Learning from the prisoners of Bull's minimal defenses, Léry decided to immediately attack on the morning of 27 March 1756. As he had no field pieces, the only possibility was to attempt storming the fort by surprise. On that day, Fort Bull was occupied by 25 soldiers of 50th (Shirley's) Regiment plus 34 carpenters, boatmen and carters together with three women. At about 11 am, the French and Indians began to approach Fort Bull silently when the Indians gave a war cry that alerted the British. Léry asked that the Iroquois refrain from their "horrendous war cries" that were meant to strike terror in the heart of the enemy in order to take the British by surprise, but at about 900 feet (275 m) away from Fort Bull, the Iroquois gave their customary war cries. Seeing the British were alerted, the French shouted ""Vive le roi!"" ("Long Live the King!") as they charged forward. The fort's defenders managed to get its gate closed just before the French force arrived. Léry wrote "the fort's gate being stronger than I thought, it could only be collapsed by it piece by piece". Of the Iroquois, Léry wrote only six stayed with him as the rest "ran off into the woods in pursuit of six Englishmen" who had not been able to get into the fort before the gate had been closed.