refusal was reiterated the first
shot had been fired at Duck Lake, where a superior force of insurgents
under Riel and Dumont routed a party of Mounted Police and volunteers,
killing twelve, and seized the supplies in the government post. Open
rebellion had come for a second time.

Now at last the Government acted with energy. On the 6th of April, ten
days after Duck Lake, instructions were telegraphed from Ottawa to give
the half-breeds the scrip they had sought, and to allow occupants to
acquire title by possession. At the same time troops were hastily
mobilized and speeded west over the broken stretches of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. The young volunteers faced danger and hardship like
veterans. In spite of the skilful tactics of Riel's lieutenant,
Gabriel Dumont, a born general, the volunteers soon crushed the
half-breeds and prevented the much more serious danger of an Indian
uprising from going far.

Once the back of the revolt was broken, the storm broke out in Eastern
Canada. In one {81} way the rebellion had made for national unity.
Nova Scotia and Ontario and the West had thrilled in common suspense
and common endeavour. But this gain was much more than offset by the
bitter antagonism which developed between Ontario and Quebec, an
antagonism which for a time threatened to wreck the Dominion. The two
provinces saw different sides of the shield. Ontario saw the murderer
of Thomas Scott--an Ontario man and an Orangeman--a second time
stirring up revolt, and cried for summary punishment. Quebec saw the
grievances which had stirred the men of French blood to rebel. Riel
was tried in Regina in September, and found guilty of treason, with a
recommendation to mercy. The Queen's Bench of Manitoba confirmed the
verdict, and the Government, in spite of many protests, refused to
grant a pardon or to commute the sentence to imprisonment. On the 16th
of November 1885 Riel's chequered existence ended on the scaffold at
Regina.

Now the storm raged with renewed fury. The Liberal party all held the
Government responsible for the outbreak, but were not a unit in
condemning the execution of Riel. By clever tactics the Government
took advantage of this divergence. Early in the session {82} of 1886 a
Quebec Conservative, Auguste Philippe Landry, moved a resolution
condemning the execution. The Liberals had intended to shift the
discussion to the record of the Government, but before they could
propose an amend