Troops and militia
were not wanting. The difficulty was to find provisions enough to
enable them to keep the field. By begging from house to house, getting
here a biscuit and there a morsel of bacon, enough was collected to
supply a considerable party for a number of days; and a hundred and
twenty soldiers and Canadians went out under Vaudreuil to hunt the
hunters of men. Long impunity had made the Iroquois so careless that
they were easily found. A band of about forty had made their quarters
at a house near the fort at Repentigny, and here the French scouts
discovered them early in the night. Vaudreuil and his men were in
canoes. They lay quiet till one o'clock, then landed, and noiselessly
approached the spot. Some of the Iroquois were in the house, the rest
lay asleep on the ground before it. The French crept towards them, and
by one close volley killed them all. Their comrades within sprang up
in dismay. Three rushed out, and were shot: the others stood on their
defence, fired from windows and loopholes, and killed six or seven of
the French, who presently succeeded in setting fire to the house,
which was thatched with straw. Young Francois de Bienville, one of the
sons of Charles Le Moyne, rushed up to a window, shouted his name like
an Indian warrior, fired on the savages within, and was instantly shot
dead.
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