was hoped generally,
would end in the easy conquest of a province, occupied by an alien
people, and likely to be a menace in the future to the country south of
the St. Lawrence. The capture of Chambly and St. John's--the keys of
Canada, by way of Lake Champlain--was immediately followed by the
surrender of Montreal, which was quite indefensible, and the flight of
Carleton to Quebec, where he wisely decided to make a stand against the
invaders. At this time there were not one thousand regular troops in the
country, and Carleton's endeavour to obtain reinforcements from Boston
had failed in consequence of the timidity of Admiral Graves, who
expressed his opinion that it was not safe to send vessels up the St.
Lawrence towards the end of the month of October. No dependence
apparently could be placed at this critical juncture on a number of the
French _habitants_, as soon as the districts of Richelieu, Montreal and
Three Rivers were occupied by the continental troops. Many of them were
quite ready to sell provisions to the invaders, provided they were paid
in coin, and a few of them even joined Montgomery on his march to
Quebec. Happily, however, the influence of the clergy and the
_seigneurs_ was sufficiently powerful to make the great mass of the
people neutral during this struggle for supremacy in the province.

The bishop and the priests, from the outset, were quite alive to the
gravity of the situation. They could not forget that the delegates to
the continental congress, who were now appealing to French Canada to
join the rebellious colonists, had only a few weeks before issued an
address to the people of England in which they expressed their
astonishment that the British parliament should have established in
Canada "a religion that had deluged their land in blood and dispersed
impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion through every part
of the world." Almost simultaneously with the capture of the forts on
Lake Champlain, Bishop Briand issued a _mandement_ in which he dwelt
with emphasis on the great benefits which the people of French Canada
had already derived from the British connection and called upon them all
to unite in the defence of their province. No doubt can exist that these
opinions had much effect at a time when Carleton had reason to doubt
even the loyalty of the English population, some of whom were
notoriously in league with the rebels across the frontier, and gave
material aid to the invade