When the Iroquois had noticed this, dividing their force of two hundred into several bands, they put themselves in ambuscades and awaited the approach of the men from the fort. As these entered into the woods, they were met with shots from the Iroquois' muskets on all sides.
Seeing his men thus attacked by so large a force, M. de Maisonneuve ordered them to get behind the trees, as the Iroquois were, and then ensued a brisk exchange of shots on either side, so long and furious that their ammunition giving out and several of his men being already killed or wounded, de Maisonneuve ordered a retreat. This was no easy matter, for they were badly equipped with the snowshoes, and those who had none sank deep into the snow and were hindered in their retreat while the Iroquois were all well shod and skillful in their use, so that, as Dollier de Casson relates:
"Qu'à peine étions-nous de l'infanterie, au rapport de cavalerie."
At this period of unrest and danger the hospital was being built outside the tort, a quadrilateral building, 320 feet in length and an enclosure flanked by four stone bastions which were connected by a wooden curtain twelve feet high. In carrying the wood for construction a beaten path had been made to it, so that the snow was hard and firm, and progress was easy here without the need of snowshoes. Thither, under Maisonneuve's directions, the Frenchmen hurried as best they could, turning to face the enemy, from time to time, to return their shots. When they reached the footpath, they ran headlong to the fort at the top of their speed, terrified by the number of Iroquois pursuing them, and leaving their commander to fall behind, alone and unprotected.
Meanwhile those left behind in the fort, hearing the uproar, and seeing their approach, and mistaking them for the enemy, one of them imprudently fired the cannon which stood already directed towards that road to guard it during the building operations. Providentially the fuse failed. [58]
The abandoned leader was now face to face with the Iroquois with a pistol in either hand, fearful each moment of being seized by them. Thus he kept them at bay. Meanwhile the Iroquois, recognizing him as the governor, wished to capture him alive to make a show of him to their tribes and to reserve him for greater cruelties, and so they delayed a little till their captain came up, to leave to him the honour of the capture. The chief now leaped forward towards de Maisonneuve and was almost on his shoulders, when the governor fired one of his pistols. The pistol did not act and the savage leaped upon him in fury and seized him by the neck, but raising his other pistol above his shoulders the governor laid the chief stiff and dead upon the ground, to the indignation of the surrounding Iroquois watching this single combat. They hurried at once to secure the dead body of the chief. In their anxiety lest there should be any force returning from the fort to seize their chieftain's body, and bear it away as a trophy of victory against the Iroquois, their attention was diverted from the governor who, on the fall of his opponent, had fled and been allowed to escape to the fort.
MAISONNEUVE'S EXPLOIT
(A bas relief from the Maisonneuve Monument by Philippe Hébert)
This act of courage silenced all suspicion of personal cowardice on the part of the governor. His former policy was now commended, and the men protested they would never expose themselves rashly, again.