Although this cannot be termed a siege, still, being of the nature of
one, and very extraordinary in its circumstances, we cannot resist
giving it to our readers.
Mademoiselle de Verchères, little more than fifteen years of age, was
walking on the banks of the St. Lawrence, when she heard the hissing
of bullets, and beheld a party of Iroquois on the point of surrounding
her. She fled at her best speed, and they pursued her; she threw
herself into the fort, shut the gates, and gave the alarm. She heard
the cries of the terrified women, and fearing they would impede rather
than assist the defence, she shut them up in a secure place. A single
soldier was on duty in the fort. She flew to join him, put on a hat
and a uniform coat, armed herself with a musket, showed herself on the
walls, and fired on the Iroquois. She then affected a loud manly voice,
pretended to have a numerous troop under her command, and flew from
sentry-box to sentry-box, as if to distribute the posts. Warming with
her work, the heroine then loaded a cannon, and discharged it herself.
This spread terror among the Iroquois; it at the same time warned the
garrisons of the neighbouring forts to be on the defensive, and quickly
the banks of the river resounded with the roar of artillery.
Thus this young person saved the fort of Verchères, and, perhaps, the
whole colony. This courage, hereditary in her family, seemed to be
transmitted to the women as well as to the men. Her mother, two years
before, had displayed the same intrepidity. The place had been invested
by the Iroquois at a time when the garrison was absent. There were
only three soldiers, who were all killed. When Madame de Verchères saw
the last fall, while defending herself like a brave man, in a redoubt
fifty paces from the fort, she armed herself in haste, advanced alone
along the covered way, gained the redoubt before the enemy could scale
it, fired at them, and at every shot brought down an assailant. They
were astonished and terrified, and were on the point of flying before a
woman, when the approach of a body of French completed their dispersion.
Thus we see as much courage and presence of mind may be displayed in a
siege in which there is only one defender, as if numerous hosts were
engaged.