ices were familiar to me,
I could not discover, or conceive who they were. Besides, every man
seems to be in a continual hurry; for instead of walking soberly
through the streets, we are obliged to observe a running or trotting pace."

Early in January there was a storm of sleet, followed by
severe frost, which glazed the streets with ice. Knox, being
ordered to mount guard in the Lower Town, found the descent
of Mountain Street so slippery that it was impossible to walk
down with safety, especially as the muskets of the men were
loaded; and the whole party, seating themselves on the ground,
slid one after another to the foot of the hill. The Highlanders,
in spite of their natural hardihood, suffered more from the cold
than the other troops, as their national costume was but a
sorry defence against the Canadian winter. A detachment of
these breechless warriors being on guard at the General
Hospital, the nuns spent their scanty leisure in knitting for
them long woollen hose, which they gratefully accepted, though
at a loss to know whether modesty or charity inspired the gift.

From the time when the English took possession of Quebec,
reports had come in through deserters that Levis meant to attack
and recover it. Early in November there was a rumor that he was about
to march upon it with fifteen thousand men. In December word came
that he was on his way, resolved to storm it on or about the twenty-second,
and dine within the walls, under the French flag, on Christmas Day.
He failed to appear; but in January a deserter said that he had prepared
scaling-ladders, and was training his men to use them by assaults
on mock ramparts of snow. There was more tangible evidence
that the enemy was astir. Murray had established two fortified outposts,
one at Ste.-Foy, and the other farther on, at Old Lorette. War-parties
hovered round both, and kept the occupants in alarm. A large body of
French grenadiers appearedat the latter place in February, and drove
off a herd of cattle; when a detachment of rangers, much inferior in
number, set upon them, put them to flight, and recovered the plunder.
At the same time a party of regulars, Canadians, andIndians took up a
strong position near the church at Point Levi, and sent a message to the
English officers that a large company of expert hairdressers were ready
to wait upon them whenever they required their services. The allusion
was of course to the scalp-lifting practices of the Indians a