picked up by a ship from Halifax and conveyed to England.

General Prescott, who succeeded to the governorship, was a man of
harsher temperament. But although his anxiety for the loyalty of the
French province was much increased by the intrigues of revolutionary
agents, he soon perceived their plans to be fatuous and their
enterprise devoid of importance. While the forward spirits in Quebec
were leavening the mass of the _habitants_ with specious reports of a
French fleet ready to co-operate with them, a force composed for the
most part of ill-disposed Americans was to percolate into Canada from
Vermont. This so-called fleet consisted of a ship, ironically called
the _Olive Branch_, which had sailed from Ostend bound for Vermont
with twenty thousand stand of arms, several pieces of artillery, and a
quantity of ammunition. She had not got far on her way, however,
before a British cruiser seized her and bore her into Portsmouth
harbour.

Meanwhile, Du Milliere, an alleged French General, was scattering
money about on the borders of Vermont, while a plausible American was
intriguing at Quebec. With timber cutters and the simplest of artisans
as his confederates, this misguided revolutionist hatched his
theatrical conspiracy in the neighbouring woods. He proposed to
overcome the city-guard with laudanum; and fifteen thousand men were
only awaiting the uplifting of his hand! These and similar illusions
possessed a poor dupe named M'Lane, until the Government having
decided upon the apprehension of the leading conspirators, M'Lane was
arrested and charged with high treason. Chief Justice Osgoode
presided at the trial, and a jury condemned him to death.

[Illustration: PERCEE ROCK]

On the 21st of July, 1797, above two thousand troops were drawn up in
the streets of Quebec as the chief conspirator was led forth to his
execution on the _glacis_ just outside St. John's Gate. "I saw M'Lane
conducted to the place of execution," writes De Gaspe excitedly. "He
was seated with his back to the horse on a wood-sleigh whose runners
grated on the bare ground and stones. An axe and a block were on the
front part of the conveyance. He looked at the spectators in a calm,
confident manner, but without the least effrontery. He was a tall and
remarkably handsome man. I heard some women of the lower class
exclaim, whilst deploring his sad fate, 'Ah, if it were only as in
old times, that handsome man would not have to die! There would be
p