350 THE MASSACRE. [1763, June. 



debate. These men had supped full of horrors ; 

 yet they were almost on the pomt of risking a 

 renewal of the bloodshed from which they had 

 just escaped. The temptation was a strong one. 

 The fort was this evening actually in the hands of 

 the white men. The Indians, with their ordinary 

 recklessness and improvidence, had neglected even 

 to place a guard within the palisades. They were 

 now, one and all, in their camp, mad with liquor, 

 and the fort was occupied by twenty Englishmen, 

 and about three hundred Canadians, principally 

 voyageurs. To close the gates, and set the Indians 

 at defiance, seemed no very difficult matter. It 

 might have been attempted, but for the dissuasions 

 of the Jesuit, who had acted throughout the part 

 of a true friend of humanity, and who now strongly 

 represented the probability that the Canadians would 

 prove treacherous, and the certainty that a failure 

 would involve destruction to every Englishman in 

 the place. The idea was therefore abandoned, 

 and Captain Etherington, with his companions, 

 that night shared Henry's garret, where they 

 passed the time in condoling with each other on 

 their common misfortune. 



A party of Indians came to the house in the 

 morning, and ordered Henry to follow them out. 

 The weather had changed, and a cold storm had 

 set in. In the dreary and forlorn area of the fort 

 were a few of the Indian conquerors, though the 

 main body were still in their camp, not yet recov- 

 ered from the effects of their last night's carouse. 

 Henry's conductors led him to a house, where, in a 



