pt with
keener observation. Eye, ear, brain--the whole being was absorbed in
duty. Not a sight escaped him--from the changes of cloud in the lowering
sky over the offing, to the deepening of shadows in the alley of Wolfe's
Cove. Not a sound passed unheard--from the fluttering wing of the
sparrow that had built its winter nest in the guns of the battery, to
the swift dash of the chipmunk over the brown glacis of the
fortifications. Standing there on the loftiest point of the loftiest
citadel in America, his martial form detached from its bleak
surroundings, and clearly defined, like a block of sculptured marble,
against the dark horizon--silent, alone and watchful--he was the
representative and custodian of British power in Canada in the hour of a
dread crisis. He felt the position and bore himself accordingly.

Roderick Hardinge was a high-spirited young fellow. He belonged to the
handful of militia which guarded the city of Quebec, and he resented the
imputations which had been continually cast, during the preceding two
months, on the efficiency of that body. He knew that the Americans had
carried everything before them in the upper part of the Colony. Schuyler
had occupied Isle-aux-Noix without striking a blow. Five hundred
regulars and one hundred volunteers had surrendered at St. Johns.
Bedell, of New Hampshire, had captured Chambly, with immense stores of
provisions and war material. Montgomery was marching with his whole army
against Montreal. The garrison of that city was too feeble to sustain an
attack and must yield to the enemy. Then would come the turn of Quebec.
Indeed, it was well known that Quebec was the objective point of the
American expedition. As the fall of Quebec had secured the conquest of
New France by the British in 1759, so the capture of Quebec was expected
to secure the conquest of Canada by the Americans in the winter of
1775-76. This was perfectly understood by the Continental Congress at
Philadelphia. The plan of campaign was traced out with this view for
General Schuyler, and when that officer resigned the command, owing to
illness, after his success at St. Johns, Montgomery took up the same
idea and determined to carry it out. From Montreal he addressed a letter
to Congress in which he said pithily: "till Quebec is taken, Canada is
unconquered."

Roderick Hardinge was painfully aware that the authorities of Quebec had
little or no confidence in the ability of the militia for the purposes