l
French magistrates resign their commissions from the English
government. On Richelieu River and up in Two Mountains, north of
Montreal, are the strongholds of the agitators, where men have been
drilling, and the boys in the bonnets blue rioting through the villages
to the great scandal of parish priests.

[Illustration: LOUIS J. PAPINEAU]

There are riots in Montreal early in November of 1837, and "the Sons of
Liberty" are chased through the town. Then in the third week of
November a troop of Montreal cavalry is sent to St. John's to arrest
three agitators, who have been threatening a magistrate for refusing to
resign his commission. The agitators are arrested and handcuffed, and
at three in the morning the troops are moving along across country
towards Longueuil with the prisoners in a wagon, when suddenly three
hundred armed men rise on either side of the road to the fore. Shots
are exchanged. In the confusion the prisoners jump from the wagon.
This is not resistance to authority. It is open rebellion. Papineau
intrusts the management of affairs in St. Eustache, north of Montreal,
to Girod, a Swiss, and to {429} Dr. Chenier, a local patriot. Papineau
himself and Dr. Nelson and O'Callaghan are down on the Richelieu at St.
Denis.

Take the Richelieu region first. Colonel Gore is to strike up the
river southward to St. Denis. Colonel Wetherell is to cross country
from Montreal and strike down the river north to St. Charles, thus
hemming in the insurgents between Gore on the north and himself on the
south. There are eight hundred rebels at St. Denis, one hundred and
fifty armed, and twelve hundred at St. Charles. Papineau and
O'Callaghan for safety's sake slip across the line to Swanton in
Vermont. One could wish that, having led their faithful followers up
to the sticking point of stark madness, the agitators had remained
shoulder to shoulder with the brave fellows on the field.

Colonel Gore came from Montreal by boat to the mouth of the Richelieu.
At seven-thirty on the night of November 22 two hundred and fifty
troopers landed to march up the Richelieu road to St. Denis. Rain
turning to sleet was falling in a deluge. The roads were swimming
knee-deep in slush. Bridges had been cut, and in the darkness the
loyalists had to diverge to fording places, which lengthened out the
march twenty-four miles. At St. Denis was Dr. Nelson with the
agitators in a three-story stone house, windows bristling wit