For some reason which it is difficult to discern, Wetherall did not march on from St Charles to effect a pacification of St Denis. On December 1, however, Colonel Gore once more set out from Sorel, and entered St Denis the same day. He found everything quiet. He recovered the howitzer and five of the wounded men he had left behind. In spite of the absence of opposition, his men took advantage of the occasion to wreak an unfair and un-British vengeance on the helpless victors of yesterday. Goaded to fury by the sight of young Weir's mangled body, they set fire to a large part of the village. Colonel Gore afterwards repudiated the charge that he had ordered the burning of the houses of the insurgents; but that defence does not absolve him from blame. It is obvious, at any rate, that he did not take adequate measures to prevent such excesses; nor was any punishment ever administered to those who applied the torch. {89} But the end of rebellion was not yet in sight. Two more encounters remain to be described. The first of these occurred at a place known as Moore's Corners, near the Vermont border. After the collapse at St Charles a number of _Patriote_ refugees had gathered at the small town of Swanton, a few miles south of Missisquoi Bay, on the American side of the boundary-line. Among them were Dr Cyrile Cote and Edouard Rodier, both members of the Lower Canada Assembly; Ludger Duvernay, a member of the Assembly and editor of _La Minerve_; Dr Kimber, one of the ringleaders in the rescue of Demaray and Davignon; and Robert Shore Milnes Bouchette, the descendant of a French-Canadian family long conspicuous for its loyalty and its services to the state. Bouchette's grandfather had been instrumental in effecting the escape of Sir Guy Carleton from Montreal in 1775, when that place was threatened by the forces of Montgomery. The grandson's social tastes and affiliations might have led one to expect that he would have been found in the ranks of the loyalists; but the arbitrary policy of the Russell Resolutions had driven him into the arms of the extreme _Patriotes_. Arrested for disloyalty at the outbreak of {90} the rebellion, he had been admitted to bail and had escaped. These men, under the belief that the habitants would rise and join them, determined upon an armed invasion of Canada. Possibly they believed also that Wolfred Nelson was still holding out. Papineau, it was said, had reported that 'the victor of St Denis' was entrenched with a considerable force at St Cesaire on the Yamaska. They therefore collected arms and ammunition, sent emissaries through the parishes to the north to rouse the _Patriotes_, and on December 6, flying some colours which had been worked for them by the enthusiastic ladies of Swanton, they crossed the Canadian border, about two hundred strong. They had two field-pieces and a supply of muskets and ammunition for those whom they expected to join the party on Canadian soil.