place with
alarms. Having repaired his batteries, he opened a fire upon the town,
but with little effect; the best part of the artillerists, with Lamb,
their capable commander, were prisoners within the walls. On the 1st
day of April, General Wooster arrived from Montreal, with
reinforcements, and took the command. The day after his arrival,
Arnold, by the falling of his horse, again received an injury on the
leg recently wounded, and was disabled for upwards of a week.
Considering himself slighted by General Wooster, who did not consult
him in military affairs, he obtained leave of absence until he should
be recovered from his lameness, and repaired to Montreal, where he
took command.

General Thomas arrived at the camp in the course of April, and found
the army in a forlorn condition, scattered at different posts, and on
the island of Orleans. It was numerically increased to upwards of two
thousand men, but several hundred were unfit for service. The
small-pox had made great ravages. They had inoculated each other. In
their sick and debilitated state they were without barracks, and
almost without medicine. A portion, whose term of enlistment had
expired, refused to do duty, and clamored for their discharge. The
winter was over, the river was breaking up, reinforcements to the
garrison might immediately be expected, and then the case would be
desperate. Observing that the river about Quebec was clear of ice,
General Thomas determined on a bold effort. It was to send up a
fire-ship with the flood, and, while the ships in the harbor were in
flames, and the town in confusion, to scale the walls.

Accordingly, on the 3d of May the troops turned out with scaling
ladders; the fire-ship came up the river under easy sail, and arrived
near the shipping before it was discovered. It was fired into. The
crew applied a slow match to the train and pulled off. The ship was
soon in a blaze, but the flames caught and consumed the sails; her way
was checked, and she drifted off harmlessly with the ebbing tide. The
rest of the plan was, of course, abandoned.

Nothing now remained but to retreat before the enemy should be
reinforced. Preparations were made in all haste to embark the sick and
the military stores. While this was taking place, five ships made
their way into the harbor, on the 6th of May, and began to land
troops. Thus reinforced, General Carleton sallied forth with eight
hundred or a thousand men. The Americans were in n