At last, in 1755, the English accomplished something decisive.
They sent an army to Fort Lawrence, attacked Fort Beausejour,
forced its timid commander Vergor to surrender, mastered the
whole surrounding country, and obliged Le Loutre himself to fly
to Quebec. There he embarked for France. The English captured him
on the sea, however, and the relentless and cruel priest spent
many years in an English prison. His later years, when he reached
France, do him some credit. By that time the Acadians had been
driven from their homes. There were nearly a thousand exiles in
England. Le Loutre tried to befriend these helpless people and
obtained homes for some of them in the parish of Belle-Isle-en-
Mer in France.
In the meantime the price of Le Loutre's intrigues and of the
outrages of the French and their Indian allies was now to be paid
by the unhappy Acadians. During the spring and summer of 1755,
the British decided that the question of allegiance should be
settled at once, and that the Acadians must take the oath. There
was need of urgency. The army at Fort Lawrence which had captured
Fort Beausejour was largely composed of men from New England, and
these would wish to return to their homes for the winter.
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