Sights and shrines of Montreal; a guide book for strangers and a hand book for all lovers of historic spots and incidents . now became pressing, for the river was 200paces away, and this want caused the Indian allies tosend and treat for peace with the enemy. On assur-ances of life, thirty leaped the palisades and deserted,thus fatally weakening the besieged. Messengerswere then sent forward to propose surrender to thelatter ; but the French for answer fired upon so enraged the Iroquois, that thev nil rose up,ferociously rushed at the palisade with heads down,and began to sap it with
Sights and shrines of Montreal; a guide book for strangers and a hand book for all lovers of historic spots and incidents . now became pressing, for the river was 200paces away, and this want caused the Indian allies tosend and treat for peace with the enemy. On assur-ances of life, thirty leaped the palisades and deserted,thus fatally weakening the besieged. Messengerswere then sent forward to propose surrender to thelatter ; but the French for answer fired upon so enraged the Iroquois, that thev nil rose up,ferociously rushed at the palisade with heads down,and began to sap it with their axes in the face of theheavy fire. The French called up all their courageand industry in this extremitv. Among other effortsthey took up a keg of powder, lit a fuse to it, and 132 SIGHTS AND SHRINES OP MONTREAL. threw it out among the assailants. It unfortunatelystruck a branch, sprang back into the fort, and ex-ploded, burning most of the defenders and blindingthem with its fumes. The Iroquois were so elated,that they sprang furiously over the palisade on allsides, hatchet in hand, and filled it with blood and. STREET SCENE IN WINTER. carnage, killing all but five of the French and fourHurons, among the slain being the brave Anahotaha,who, dying, begged his comrades to thrust his headin the fire, so that no Iroquois should have the gloryof taking his scalp. At this moment a Frenchmanarose. Seeing that all was lost, and that several ofhis companions, while fatally wounded, still survived,he finished them with great strokes of an axe, to SIGHTS AND SHRINES OF MONTREAL. 133 deliver theni from the Iroquois fires. The foe took theirrevenge by terrible tortures of the living, and by eatingtheir flesh. But the design, before formed in theircouncils, of overrunning and finally exterminatingthe French settlement was thenceforward seventeen French, with but five allies,could fightso well, what might the rest do if pushed to anextremity ? The whole colony was thus sav
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