his eyes cast to the ceiling, entered upon this
little calculation.

"Sixty miles. At the rate of fifteen miles a day, it will take Mr.
Arnold four days to reach Levis. This is the seventh, is it not? Then,
on the eleventh, we may expect that gentleman's visit."

"Arnold will make two forced marches of thirty miles each, Your
Excellency, and arrive opposite this city in two days. This is the
seventh; on the ninth, we shall see his vanguard on the heights of
Levis."

"Ho! Ho! And is that the way the jolly rebel is carrying on? He must
have had a wonderful run of luck all at once. The last we heard from
him, his men had mutinied and were about to disband."

"That was because they were starving."

"And have they been filled, forsooth?"

"They have, sir."

"By whom?"

"By our own people at Sertigan and further along the Chaudiere."

"But horses? They are known to have lost them all in the wilderness."

"They have been replaced."

"Not by our own people, surely."

"Yes, sir, by our own people."

"Impossible. Our poor farmers have been robbed and plundered by these
rascals."

"Excuse me, Your Excellency, but these rascals pay and pay largely for
whatever they require."

"In coin?"

"No, sir, in paper."

"Their Continental paper?"

"The same."

"Rags, vile rags."

"That may be. But our farmers accept them all the same and freely."

Roderick here produced the small parcel which he had deposited in his
breast pocket, and having unfolded it, drew forth several slips which he
handed to His Excellency. They were specimens of American currency, and
receipts signed by Arnold and others of his officers for cattle and
provisions obtained from Canadian farmers.

"Indeed," continued the young officer, "Your Excellency will excuse me
for saying that, from all the information in my possession--information
upon which I insist that you can implicitly rely--it is beyond question
that the population, through which the invading column has passed and is
passing, is favourable to their cause. A trumpery proclamation written
by General Washington himself, and translated into French, has been
distributed among them, and they have been carried away by its fine
sentences about liberty and independence. These facts account for all
the misleading and false reports which we have hitherto received
concerning the expedition. We have been purposely and systematically
kept in the dark in regard to it. Left to itself, Arnold's