1687.] AMBUSCADE. 151 



alternating with a battalion of Canadians. Some 

 of the regulars wore light armor, while the Cana- 

 dians were in plain attire of coarse cloth or buck- 

 skin. Denonville, oppressed by the heat, marched 

 in his shirt. " It is a rough life," wrote the mar- 

 quis, " to tramp afoot through the woods, carrying 

 one's own provisions in a haversack, devoured by 

 mosquitoes, and faring no better than a mere 

 soldier." l With him was the Chevalier de Vau- 

 dreuil, who had just arrived from France in com- 

 mand of the eight hundred men left to guard 

 the colony, and who, eager to take part in the 

 campaign, had pushed forward alone to join the 

 army. Here, too, were the Canadian seigniors at 

 the head of their vassals, Berthier, La Valterie, 

 Granville, Longueuil, and many more. A guard of 

 rangers and Indians brought up the rear. 



Scouts thrown out in front ran back with the 

 report that they had reached the Seneca clearings, 

 and had seen no more dangerous enemy than three 

 or four women in the cornfields. This was a device 

 of the Senecas to cheat the French into the belief 

 that the inhabitants were still in the town. It had 

 the desired effect. The vanguard pushed rapidly 

 forward, hoping to surprise the place, and ignorant 

 that, behind the ridge of thick forests on their 

 right, among a tangled growth of beech-trees in 

 the gorge of a brook, three hundred ambushed 

 warriors lay biding their time. 



Hurrying forward through the forest, they left 

 the main body behind, and soon reached the end 



1 Denonville an Ministre, 8 Juin, 1687. 



