One day they killed him and
fled, but some of them were captured. These were taken back to New
Orleans, court-martialed, and punished according to the regulations:
they were nailed alive to their coffins and sawed in two.
Ceded to Spain by a secret clause in the Treaty of Paris, of which she
did not know until 1764, Louisiana could not believe the news. Even when
the Acadians, appeared, after having been so cruelly ejected from their
lands in what is now New Brunswick, Louisiana could not believe that
Louis XV would coldly cast off his loyal colony. The fact that he had
done so was not credited until a Spanish governor arrived. For three
years after, there was confusion. Then a strong force was sent from
Spain under Count O'Reilly, a man of Irish birth, but Spanish
allegiance, and the flag of Spain was raised. O'Reilly maintained
viceregal splendor; he invited leading citizens to a levee; here in his
own house he caused his soldiers to seize the group of prominent men who
had attempted to prevent the accomplishment of Spanish rule, and five
of these he presently caused to be shot as rebels.
Spanish governors came and went. The people settled down. At one time
Padre Antonio de Sedella, a Spanish Capuchin, arrived with a commission
to establish in the city the Holy office of the Inquisition, but he was
discouraged and shipped back to Cadiz.
Pages:
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642