Band of Acadians (14 page)
A distraught Nola, attempting to comfort a trembling Zoopie, sobbed. “Grandpa was killed in that last attack, Frank. He was stabbed in the chest by a bayonet. It's horrible!”
Jocelyne moaned. “Those grenades my team threw killed many of our own people.”
Hector attempted to console her. “If you hadn't done that, we'd all be dead. You had to throw them.”
Dusk was already upon the field when the British troops began the pickup of their dead and wounded.
Frank checked what supplies they had left and then called a war council. “We can't survive another assault. We don't have enough ammunition and we've already lost twenty of our own. There's only one way to stop them. We have to launch a raid as soon as it's dark to blow up their stores of gunpowder.”
“That's a pretty difficult assignment, Frank,” Hector said.
“It's tough, but it's the only way. I know from talking to the
Shannon
prisoners how the British Army operates. They normally have a few supply wagons about two thousand yards back of the front lines. We have to find those wagons with the gunpowder and blow them up. I think they'd have sent more troops to fight us if they had more gunpowder, so they must be quite short. Their assault on Louisbourg must have taken most of the supplies they had. We have to hit them hard where they're most vulnerable.”
Nola kissed Frank gently on the cheek. “I'm glad you're in charge of our defence, dear. Without you we'd be finished for sure.”
Frank smiled thinly, then went on to explain that he needed twenty men for the assignment â four to carry a catapult, eight to carry bomb barrels, and eight to provide musket cover. He didn't need to emphasize how dangerous the assignment was. But when he asked for volunteers, he was delighted to see so many were ready to serve.
“You're a brave bunch,” he said, deeply moved.
Shortly after midnight, the raiding party set out over the embankment, moving as quickly and quietly as possible. They headed five hundred yards away from the main encampment, crouching and zigzagging over the terrain to check for wagons. Frank had taken Hector's spyglass, since he knew best what to look for. Every couple of hundred yards they stopped and scouted around as well as they could in the dim moonlight. At the third stop Frank, seeing a guard glancing in their direction, gestured for an immediate crouch down. When they reached the two-thousand-yard range with no luck, Frank had the men crawl back toward their encampment.
Finally, they spotted the wagons they were looking for three-quarters of an hour into the mission. Frank was certain he had the right wagons now, so he motioned for the catapult team to get ready. Then he gave the go-ahead.
The first bomb hit a wagon, but there was no secondary explosion, so Frank had his men reposition to strike the second target. This volley caused a huge double explosion. “Pay dirt!” Frank whooped. The third bomb fell short, but the last one scored again, and a huge explosion ruptured the darkened skyline.
To a rising crescendo of shouts, the raiders dumped their catapult and raced back the way they had come. Hundreds of musket shots whizzed over their heads. They were within sight of the embankments when several British troops moved to cut off their escape.
Rameur
musket shots rang out, and the English soldiers dodged away. Only fifty yards from safety, Frank and his companions were again caught, and this time several shots felled five of the raiders. Three of these were obviously dead; Hector and Frank were shot but still mobile, barely. Firing as best they could, the remaining
Rameurs
cleared a narrow pathway of tree obstacles and dragged themselves to the embankments where several defenders helped pull them over.
While volleys of
Rameur
shots forced the attackers to retreat, Nola and Jocelyne grabbed their husbands, tore open the clothing covering their wounds, and did their utmost to stop the bleeding. Others brought over clean rags to wash the dirt embedded in the gashes. This operation was so painful that both young men lost consciousness.
They awoke as dawn touched the horizon to perceive dimly the worried faces of their wives. Shot in the leg, Frank smiled feebly and asked, “Did you force them back?” Then, suddenly anxious, he added, “Am going to live?”
Before anyone could answer, Hector growled, “They got my other leg this time. Those British really have it in for me.”
Nola and Jocelyne reacted in unison “Thank God, you're alive!”
The morning light brought a hopeful development. The British, it seemed, were preparing to depart. Told of this, Frank said, grimacing with pain and fatigue, “I knew that after the siege of Louisbourg they'd be short of gunpowder. If they really are leaving, then I guess our raid paid off.”
With a combination of pride and gratitude, Nola said, “That was a daring manoeuvre, Frank, but we're very fortunate they're going. If they knew we were out of bombs, they'd surely strike us again.” Then, lifted by a wave of emotion as she gazed at the line of departing soldiers, she added, “We don't know if they'll be back next year or the year after, but for now at least we're survivors. We have our homes again, such as they are after that horrible bombardment. We've had more than enough of people who want to do us harm.”
Nola studied the dew sparkling on the grass and felt as if everything had been washed clean by the battle. “Louisbourg has fallen, French power in Cape Breton is finished, and the British have won their main objective. They don't need to attack us anymore. After all, we fly the Union Jack. It must have seemed strange for them to be attacking a town flying their own flag. We have, I think, a good chance to be left in peace.”
Books
Brumwell, Stephen.
Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe
. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008.
Chartrand, René.
Louisbourg 1758: Wolfe's First Siege
. Oxford, Eng: Osprey Publishing, 2000.
CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
. Student edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1988.
Cross, Michael S., and Gregory S. Kealey.
Economy and Society During the French Regime, to 1759
. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1983.
Davison, Marion.
Smoke over Grand Pré
. St. John's: Breakwater Books, 2004.
Doucet, Clive.
Notes from Exile: On Being Acadian
. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2000.
____.
Lost and Found in Acadie
. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2004.
Fowler, William.
Empires at War: Seven Years' War and the Struggle for North America
. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2005.
Jobb, Dean W.
The Acadians: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph
. Toronto: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.
Johnston, A.J.B.
Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg's Last Decade
. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Laxer, James.
The Acadians: In Search of a Homeland
. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2007.
MacLeod, D.P.
Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, Eight Minutes of Gunfire That Shaped a Continent
. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008.
Marston, Daniel.
The Seven Years' War
. Oxford, Eng: Osprey Publishing, 2001.
Moore, Christopher.
Louisbourg Portraits: Five Dramatic, True Tales of People Who Lived in an Eighteenth-Century Garrison Town
. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2000.
Shreve, Randolph Norris.
Shreve's Chemical Process Industries
. Ed. G.T. Austin. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984.
Stecher, Paul G., ed.
Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals and Drugs
. 8th ed. Rathway, NJ: Merck, 1968.
Trottier, Maxine.
Dear Canada: Death of My Country: The Plains of Abraham Diary of Geneviève Aubuchon
. Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2005.
Websites
Acadians:
www.cbc.ca/acadian
. Discover the amazing history of Acadians with this site, featuring timelines, interactive maps, and additional resources.
Grand Pré:
www.grand-pre.com
. Plan a trip with this guide to Grand Pré, which covers its incredible history, events, and must-see attractions.
James Wolfe:
www.militaryheritage.com/wolfe.htm
. This biography of General James Wolfe gives a thrilling account of his time fighting in the Seven Years' War.
Louisbourg:
www.louisbourg.ca/fort
. Relive the past with this detailed account of life in Louisbourg during the Seven Years' War.
Nova Scotia:
www.novascotia.com
. This site contains extensive accounts of Nova Scotia, including information on Acadians and the Seven Years' War.
Plains of Abraham:
www.ccbn-nbc.gc.ca/_en/index.php
. Explore the past, present, and future of this historical park through descriptions of important battles, current sights, and future events.
Science in
Band of Acadians
:
www.bandofacadians.ca
.
Site provides information and links on the geology and chemical reactions cited in the novel.
Seven Years' War:
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0007300
. A complete and informative history of the Seven Years' War and North American participation in it.
Shallops:
www.mit.edu/people/bpfoley/shallop.html
. This site describes the seventeenth-century vessels and their uses with accompanying photographs.
MORE GREAT
FICTION FOR
YOUNG PEOPLE
Billy Green Saves the Day
by Ben Guyatt
$12.99
978-1-55488-041-6
Eighteen-year-old Billy Green is an expert woodsman with romantic ideas of combat. But when the War of 1812 breaks out between the British in Canada and the United States, Billy finds himself faced with a series of fateful decisions. On June 5, 1813, he spots the massive American forces camped in the tiny hamlet of Stoney Creek. Can Billy help save the day for Canada?
Laughing Wolf
by Nicholas Maes
978-1-55488-385-1
$12.99
When a mysterious plague breaks out in the year 2213 and puts humanity on the brink of eradication, fifteen-year-old Felix Taylor, the last healthy person on Earth who can speak and read Latin, must project back in time to ancient Rome and the era of Spartacus to retrieve the only possible cure, a flower called Laughing Wolf that has been extinct for more than two thousand years.
Faster Than Wind
by Steve Pitt
$11.99
978-1-55002-837-9
It is 1906, and fifteen-year-old newspaper boy and avid iceboat racer Bertie McCross fights to keep out of the clutches of the Kelly Gang, a family of slightly older Toronto toughs who are shaking down “newsies.” The continued pursuit by the Kelly Gang, a plunge into freezing harbour water, and the clash of classes all lead up to a spine-tingling race to end all races.