usand men, it was said, had reached land
and then perished miserably. Many bodies had been found naked and
in attitudes of despair. Other thousands had perished in the water.
Vessel-loads of spoil had been gathered, rich plate, beautiful swords,
magnificent clothing, gold, silver, jewels. The truth seems to be
that some weeks after the disaster the evidences of the wrecks were
discovered. Even to this day ships are battered to pieces in those
rock-strewn waters and no one survives to tell the story. Some fishermen
landing on the island had found human bodies, dead horses and
other animals, and the hulls of seven ships. They had gathered some
wreckage--and that was the whole story. Quebec sang Te Deum. From
attacks by sea there had now been two escapes which showed God's
love for Canada. In the little church of Notre Dame des Victoires,
consecrated at that time to the memory of the deliverance from Phips and
Walker, daily prayers are still poured out for the well-being of Canada.
God had been a present help on land as well as on the sea. Nicholson,
with more than two thousand men, had been waiting at his camp near Lake
Champlain to descend on Montreal as soon as Walker reached Quebec. When
he received the news of the disaster he broke up his force and retired.
For the moment Canada was safe from the threatened invasion.

In spite of this apparent deliverance, the long war, now near its end,
brought a destructive blow to French power in America. Though France
still possessed vigor and resources which her enemies were apt to
underrate, the war had gone against her in Europe. Her finest armies had
been destroyed by Marlborough, her taxation was crushing, her credit was
ruined, her people were suffering for lack of food. The allies had begun
to think that there was no humiliation which they might not put upon
France. Louis XIV, they said, must give up Alsace, which, with Lorraine,
he had taken some years earlier, and he must help to drive his own
grandson from the Spanish throne. This exorbitant demand stirred the
pride not only of Louis but of the French nation, and the allies found
that they could not trample France under their feet. The Treaty of
Utrecht, concluded in 1718, shows that each side was too strong as yet
to be crushed. In dismissing Marlborough, Great Britain had lost one of
her chief assets. His name had become a terror to France. To this day,
both in France and in French Canada, is sung the popular ditty "Mon