ss has
sent an army into your province, not to plunder but to protect you. To
co-operate with this design I have detached Col. Arnold into your
country, with a part of the Army under my command. Come then, ye
generous citizens, range yourselves under the standard of general
liberty, against which all the force of artifice and tyranny will never
be able to prevail."

Arnold with his two regiments, numbering together about eleven hundred
men, had left Boston in the month of September, with the fixed intention
of penetrating the unbroken wilderness which lay between the two cities.
On the twenty-second of the month he embarked with his troops on the
Kennebec River, in two hundred _batteaux_, and notwithstanding "all the
natural impediments, the ascent of the rapid streams, interrupted by
frequent _portages_, through thick woods and swamps, in spite of
accidents, the desertion of one-third of their number, difficulties and
privations so great as on one occasion to compel them to kill their dogs
for sustenance;" after thirty-two days of the perils of this wilderness
march they came in sight of the first settlement near Quebec.

About a week later, when darkness had fallen along the river shores and
lights twinkled from the little dwellings of the lower town on the
opposite bank, they embarked in canoes for a silent passage across, and
arrived early in the morning at Wolfe's Cove, where, sixteen years
before, a similar landing had been effected, with the same purpose in
view of assaulting the garrison in the seemingly impregnable fortress.
For weeks the blockade was maintained, the American troops being
established in every house near the walls, more especially in the
vicinity of the Intendant's Palace, which once had been gorgeous with
the prodigal luxury and magnificence for which this old Chateau had been
notorious. The roughly-shod New England soldiers tramped through the
rooms and up the noble staircases on which ladies of fashion had glided
when the infamous Intendant Bigot had disgraced his King and office by
his profligacies. These men, establishing themselves in the cupola,
found it an excellent vantage point to fire upon and annoy the sentries
on guard.

On the 5th of December General Montgomery arrived with his troops from
Montreal and joined Arnold. "They sent a flag of truce to General
Carleton, who utterly disregarded it, declaring that he would not have
any communication with rebels unless they came to claim