l Resign
your Fleet to me Immediately, without destroying the
Effects on Board, You and Your men shall be used with
due civility, together with women & Children on Board.
To this I shall expect Your direct and Immediate
answer. Should you Neglect You will Cherefully take
the Consequences which will follow.

Carleton was surprised: and well he might be. He had not
supposed that Montgomery's men were in any such commanding
position. But, like Cramahe at Quebec, he refused to
answer; whereupon Easton's batteries opened both from
the south shore and from Isle St Ignace. Carleton's
heaviest gun was a 9-pounder; while Easton had four
12-pounders, one of them mounted on a rowing battery that
soon forced the British to retreat. The skipper of the
schooner containing the powder magazine wanted to surrender
on the spot, especially when he heard that the Americans
were getting some hot shot ready for him. But Carleton
retreated upstream, twelve miles above Sorel, to Lavaltrie,
just above Berthier on the north shore, where, on attempting
to land, he was driven back by some Americans and habitants.
Next morning, the 16th, a fateful day for Canada, the
same Major Brown who had failed Ethan Allen at Montreal
came up with a flag of truce to propose that Carleton
should send an officer to see for himself how well all
chance of escape had now been cut off. The offer was
accepted; and Brown explained the situation from the
rebel point of view. 'This is my small battery; and, even
if you should chance to escape, I have a grand battery
at the mouth of the Sorel [Richelieu] which will infallibly
sink all of your vessels. Wait a little till you see the
32-pounders that are now within half-a-mile.' There was
a good deal of Yankee bluff in this warning, especially
as the 32-pounders could not be mounted in time. But the
British officer seemed perfectly satisfied that the way
was completely blocked; and so the Americans felt sure
that Carleton would surrender the following day.

Carleton, however, was not the man to give in till the
very last; and one desperate chance still remained. His
flotilla was doomed. But he might still get through alone
without it. One of the French-Canadian skippers, better
known as 'Le Tourte' or 'Wild Pigeon' than by his own
name of Bouchette because of his wonderfully quick trips,
was persuaded to make the dash for freedom. So Carleton,
having ordered Prescott, his second-in-command, not to