and
their prisoners, but particularly to the prisoners, among whom were
many women and children. Many of them were unaccustomed to snowshoes.
Yet now they had to make long forced marches in this way over the deep
snow. Food, too, was scarce. Some of the prisoners died of
starvation; others of exhaustion. Finally the remnant reached the
French settlements on the St Lawrence, where they were kindly treated
by the inhabitants. Some were afterwards exchanged for French captives
in New England, but many never again saw their former homes.

The year after his return from the expedition to Deerfield, Pierre de
La Verendrye took part in another raid against the English settlements.
On this occasion, however, the attack was not upon a New England
village, but against the town of St John's, in Newfoundland. The
expedition was commanded {8} by an officer named Subercase, who
afterwards became governor of Acadia. St John's was defended by two
forts, with small English garrisons. The French, who had about four
hundred and fifty soldiers, found themselves unable to capture the
forts. They therefore abandoned the attack on St John's and returned
to the French settlement of Placentia, burning, as they went, a number
of English fishing villages along the shore.

This kind of warfare could not bring much honour to a young soldier,
and it was probably joyful news to Pierre to learn that he had been
appointed an ensign in the Bretagne regiment of the Grenadiers serving
in Flanders. He sailed from Canada in 1706, and for three years fought
with his regiment in what was known as the War of the Spanish
Succession, in which the English armies were commanded by the famous
Duke of Marlborough. Finally, at the terrible battle of Malplaquet, in
which thousands of both English and French were killed, Pierre so
distinguished himself that he won the rank of lieutenant. He received
no less than nine wounds, and was left for dead upon the field.
Fortunately he managed to escape, to render to his country in the years
to come much greater service.

{9}

Finding that there was little hope of further promotion in the French
army, since he had no influence in high quarters, Pierre returned to
Canada. After several years' service in the colonial forces, he
abandoned the army, and engaged in the fur trade. As a boy at Three
Rivers, he had enjoyed many chances of meeting the fur-traders who came
down to the little town on the St Lawrence wi