efinite reply must be given
within an hour; in case of refusal the place will be attacked by land
and sea.[587]

[Footnote 587: Mante and other English writers give the text of this
reply.]

Great was the emotion in the council; and one of its members,
D'Anthonay, lieutenant-colonel of the battalion of Volontaires
Etrangers, was sent to propose less rigorous terms. Amherst would not
speak with him; and jointly with Boscawen despatched this note to the
Governor:--

Sir,--We have just received the reply which it has pleased your
Excellency to make as to the conditions of the capitulation offered
you. We shall not change in the least our views regarding them. It
depends on your Excellency to accept them or not; and you will have
the goodness to give your answer, yes or no, within half an hour.
We have the honor to be, etc.,

E. BOSCAWEN.

J. AMHERST.[588]

Drucour answered as follows:--

Gentlemen,--To reply to your Excellencies in as few words as
possible, I have the honor to repeat that my position also remains
the same, and that I persist in my first resolution.

I have the honor to be, etc.,

The Chevalier de Drucour

[Footnote 588: Translated from the Journal of Drucour.]

In other words, he refused the English terms, and declared his purpose
to abide the assault. Loppinot was sent back to the English camp with
this note of defiance. He was no sooner gone than Prevost, the
intendant, an officer of functions purely civil, brought the Governor a
memorial which, with or without the knowledge of the military
authorities, he had drawn up in anticipation of the emergency. "The
violent resolution which the council continues to hold," said this
document, "obliges me, for the good of the state, the preservation of
the King's subjects, and the averting of horrors shocking to humanity,
to lay before your eyes the consequences that may ensue. What will
become of the four thousand souls who compose the families of this town,
of the thousand or twelve hundred sick in the hospitals, and the
officers and crews of our unfortunate ships? They will be delivered over
to carnage and the rage of an unbridled soldiery, eager for plunder, and
impelled to deeds of horror by pretended resentment at what has formerly
happened in Canada. Thus they will all be destroyed, and the memory of
their fate will live forever in our colonies.... It remains, Monsieur,"