Up in the North, Robertson’s Athabasca brigade, under fighting John Clarke, had come to dire disaster. Clarke felt so cock-sure that his big brigade could humble the Nor’Westers into suing for union with the Hudson’s Bay that he had galloped his canoes up the Saskatchewan, never pausing to gather store of pemmican meat. A third of the men were stationed at Athabasca Lake, a third sent down the MacKenzie to Slave Lake, a third, Clarke, himself, led up the Peace to the mountains. On the way, the inevitable happened. Clarke ran out of provisions and set himself to obtain them by storming the Nor’Wester, McIntosh, at Fort Vermilion. McIntosh let loose his famous Northwest bullies, who beat Clarke off and chased him down the Peace to Athabasca. Archibald MacGillivray and Black were the partners at Chippewyan, and many a trick they played to outwit Clarke during the long winters of 1815-16. Far or near, not an Indian could Clarke find to barter furs or provisions. The natives had been frightened and bribed to keep away. Once, the coureur brought word that a northern tribe was coming down with furs. The Nor’Westers gave a grand ball to their rivals of the Hudson’s Bay, but at midnight when revels were at their height, a Northwest dog train without any bells to sound alarm, sped silently over the snow. The Indian hunters were met and the furs obtained before the Hudson’s Bay had left the dance. Another night, a party of Hudson’s Bay men had gone out to meet Indians approaching with provisions. Suddenly, Nor’Westers appeared at the night campfire with whiskey. The Hudson’s Bay men were deluded into taking whiskey enough to disable them. Then they were strapped in their own sleighs and the dogs headed home. Clarke was almost at the end of his tether when the Nor’Westers invited him to a dinner. When he rose to go home, MacGillivray and Black slapped him on the shoulder and calmly told him he was their prisoner. As for his men, eighteen died outright of starvation. Others were forced at bayonet point or flogged into joining the Nor’Westers. Many scattered to the wilderness and never returned. Of the two hundred Hudson’s Bay voyageurs who had gone so gloriously to capture Athabasca, only a pitiable remnant found their way down to the Saskatchewan and Lake Winnipeg. Clarke obtains not one pack of furs. The Nor’Westers send out four hundred. _Notes to Chapter XXVII._--The data for this chapter have been drawn from the same sources as the preceding chapter.