pose it to be a ruse to draw them towards the fort, in order
to make a sortie upon them. They did suppose so; and thus I was able to
save the Fontaine family. When they were all landed, I made them march
before me in full sight of the enemy. We put so bold a face on it, that
they thought they had more to fear than we. Strengthened by this
reinforcement, I ordered that the enemy should be fired on whenever they
showed themselves.

"After sunset a violent north-east wind began to blow, accompanied with
snow and hail, which told us that we should have a terrible night. The
Indians were all this time lurking about us; and I judged by all their
movements that, instead of being deterred by the storm, they would climb
into the fort under cover of darkness."

She then assembled her troops, who numbered six, all told, and spoke to
them encouraging words. With two old men she took charge of the fort,
and sent Fontaine and the two soldiers with the women and children to
the block-house. She placed her two brothers on two of the bastions, and
an old man on a third, while she herself took charge of the fourth. All
night, in spite of wind, snow, and hail, the cry of "All's well" was
kept up from the block-house to the fort, and from the fort to the
block-house. One would have supposed that the place was full of
soldiers. The Indians thought so, and were completely deceived, as they
afterwards confessed.

At last the daylight came again; and as the darkness disappeared, the
anxieties of the little garrison seemed to disappear with it. Fontaine
said he would never abandon the place while Madeline remained in it. She
declared that she would never abandon it: she would rather die than give
it up to the enemy.

She did not eat or sleep for twice twenty-four hours. She did not go
once into her father's house, but kept always on the bastion, except
when she went to the block-house to see how the people there were
behaving. She always kept a cheerful and smiling face, and encouraged
her little company with the hope of speedy succour.

"We were a week in constant alarm," she continues, "with the enemy
always about us. At last a lieutenant, sent by the governor, arrived in
the night with forty men. As he did not know whether the fort was taken
or not, he approached as silently as possible. One of our sentinels,
hearing a slight sound, cried: 'Who goes there?' I was at the time
dozing, with my head on a table and my gun lying across my arm