The loyalists who were forced to flee from the village carried the news of these proceedings to Montreal; but Sir John Colborne was unwilling to take any steps to subdue the _Patriotes_ of St Eustache until the insurrection on the Richelieu had been thoroughly crushed. All he did was to send a detachment of volunteers to guard the Bord a Plouffe bridge at the northern end of the island of Montreal. On Sunday, December 3, word reached St Eustache of the defeat of the insurgents at St Charles. This had a moderating influence on many of the _Patriotes_. All week the Abbe {95} Paquin, parish priest of St Eustache, had been urging the insurgents to go back quietly to their homes. He now renewed his exhortations. He begged Chenier to cease his revolutionary conduct. Chenier, however, was immovable. He refused to believe that the rebels at St Charles had been dispersed, and announced his determination to die with arms in his hands rather than surrender. 'You might as well try to seize the moon with your teeth,' he exclaimed, 'as to try to shake my resolve.' The events of the days that followed cannot be chronicled in detail. When the Abbe Paquin and his vicar Deseves sought to leave the parish, Girod and Chenier virtually placed them under arrest. The abbe did not mince matters with Chenier. 'I accuse you before God and man,' he said, 'of being the author of these misfortunes.' When some of the habitants came to him complaining that they had been forced against their will to join the rebels, he reminded them of the English proverb: 'You may lead a horse to the water, but you cannot make him drink.' Unfortunately, the Abbe Paquin's good influence was counteracted by that of the Abbe Chartier, the cure of the neighbouring village of St {96} Benoit, a rare case of an ecclesiastic lending his support to the rebel movement, in direct contravention of the orders of his superiors. On several occasions the Abbe Chartier came over to St Eustache and delivered inflammatory addresses to the rebel levies.