e to knock holes in the walls. Meantime, twenty guns,
anchored out in the river, played on the broad face of the fort and
swept the Commandant's lunette out of existence. And with all this
prodigious waste of powder but five of the garrison had fallen, and
three of these by the bursting of a single shell. The defenders
understood now that they were fighting for time, and told each other
that when their comedy was played out and the inevitable moment came,
the British General would not show himself fierce in revenge--
"provided," they would add, "the Seigneur does not try his patience
too far." It was Father Launoy who set this whisper going from lip
to lip, and so artfully that none suspected him for its author;
Father Launoy, who had been wont to excite the patriotism of the
faithful by painting the English as devils in human shape. He was a
brave man; but he held this resistance to be senseless and did not
believe for an instant that Montreal would use the delay or, using
it, would strike with any success.

At first the tremendous uproar of the enemy's artillery and its
shattering effect on the masonry of their fortress, had numbed the
militiamen's nerves; they felt the place tumbling about their ears.
But as the hours passed they discovered that round-shot could be
dodged and that even bursting shells, though effective against stones
and mortar, did surprisingly small damage to life and limb; and with
this discovery they began almost to taste the humour of the
situation. They fed and rested in bomb-proof chambers which the
Commandant and M. Etienne had devised in the slope of earth under the
_terre-plein_; and from these they watched and discussed in safety
the wreckage done upon the empty buildings across the courtyard.

One of these caves had at the beginning of the siege been assigned
to Diane; and from the mouth of it, seated with Felicite beside her,
she too watched the demolition; but with far different thoughts.
She knew better than these militiamen her father's obstinacy, and
that his high resolve reached beyond the mere gaining of time.
It seemed to her that God was drawing out the agony; and with the end
before her mind she prayed Him to shorten this cruel interval.

Early on the third morning the British guns had laid open a breach
six feet wide at the north-western angle, close by the foot of the
flagstaff tower; and Amherst, who had sent off a detachment of the
Forty-sixth with a dozen Indian gu