1691.] RETREAT OF SCHUYLER. 291 



more repulsed his assailants, and, as lie declares, 

 drove them into the fort with great loss. By this 

 time it was daylight. The English, having struck 

 their blow, slowly fell back, hacking down the corn 

 in the fields, as it was still too green for burning, 

 and pausing at the edge of the woods, where their 

 Indians were heard for some time uttering fright- 

 ful howls, and shouting to the French that they 

 were not men, but clogs. Why the invaders were 

 left to retreat unmolested, before a force more than 

 double their own, does not appear. The helpless 

 condition of Callieres and the death of Saint-Cirque, 

 his second in command, scarcely suffice to explain 

 it. Schuyler retreated towards his canoes, moving, 

 at his leisure, along the forest path that led to 

 Chambly. Tried by the standard of partisan war, 

 his raid had been a success. He had inflicted great 

 harm and suffered little ; but the affair was not 

 yet ended. 



A clay or two before, Valrenne, an officer of 

 birth and ability, had been sent to Chambly, with 

 about a hundred and sixty troops and Canadians, a 

 body of Huron and Iroquois converts, and a band 

 of Algonquins from the Ottawa. His orders were 

 to let the English pass, and then place himself 

 in their rear to cut them off from their canoes. 

 His scouts had discovered their advance ; and, on 

 the morning of the attack, he set his force in 

 motion, and advanced six or seven miles towards 

 La Prairie, on the path by which Schuyler was 

 retreating. The country was buried in forests. 

 At about nine o'clock, the scouts of the hostile 



