ed within the walls of the city with all
the provisions they could transport. Prayers for deliverance rose
unceasingly from the altars of the churches and convents, while the
nuns devoted themselves to a nine days' Mass at Notre Dame de Pitie.

[Footnote 22: Brigadier John Hill was the brother of Mrs. Masham,
Queen Anne's favourite, to whom, and not to his merit, he owed his
appointment.]

Upon this anxiety came the tidings of the wreck at Egg Island. Once
more Providence had intervened to save them, and Quebec was delirious
with joy. Every belfry in New France pealed forth its hymn of
thanksgiving. The little church on the Lower Town market-place changed
its name from _Notre Dame de la Victoire_ to _Notre Dame des
Victoires_, and the citizens added a portico in token of their
exultation and gratitude.

* * * * *

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which brought the war of the Spanish
succession to a close, deprived France of many of her American
possessions. Chief of these were Acadia, Newfoundland, and the
Hudson's Bay Territory, all of which were now ceded to England. In the
Gulf of St. Lawrence, France retained only the Isle Royale, Isle of
St. John,[23] and the two tiny rocks of St. Pierre and Miquelon. New
France was, however, unwilling to give up her hold on the Atlantic
seaboard, and procured a grant of thirty million francs from the home
government to build the fortress of Louisbourg at the entrance to the
river St. Lawrence. Vauban, the great French engineer, drew the plans
of that vast fortification on the rocky headland of Cape Breton, which
was destined to play so important a part in the final storm then
gathering over the American continent.

[Footnote 23: Now called Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island
respectively.]

In the meantime New France had entered upon a season of unexpected
peace--unexpected because for at least two generations the conflict
with the English colonists had been so continuous that Quebec had
almost come to regard warfare as her normal state. The respite
following upon the Treaty of Utrecht was the more welcome; and in that
breathing space of almost thirty years it seemed as if a real
prosperity had at last visited the St. Lawrence. The cultivation of
flax and hemp and the weaving of cloth, which had been but a feeble
industry since the days of Talon, now assumed real importance. Furs
were still the main resource of the colony; but grain, fish, oil, and
leather