mery appeared before
Montreal on the 12th of November. General Carleton had embarked with
his little garrison and several of the civil officers of the place, on
board of a flotilla of ten or eleven small vessels, and made sail in
the night. The town capitulated, of course; and Montgomery took quiet
possession. His urbanity and kindness soon won the good will of the
inhabitants, both English and French, and made the Canadians sensible
that he really came to secure their rights, not to molest them.
Intercepted letters acquainted him with Arnold's arrival in the
neighborhood of Quebec.

His great immediate object was the capture of Carleton; which would
form a triumphal close to the enterprise, and might decide the fate of
Canada. The flotilla in which the general was embarked had made
repeated attempts to escape down the St. Lawrence; but had as often
been driven back by the batteries thrown up by the Americans at the
mouth of the Sorel. It now lay anchored about fifteen miles above the
river; and Montgomery prepared to attack it with bateaux and light
artillery, so as to force it down upon the batteries. Carleton saw his
imminent peril. Disguising himself as a Canadian voyager, he set off
on a dark night accompanied by six peasants, in a boat with muffled
oars, which he assisted to pull; slipped quietly and silently past all
the batteries and guard-boats, and effected his escape to Three
Rivers, where he embarked in a vessel for Quebec. After his departure
the flotilla surrendered.

Montgomery now placed garrisons in Montreal, St. Johns and Chamblee,
and made final preparations for descending the St. Lawrence, and
co-operating with Arnold against Quebec. To his disappointment and
deep chagrin, he found but a handful of his troops disposed to
accompany him. Some pleaded ill health; the term of enlistment of many
had expired, and they were bent on returning home; and others, who had
no such excuses to make became exceedingly turbulent, and mutinous.
Nothing but a sense of public duty and gratitude to Congress for an
unsought commission, had induced Montgomery to engage in the service;
wearied by the continual vexations which beset it, he avowed, in a
letter to Schuyler, his determination to retire as soon as the
intended expedition against Quebec was finished.

[General Montgomery had been thwarted continually in his efforts by
the want of subordination and discipline among his troops, "who," said
he, "carry the spirit