of which was the bold but ruthless partisan, Saint-Luc de la Corne, his brother, his children, and a party of Canadian officers, together with ladies, merchants, and soldiers.  A worthy ecclesiastical chronicler paints the unhappy vessel as a floating Babylon, and sees in her fate the stern judgment of Heaven.[858] It is true that New France ran riot in the last years of her existence; but before the “Auguste” was well out of the St. Lawrence she was so tossed and buffeted, so lashed with waves and pelted with rain, that the most alluring forms of sin must have lost their charm, and her inmates passed days rather of penance than transgression.  There was a violent storm as the ship entered the Gulf; then a calm, during which she took fire in the cook’s galley.  The crew and passengers subdued the flames after desperate efforts; but their only food thenceforth was dry biscuit.  Off the coast of Cape Breton another gale rose.  They lost their reckoning and lay tossing blindly amid the tempest.  The exhausted sailors took, in despair, to their hammocks, from which neither commands nor blows could rouse them, while amid shrieks, tears, prayers, and vows to Heaven, the “Auguste” drove towards the shore, struck, and rolled over on her side.  La Corne with six others gained the beach; and towards night they saw the ship break asunder, and counted a hundred and fourteen corpses strewn along the sand.  Aided by Indians and by English officers, La Corne made his way on snow-shoes up the St. John, and by a miracle of enduring hardihood reached Quebec before the end of winter.[859]

[Footnote 857:  Levis a Belleisle, 27 Nov. 1760.]

[Footnote 858:  Faillon, Vie de Mademoiselle Le Ber, 363-370.]

[Footnote 859:  Journal du Voyage de M. Saint-Luc de la Corne.  This is his own narrative.]

The other ships weathered the November gales, and landed their passengers on the shores of France, where some of them found a dismal welcome, being seized and thrown into the Bastille.  These were Vaudreuil, Bigot, Cadet, Pean, Breard, Varin, Le Mercier, Penisseault, Maurin, Corpron, and others accused of the frauds and peculations that had helped to ruin Canada.  In the next year they were all put on trial, whether as an act of pure justice or as a device to turn public indignation from the Government.  In December, 1761, judges commissioned for the purpose began their sessions at the Chatelet, and a prodigious mass of evidence was laid before them.  Cadet, with brazen effrontery, at first declared himself innocent, but ended with full and unblushing confession.  Bigot denied everything till silenced point by point with papers bearing his own signature.  The prisoners defended themselves by accusing each other.  Bigot and Vaudreuil brought mutual charges, while all agreed in denouncing Cadet.  Vaudreuil, as before mentioned, was acquitted.  Bigot was banished from France for life, his property was confiscated, and he was