What had occurred is easily explained. The watchers in the windows at the front found that it was more than flesh and blood could endure to remain waiting at their posts while the fates of their wives and children were being decided¹ at the back. All was quiet at the stockade², and the Indians appeared to be as absorbed as the Canadians in what was passing upon the river. One by one, therefore, the men on guard had crept away and had assembled at the back to cheer the seaman’s shot and to groan³ as the remaining canoe sped like a bloodhound down the river in the wake of the fugitives⁴. But the savages⁶ had one at their head who was as full of wiles⁷ and resource as Du Lhut himself. The Flemish Bastard⁸ had watched the house from behind the stockade as a dog watches a rat-hole, and he had instantly discovered that the defenders⁹ had left their post. With a score of other warriors¹⁰ he raised a great log from the edge of the forest, and crossing the open space unchallenged, he and his men rushed it against the door with such violence as to crack the bar across and tear the wood from the hinges. The first intimation which the survivors¹¹ had of the attack was the crash of the door, and the screams of two of the negligent¹² watchmen who had been seized and scalped in the hall. The whole basement floor was in the hands of the Indians, and De Catinat and his enemy the friar were cut off from the foot of the stairs.

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