For the next Eight Fridays, I'm doing blog posts about Canadian heroes of History... some you may have heard of... others you may not know... in under 800 words (not including my usual last note), I'm going to TRY and introduce them to you as best I can...

So far, I've done posts about...

- James FitzGibbon
- Harriet Tubman Davis
- Crowfoot
- Charles-Michel d'Irumberry de Salaberry

Madeleine Jarret Tarieu was born on February 3rd, 1678 at her father's seigneury in Verchères, Quebec... she was the fourth of twelve children in the family.

In these early settlements, the seigneur was responsible for most things on their property including fortifications and defence... but who would know that Madeleine would play an important role herself in this... and at the tender age of fourteen.

In 1692, while working outside the fort's walls with other settlers, a cry went up...

"Fly, mademoiselle, fly! the Iroquois are upon us!"

Forty-five enemy warriors were approaching, firing muskets at the Europeans.

Knowing that there was only one professional soldier in the fort to protect the woman and children (including two of her younger brothers) and with her father and the men away on business in neighbouring community, Madeleine ran into the fort and, taking command, brought everyone into action.

The soldier recommended a "suicide" move of igniting the powder stores... better to go in a blaze of glory and possibly take out the enemy warriors then succumb to possible defeat and probable capture and torture... but Madeleine would have none of it, she fired the fort's cannon into the attacker herself. According to her own account, this cannon round "...fortunately had all the success I could hope for in warning the neighbouring forts to be on their guard, lest the Iroquois do the same to them."

Like many women of her age in the new colonies, she was already trained in how to use a musket, and set up her position... placing the guns inside the fort within sight of each other. She then quieted the cries of the women and children inside the fort so as not to let the Iroquois know of the possible vunerability.

Then, she planned a careful ruse... If anyone inside the fort could carry a gun, they would, and would march along the defensive walls, occasionally letting a shot go into the natives now laying siege. This fooled the natives into believing the fort to be heavilly guarded and therefore making them wary of a full attack.

"I went up on the bastion where the sentry was... I then transformed myself, putting the soldier’s hat on my head, and with some small gestures tried to make it seem that there were many people, although there was only this soldier."

For seven days, she rarely slept, never changed her clothes, sounded bugle calls and orders to keep up the ruse... and hoping beyond hope that eventually, her calls would attract any possible nearby French soldiers to assist her in holding the fort. During this time, it is said, she never laid down her weapon.

I will let Madeleine finish the tale through her account to the Governor of New France, the Marquis de Beauharnois she penned in 1716

On the eighth day (for we were eight days in continual alarms, under the eyes of our enemies and exposed to their fury and savage attacks), on the eighth day, I say, M. De La Monnerie, a lieutenant detached from the force under M. De Callières, reached the fort during the night with forty men. Not knowing but the fort had fallen, he made his approach in perfect silence. One of our sentries hearing a noise, cried out: "Qui vive?"

I was dozing at the moment, with my head resting on a table and my musket across my arms.

The sentry told me he heard voices on the water. I forthwith mounted the bastion in order to find out by the tone of the voice whether the party were savages or French. I called out to them:

"Who are you?"

They answered: "French! It is La Monnerie come to your assistance."

I caused the door of the fort to be opened and put a sentry to guard it, and went down to the bank of the river to receive the party. So soon as I saw the officer in command I saluted him, saying:

"Sir, you are welcome, I surrender my arms to you."

"Mademoiselle," he answered, with a courtly air, "they are in good hands."

"Better than you think," I replied.

He inspected the fort and found it in a most satisfactory condition, with a sentry on each bastion. I said to him:

"Sir, kindly relieve my sentries, so that they may take a little rest, for we have not left our posts for the last eight days."

Madeleine's fame for her deeds lived on... and still do. The image of the fourteen-year-old girl, dressed as a soldier, defending her home, her family, and her people is an enduring one... even if it's not one that's well known beyond the Verchères area and parts Quebec...

She lived to the age of 69 gaining a reputation running her family's seigneury as "The Landlady from Hell" for her strict ways and tough treatment of her tenants... perhaps still thinking back to her bold military days in her early teens.

Madeleine died at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade and was buried on the 8th August, 1747, underneath her pew in the parish church.

Sources:
"Her Story - Women from Canada's Past" by Susan E. Merritt
The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
The Franco-American Women's Institute

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