A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

224 WAR AND POLITICS. [1747.or trunk of a fallen tree, not far before him, andapproached it cautiously, setting on the dogs, or, asStevens whimsically phrases it, " saying Chohoy ! " tothem. They ran forward barking, on which severalheads appeared above the log, and several guns werefired at him. He was slightly wounded, but escapedto the fort. Then, all around, the air rang withwar-whoops, and a storm of bullets flew from thetangle ofbushes that edged the clearing, and rappedspitefully, but harmlessly, against the wooden wall.At a little distance on the windward side was a loghouse,to which, with adjacent fences, the assailantspresently set fire, in the hope that, as the wind wasstrong, the flames would catch the fort. WhenStevens saw what they were doing, he set himself tothwart them ; and while some of his men kept themat bay with their guns, the rest fell to work digginga number of short trenches under the wall, on theside towards the fire. As each trench was six orseven feet deep, a man could stand in it outside thewall, sheltered from bullets, and dash buckets ofwater, passed to him from within, against the scorchingtimbers. Eleven such trenches were dug, andeleven men were stationed in them, so that the wholeexposed front of the wall was kept wet.^ Thus,1 " Those who were not employed in firing at the enemy wereemployed in digging trenches under the bottom of the fort. Wedug no less than eleven of them, so deep that a man could go andstand upright on the outside and not endanger himself; so thatwhen these trenches were finished, we could wet all the outside ofthe fort, which we did, and kept it wet all night. We drew some