til the arrival of Governor Carleton, and
reinforcements of regular troops.

After leaving the banquet hall, he put on his uniform, and wrapping
himself closely in his military cloak, he resolved upon making a
personal inspection of all the defensive posts of the city. He first
repaired to the barracks in Cathedral-square, where he had a brief
conference with the principal officers. He next visited every gate and
the approaches to the citadel, where he was pleased to find that the
sentries were unusually alert, and quite alive to the exigencies of the
situation, without precisely knowing what they were. The
Lieutenant-Governor then walked down into the darkness of Lower Town and
wandered a long time in silence along the dusky bank of the St.
Lawrence.

About three o'clock in the morning a sleigh drew up at the door of a
large square house in a retired street. Two men issued from it, one
middle-aged, erect and dressed in rather costly furs; the other old,
thin and arrayed like an Indian hunter, with a large fox-skin cap on his
head. As they stepped across the footpath from the sleigh to the front
steps of the mansion, a tall muffled figure stalked slowly on the other
side of the street.

"It is the Governor," whispered the younger man to his companion. "I
know his stature and carriage! Let us enter."

"I wonder what Belmont is doing out at this unseasonable hour," muttered
the tall man in the folds of his cloak. And he walked on, while the
door of the mansion closed with a thud upon the two sleighmen.

* * * * *

It was five o'clock on the morning of the 10th November, 1775. The first
faint light of the morning was touching the tops of the far mountains.
The air was frosty, with indications of snow.

Two men stood at an angle of the ramparts, on the highest point of the
citadel of Quebec. They were looking eastward.

"See, Lieutenant," said one pointing his gloved hand across the river.

"Ay, there they are, Your Excellency, issuing from the woods and
ascending the hill," replied the other.

"They are _on_ the hill, swarming up in hundreds," rejoined the
Governor.

Cramahe pressed the hand of Hardinge, and the two descended rapidly but
silently into the city. On their way, they heard the confused mutter of
the streets:

"The Bastonnais have come!"

Yes, there they were. Arnold's men stood like a spectral army on the
Heights of Levis.

END OF BOOK THE FIRST.

BOOK I