With but the least assistance they would have swept the Gulf and made themselves masters of that inland sea, and not only held the possessions of the mother country on land, but added to them.
Frenchmen in language and in their hearts, they put up with the expulsion of their beloved Ursuline sisters, since the mother country so willed it, only allowing themselves the liberty of giving vent to their feelings by indulging in an unlimited number of satirical songs, burlesques, and pasquinades, as they were called. Little did they know, as they trod the white streets of the city, the deadly blow to those same stout hearts which France was plotting,—France, whom they loved so fondly and in whom they trusted so implicitly.
Completely dominated by his prime minister, Choiseul, Louis XV followed where this ugly, brilliant, inconstant man led, and trafficked first with Austria and then with Spain, till in 1761 Choiseul put in shape his famous “Pacte de Famille,” which united all the royalties of Bourbon blood and which formed into one great band the thrones of France, Spain, Turin, Naples, and Sicily.
Although Choiseul had the audacity to frame this agreement, and Louis XV had the folly to sign it, they did not have the courage to proclaim it, and so it remained a secret for several years.
It was not till October, 1764, that the news arrived at New Orleans that Louisiana had, by secret treaty, been ceded to Spain, and instructions were sent to Monsieur D’Abadie, the Governor, to hand over to the envoy of Spain, who would shortly arrive, the whole colony and its possessions.
The blow was stunning!
At first it could not be credited. To be tossed like a plaything from France to Spain, that cowardly Spain who had never assisted them in any way, who had not even fought to get them, whom they had outwitted and overmatched in every contest,—this was too much!
Not many hours elapsed before the city was in a ferment. Groups gathered on the street corners and loudly denounced the proceedings. The wine-shops held excited bands who declaimed in passionate language against both king and country that could treat a colony in such fashion, and the chorus which rose and swelled protested that it could not be borne.
Swift pirogues carried the news among the plantations which lay along the Bayous, while men on horseback went to those in the interior.
Meetings were called in the parishes first, and then a convention was planned in New Orleans itself, to which every parish in the State was to send delegates. The subject was to be discussed, and then the King was to be informed of this cruel, this awful thing that he was doing, and he was to be petitioned to listen to the voice which echoed his own tongue, and which under every trial had spoken but loyal words of him.