"Thank heaven!" ejaculated Antoine Lecorbeau, "they have saved
the dike!"

In Acadian eyes to tamper with the dikes was sacrilege.

"Well!" said the sergeant, with a somewhat cynical chuckle, "at least
the English have got their feet wet!"

Pierre broke off his laugh in the middle, for at this moment the red
lines charged. The deadly volley which rang out along the summit for
an instant staggered the assailants; but they rallied and went over
the barrier like a scarlet wave. The dike was much easier to scale when
thus approached on the landward side.

And now ensued a fierce hand-to-hand struggle. The spectators could
hardly contain their excitement as they saw their party, fighting
doggedly, forced back step by step to the edge of the water. Some,
slipping in the ooze of the retreating tide, fell and were carried
down by the current. These soon swam ashore--discreetly landing on
the further side of the river. The rest seeing the struggle hopeless,
now broke and fled with a celerity that the English could not hope
to rival. Along the flats, for perhaps a mile, a detachment of the
English pursued them till a bugle sounded their recall. Then Major
Lawrence, finding himself master of the field, directed his march
to that low hill where he had encamped the previous spring, and a
fatigue party was set to repair the dike.

On this hill the English proceeded to erect a fortified post, which
they called Fort Lawrence; and in an incredibly short time the red flag
was waving from its battlements, not three miles distant from Beausejour,