326 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



This was at first a sad disappointment to the sol- 

 diers, who, having gone through so much toil in order 

 to put down the rebellion, longed to be avenged upon 

 its authors. Our victory, although bloodless, was 

 complete. We dragged out some of the rebel guns, 

 and fired a royal salute as the union-jack was run up 

 the flagstaff, from which had floated, for so many 

 months, the rebel banner that had been worked for 

 Eiel by the nuns in the convent attached to Bishop 

 Tache's cathedral. The scene inside the Fort was 

 most depressing : the square in front of the princi- 

 pal house was under water, and there was mud and 

 filth everywhere. Riel and some of his friends had 

 remained in the Fort up to the last possible mo- 

 ment, and had only left when they saw our skir- 

 mishers. Their breakfast was still on the table ; and 

 their clothes and arms lay scattered about through 

 the numerous houses they had occupied, in a manner 

 denoting the suddenness of their departure. 



Every one was drenched with rain; and as the 

 ground round the Fort was deep with mud, the men 

 were temporarily lodged in the storehouses and build- 

 ings within it. 



Fort Garry is a rectangular parallelogram, sur- 

 rounded by high walls of masonry, except on the 

 northern side, where they are formed of large square 

 logs placed horizontally, one over the other. At each 

 of the southern angles, and half-way down the eastern 

 and western faces, there is a circular tower affording 



