met in the lower
part of the river with a horrible storm; several of his ships were
driven by the winds as far as the Antilles, and the rest arrived only
with great difficulty at Boston. Winthrop's army, disorganized by
disease and discord, had already scattered.

A famine which followed the siege tried the whole colony, and Laval had
to suffer by it as well as the seminary, for neither had hesitated
before the sacrifices necessary for the general weal. "All the furs and
furniture of the Lower Town were in the seminary," wrote the prelate; "a
number of families had taken refuge there, even that of the intendant.
This house could not refuse in such need all the sacrifices of charity
which were possible, at the expense of a great portion of the provisions
which were kept there. The soldiers and others have taken and consumed
at least one hundred cords of wood and more than fifteen hundred planks.
In brief, in cattle and other damages the loss to the seminary will
amount to a round thousand crowns. But we must on occasions of this sort
be patient, and do all the good we can without regard to future need."

The English were about to suffer still other reverses. In 1691 Major
Schuyler, with a small army composed in part of savages, came and
surprised below the fort of the Prairie de la Madeleine a camp of
between seven and eight hundred soldiers, whose leader, M. de
Saint-Cirque, was slain; but the French, recovering, forced the major to
retreat, and M. de Valrennes, who hastened up from Chambly with a body
of inhabitants and Indians, put the enemy to flight after a fierce
struggle. The English failed also in Newfoundland; they were unable to
carry Fort Plaisance, which was defended by M. de Brouillan; but he who
was to do them most harm was the famous Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, son
of Charles Le Moyne. Born in Montreal in 1661, he subsequently entered
the French navy. In the year 1696 he was ordered to drive the enemy out
of Newfoundland; he seized the capital, St. John's, which he burned,
and, marvellous to relate, with only a hundred and twenty-five men he
subdued the whole island, slew nearly two hundred of the English, and
took six or seven hundred prisoners. The following year he set out with
five ships to take possession of Hudson Bay. One day his vessel found
itself alone before Fort Nelson, facing three large ships of the enemy;
to the amazement of the English, instead of surrendering, d'Iberville
rushes upon th