“The following are the names of the ladies:  Mrs. Schultz, Mrs. Mair, Mrs. O’Donnell; and as the first named lady was ill, probably from the excitement of the past few days, a sleigh was procured, and Dr. Schultz himself drew her along in it, behind the rest of the prisoners.  When they reached Fort Garry, Mr. J. H. McTavish, accountant in the Hudson Bay Company service, kindly offered to give up his private quarters for the use of the married men and their families, and thus made things more comfortable for the ladies.”]

CHAPTER VIII.

In the meantime, the Government at Ottawa had convinced itself that affairs were in a pretty bad mess in the North-West.  Therefore they dispatched, with olive branches, two commissioners to treat with the malcontents.  It is hardly worth while to mention the names of these two gentlemen, though I may as well do so.  They were Vicar-General Thibeault, this prelate, I understand, being a relative of the gentleman who produced the life of Sir Charles Tupper, and Colonel DeSalaberry.  Mr. Donald A. Smith, the chief officer of the Hudson Bay Company, was also dispatched.  He was instructed to inquire into and report upon the cause of the disturbances and also to assist Governor McTavish, or to relieve him, altogether of duties should ill health have incapacitated him.  Mr. Smith arrived in due season at the settlement, and sought an interview with the Rebel leader in Fort Garry.  M. Riel very readily admitted him; and then turned the keys upon him.  It was a very great pity that it was not upon some members of the beautiful government at Ottawa that he had the opportunity of fastening the locks!  There were now about sixty prisoners in the fort; the British ensign had been hauled down, and the flag of the Provisional Government, a combination of fleurs de-lys and shamrocks, hoisted in its stead.  When the news got abroad that an agent had come from Canada to treat with the people on behalf of the Canadian Government, that Mr. McDougall was in disfavour with the Dominion ministry, and had returned to Ottawa, M. Riel’s influence began to diminish sensibly.

“Let us hear what Donald Smith has to say to us,” they began to cry; and the Arch Rebel was fain to consent.  A monster meeting of 1,100 people was held in the open air, with the thermometer twenty degrees below zero.  Riel and his followers were not satisfied with the terms of the Dominion agent; and the arch disturber had made up his mind not to be satisfied.  Yet he was not secure in his position, for there was much writhing among hosts of his followers under his tyrannical caprices.  Sometimes he broke loose from all civilized restraint, and acted like a mad savage.  Governor McTavish, who was reaching the last stages of consumption, for some reason incurred the ill-will of the autocrat.  One might have supposed that a man tottering on the grave’s brink would have been secure from violence and insult;