Gradually a number of the settlers were seduced and instigated to disloyalty against their benefactors and the Company. A large band of the Bois-Brulés were, for two years, maintained and paraded in arms. Now that the preparatory measures had reached this stage the time seemed ripe for more decisive measures. {279} The ruling spirit amongst the half-breed hordes, Cuthbert Grant, appeared on the scene, and with him some of his choice dare-devil crew. The return of the settlers to Red River had filled the minds of the Bois-Brulés with rage. The contempt of the wild hunters of the plains for the peaceful tillers of the soil was great. They scorned them for their manual labour; they reproachfully termed them "the workers in gardens," and the phrase "pork-eaters," formerly applied to the voyageurs east of Fort William, was now used derisively towards the Scotch settlers. All was now ready for a final blow to the infant colony. In June 1815, after the colony at Red River had been deprived of the means of defence and was in great measure surrounded by its enemies, a large force of Nor'-Westers, consisting of half-breeds, servants, and clerks, sallied forth to make a combined attack on the settlement. A sharp fire of musketry was kept up for some time on the Governor's house and adjacent buildings. After a series of attacks and skirmishes, Governor M'Donnell was obliged to surrender himself as a prisoner, and under a warrant from a partner in the North-West Company, sent to Montreal, charged with an undue arrogance of authority, to the detriment of the fur trade. Great joy filled the breasts of the North-Westers assembled at Fort William when these brave tidings were conveyed to their ear. The news was accompanied by convincing proofs of the great victory gained over the enemy in the persons of 134 settlers, including men, women, and children! {280} Deep were the potations, turbulent was the revelry when the flushed Nor'-Westers returned from Red River and took their places at the board. They had gained a victory over the miserable colonists despatched by Lord Selkirk to begin the peopling of the West. The war between Britain and America was ended, and so further relieved their dread of punishment. But decisive as their triumph seemed, it was short-lived. Even as they rejoiced and made merry, the despised settlers had returned, and affairs at Red River were shaping for a tragedy. A new brigade of immigrants from Scotland also arrived at Red River only to gaze upon the embers of the burnt settlement. With them came a new Governor for the colony, Robert Semple by name. Governor Semple had been appointed to the chief control of all the Hudson's Bay Company's factories at Rupert's Land. Lord Selkirk himself arrived in Canada and began engaging a number of disbanded troops to help him quell the outrages of the Nor'-Westers and inflict vengeance upon them for their murders and misdeeds. The Nor'-Westers had not thought of this.