For some reason which it is difficult to discern, Wetherall did not march on from St Charles to effect a pacification of St Denis. On December 1, however, Colonel Gore once more set out from Sorel, and entered St Denis the same day. He found everything quiet. He recovered the howitzer and five of the wounded men he had left behind. In spite of the absence of opposition, his men took advantage of the occasion to wreak an unfair and un-British vengeance on the helpless victors of yesterday. Goaded to fury by the sight of young Weir's mangled body, they set fire to a large part of the village. Colonel Gore afterwards repudiated the charge that he had ordered the burning of the houses of the insurgents; but that defence does not absolve him from blame. It is obvious, at any rate, that he did not take adequate measures to prevent such excesses; nor was any punishment ever administered to those who applied the torch.
But the end of rebellion was not yet in sight. Two more encounters remain to be described. The first of these occurred at a place known as Moore's Corners, near the Vermont border. After the collapse at St Charles a number of Patriote refugees had gathered at the small town of Swanton, a few miles south of Missisquoi Bay, on the American side of the boundary-line. Among them were Dr Cyrile Côté and Edouard Rodier, both members of the Lower Canada Assembly; Ludger Duvernay, a member of the Assembly and editor of La Minerve; Dr Kimber, one of the ringleaders in the rescue of Demaray and Davignon; and Robert Shore Milnes Bouchette, the descendant of a French-Canadian family long conspicuous for its loyalty and its services to the state. Bouchette's grandfather had been instrumental in effecting the escape of Sir Guy Carleton from Montreal in 1775, when that place was threatened by the forces of Montgomery. The grandson's social tastes and affiliations might have led one to expect that he would have been found in the ranks of the loyalists; but the arbitrary policy of the Russell Resolutions had driven him into the arms of the extreme Patriotes. Arrested for disloyalty at the outbreak of the rebellion, he had been admitted to bail and had escaped. These men, under the belief that the habitants would rise and join them, determined upon an armed invasion of Canada. Possibly they believed also that Wolfred Nelson was still holding out. Papineau, it was said, had reported that 'the victor of St Denis' was entrenched with a considerable force at St Césaire on the Yamaska. They therefore collected arms and ammunition, sent emissaries through the parishes to the north to rouse the Patriotes, and on December 6, flying some colours which had been worked for them by the enthusiastic ladies of Swanton, they crossed the Canadian border, about two hundred strong. They had two field-pieces and a supply of muskets and ammunition for those whom they expected to join the party on Canadian soil.
Hardly had the invaders crossed the border when they encountered at Moore's Corners a body of the Missisquoi Volunteers, under the command of Captain Kemp, who were acting as escort to a convoy of arms and ammunition. Having received warning of the coming of the insurgents, Kemp had sent out messengers through the countryside to rouse the loyalist population. To these as they arrived he served out the muskets in his wagons. And when the rebels appeared, about eight o'clock at night, he had a force at his disposal of at least three hundred men, all well armed.
There is reason for believing that Kemp might have succeeded in ambushing the advancing force, had not some of his men, untrained volunteers with muskets in their hands for the first time, opened fire prematurely. The rebels returned the fire, and a fusillade continued for ten or fifteen minutes. But the rebels, on perceiving that they had met a superior force, retired in great haste, leaving behind them one dead and two wounded. One of the wounded was Bouchette, who had been in command of the advance-guard. The rebels abandoned also their two field-pieces, about forty stand of arms, five kegs of gunpowder, and six boxes of ball-cartridge, as well as two standards. Among the loyalists there were no casualties whatever. Only three of the rebels were taken prisoner besides the two wounded, a fact which Kemp explained by several factors—the undisciplined state of the loyalists, the darkness of the night, the vicinity of woods, and the proximity of the boundary-line, beyond which he did not allow the pursuit to go. The 'battle' of Moore's Corners was in truth an excellent farce; but there is no doubt that it prevented what might have been a more serious encounter had the rebel column reached the neighbourhood of St Johns, where many of the Patriotes were in readiness to join them.
A few days later, in a part of the province some distance removed from the Richelieu river and the Vermont border, there occurred another collision, perhaps the most formidable of the whole rebellion. This was at the village of St Eustache, in the county of Two Mountains, about eighteen miles north-west of Montreal. The county of Two Mountains had long been known as a stronghold of the extreme Patriotes. The local member, W. H. Scott, was a supporter of Papineau, and had a large and enthusiastic following. He was not, however, a leader in the troubles that ensued. The chief organizer of revolt in St Eustache and the surrounding country was a mysterious adventurer named Amury Girod, who arrived in St Eustache toward the end of November with credentials, it would seem from Papineau, assigning to him the task of superintending the Patriote cause in the north. About Girod very little is known. He is variously described as having been a Swiss, an Alsatian, and a native of Louisiana. According to his own statement, he had been at one time a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry in Mexico. He was well educated, could speak fluently several languages, had a bold and plausible manner, and succeeded in imposing, not only upon the Patriote leaders, but upon the people of St Eustache. He found a capable and dauntless supporter in Dr J. O. Chénier, the young physician of the village. Chénier was one of the few leaders of the revolt whose courage challenges admiration; and it is fitting that to-day a monument, bearing the simple inscription CHÉNIER, should stand in the Place Viger in Montreal, among the people for whom, though misguidedly and recklessly, he laid down his life.
To St Eustache, on Sunday, November 26, came the news of Wolfred Nelson's victory at St Denis. On Monday and Tuesday bands of Patriotes went about the countryside, terrorizing and disarming the loyalists and compelling the faint-hearted to join in the rising. On Wednesday night the rebels gathered to the number of about four hundred in St Eustache, and got noisily drunk (s'y enivrèrent bruyamment). They then proceeded, under the command of Girod and Chénier, to the Indian mission settlement at the Lake of Two Mountains. Here they broke into the government stores and possessed themselves of some guns and ammunition. They next made themselves unwelcome to the superior of the mission, the Abbé Dufresne, and, in spite of his protestations, carried off from the mission-house a three-pounder gun. On their return to St Eustache they forcibly entered the convent which had been lately completed, though it was not yet occupied, and camped there.
The loyalists who were forced to flee from the village carried the news of these proceedings to Montreal; but Sir John Colborne was unwilling to take any steps to subdue the Patriotes of St Eustache until the insurrection on the Richelieu had been thoroughly crushed. All he did was to send a detachment of volunteers to guard the Bord à Plouffe bridge at the northern end of the island of Montreal.
On Sunday, December 3, word reached St Eustache of the defeat of the insurgents at St Charles. This had a moderating influence on many of the Patriotes. All week the Abbé Paquin, parish priest of St Eustache, had been urging the insurgents to go back quietly to their homes. He now renewed his exhortations. He begged Chénier to cease his revolutionary conduct. Chénier, however, was immovable. He refused to believe that the rebels at St Charles had been dispersed, and announced his determination to die with arms in his hands rather than surrender. 'You might as well try to seize the moon with your teeth,' he exclaimed, 'as to try to shake my resolve.'
The events of the days that followed cannot be chronicled in detail. When the Abbé Paquin and his vicar Desèves sought to leave the parish, Girod and Chénier virtually placed them under arrest. The abbé did not mince matters with Chénier. 'I accuse you before God and man,' he said, 'of being the author of these misfortunes.' When some of the habitants came to him complaining that they had been forced against their will to join the rebels, he reminded them of the English proverb: 'You may lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink.' Unfortunately, the Abbé Paquin's good influence was counteracted by that of the Abbé Chartier, the curé of the neighbouring village of St Benoit, a rare case of an ecclesiastic lending his support to the rebel movement, in direct contravention of the orders of his superiors. On several occasions the Abbé Chartier came over to St Eustache and delivered inflammatory addresses to the rebel levies.