A statue of Madeleine Jarret in Verchères, Quebec.
A close-up of a monument to Madeleine Jarret in Montreal. The story grew in popularity throughout the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly as an edifying tale for Canadian schoolchildren. The accompanying extract was published in 1927. The fact that this was a tale of New France did not prevent Edith Marsh from holding Madeleine up as a national heroine to all children in George V’s Canada.
Part 1 of 3
There were many brave men and women living in the days of Frontenac, and truly there was need of them. Many a story of heroism has come down to us from those troubled times in the long ago of our country. Among them is the story of the little heroine, Madeleine Verchères.*
Madeleine’s father was a seigneur* who lived not far from Montreal. As his seigneury was often passed by the Iroquois, and often attacked by them, it was called Castle Dangerous.* One October morning,* when Seigneur Verchères and his wife were away, Madeleine, who was then only fourteen years old, came out and stood near the river watching for some friends she was expecting.
Suddenly she heard a gun. A servant went at once to see what it was, and came running back crying, —
“Run, mademoiselle, the Iroquois, the Iroquois!”*
Brave Madeleine ran to the fort calling, “To arms, to arms!” She at once ordered every one inside, and set to work to have the fort made strong and in readiness for an attack.
Most of the men were working in the fields. In the fort there were only two soldiers, a servant, an old man, and Madeleine’s two little brothers, aged ten and twelve years. All the others were women and children.
* Marie-Madeleine Jarret, known as Madeleine de Verchères (1678-1747), was the fourth child of François Jarret and his wife Marie. Jarret’s property stood on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, along the path naturally taken by the Iroquois (in English, pronounced IRRA-kwoy or IRRA-kwa) for their raids on Montreal. The town of Verchères stands there to this day, about twenty miles northeast, down the river, from Montreal’s city centre.
* ‘Seigneur’ is a title deriving from the French feudal system, and roughly equivalent to English ‘(liege) lord’. A seigneury was a baronial manor, in this case a log-built fortified dwelling surrounded by tenant farms.
* It was Wednesday October 22nd, 1692, on the Gregorian calendar. Two years earlier, her mother Marie had been forced to defend the house against an Iroquois raid. For another uncompromising defence of a stately home by its chatelaine, see Black Agnes Dunbar.
* A nickname apparently coined by American historian Francis Parkman, in Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV (1877). “An exaggeration of the scale of the settlement” remark Colin Coates and Cecilia Morgan in Heroines and History (2002) “but one with a nice literary ring nonetheless.” The name is presumably derived from Sir Walter Scott’s novel Castle Dangerous (1831), set in Scotland.
* The Iroquois had welcomed the Count de Frontenac in 1672 with something akin to awe, and his decision to cast himself as father of their nation went down well. However, the Marquis de Denonville was a man of much narrower vision. He sent in a well-meaning Christian missionary to arrange a conference, and when the Iroquois came along, all unsuspecting, he kidnapped fifty and sent them to France as galley slaves before torching their homes. Louis XIV had the sense to send the captives back with Frontenac in 1689, but the damage was irreparable — the Europeans now had the reputation of men who could not be trusted.
Précis
In 1692, French settlements near Montreal were regularly raided by Iroquois warriors. One day, they came to the manor farm of François Jarret. Jarret and his wife were away, and apart from their young children the estate had only two soldiers and a handful of servants to defend it. Fortunately, their daughter Madeleine, just fourteen, was an exceptional young woman. (60 / 60 words)
Part Two
Farmland around Verchères, beside the St Lawrence River.
A view of Verchères today, a settlement some twenty miles northeast down the St Lawrence River from Montreal; another 120 miles or so brings the traveller to Quebec City. At the time when these events took place, this part of Canada was known as New France and was ruled by the Kingdom of France, then governed by King Louis XIV. Founded in 1534, New France ended in 1763 when its territories were ceded to Great Britain and Spain under the Treaty of Paris that ended the disastrous Seven Years’ War. See The Seven Years’ War.
Madeleine knew that the only thing to do was to make the Iroquois believe that the fort was well guarded. To do this the help of all was needed; but when she ran through the covered passage to the blockhouse where the powder was kept, she found a soldier so frightened that he was going to set a match to the powder magazine. This, he said, was to save them from being captured by the Iroquois. Madeleine told him that he was a coward. “Let us fight,” she said, “for our king and our country.”
She then had the only cannon fired, that the men in the fields might be warned of the danger. This frightened the Iroquois, and made them think that the fort was well guarded.
The little company under Madeleine’s leadership kept a careful watch, and any venturesome Iroquois who came too near was sure to receive a shot. They were afraid that the Indians would come upon them when it grew dark, and all night long they watched. When at regular intervals the Indians heard the cry, “All’s well!” they thought the fort was full of soldiers, and were afraid to attack it.
Précis
Madeleine rallied the grown-ups, bringing back to his senses one soldier who was so frightened that he was ready to blow up the entire house rather than be captured. She sounded the alarm, brought everyone within the stockade, and kept up a show that gave the besieging Iroquois the impression that the house was much better defended than it was. (60 / 60 words)
Part Three
A bust of the Count de Frontenac in Quebec City, Canada.
A bust of Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau (1622-1698), Governor General of New France in North America from 1672 to 1682, and again from 1689 until his death in 1698. Frontenac’s governorship followed a pattern all to common in European colonialism, with friendly trade between the newcomers and the indigenous peoples giving way to broken promises, something that especially scandalised the Iroquois, military exploitation, and equally bloody reprisals. See also Pontiac’s War.
Madeleine’s little brothers, brave as herself, helped in every way. On the seventh day of the siege, when they were all tired out and greatly in need of sleep, and Madeleine was trying to rest with her head on a table, her brothers rushed in with the news that French soldiers were coming to their aid.
It was Lieutenant de La Monnerie and forty men. News of the danger of the little fort had been carried to Montreal by some labourers who had managed to escape from the fields when they heard the cannon fired, and La Monnerie had been sent at once.
Instead of finding the place all in ruins, as he had feared, everything was secure and Madeleine in charge. The Iroquois hurried away when they saw that help had come.
Soon the mother and father returned to their children, of whom they had good cause to be proud.
Précis
The defence of the estate had lasted a week and everyone was feeling the strain when Madeleine’s two younger brothers rushed in with good news. They had spotted a detachment of French soldiers approaching, brought by Madeleine’s signal of alarm. The Iroquois melted away, and when Madeleine’s parents came home they found everyone safe, and were fairly bursting with pride. (60 / 60 words)
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