412 FRONTENAC ATTACKS THE OXOXDAGAS. [1696. 



The Marquis de Crisasy was left, with a detach- 

 ment, to hold the fort ; and, at sunrise on the 

 fourth, the army moved forward in order of battle. 

 It was formed in two lines, regulars on the right 

 and left, and Canadians in the centre. Callieres 

 commanded the first line, and Vaudreuil the second. 

 Frontenac was between them, surrounded by his 

 staff officers and his guard, and followed by the 

 artillery, which relays of Canadians dragged and 

 lifted forward with inconceivable labor. The gov- 

 ernor, enfeebled by age, was carried in an arm-chair ; 

 while Callieres, disabled by gout, was mounted on 

 a horse, brought for the purpose in one of the ba- 

 teaux. To Subercase fell the hard task of directing 

 the march among the dense columns of the primeval 

 forest, by hill and hollow, over rocks and fallen 

 trees, through swamps, brooks, and gullies, among 

 thickets, brambles, and vines. It was but eight or 

 nine miles to Onondaga ; but they were all day in 

 reaching it, and evening was near when they 

 emerged from the shadows of the forest into the 

 broad light of the Indian clearing. The maize- 

 fields stretched before them for miles, and in the 

 midst lay the charred and smoking ruins of the 

 Iroquois capital. Not an enemy was to be seen, 

 but they found the dead bodies of two murdered 

 French prisoners. Scouts were sent out, guards 

 were set, and the disappointed troops encamped on 

 the maize-fields. 



Onondaga, formerly an open town, had been 

 fortified by the English, who had enclosed it with 

 a double range of strong palisades, forming a rect- 



