t public auction:
the whole to be conducted as soon as the City is in
our hands and the inhabitants disarmed.

It was a week after these orders had been written before
the first positive news of the threatened assault was
brought into town by an escaped British prisoner who,
strangely enough, bore the name of Wolfe. Wolfe's escape
naturally caused a postponement of Montgomery's design
and a further council of war. Unlike most councils of
war this one was full of fight. Three feints were to be
made at different points while the real attack was to be
driven home at Cape Diamond. But just after this decision
had been reached two rebel Montrealers came down and, in
another debate, carried the day for another plan. These
men, Antell and Price, were really responsible for the
final plan, which, like its predecessor, did not meet
with Montgomery's approval. Montgomery wanted to make a
breach before trying the walls. But he was no more than
the chairman of a committee; and this egregious committee
first decided to storm the unbroken walls and then changed
to an attack on the Lower Town only. Antell was Montgomery's
engineer. Price was a red-hot agitator. Both were better
at politics than soldiering. Their argument was that if
the Lower Town could be taken the Quebec militia would
force Carleton to surrender in order to save the warehouses,
shipping, and other valuable property along the waterfront,
and that even if Carleton held out in debate he would
soon be brought to his knees by the Americans, who would
march through the gates, which were to be opened by the
'patriots' inside.

Another week passed; and Montgomery had not eaten his
Christmas dinner either in Quebec or in the other place.
But both sides knew the crisis must be fast approaching;
for the New Yorkers had sworn that they would not stay
a minute later than the end of the year, when their term
of enlistment was up. Thus every day that passed made an
immediate assault more likely, as Montgomery had to strike
before his own men left him. Yet New Year's Eve itself
began without the sign of an alarm.

Carleton had been sleeping in his clothes at the Recollets',
night after night, so that he might be first on parade
at the general rendezvous on the Place d'Armes, which
stood near the top of Mountain Hill, the only road between
the Upper and the Lower Town. Officers and men off duty
had been following his example; and every one was ready
to turn out at a