CHAP. XVII. AMERICAN TROOPS IN THE WILDERNESS. 819 which several of the boats were overturned and much provision was lost. Food for only twelve days remained. A council of war determined to send the sick and wounded to Norridgewock, where Colonel Enos was yet with the rear division. He was ordered to come on with provisions for fifteen days. Instead of obeying, he returned to Cambridge with his whole division, where he was looked upon as a traitor or coward. Though acquitted by a court-martial, he was never restored to public favor. Arnold's situation was now becoming critical. The rain changed to snow, and ice formed upon the still waters. The men were often compelled to wade in the freezing floods, waist deep, and push the bateaux before them. In that dreadful journey two women, wives of two soldiers, participated, wading with their husbands. At length Lake Megantic was reached, and they encamped on its borders; and the next day, Arnold, with fifty-five men, started to voyage down the Chaudière to the nearest French settlement, there to procure provisions and send them back to the main army. It proved to be a most perilous undertaking. They had no guide. As soon as they entered the river, they found the current running swiftly over a rocky bed. They lashed their baggage and provisions to the bateaux, and committed themselves to the seething flood. They were soon among foaming rapids, when three of their vessels were dashed to pieces and their contents engulfed. No life perished. The men were saved by those in the other boats which were moored in shallow estuaries. This seeming calamity was a mercy in disguise, for, had they not been checked, the whole party, in a few minutes, would have been plunged over a fearful cataract, the sullen roar of which they could distinctly hear. For seventy miles further, falls and rapids succeeded each other, when Sertigan was reached, and Indians were sent back to the main body with provisions, and to guide them to the settlements. This relief-party found the soldiers in a starving condition. Their boats and provisions had been destroyed, and they had slaughtered their last ox several days before. They had subsisted upon a scanty supply of roots, and tried to obtain mucilage by boiling their moose-skin moccasins, but in vain. A dog was killed and furnished soup for a few, and they were suffering the despair of hopelessly starving men when the Indians found them. A few days afterward, the whole army, united, were marching toward the St. Lawrence; and on the 9th of November they suddenly appeared on the heights of Point Levi, opposite Quebec, veiled in falling snow. To the eyes of the wondering people of that city, they seemed like a spectre army just fallen from the clouds. Morgan's riflemen, in their linen frocks, had been seen by the messenger, who carried the news of their arrival to Quebec. "They are vêtu en toile" (clothed in linen cloth), said the messenger. The last word was mistaken for tôle (iron plate), and this created a panic. The city was soon in a tumult. The drums beat to arms, and the garrison was strengthened. Arnold relied upon the friendship for the Americans of a large portion of the inhabitants of Quebec, and believed they would compel the garrison to surrender, if he should appear with a force before the city. He was anxious to cross over at once, but was detained by a storm of sleet until the 13th. That night he crossed the river with five hundred and fifty men in birch canoes. They landed at Wolfe's Cove, ascended the ravine, and at dawn stood in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, where Wolfe had stood sixteen years before. Believing that a shout from his little army would bring out a friendly response from the city, he marched his men toward the two gates opening upon the Plains, and ordered them to give three cheers. He expected to bring out the regulars to attack him, when he hoped, by the assistance of the citizens, to be able to rush in and take possession of the town. But the commanders were wise enough to not open the gates, and the citizens were restrained by fear of the garrison. After making a ridiculous display of arrogance and folly a few days, by issuing proclamations and demanding the surrender of the city, all of which were treated with contempt by the commanders of the garrison, Arnold was startled by the news that Carleton was coming down the St. Lawrence with a force of Canadians and Indians, and information from his friends in the city, that the garrison were on the point of sallying out to attack him with field-pieces. He had no cannon, and his numbers were few, though the remainder had come over from Point Levi, and joined him; and he prudently fled up the river to CHAP. XVII. MONTGOMERY MARCHES TOWARD QUEBEC. 821 Point aux Trembles (Aspen Trees Point), and there awaited instructions from Montgomery. Impressed with the importance of taking Quebec to insure the conquest of Canada, Montgomery placed small garrisons in the forts at St. Johns and Chambly, and left Montreal in charge of General Wooster, preparatory to marching on the Canadian capital. He had heard that the British authorities there were much alarmed by the presence of Arnold. "They expect to be besieged," he wrote to Schuyler, "which, by the blessing of God, they shall be, if the severe season holds off and I can prevail on the troops to accompany me." Montgomery's greatest difficulty was involved in the last consideration. A large portion of his men were indisposed to go further, or remain longer than their enlistment papers compelled them to the first of December. Day by day his army was melting away. The frequent appeals of General Schuyler and himself to Congress for reinforcements had not been responded to, and he took the responsibility of making an unauthorized engagement with troops who were willing to go. With the comparatively few men who agreed to follow him, he left Montreal on the 26th of September, and joined Arnold at Point aux Trembles, on the 3d of December, and took command of the combined troops. With woollen clothing. which he took with him, Montgomery made Arnold's thinly-clad troops comfortable. CHAPTER XVIII. RE QUEBEC ASSAILED-DEATH OF MONTGOMERY—ARNOLD AND LAMB WOUNDED-AMERICANS MONTGOMERY'S REMAINS — CONDITION OF THE REPUBLICAN ARMIES FRANKLIN'S PULSED PLAN FOR A CIVIL GOVERNMENT-GENERAL POST-OFFICE ESTABLISHED—A GENERAL HOSPITAL FLAG-BRITISH TROOPS IN BOSTON-ARTILLERY PROCURED-DORCHESTER HEIGHTS FORTI T HE little army of republicans under Montgomery, less than a thousand in number, with two hundred Canadian volunteers led by Colonel James Livingston, pressed on toward Quebec from Point aux Trembles, and arrived before the town on the evening of the 5th of December. The general made his quarters at Holland House, two or three miles from the city, and on the following morning he sent a flag with a message to Governor Carleton, demanding an instant surrender of the post. The flag was fired upon. Montgomery, indignant at such treatment-such violation of the rules of war among civilized nations-sent a threatening letter to Carleton, and another to the inhabitants. These were taken into the city by a woman, and a copy of the latter was shot over the walls, into the town, on an arrow from an Indian bow. Carleton refused to have any intercourse with the "rebel general," and the latter prepared to assail the walled town with his handful of men, ill-clad, ill-fed, and exposed to storms and intense cold on the open Plains of Abraham. The ground was too hard frozen to be penetrated with pick or spade, and the snow covered it in huge drifts; so Montgomery filled gabions (a sort of wicker-work baskets) with snow, poured water over the mass, which instantly congealed, and soon raised a huge ice-mound. Upon this glittering embankment Lamb placed in battery six 12-pound cannon and two howitzers. In the Lower Town he placed four or five mortars, from which he sent bombshells into the city and set a few buildings on fire. Montgomery made further unsuccessful efforts to communicate with the governor; and continued to throw shells into the city. At length some heavy round shot from the citadel shivered Lamb's crystal battery into fragments, and com CHAP. XVIII. THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 823 pelled him to withdraw. The cannon of the Americans made no impression on the heavy walls, and Montgomery was compelled to resort to other measures for taking the city. It was now determined to wait for expected reinforcements, but for a fortnight they waited in vain. The Congress were tardy in their actions; and for want of hard money Schuyler was almost powerless to procure men or supplies. He used his own personal credit largely, but he could not send on men. A friend in Montreal had helped A Montgomery to the extent of his ability, and the general was left to his own resources. The terms of the enlistment of many of his men had almost expired, and the deadly small-pox had appeared among them. web of fearful difficulty was thus gathering around the general; but worse than all was a quarrel between Arnold and some of his officers, which caused the latter and their men to threaten to leave the service unless they were placed under another commander. Montgomery, by the exercise of wisdom and justice, healed the dissensions; and at Christmas time a plan was arranged by a council of officers to assail the town at two points simultaneously; one division of the troops to be under the immediate command of the general, and another under Arnold. The latter was to make a night attack upon the Lower Town, setting fire to houses in the suburb St. Roque so as to consume the British stockade in that quarter, while the main body should attempt to take Cape Diamond Bastion, a strong part of the city walls on the highest point of the rocky promontory. It was determined to make the assault on the first stormy night. A SWIFT MESSENGER. At length the serene, cold days and nights were ended, and on the evening of the 30th of December (1775) a snow-storm set in. Montgomery's force was now reduced by sickness and desertion to seven hundred and fifty men, but the brave soldier was determined to assail the town with this handful. He gave orders for his troops to be ready to move at two o'clock in the morning of the 31st. Colonel Livingston was directed to make a feigned attack on St. Louis Gate and set it on fire, while Major Brown should |