all Semple's men were either killed or wounded. Save in a single instance, no quarter was given; the injured were summarily despatched, and on the bodies of the dead were practised all the revolting horrors which characterise the inhuman heart of the savage. To Lord Selkirk, on his way westward with a party of about eighty soldiers, the first intelligence of the massacre and destruction of the colony was received when Sault Ste. Marie was reached. They told him that the settlers and a large part of the property of Red River had been transported to Fort William. Filled with indignation, and determined to demand {283} an explanation of this further bloody deed, the Earl pressed on with all haste to the rendezvous of the North-West Company. There, all unconscious of his approach, no plan had been made either to defend themselves or to arrest Selkirk's progress. Let us peep in at Fort William. On the night preceding the Earl's arrival the Nor'-West partners and their servants are seated at a rude banquet, at which rum and brandy flow like water. Haunches of beef and venison repose on the board, flanked by many kinds of forest game. Laughter and toasting deafen the ear. But if the scene within was noisy and animated, that without beggars description. Hundreds of voyageurs, soldiers, Indians, and half-breeds were encamped together in the open, holding high revel. They hailed from all over the globe, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, America, the African Gold Coast, the Sandwich Islands, Bengal, Canada, with Creoles, various tribes of Indians, and a mixed progeny of Bois-Brulés or half-breeds. "Here," wrote one trader, "were congregated on the shores of the inland sea, within the walls of Fort William, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Sun worshippers, men from all parts of the world whose creeds were 'wide as poles asunder,' united in one common object, and bowing down before the same idol." Women, soldiers, voyageurs, and Indians, in ever-moving medley, danced, sang, drank, and gambolled about the fort this night. But Nemesis was at hand. The Earl approached {284} the fur-trading stronghold swiftly and silently. He was on them before they realised it. An attempt was made to shut the gate and prevent the troops from entering. The fort people had succeeded in shutting one half of the gate, and had almost closed the other by force, when thirty soldiers forthwith rushed to the spot and forced their way into the stronghold of the Northmen.