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But it was not the weather alone that had produced this sudden abatement of the sportsmanlike zeal which the captain had always professed. He had been out on the afternoon before, together with several members of his party; but their hunting was attended with no other result than the loss of one of their best horses, severely injured by Sorel, in vainly chasing a wounded bull.
Now that he was in overwhelming force he thought he saw an even better chance of earning gratitude from rebels and winning converts to the loyal side by a still greater act of clemency. The battle of Three Rivers was the last action fought on Canadian soil. The American army retreated to Sorel and up the Richelieu to St Johns, where it was joined by Arnold, who had just evacuated Montreal.
Unfortunately for the poor animal he was the property of R., against whom Sorel entertained an unbounded aversion. The captain himself, it seemed, had also attempted to "run" a buffalo, but though a good and practiced horseman, he had soon given over the attempt, being astonished and utterly disgusted at the nature of the ground he was required to ride over.
Against this current powerful steamers run one hundred and eighty miles up the river to Montreal in eighteen hours, and descend in fourteen hours, including two hours' stoppages at Sorel and Three Rivers.
General Thomas, therefore, with the advice of the field officers about him, determined not to risk an action, and ordered his troops to retreat up the river. This was done with much precipitation, and many of the sick, with all the military stores, fell into the hands of the enemy. The army continued its retreat to the Sorel, where General Thomas was seized with the small=pox, of which he died.
DUCHATEL. 'Tis, alas! SOREL. So great the need? No treasure left? The soldiers will disband? DUCHATEL. Alas! It is too true! Here-here is gold, Here too are jewels! Melt my silver down! Sell, pledge my castles on my fair domains In Provence treasure raise, turn all to gold, Appease the troops! No time to be lost! CHARLES. Well now, Dunois! Duchatel!
He recognised him this time, waved a hand, and then called to his own fagged horse. Shangois's mare was not fagged; her heart and body were like steel. Not a quarter of a mile behind them both were three of the twenty artillerymen. Lavilette came to the bridge shouting for Baby, the keeper. Baby recognised him, and ran to the lever even as the sorel galloped up.
Following the course of the river, the broken army of the Americans fled towards Montreal, and halting for a while at Deschambault, finally retreated along the St. Lawrence, until they made a stand at Sorel, with the view to an "orderly retreat out of Canada."
By the time Hugh Sorel rolled out from between his feather beds, and was about to don his greasy buff, a handsome new suit, finished point device, and a pair of huge boots to correspond, had been laid by his bedside. "Ho, ho! Master Goetz," said he, as he stumbled into the Stube, "I see thy game. Thou wouldst make it worth my while to visit the father-house at Ulm?"
Home was the one word in the mind of each; and they both came from Bonaventure. The one was a tall, athletic young man, who had borne a captain's commission in Papineau's patriot army. He rode a sorel horse a great, wiry raw-bone, with a lunge like a moose, and legs that struck the ground with the precision of a piston-rod.
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