e, to leave the city. Whether he came as an
emissary from the ecclesiastical authorities or merely as a friend is
not clear. At any rate, Papineau accepted his advice, {73} and
immediately set out for St Hyacinthe. The result was most unfortunate.
The government, thinking that Papineau had left the city for the
purpose of stirring up trouble in the Richelieu district, promptly
issued warrants for the arrest of Papineau and some of his chief
lieutenants, Dr Wolfred Nelson, Thomas Storrow Brown, Edmund Bailey
O'Callaghan, and several others.

Meanwhile, on the day that these warrants for arrest were being issued
(November 16), a skirmish took place between a small party of British
troopers and a band of _Patriotes_ on the road between Chambly and
Longueuil--a skirmish which may be described as the Lexington of the
Lower Canada rebellion. The troopers, under Lieutenant Ermatinger, had
been sent to St Johns to arrest two French Canadians, named Demaray and
Davignon, who had been intimidating the magistrates. The arrest had
been effected, and the party were on their way back to Montreal, when
they were confronted by an armed company of _Patriotes_, under the
command of Bonaventure Viger, who demanded the release of the
prisoners. A brisk skirmish ensued, in which several on both sides
were wounded. The troopers, outnumbered by at least five {74} to one,
and having nothing but pistols with which to reply to the fire of
muskets and fowling-pieces, were easily routed; and the two prisoners
were liberated.

The news of this affair spread rapidly through the parishes, and
greatly encouraged the _Patriotes_ to resist the arrest of Papineau and
his lieutenants. Papineau, Nelson, Brown, and O'Callaghan had all
evaded the sheriff's officer, and had taken refuge in the country about
the Richelieu, the heart of the revolutionary district. In a day or
two word came to Montreal that considerable numbers of armed habitants
had gathered at the villages of St Denis and St Charles, evidently with
the intention of preventing the arrest of their leaders. The force at
St Denis was under the command of Wolfred Nelson, and that at St
Charles was under the command of Thomas Storrow Brown. How these
self-styled 'generals' came to be appointed is somewhat of a mystery.
Brown, at any rate, seems to have been chosen for the position on the
spur of the moment. 'A mere accident took me to St Charles,' he wrote
afterwards, 'and put me at th