Father Joly, as if aware of something amiss, had cast out both hands
and was grasping the gunwale. The boat, sucked into the roar of the
rapids, shot down the left channel--the channel of death.

"Il reviendra-z a Paques,
Ou--a la Trinite!"

The voice was lost in the roar of the falls, now drumming loud in
John's ears. He knew nothing of these rapids; but two channels lay
ahead and the choice between them. He leapt across M. Etienne, and
hurling Bateese aside, seized the tiller and thrust it hard over,
heading for the right.

Peering back through the spray as he bent he saw the helmsmen astern
staring--hesitating. They had but a second or two in which to
choose. He shouted and shouted again--in English. But the tumbling
waters roared high above his shouts.

He reached out and gripping Bateese by the collar, forced the tiller
into his hand. Useless now to look back to try to discover how many
boats were following!

Bateese, with a sob, crept back to the tiller and steered.

Not until the foot of the falls was reached did John know that the
herd had followed him. But forty-six boats had followed Dominique's
fatal lead: and of their crews ninety red-coated corpses tossed with
Dominique's and the two priests' and spun in the eddies beneath the
_Grand Bouilli_.

At dawn next morning the sentries in Montreal caught sight of them
drifting down past the walls, and carried the news. So New France
learnt that its hour was near.

CHAPTER XXVI.

DICK'S JUDGMENT.

Two days later Amherst landed his troops at La Chine, marched them
unopposed to Montreal, and encamped before the city on its western
side. Within the walls M. de Vaudreuil called a council of war.

Resistance was madness. From east, south, west, the French
commanders--Bourlamaque, Bougainville, Roquemaure, Dumas, La Corne--
had all fallen back, deserted by their militias. The provincial army
had melted down to two hundred men; the troops of the line numbered
scarce above two thousand. The city, crowded with non-combatant
refugees, held a bare fortnight's provisions. Its walls, built for
defence against Indians, could not stand against the guns which
Amherst was already dragging up from the river; its streets of wooden
houses awaited only the first shell to set them ablaze.

On the eastern side Murray was moving closer, to encamp for the
siege. To the south the tents of Haviland's army dotted the river
shore. Seventeen th