diers was heard along the street, and
low words of command reached the listening ears of Pauline. She
understood that something momentous was going on. She closed her
shutters tight, drew down the heavy curtains of her windows, mended the
fire on the hearth, and crouching there, on low seats, like two
frightened doves, she and Blanche awaited the coming of the dawn.

XX.

THE SPECTRAL ARMY.

After leaving the banquet hall, the Lieutenant-Governor immediately set
about acting upon the important intelligence which he had received from
Donald. Now that the long suspense was over, and that the threatened
invasion of the Bastonnais had become a reality, he felt himself imbued
with the energy demanded by the occasion. Some of the ancient
chroniclers, Sanguinet more particularly, have accused Mr. Cramahe of
remissness in preparing for the defence of Quebec, but the researches we
have made, in the composition of the present work, convince us that the
charge is only partially true. He acted slowly in the earlier stages of
the campaign because he shared the general disbelief in the seriousness
of the Continental attack. Montgomery's movement from the west he had no
pressing reasons to dread, inasmuch as that officer was confronted in
the Montreal district by the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief,
Guy Carleton himself. Carleton had nearly emptied Quebec of regular
troops for his army, and as long as he employed them in keeping back
Montgomery, Cramahe had really little or no responsibility to bear.
Arnold's march from the east, through the forests of Maine, was known to
be aimed directly at Quebec, but the Canadians of that day, who
understood all the hardships and perils of winter in the primeval woods,
had no idea that Arnold's column would ever reach its destination. And,
as we shall see, in the next book, when describing the principal
episodes of this heroic march, there was every good reason for the
scepticism.

But when at length, after many contradictory rumors and much false
information which would have bewildered any commander, Cramahe learned
from the intercepted letters of Arnold, and from the volunteer
reconnoitering of such faithful men as Donald, that the Continental army
was really approaching Quebec, it is due to the memory of a worthy
officer, even in these pages of romance, to say that he acted with
judgment and activity in making all the preliminary preparations
necessary to protect Quebec, un