Evangeline and Gabriel Betrothal

By Little Paris Fine Arts

From the frontispiece of "Evangeline A Tale of Acadie" 1856 book of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, world-famous Sir John Gilbert’s illustration was engraved by the noted The Dalziel Brothers, the book being published by David Routledge and Co. London. The image was scanned from an original first edition copy of the book. Part the First, Canto III. This particular scene is one of the key ones of the poem, Gabriel Lajeunesse’s and Evangeline Bellefontaine’s formal betrothal as an engaged couple was blessed by Father Felician - the Catholic parish priest, while Evangeline's father Benedict Bellefontaine, observes. Soon, all involved would face forced deportation by the British rule unless the French Acadians would swear allegiance to the British Crown, then dispersed with no care for families and other loved ones being kept together: up and down Colonial America's Atlantic Coast, to Quebec, to France and to the Caribbean Sea and - eventually to Louisiana. Evangeline spent the rest of her existence searching for her long-lost Gabriel.