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well knew; therefore, placing sentries within my house so abruptly must be deemed rather cruel. The papers that Brigadier Wooster wanted are of no consequence, yet they were a trust in me reposed, long before the capitulation. He had no right to demand them, and I Could not with propriety give them. At any rate, I must be supposed to have acted from principle. Had I considered my own peace only, I might have expected to have better attained that by giving up the papers; but my rule of conduct is to endeavour to distinguish right from wrong, and to do what is right, be the consequence what it may. Exclusive of sentries in my house, under the circumstances, my being taken from my family, and sent across the river, at the worst lime, my close confinement in the fort for five weeks, I beg the letter from Brigadier Wooster may be attended to, and let then the cause of such treatment be weighed. To Major-General Schuyler, Continental Forces, ARREST OF MR. WALKER, OF MONTREAL. Province of QUEBECK, ss: Declaration, upon oath, made before DAVID WOOSTER, Esq., Brigadier-General, and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army in CANADA, &c., &c., by BAPTIST BELAIR, Captain of Militia in the Parish of ASSUMPTION, viz: That, being at Montreal, with the Assumption Militia, Monsieur Lanaudiere, Jun., proposed to me to go with the Militia to Assumption, to take Mr. Walker prisoner, at his country-house, by order of General Carleton. This was at Monsieur St. Ours's house, where he sent for me; and, in consequence, I required a written order, and he sent me immediately away to the Barracks, it being then about half-past eight in the evening. Brigadier-General Prescott came to the Barracks, and there delivered me an order, in writing, from General Carleton, and, at the same lime, delivered me a sack, in which was pitch and oakum, saying, in case there is any resistance, and it should he obstinate, you must set fire to the house; it is Mr. Carleton's orders. We set off immediately, by water, to St. Sulpice, and, leaving our batteau there, we took the road to Assumption, where we arrived about two o'clock in the morning, with about twenty of the King's soldiers, and twelve Canadians; and that the deponent staid on the other side the river, having never passed the bridge. Head-Quarters at Montreal.—Sworn before me, this 17th day of February, 1776. DAVID WOOSTER, Brigadier-General. GUY CARLETON Governour of the Province of QUEBECK, &c.: The Sieur Belair, Captain of Militia in the Parish of Assumption, is hereby commanded to go from this city, with the military that shall be ordered with him, in my name, under the command of Lieutenant McDonnell, of the Royal Regiment of Emigrants, to take, at Assumption, and seize upon, the person of Thomas Walker, accused of high-treason, and him safely convey into this city, under a good and safe guard. MR. WALKER'S STATEMENT. Thomas Walker, of Montreal, in the Province of Quebeck, merchant, upon oath, testifieth and saith: That, being at his own house, in the Parish of Assumption, on the 5th of October last past, it was surrounded, about two or three o'clock in the morning, by a party of armed men, viz: a detachment of about twenty soldiers, commanded by Lieutenant John McDonnell, of the Royal Emigrants, together with seven Captains of Militia, and several other Canadians, who began the attack by firing a musket-shot, and then, without calling to this deponent, immediately proceeded to break open his doors with axes, &c., which they effected so suddenly that he had but just time to slip on his coat and waistcoat, and put his pistols in his pockets, in order to retreat, with a short rifle-gun in his hand, into the garret, where his wife had fled, in her shift, but a moment before, this deponent being determined to defend the stair-head to the last extremity. As soon as the soldiers entered the house, they lighted a candle, and instantly searched the bed-chamber, which this deponent and his wife had just quitted, and then, in order to have light in the other apartments, they set fire at the foot of the stairs to some oakum, mixed with pitch or rosin, and immediately a number of them, armed with muskets and fixed bayonets, rushed into the room which, was overlooked by this deponent from the top of the stairs, setting up the Indian yell. The deponent, hearing this, and observing their actions, made not the least doubt that it was Colonel Johnson's party of Mohawk Indians, sent down to murder him and his family, as had been oltentimes threatenend; whereupon, he fired his rifle-gun among the thickest of them, and in a moment afterwards made another shot from a double-pistol, but, before he could discharge the other, they had all quitted the room, with great precipitation and dismay. An officer and Grenadier having been dangerously wounded by those different shots, the rest retired for some time, to bind up their wounds, and to plunder the other part of the house. They then returned, and began a general fire of muskets all around the house, which they kept up briskly for a long time, calling out to this deponent to come out and surrender himself; but, finding that they could make no impression, and not daring to enter the same room again, whence they had been driven, they proposed to uncover the roof of the house, in order to get at the deponent, but dropped the design, it is presumed for the same reason. Therefore, the commanding officer called out to his party to set fire to the four corners of the house, which orders were repeated several times by Sergeant David McFall, and which they executed soon after. This, the deponent perceiving at the window, and being terrified therewith, and imagining that a torch, lifted up at the end of a pole, had been a man upon a ladder setting fire to the roof, discharged a pistol from the window, which, it is said, shot a Captain of Militia through the chin with a buckshot. Thereupon, they began a second attack, firing all around the house for a considerable time, till they bad expended three or four hundred musket-shots.
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