11 



ports; he writes : '' The person in charge of the goivernment 

 train called upon me and gave me such information a^ con- 

 vinces me that if he is not in the pay, he is in the confidence 

 of the insurgents." Mr. McDougall rose from his seat, drew 

 himself up to his full height and struck an imposing attitude, 

 as with outstretched arm and rigid finger, he ordered the 

 train to proceed on the Queen's highway, declaring that he 

 would see that no half-breed dare molest it. That was the 

 last he ever saw of the train or its elegant freight. The me- 

 lodrama of the Big I and Little U ended, I bowed myself out, 

 regretting "Love's Labor Lost." 



THE OBSTACLE. 



In rolled the carts, thirty-six in number. The men were 

 anxious to get home, it being very late in the season, fispe- 

 cially Modesto Lagimodiere, a cousin of the late Louis Kiel. 

 Before leaving Pembina: I secured a cap, capote, belt and a 

 pair of moccasins for future emergency, should it arise. This 

 day, the 20tli, we were to meet twenty armed men. LTpon 

 Mr. McDougall' s arrival at theHudson'sBay Company's post, 

 Mr. Provencher was despatched to Fort Garry to prepare the 

 way for the governmental party. But he was not allowed to 

 pass the barricade. Captain Cameron being an officer of 

 Tier Majesty's Royal Artillery, supposing that he would meet 

 "with no opposition, although advised not to proceed until 

 there was an assurance of success, set out. The barricade 

 was guarded by a strong band of armed men. Jehu-like, the 

 the captain drove his chariot against the obstruction as though 

 he would crush all opposition in his way, but, unfortunately, 

 it stood the shock. Angered at this humiliation, the order 

 rang out, "Remove that blasted fence," which has since pass- 

 ed into a proverb. French admiration of gallantry found ex- 

 pression on the other side of the barricade. Inexorable, how- 

 ever, are the orders. The captain, unhanned, is turned from 

 the promised land, but the agents of the audacious Riel are 

 as deaf to threats as to reason. Resistance would amount to 

 foolhardiness. The man Lucien, one of the guards, is a Her- 

 cules. His enormous strength is irresistible. I saw him, when 

 on a return trip from St. Paul, place a barrel of alcohol, con- 

 taining forty gallons, on his shoulder without assistance, cross 

 a submerged bridge when the pathway of logs were afloat on 



