Fort Gaspereau, at Baye Verte, twelve miles distant, was summoned by letter to surrender.  Villeray, its commandant, at once complied; and Winslow went with a detachment to take possession.[261] Nothing remained but to occupy the French post at the mouth of the St. John.  Captain Rous, relieved at last from inactivity, was charged with the task; and on the thirtieth he appeared off the harbor, manned his boats, and rowed for shore.  The French burned their fort, and withdrew beyond his reach.[262] A hundred and fifty Indians, suddenly converted from enemies to pretended friends, stood on the strand, firing their guns into the air as a salute, and declaring themselves brothers of the English.  All Acadia was now in British hands.  Fort Beausejour became Fort Cumberland,—­the second fort in America that bore the name of the royal Duke.

[Footnote 261:  Winslow, Journal.  Villeray au Ministre, 20 Sept. 1755.]

[Footnote 262:  Drucour au Ministre, 1 Dec. 1755.]

The defence had been of the feeblest.  Two years later, on pressing demands from Versailles, Vergor was brought to trial, as was also Villeray.  The Governor, Vaudreuil, and the Intendant, Bigot, who had returned to Canada, were in the interest of the chief defendant.  The court-martial was packed; adverse evidence was shuffled out of sight; and Vergor, acquitted and restored to his rank, lived to inflict on New France another and a greater injury.[263]

[Footnote 263:  Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie, 1759. Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760.]

Now began the first act of a deplorable drama.  Monckton, with his small body of regulars, had pitched their tents under the walls of Beausejour.  Winslow and Scott, with the New England troops, lay not far off.  There was little intercourse between the two camps.  The British officers bore themselves towards those of the provincials with a supercilious coldness common enough on their part throughout the war.  July had passed in what Winslow calls “an indolent manner,” with prayers every day in the Puritan camp, when, early in August, Monckton sent for him, and made an ominous declaration.  “The said Monckton was so free as to acquaint me that it was determined to remove all the French inhabitants out of the province, and that he should send for all the adult males from Tantemar, Chipody, Aulac, Beausejour, and Baye Verte to read the Governor’s orders; and when that was done, was determined to retain them all prisoners in the fort.  And this is the first conference of a public nature I have had with the colonel since the reduction of Beausejour; and I apprehend that no officer of either corps has been made more free with.”