refront of the defence. So desperately did they fight, the sword and
musket-butt outreaching the tomahawk, that though at one time fifty
Iroquois were over the palisades, they had slain or driven back nearly
all of them when a fresh wave burst suddenly over the south face which
had been stripped of its defenders. Du Lhut saw in an instant that the
enclosure was lost and that only one thing could save the house.

"Hold them for an instant," he screamed, and rushing at the brass gun he
struck his flint and steel and fired it straight into the thick of the
savages. Then as they recoiled for an instant he stuck a nail into the
touch-hole and drove it home with a blow from the butt of his gun.
Darting across the yard he spiked the gun at the other corner, and was
back at the door as the remnants of the garrison were hurled towards it
by the rush of the assailants. The Canadians darted in, and swung the
ponderous mass of wood into position, breaking the leg of the foremost
warrior who had striven to follow them. Then for an instant they had
time for breathing and for council.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE COMING OF THE FRIAR.

But their case was a very evil one. Had the guns been lost so that they
might be turned upon the door, all further resistance would have been
vain, but Du Lhut's presence of mind had saved them from that danger.
The two guns upon the river face and the canoes were safe, for they were
commanded by the windows of the house. But their numbers were terribly
reduced, and those who were left were weary and wounded and spent.
Nineteen had gained the house, but one had been shot through the body
and lay groaning in the hall, while a second had his shoulder cleft by a
tomahawk and could no longer raise his musket. Du Lhut, De la Noue, and
De Catinat were uninjured, but Ephraim Savage had a bullet-hole in his
forearm, and Amos was bleeding from a cut upon the face. Of the others
hardly one was without injury, and yet they had no time to think of
their hurts for the danger still pressed and they were lost unless they
acted. A few shots from the barricaded windows sufficed to clear the
enclosure, for it was all exposed to their aim; but on the other hand
they had the shelter of the stockade now, and from the further side of
it they kept up a fierce fire upon the windows. Half-a-dozen of the
_censitaires_ returned the fusillade, while the leaders consulted as to
what had best be done.

"We have twenty-