the enemy’s villages when he met Tracy’s nephew and the other prisoners under escort of an Iroquois chief and three warriors, who were bound for Quebec to make amends for the treacherous murder recently perpetrated and to sue for peace.  Under these circumstances Captain de Sorel did not think it necessary to proceed farther, and marched his men home again with the Iroquois and the rescued prisoners.  On August 31 a great meeting was held at Quebec in the Jesuits’ garden.  The delegates of the Five Nations were present, and speeches were made enlarging on the desirability of peace.  But it soon became apparent that no peace could be lasting except after a successful expedition against the Mohawks.  Tracy, Courcelle, and Talon held a consultation, and the intendant submitted a well-prepared document in which he reviewed the reasons for and against a continuance of the war.  In Talon’s mind the arguments in favour of it had undoubtedly the greater weight.  Tracy and Courcelle concurred in this opinion.  Thirteen hundred men were drafted for an expedition—­six hundred regular soldiers, six hundred Canadians, and a hundred Indians.  All was soon ready, and on September 14, the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, Tracy and Courcelle left Quebec, at the head of their troops.  It was a spectacle that did not fail to impress the Iroquois chiefs detained in Quebec.  One of them, deeply moved, said to the viceroy:  ’I see that we are lost, but you will pay dearly for your victory; my nation will be exterminated, but I tell you that many of your young men will not return, for our young warriors will fight desperately.  I beg of you to save my wife and children.’  Many who witnessed that martial exit of Tracy and Courcelle from the Chateau Saint-Louis, surrounded by a staff of noble officers, must have realized that this was a memorable day in the history of New France.  At last a crushing blow was to be struck at the ferocious foe who for twenty-five years had been the curse and terror of the wretched colony.  What mighty cheers were shouted on that day by the eager and enthusiastic spectators who lined the streets of Quebec!

On September 28, the troops taking part in the expedition were assembled at Fort Sainte-Anne. [Footnote:  On isle La Mothe at the northern end of Lake Champlain.] Charles Le Moyne commanded the Montreal contingent, one hundred and ten strong; the Quebec contingent marched under Le Gardeur de Repentigny.  Father Albanel and Father Raffeix, Jesuit priests, the Abbe Dollier de Casson, a Sulpician, and the Abbe Dubois, chaplain of the Carignan regiment, accompanied the army.  Three hundred light boats had been launched for the crossing of Lakes Champlain and Saint-Sacrement.  Courcelle, always impetuous, was the first to leave the fort; he led a vanguard of four hundred men which included those from Montreal.  The main body of the army under Tracy set out on October 3.  Captains Chambly and Berthier were to follow four days later with the rear-guard.