1645.]

FORT ST. JEAN ATTACKED.

39

placed Grafton and the few men with him on an island, and finally supplied them with a leaky sailboat to make their way home as they best could.

D'Aunay now landed two cannon to batter Fort St. Jean on the land side; and on the seventeenth of April, having brought his largest ship within pistolshot of the water rampart, he summoned the garrison to surrender.1 They answered with a volley of cannon-shot, then hung out a red flag, and, according to D'Aunay's reporter, shouted "a thousand insults. and blasphemies "!2 Towards evening a breach was made in the wall, and D'Aunay ordered a general assault. Animated by their intrepid mistress, the defenders fought with desperation, and killed or wounded many of the assailants, not without severe loss on their own side. Numbers prevailed at last;

1 The site of Fort St. Jean, or Fort La Tour, has been matter of question. At Carleton, opposite the present city of St. John, are the remains of an earthen fort, by some supposed to be that of La Tour, but which is no doubt of later date, as the place was occupied by a succession of forts down to the Seven Years' War. On the other hand, it has been assumed that Fort La Tour was at Jemsec, which is about seventy miles up the river. Now, in the second mortgage deed of Fort La Tour to Major Gibbons, May 10, 1645, the fort is described as “situé près de l'embouchure de la rivière de St. Jean." Moreover, there is a cataract just above the mouth of the river, which, though submerged at high tide, cannot be passed by heavy ships at any time; and as D'Aunay brought his largest ship of war to within pistol-shot of the fort, it must have been below the cataract. Mr. W. F. Ganong, after careful examination, is convinced that Fort La Tour was at Portland Point, on the east side of the St. John, at its mouth. See his paper on the subject in Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 1891.

2 Procès Verbal d'André Certain, in Appendix A.

all resistance was overcome; the survivors of the garrison were made prisoners, and the fort was pillaged. Madame de la Tour, her maid, and another woman, who were all of their sex in the place, were among the captives, also Madame de la Tour's son, a mere child. D'Aunay pardoned some of his prisoners, but hanged the greater part, "to serve as an example to posterity," says his reporter. Nicolas Denys declares that he compelled Madame de la Tour to witness the execution with a halter about her neck; but the more trustworthy accounts say nothing of this alleged outrage. On the next day, the eighteenth of April, the bodies of the dead were decently buried, an inventory was made of the contents of the fort, and D'Aunay set his men to repair it for his own use. These labors occupied three weeks or more, during a part of which Madame de la Tour was left at liberty, till, being detected in an attempt to correspond with her husband by means of an Indian, she was put into confinement; on which, according to D'Aunay's reporter, "she fell ill with spite and rage," and died within three weeks, after, as he tells us, renouncing her heresy in the chapel of the fort.

CHAPTER III.

1645-1710.

THE VICTOR VANQUISHED.

D'AUNAY'S ENVOYS TO THE PURITANS THEIR RECEPTION AT BOSTON. WINTHROP AND HIS "PAPIST" GUESTS. RECONCILIATION. TREATY. BEHAVIOR OF LA TOUR. - ROYAL FAVORS TO D'AUNAY: HIS HOPES; HIS DEATH; HIS CHARACTER. CONDUCT OF THE COURT TOWARDS HIM. INTRIGUES OF LA TOUR.- MADAME D'AUNAY.-LA TOUR MARRIES HER. - -CHILDREN OF D'AUNAY. - DESCENDANTS OF LA TOUR.

---

HAVING triumphed over his rival, D'Aunay was left free to settle his accounts with the Massachusetts Puritans, who had offended him anew by sending provisions to Fort St. Jean, having always insisted that they were free to trade with either party. They, on their side, were no less indignant with him for his seizure of Grafton's vessel and harsh treatment of him and his men.

After some preliminary negotiation and some rather sharp correspondence, D'Aunay, in September, 1646, sent a pinnace to Boston, bearing his former envoy, Marie, accompanied by his own secretary and by one Monsieur Louis.

It was Sunday, the Puritan Sabbath, when the three envoys arrived; and the pious inhabitants were

preparing for the afternoon sermon. Marie and his two colleagues were met at the wharf by two militia officers, and conducted through the silent and dreary streets to the house of Captain, now Major, Gibbons, who seems to have taken upon himself in an especial manner the office of entertaining strangers of consequence.

All was done with much civility, but no ceremony; for the Lord's Day must be kept inviolate. Winthrop, who had again been chosen governor, now sent an officer, with a guard of musketeers, to invite the envoys to his own house. Here he regaled them with wine and sweetmeats, and then informed them of "our manner that all men either come to our publick meetings, or keep themselves quiet in their houses." 1 He then laid before them such books in Latin and French as he had, and were free to walk in his garden. sion offered was no doubt of the dullest, since the literary resources of the colony then included little besides arid theology, and the walk in the garden promised but moderate delights among the bitter pot-herbs provided against days of fasting, - the victims resigned themselves with good grace, and, as the governor tells us, "gave no offence." Sunset came at last, and set the captives free.

told them that they Though the diver

-

On Monday both sides fell to business. The envoys showed their credentials; but, as the commissioners of the United Colonies were not yet in

1 Winthrop, ii. 273, 275.

1646.]

THE ENVOYS.

43

session, nothing conclusive could be done till Tuesday. Then, all being assembled, each party made its complaints of the conduct of the other, and a long discussion followed. Meals were provided for the three visitors at the "ordinary," or inn, where the magistrates dined during the sessions of the General Court. The governor, as their host, always sat with them at the board, and strained his Latin to do honor to his guests. They, on their part, that courtesies should be evenly divided, went every morning at eight o'clock to the governor's house, whence he accompanied them to the place of meeting; and at night he, or some of the commissioners in his stead, attended them to their lodging at the house of Major Gibbons.

Serious questions were raised on both sides; but as both wanted peace, explanations were mutually made and accepted. The chief difficulty lay in the undeniable fact, that, in escorting La Tour to his fort in 1643, the Massachusetts volunteers had chased D'Aunay to Port Royal, killed some of his men, burned his mill, and robbed his pinnace, for which wrongs the envoys demanded heavy damages. It was true that the governor and magistrates had forbidden acts of aggression on the part of the volunteers; but on the other hand they had had reason to believe that their prohibition would be disregarded, and had taken no measures to enforce it. The envoys clearly had good ground of complaint; and here, says Winthrop, "they did stick two days." At