our reading. He encouraged us to practise incessantly so that we should become competent in French and English.
It was Uncle’s knowledge of history that captured my imagination most. In telling his own story he was able to bring to life a great web of stories that described the history of France and England over a period of close to a hundred years. One such story told of the execution of the English king.
“When I was thirteen, the king of England, Charles I, was beheaded. Can you imagine that, a monarch being executed by his own people?”
Benjamin and I sat there in total wonderment.
“Why would they cut the king’s head off, Uncle?” I asked.
“That is a good question, Piau. Well, the answer is clear. He went to war against his own subjects and lost that war. He was tried and executed. The stubborn King Charles believed he was only answerable to God, not the people of England, and it is a known fact, especially in England, that a monarch reigns only by the good graces of his subjects.”
“Who became king after the execution?” inquired Benjamin.
“That is also an excellent question, Grandson. There was no king. The commanding general of the army was a man named Oliver Cromwell, and he governed for ten years as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. He did not wish to be king but he certainly was an able leader. My father was a member of Cromwell’s New Model Army. It was because my father was on the winning side that he was given land at Port Royal in 1657. That is how I came to live in Acadia.”
“How is it that we have a king now, Uncle Pierre?” I asked.
“Well, three years after my family arrived in Acadia, in 1660, to be exact, the English Parliament, the elected assembly where all the laws are created, invited the old king’s son to return to England as their new king. King Charles II happily agreed but he was forced to relinquish many of the powers his father had enjoyed. After he was crowned, we heard little news of His Majesty in the colony.”
“Tell us about our French history, Grandfather,” Benjamin requested.
“My father told me many tales of his growing up in France. He was a master tailor, you know, from a place in France called La Rochelle. He grew up in a family that was very religious, but they were not Catholics, they were referred to as Huguenots. They believed that a person could have a direct relationship with God through prayer and by reading the words of the Bible. Their church services were conducted in French, not Latin like the Roman Church. The Huguenots were mistrusted by many of the French Catholics, including the king of France himself. They were persecuted for their beliefs even to the point of being hunted down and murdered. The infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is an example. Under the leadership of the Duke of Guise, thousands of Huguenots were hunted down in one day and butchered like wild animals. My father always became very emotional when he related the story of that gruesome day.”
“Why was your family spared?” I inquired, horrified by what I was hearing.
“In La Rochelle the citizens were further away from the seat of power, and most people living in the walled city were Huguenots. With the fortress to protect them, they were able to defend themselves time and time again. Of course, my father was not born at that time and by the time he was, King Henri IV, a man raised a Huguenot, sat on the throne of France. Unfortunately, Good King Henri was assassinated in 1610, three years after my father’s birth, and things became difficult for those who were practising the Protestant religion. By the time my father reached adulthood, he had decided to immigrate to Yorkshire to avoid persecution. That is where I was born.”
Benjamin and I often sat spellbound as Uncle Pierre retold these stories again and again, each time embellishing them with more details for the entertainment of his captive young audience.
During the summers, there were many days when I sailed from Melanson Village the short distance to Annapolis with my brother Charles, who worked daily in the shipyards constructing and repairing ships and boats. Many of the soldiers and officers of the garrison at Annapolis adopted me as their special pet. They valued my ability to communicate with them in English, and I thrived on their attention.
Although I chose conscientiously never to enter the fort, not even when Uncle Pierre inhabited the garrison during harvest time, I sought the company of the British soldiers whenever they sauntered through the town. Acting Lieutenant-Governor Caulfield continued to share his library with me, but for some reason I always made an effort to return the books to their owner. Perhaps it ensured more contact with him, or perhaps it was that nagging guilt that was never far from the surface when I cavorted with the conquerors.
One day in early March of 1717, following my return from Grand Pré, I was passing the gates of the fort when I noticed the Union Jack flying at half-mast. I inquired at the guard post as to its meaning. The soldiers solemnly informed me that the lieutenant-governor had suddenly and unexpectedly passed away during the night. I turned about-face and ran down the street of the lower town sobbing uncontrollably. I wished to escape the horrid news, hoping that if I ran far enough the truth of it would disappear. I followed the path along the river to a place of sanctuary. How could someone just die? I was eleven years old and could not remember ever losing someone to death — my departed father I had never known. This was only the beginning of a series of tragedies that plagued my life in those early years.
With the death of Caulfield came the usual unsettled feeling among the Acadians that the new lieutenant-governor would force the issue of taking the oath of allegiance to the British king. Caulfield’s replacement, like every new lieutenant-governor, took the hard line at first and insisted the Acadians swear without any qualifications. Uncle’s dealings with the new lieutenant-governor were more circumspect and less cordial despite the usual acceptance of Uncle Pierre’s “Englishness.” Uncle railed about the new lieutenant-governor’s lack of understanding of the situation in Acadia. On his annual visit to Annapolis he told his family how he had pressed his case with the new Lieutenant-Governor Doucette.
“We have ever been loyal to the British Crown, Your Excellency, but abandoning our neutrality in times of war would force us to take up arms against our kinfolk who live in the French colonies surrounding Acadia. It would force me to take up arms against my own children. That part of the oath can never be sworn by His Majesty’s loyal French-speaking subjects. The remainder of the oath is agreeable to us. I represent the wishes of Acadians throughout His Majesty’s colony in this matter.”
Over the next two years Uncle Pierre’s efforts with Doucette did eventually reap the benefits he so desired to achieve. Overhearing his discussions on the matter with René and Isabelle, I sensed, though, that his success would only survive the time of the current lieutenant-governor.
During the summer of 1719 Isabelle permitted Benjamin to spend the summer with his cousins at Port Royal. He was now ten years old and able to be taken in for a season by my family. I was overjoyed, and we both relished the idea of the warm days of summer when we could mix the carefree life by the river with the chores of the farm and fields. The purpose of this arrangement