French ship in sight--only two old hulks with
guns in the mouth of the St. Charles River, to protect the road to the
palace gate--that is, at the Intendance.

It was all there before me, the investment of Quebec, for which I had
prayed and waited seven long years.

All at once, on a lull in the fighting which had lasted twenty-four
hours, the heavy batteries from the Levis shore opened upon the town,
emptying therein the fatal fuel. Mixed feelings possessed me. I had at
first listened to Clark's delighted imprecations and devilish praises
with a feeling of brag almost akin to his own--that was the soldier and
the Briton in me. But all at once the man, the lover, and the husband
spoke: my wife was in that beleaguered town under that monstrous shower!
She had said that she would never leave it till I came to fetch her.
For I knew well that our marriage must become known after I had escaped;
that she would not, for her own good pride and womanhood, keep it secret
then; that it would be proclaimed while yet Gabord and the excellent
chaplain were alive to attest all.

Summoned by the Centurion, we were passed on beyond the eastern point of
the Isle of Orleans to the admiral's ship, which lay in the channel off
the point, with battleships in front and rear, and a line of frigates
curving towards the rocky peninsula of Quebec. Then came a line of buoys
beyond these, with manned boats moored alongside to protect the fleet
from fire rafts, which once already the enemy had unavailingly sent down
to ruin and burn our fleet.

Admiral Saunders received me with great cordiality, thanked me for the
dispatches, heard with applause of my adventures with the convoy, and
at once, with dry humour, said he would be glad, if General Wolfe
consented, to make my captured schooner one of his fleet. Later, when
her history and doings became known in the fleet, she was at once called
the Terror of France; for she did a wild thing or two before Quebec
fell, though from first to last she had but her six swivel guns, which I
had taken from the burnt sloop. Clark had command of her.

From Admiral Saunders I learned that Bigot had recovered from his hurt,
which had not been severe, and of the death of Monsieur Cournal, who had
ridden his horse over the cliff in the dark. From the Admiral I came to
General Wolfe at Montmorenci.

I shall never forget my first look at my hero, my General, that flaming,
exhaustless spirit, in a body so gauche and s