ould have been different. But their fury was
ungovernable. Yelling their war-cry, they exposed themselves recklessly
to the stones and arrows of the Iroquois. One, bolder than the rest, ran
forward with firebrands to burn the palisade, and others followed with
wood to feed the flame. But torrents of water poured down from the
gutters quickly extinguished it. In vain Champlain strove to restore
order among the yelling savages. Finding himself unable to control his
frenzied allies, he and his men busied themselves with picking off the
Iroquois along the ramparts. After three hours of this bootless
fighting, the Hurons fell back, with seventeen warriors wounded.[5]

Champlain himself was disabled by two wounds, {138} one in the knee and
one in the leg, which hindered him from walking. Still he urged the
Hurons to renew the attack. But in vain. From overweening confidence
the fickle savages had passed to the other extreme. Nothing could
inspire them to another assault. Moreover, Champlain had lost much of
his peculiar influence over them. They had fancied that, with him in
front, success was sure. Now they saw that he could be wounded, and by
Indian weapons, and they had experienced a defeat the blame of which they
undoubtedly laid at his door. His "medicine" [6] was not the sure thing
they had thought it to be, and no words of his could raise their spirits.
After a few days of ineffective skirmishing, they hastily broke up in
retreat, carrying their wounded in the centre, while the Iroquois pursued
and harassed the flanks and rear.

Champlain was treated like the rest of the wounded. Each was carried in
a rude basket made of green withes, on the back of a stout warrior. For
days he traveled in this way, enduring, he says, greater torment than he
had {139} ever before experienced, "for the pain of the wound was nothing
to that of being bound and pinioned on the back of a savage." As soon as
he could bear his weight, he was glad to walk.

When the shore of Lake Ontario was reached, the canoes were found
untouched, and the crest-fallen band embarked and recrossed to the
opposite side. Now Champlain experienced one of the consequences of his
loss of prestige. The Hurons had promised him an escort to Quebec. But
nobody was willing to undertake the journey. The great war-party broke
up, the several bands going off to their wonted hunting-grounds, and
Champlain was left with no choice but to spend the winte