g was hoisted, and then an answering shout from each of the other
yards in succession, till they all blended in one continuous roar from
more than three thousand throats. If it subsided in part, or altogether,
for a few moments, it quickly broke out again. The turnkeys, looking
through the gratings of the wickets, saw the prisoners leaping and
jumping about in the greatest state of excitement (and when a Frenchman
is excited, he is excited indeed); and in some of the yards they had
evidently got tools and implements which must have been brought in by
outsiders.

Major Kelly was promptly on the spot, and at once saw that the situation
was threatening. It was not the uproar that alarmed him. That, alone,
could do no harm, except to the throats of the shouters, though it
betrayed the fact that the whole of the prisoners were taking part in the
rising. What he feared most was the possession of tools by the
prisoners, and the consequent danger that, if any sufficient opening were
made in one or more of the outer palisades, a considerable number of
prisoners might get out, and much bloodshed take place. This his humane
nature shrank from.

The force under his command consisted, at that particular time, of only a
regiment of militia, and a battalion of the army reserve, about eleven
hundred bayonets. The whole of these were immediately under arms, and
ordered to surround the enclosure in detachments, with instructions to
combine at any point where there seemed any signs of an opening being
made by the prisoners.

Major Kelly then proceeded to consult with his senior officers and
Captain Mortimer. The question was not whether he had force enough to
put down the mutiny by violent measures, but whether there were men
enough to do it without considerable effusion of blood.

Captain Mortimer at once shewed his quality when asked for his opinion.
"Put it down, major," he said, "with a strong hand, and lose no time
about it. What I venture to recommend is, first of all send a shot from
the block-house into one of the prison yards by way of warning; then
march two or three hundred men right into the yard; draw them up, and let
them shoot every rascal that does not take shelter in the barrack-room.
Give them time. Then let an officer go to the door with a bugler, and
tell the _canaille_, if they don't at once leave off their infernal noise
and keep quietly inside, they will be shot down like rats: then fasten up
the door.