; buried in the snow were the muzzles of
guns thirty feet from the bottom of the ditch. Sometimes Nairne was
actively engaged in scouting work. In February we find him leading a
party to take possession of the English burying ground in the suburbs;
on March 19th, he went out into the open from Cape Diamond to the
height overlooking the Anse de Mer. But nothing happened; a diarist
expresses, on April 21st, his contempt for the American attack by
writing: "Hitherto they have killed a boy, wounded a soldier, and broke
the leg of a turkey."[10]

The assailants were, in truth, impotent before the masterly inactivity
of Carleton, who waited patiently behind his walls for the arrival in
the spring of a British fleet. Counting upon this expectancy the
Americans tried an old-time ruse. Between nine and ten o'clock in the
evening of May 3rd, with the moon shining brightly and the tide flowing
in and nearly high, a ship under full sail came into view from the
direction of the Island of Orleans. With the wind behind her she swung
in at a good rate of speed. Those who watched were, for a moment, sure
that the long expected rescue had come. But, as she bore down to the
_cul de sac_ where lay the shipping at Quebec, she made no response to
signals. At last, the British, after three vain efforts to draw a
response, warned her to reply or they should fire. When this threat was
carried out she was only some two hundred yards away. Then suddenly
flames burst out on the ship, followed by random explosions; a boat left
her side rowed very swiftly, and it was now apparent that she was sent
to burn, if possible, the British shipping. It must have been an
anxious moment when she was so near and heading straight for her prey.
But, showing a natural prudence, those who steered left her too soon
and, with no hand at the helm, her head came up quickly in the wind. By
this time all Quebec had been alarmed and, as attack from the landward
side was also expected, every man was soon at his post. The ship was a
striking sight as, with sails and rigging on fire, she drifted
helplessly before the town. When the tide turned she floated down, a
mass of fire, with explosions shaking her from time to time, to the
shallows off Beauport where she soon lay stranded, a blackened ruin of
half-burnt timbers.

Quebec still waited for rescue, and not in vain. At day break, on the
6th of May, a frigate appeared round Point Levi. Again went forth the
cry of "A ship,