Half an hour from the time we had entered the fort, keys, arms, and ammunition were in M. de Radisson’s hands without the firing of a shot, and the unarmed New Englanders assigned to the main building, where we could lock them if they mutinied.  To sound of trumpet and drum, with Godefroy bobbing his tipstaff, M. Radisson must needs run up the French flag in place of the pirate ensign.  Then, with the lieutenant and two New Englanders to witness capitulation, he marched from the gates to do the same with the ship.  Allemand and Godefroy kept sentinel duty at the gates.  La Chesnaye, Foret, and Jack Battle held the bastions, and the rest stood guard in front of the main building.

From my place I saw how it happened.

The lieutenant stepped back to let M. de Radisson pass up the ship’s ladder first.  The New Englanders followed, the lieutenant still waiting at the bottom step; and when M. Radisson’s back was turned the lieutenant darted down the river bank in the direction of Governor Brigdar’s fort.

The flag went up and M. Radisson looked back to witness the salute.  Then he discovered the lieutenant’s flight.  The New Englanders’ purpose was easily guessed—­to lock forces with Governor Brigdar, and while our strength was divided attack us here or at the Habitation.

“One fight at a time,” says Radisson, summoning to council in the powder-house all hands but our guard at the gate.  “You, Allemand and Godefroy, will cross the marsh to-night, bidding Chouart be ready for attack and send back re-enforcements here!  You two lads”—­pointing to the stowaway and scullion—­“will boil down bears’ grease and porpoise fat for a half a hundred cressets!  Cut up all the brooms in the fort!  Use pine-boughs!  Split the green wood and slip in oiled rags!  Have a hundred lights ready by ten of the clock!  Go—­make haste, or I throw you both into the pot!

“You, Foret and La Chesnaye, transfer all the New Englanders to the hold of the ship and batten them under!  If there’s to be fighting, let the enemies be outside the walls.  And you, Ramsay, will keep guard at the river bastion all night!  And you, Jack Battle, will gather all the hats and helmets and caps in the fort, and divide them equally between the two front bastions——­”

“Hats and helmets?” interrupts La Chesnaye.

“La Chesnaye,” says M. Radisson, whirling, “an any one would question me this night he had best pull his tongue out with the tongs!  Go, all of you!”

But Godefroy, ever a dour-headed knave, must test the steel of M. de Radisson’s mood.

“D’ye mean me an’ the pilot to risk crossing the marsh by night——­”

But he got no farther.  M. de Radisson was upon him with a cudgel like a flail on wheat.

“An you think it risk to go, I’ll make it greater risk to stay!  An you fear to obey, I’ll make you fear more to disobey!  An you shirk the pain of toeing the scratch, I’ll make it a deal more painful to lag behind!”