EVANGELINE INTRODUCTORY NOTE. IN Hawthorne's American Note-Books is the following passage: "H. L. C. heard from a French Canadian a story of a young couple in Acadie. On their mar riage-day all the men of the Province were summoned to assemble in the church to hear a procla mation. When assembled, they were all seized and shipped off to be distributed through New England, — among them the new bridegroom. His bride set off in search of him-wandered about New England all her life-time, and at last when she was old, she found her bridegroom on his death-bed. The shock was so great that it killed her likewise." This is the story, as set down by the romancer, which his friend, the Rev. H. L. Conolly, had heard from a parishioner. Mr. Conolly saw in it a fine theme for a romance, but for some reason Hawthorne was disinclined to undertake it. One day the two were dining with Mr. Longfellow, and Mr. Conolly told the story again and wondered that Hawthorne did not care for it. "If you really do not want this incident for a tale," said Mr. Longfellow to his friend, "let me have it for a poem." Just when the conversation |