craft struck an icefloe, split, and sank. As Allen's two English
vessels, on their return journey, passed into the straits during a fog,
a volley of shot poured across the deck and laid the captain dead on the
spot. The ship whence this volley came was not seen; there is no further
record of the incident, and we can only surmise that the shot came from
Serigny's remaining ship. What is certain is that Allen was killed and
that the English ships arrived in England with an immense cargo of furs,
which went to the Company's warehouse, and with French captives from
Nelson, who were lodged in prison at Portsmouth.

The French prisoners were finally set free and made their way to France,
where the story of their wrongs aroused great indignation. D'Iberville,
who was now in Newfoundland, carrying havoc from hamlet to hamlet, was
the man best fitted to revenge the outrage. Five French warships were
made ready--the _Pelican_, the _Palmier_, the _Profond_, the _Violent_,
and the _Wasp_. In April 1697 these were dispatched from France to
Placentia, Newfoundland, there to be taken in command by d'Iberville,
with orders to proceed to Hudson Bay and leave not a vestige remaining
of the English fur trade in the North.

Meanwhile preparations were being made in England to dispatch a mighty
fleet to drive the French for ever from the Bay. Three frigates were
bought and fitted out--the _Dering_, Captain Grimmington; the _Hudson's
Bay_, Captain Smithsend; and the _Hampshire_, Captain Fletcher--each
with guns and sixty fighting men in addition to the regular crew. These
ships were to meet the enemy sooner than was expected. In the last week
of August 1697 the English fleet lay at the west end of Hudson Strait,
befogged and surrounded by ice. Suddenly the fog lifted and revealed to
the astonished Englishmen d'Iberville's fleet of five French warships:
the _Palmier_ to the rear, back in the straits; the _Wasp_ and the
_Violent_, out in open water to the west; the _Pelican_, flying the flag
of the Admiral, to the fore and free from the ice; and the _Profond_,
ice-jammed and within easy shooting range. The Hudson's Bay ships at
once opened fire on the _Profond_, but this only loosened the ice and
let the French ship escape.

D'Iberville's aim was not to fight a naval battle but to secure the fort
at Nelson. Accordingly, spreading the _Pelican's_ sails to the wind, he
steered south-west, leaving the other ships to follow his example. Ice
mus