al force, this
way from Great Britain, for the purpose of possessing this city and
securing the navigation of Hudson's River, the troops left here will
not be sufficient to oppose them; and yet, for anything we know, I
think it not improbable they may attempt both; both being of the
greatest importance to them, if they have men. I could wish, indeed,
that the army in Canada should be more powerfully reinforced; at the
same time, I am conscious that the trusting of this important post,
which is now become the grand magazine of America, to the handful of
men remaining here, is running too great a risk."

Washington at that time was not aware of the extraordinary expedients
England had recently resorted to against the next campaign. The Duke
of Brunswick, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the Hereditary Prince
of Cassel, Count of Hanau, had been subsidized to furnish troops to
assist in the subjugation of her colonies. Four thousand three hundred
Brunswick troops, and nearly thirteen thousand Hessians, had entered
the British service. Beside the subsidy exacted by the German princes,
they were to be paid seven pounds four shillings and four pence
sterling for every soldier furnished by them, and as much more for
every one slain.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
REVERSES IN CANADA.--THE HIGHLANDS.--CLOSE OF THE INVASION OF CANADA.

We left Arnold before the walls of Quebec, wounded, crippled, almost
disabled, yet not disheartened, blockading that "proud town" with a
force inferior, by half, in number to that of the garrison. For his
gallant services, Congress promoted him in January to the rank of
brigadier-general. Throughout the winter he kept up the blockade with
his shattered army; though had Carleton ventured upon a sortie, he
might have been forced to decamp.

Arnold had difficulties of all kinds to contend with. His military
chest was exhausted; his troops were in want of necessaries; sickness
thinned his ranks. At one time, his force was reduced to five hundred
men, and for two months, with all his recruitments of raw militia, did
not exceed seven hundred. The failure of the attack on Quebec had
weakened the cause among the Canadians; the peasantry had been
displeased by the conduct of the American troops; they had once
welcomed them as deliverers; they now began to regard them as
intruders.

Notwithstanding all these discouragements, Arnold still kept up a bold
face: cut off supplies occasionally, and harassed the