What to do now? Selkirk could go on to Red River by way of Minnesota; but his colonists are no longer there. At the Sault are two magistrates of the Indian country--Mr. Askin and Mr. Ermatinger. Lord Selkirk swears out information before them and appeals to them to come with him and arrest the Northwest partners at Fort William. They refuse point-blank. They will have nothing to do with this quarrel between the two great fur companies--this quarrel that really hinges on feudalism versus democracy; English law as against Canadian. To obtain justice in Eastern Canada is impossible. That, Selkirk has learned from a winter of futile bickering for military protection to prevent this very disaster. Selkirk writes fully to the new governor of Canada--Sir John Sherbrooke--that having failed to obtain protection from the Canadian courts he has determined to go on, strong in his own right--as conferred by the charter and as a justice of the peace--to arrest the Northwest partners at Fort William. “_I am reduced to the alternative of acting alone, or of allowing an audacious crime to pass unpunished. I cannot doubt it is my duty to act, though the law may be openly resisted by a set of men accustomed to consider force the only criterion of right._” The Nor’Westers had forcibly invaded and destroyed his colony. Now he was forcibly to invade and destroy their fort. Was his decision wise? Was it the first misstep into the legal tangle that broke his courage and sent him baffled to his grave? Let who can answer! Be it remembered that the Canadian authorities had refused him protection; that the Canadian magistrates had refused him redress. His De Meuron soldiers had not worn their military suits. He bids them don their regalia now and move forward with all the accouterments of war--a feudal lord leading his retinue! “_Between ten and eleven this morning, the Earl of Selkirk accompanied by his bodyguard, came up the river in four canoes_,” writes Jasper Vandersluys, a clerk of Fort William, on August 12, 1816. “_Between one and two, he_ (Selkirk) _was followed by eleven or twelve boats, each having from twelve to fifteen soldiers all armed, who encamped on the opposite shore._” The afternoon passed with Selkirk’s men planting cannon along the river bank, heaping cannon balls in readiness and cleaning all muskets. Nor’West voyageurs and their wives rush inside the palisades. The women are sheltered in a central building upstairs above a trapdoor. The men are sent scurrying to hide one hundred loaded muskets in a hay loft. In the watchtower above the gates stand the Nor’West partners--William McGillivray, the three MacKenzies--Alex, son of Roderick; Kenneth, and old drunken, befuddled Daniel--Simon Fraser, the explorer; several of the McDonell clan, and Dr. John McLoughlin, shaking his head sadly at these preparations for violence. “There has been too much blood shed already,” he remarks.