Sir William Johnson had meanwhile been informed by scouts of the approach of the expected French reënforcement. He divided his twenty-three hundred men into three bodies,--one to guard the boats on Lake Ontario, one to hold the trenches, and the third to cut off the advance of the southern army. For this last company he picked the provincial light infantry, two companies of grenadiers, and a hundred and fifty men of the Forty-sixth Regiment. They were commanded by Colonel Massey, under whose orders they threw up, about a mile and a half up the river from the fort, a rough breastwork of felled trees behind which they could stand and pour shot into the ranks of the advancing enemy. The Iroquois warriors who had come with Johnson were placed along the flanks of the English. They had recently shown signs of disaffection, and when the French army came in sight they opened a parley with the Indian allies of the French. This did not last long, for they could come to no agreement, and without further delay the savages threw themselves into the fight with wild war-whoops. The French made a gallant fight, but were fatally hampered by their unprotected position. For half an hour they made sallies, retreating each time after heavy losses, but led back for another assault by those who survived of their heroic officers. At last their ranks were completely broken, and they fled along the shore to regain the portage road around the falls and escape to their boats. For five miles the English pursued them through the woods, capturing and bringing back as many as they could overtake. The bravery of the French officers and the desperate efforts that they made to check the retreat are shown by the fact that nearly all of them were either killed or captured. Their followers hastened back to their boats and retreated across Lake Erie, burning, on their way, Presque Isle, Le Bœuf, and Venango, and journeying to the safe and distant fort of Detroit. On the morning of July 24th, Captain Pouchot, shut up in the fort at Niagara, heard the sound of distant firing and began to watch for his allies. Through the open spaces of the forest, he could see in the far distance, moving forms and groups of men meeting and parting. The English had evidently gone out to attack the advancing army; the cannonading from the trenches which had sounded for so long in the ears of the garrison had ceased, and the trenches seemed deserted. Captain Pouchot called for volunteers to sally forth from the fort and destroy the English works; but as soon as they appeared the English soldiers stationed there by Johnson sprang up from their hiding places behind the works and forced the French to retreat into their fortification.