Before the Christmas preceding, Peter put the question to Smith, how he should like to see him kill Mr. John? He replied, "I should like it very well; I would have no objection, because his conduct is so very bad that he can never expect to be protected by the company." Peter Manifree says that Mr. John appeared to be aware of the plot formed by the men against his life; as he supposes, through the information of Fleury, his servant, who was aware of every thing that passed among them. Mr. John had often said to the men, "Kill me, if you can. If you kill me, you will not kill a woman--you will kill a man." And he kept Antoine as a sentinel to watch his room. One evening George Heron proposed taking his life, and said if he could find a man to go with him, he would be the first to shoot him. Peter refused to go, and Heron watched a great part of the night in the passage leading to Mr. John's room, holding his gun pointed toward its door, with the object of shooting Mr. John if he appeared, as he usually did at night when going to visit the watchmen; but he did not go out that night, or Peter thinks that he would have been shot by Heron. The following morning Peter asked Antoine if he would defend Mr. John were he attacked by the people. Antoine said he would not, and would be the first man to seize or shoot him, should any attempt be made against his life or liberty. He put the same question to McPherson; but McPherson said, "No, do not kill him till the governor comes, by and by, and then we shall have redress." Peter also says that all the unmarried men were in the habit of secretly going out of the fort at night, contrary to order, to visit the Indian camp, and that one evening, when he wished to go out, he met George Heron on the gallery, who showed him where a rope was slung to the picket, by which he might let himself down to the ground outside of the fort, saying, "This is the way I and others get out, and you may do the same without fear of detection." On the morning after the murder he went into Urbaine's and Lulaire's house and got a dram in each of them, out of two bottles of rum which he saw there. He said, "Now Mr. John is dead, I shall go out of the fort and spend the day with my wife." Urbaine replied, "No: no one shall go out of the fort. We keep the keys, and we shall keep the gates shut." Peter was angry at this, and said to Antoine, "When Mr. John was alive, he kept us prisoners, and would not allow us to run after women; and now that we have killed him, the Canadians wish to keep us as close as he did. I see we must raise the devil again with these Canadians, before we can get our liberty."