the dauntless courage of Arnold. He pushed
on, and, obtaining a few cattle, was able to give his men temporary
relief. Winter was closing in, the weather was growing colder every day,
many men were barefoot, and without any protection against the icy rain
except the branches of the leafless trees. The wonder is that the whole
band did not perish.

Finally on the 4th of November, the famishing band caught sight of the
first house they had seen in weeks. Traveling now became better, and
about a week later they reached Point Levi, opposite Quebec. There they
had to wait several days to procure canoes, with which the seven hundred
men, resembling so many shivering tramps, crossed the St. Lawrence and
huddled together under the Heights of Abraham.

What earthly hope could such a body of men, without cannon, with injured
muskets and powder, and cartridges partly spoiled, have in attacking the
walled town of Quebec? None, unless the Canadians made common cause with
them. Following the steep path up which Wolfe and his brave men had
climbed seventeen years before, the gaunt Americans struggled after
their intrepid leader.

The next act in the grim comedy was to send forward a flag of truce with
a demand for the surrender of Quebec. General Carleton must have smiled
at the grotesqueness of the proceeding, when he sent back a refusal. A
few shots followed, when Arnold, finding he had not half a dozen rounds
of ammunition apiece for his men, and was in danger of being attacked
himself, retreated to a point twenty miles below Quebec, where
Montgomery joined him on the 1st of December and assumed command.

The Americans now numbered 3,000, and had six field-pieces and five
light mortars. They set out for Quebec, in front of which they encamped
four days later.

Of all the series of disastrous invasions of Canada, none was more
dismal and pathetic than that of Montgomery and Arnold. The winter was
unusually severe for a region which is noted for its intensely cold
weather. The ground froze to the hardness of a rock, and, unable to make
any impression in it with shovel and pick, the besiegers threw up walls
of ice, which the cannon of the defenders sent flying into thousands of
fragments. The men grew mutinous, and, realizing the desperate
situation, Montgomery ordered an assault to be made on the last day of
the year.

The plan was for the first division under Montgomery to move down the
river and attack the lower town near t