ife which the
rebels led. No attempt was made to drill them or to exercise
discipline. Time hung heavy on their hands. He continually saw them,
he says, passing through the village in knots of five or six, carrying
rusty guns out of order, smoking short black pipes, and wearing blue
_tuques_ which hung half-way down their backs, clothes of _etoffe du
pays_, and leather mittens. They helped themselves to all the strong
drink they could lay their hands on, and their gait showed the
influence of their potations. Their chief aim in life seemed to be to
steal, to drink, to eat, to dance, and to quarrel. With regard to the
morrow, they lived in a fool's paradise. They seem to have believed
that the troops would not dare to come out to meet them, and that when
their leaders should give the word they would advance on Montreal and
take it without difficulty. Their numbers during this period showed a
good deal of {97} fluctuation. Ultimately Girod succeeded in gathering
about him nearly a thousand men. Not all these, however, were armed;
according to Deseves a great many of them had no weapons but sticks and
stones.

By December 13 Sir John Colborne was ready to move. He had provided
himself with a force strong enough to crush an enemy several times more
numerous than the insurgents led by Girod and Chenier. His column was
composed of the 1st Royals, the 32nd regiment, the 83rd regiment, the
Montreal Volunteer Rifles, Globensky and Leclerc's Volunteers, a strong
force of cavalry--in all, over two thousand men, supported by eight
pieces of field artillery and well supplied with provision and
ammunition transport.

The troops bivouacked for the night at St Martin, and advanced on the
morning of the 14th. The main body crossed the Mille Isles river on
the ice about four miles to the east of St Eustache, and then moved
westward along the St Rose road. A detachment of Globensky's
Volunteers, however, followed the direct road to St Eustache, and came
out on the south side of the river opposite the village, in full view
of the rebels. Chenier, at the head of a hundred and fifty men,
crossed the {98} ice, and was on the point of coming to close quarters
with the volunteers when the main body of the loyalists appeared to the
east. Thereupon Chenier and his men beat a hasty retreat, and made
hurried preparations for defending the village. The church, the
convent, the presbytery, and the house of the member of the Assembl