1391-92.] CORRESPONDENCE OF LIEUT.-COL. COFFIN. 189 
* On Saturday” (z.e. Nov. 17th) ‘‘ four companies of the Royals and two pieces of 
artillery were despatched to Chambly. Some of the Police accompanied them for the 
purpose, if possible, of identifying any of the insurgents. They met with many indi- 
cations of a rebellious spirit—had a slight skirmish in the woods with some armed 
habitants and took seven prisoners. This appears for the moment to have created a 
panic, but I have grave doubts whether the effect will be permanent. It is evident 
that the peasantry has been extensively provided with arms and ammunition, and 
‘systematically instigated to resist the authorities. There can be also no doubt that 
with their immense numerical superiority, if they only knew their own strength and how 
to direct it to the best advantage, they might prove ugly customers. Until they receive 
some terrible lesson, I doubt very much whether they will be reduced to consult their 
own discretion. As yet they appear to obey their leaders implicitly. . . . De- 
bartsch has been compelled to make his escape from St. Charles. T. 5S. Brown and 
Rodolphe Des Riviéres have since taken possession of his property with many of the 
insurgent inhabitants of that vicinity. They are deliberately fortifying themselves in 
his house, throwing up fieldworks and making divers other military preparations. 
Their Commissariat |)epartment has been actively employed within the last few days 
in killing and salting all Debartsch’s cows. This is actually the case. 
‘The British inhabitants of the City are arming and drilling, and talking and 
swaggering after the most approved fashion. I really wish they would drop a little 
of the Bobadil. Modesty is the most graceful plume to the helm of valour. I dare 
say they will fight well enough, but they brag most unconscionably. The City was 
never more tranquil than at this moment. Papineau and a few other such vultures, 
against whom warrants of arrest for high treason have been issued, are off.” 
Two days after this last letter was written, Col. Gore was sent against 
the rebels posted at St. Denis. He was accompanied by 200 infantry, some 
volunteer cavalry, and three guns. At the same time Lt.-Col. Wetherell 
was ordered to proceed against St. Charles (otherwise known as 
Debartsch). The repulse of the troops at St. Denis on November 23rd, 
Wetherell’s victory at St. Charles on the 25th, and the brutal murder of 
Lieut. Weir, who was captured by Dr. Nelson, the rebel commander at 
St. Denis, are events too well known to call for more than a mere 
reference to them. 
Writing from Montreal on Dec. Ist, Mr. Coffin thus speaks of these 
thrilling incidents : 
** Markham,” (z.e., a captain of the 32nd who was in command of the skirmishing 
party at St. Denis, and who had received four wounds), ‘“‘is doing very well. Fancy 
his men, when landed from Sorel without shoes to their feet and altogether as war-worn 
as if they had retreated from Moscow, breaking from their ranks and rushing up to 
his lodgings to ask how he was doing, and when assured of his convalescence, cheering 
and dancin about like so many Bedlamites. I have been told that the scene was one 
of the most affecting ever witnessed. Of poor Weir it is painful to write. All that we 
have since heard confirms the first distressing intelligence. Nothing absolutely 
decisive is yet known, but of the fact of his murder there can be but little doubt. And 
yet I will undertake that a far louder feeling is displayed on his account at a distance 
than here. Here, as in the time of the cholera, and in all times of public peril, self 
