The troops bivouacked for the night at St Martin, and advanced on the morning of the 14th. The main body crossed the Mille Isles river on the ice about four miles to the east of St Eustache, and then moved westward along the St Rose road. A detachment of Globensky's Volunteers, however, followed the direct road to St Eustache, and came out on the south side of the river opposite the village, in full view of the rebels. Chenier, at the head of a hundred and fifty men, crossed the {98} ice, and was on the point of coming to close quarters with the volunteers when the main body of the loyalists appeared to the east. Thereupon Chenier and his men beat a hasty retreat, and made hurried preparations for defending the village. The church, the convent, the presbytery, and the house of the member of the Assembly, Scott, were all occupied and barricaded. It was about the church that the fiercest fighting took place. The artillery was brought to bear on the building; but the stout masonry resisted the battering of the cannon balls, and is still standing, dinted and scarred. Some of the Royals then got into the presbytery and set fire to it. Under cover of the smoke the rest of the regiment then doubled up the street to the church door. Gaining access through the sacristy, they lit a fire behind the altar. 'The firing from the church windows then ceased,' wrote one of the officers afterwards, 'and the rebels began running out from some low windows, apparently of a crypt or cellar. Our men formed up on one side of the church, and the 32nd and 83rd on the other. Some of the rebels ran out and fired at the troops, then threw down their arms and begged for quarter. Our officers tried to save the {99} Canadians, but the men shouted "Remember Jack Weir," and numbers of these poor deluded fellows were shot down.'