the ship. Again she was hailed, and again; yet she
failed to hang out English colors. Carleton then signaled he would
sink her, and set the rampart cannon sweeping her bows. In a second
she was ablaze, a fire ship sent by the enemy loaded with shells and
grenades and bombs that shot off like a fusillade of rockets. At the
same time a boat was seen rowing from the {309} far side of her with
terrific speed. Carleton's precaution had prevented the destruction of
the harbor fleet. Three days later, at six in the morning, the firing
of great guns announced the coming of an English frigate. At once
every man, woman, and child of Quebec poured down to the harbor front,
half-dressed, mad with joy. By midday, Guy Carleton had led eight
hundred soldiers out to the Plains of Abraham to give battle against
the Americans; but General Thomas of the Congress army did not wait.
Such swift flight was taken that artillery, stores, tents, uneaten
dinners cooked and on the table, were abandoned to Carleton's men.
General Thomas himself died of smallpox at Sorel. At Montreal all was
confusion. The city had been but marking time, pending the swing of
victory at Quebec. In the spring of 1776 Congress had sent three
commissioners to Montreal to win Canada for the new republic. One was
the famous Benjamin Franklin, another a prominent Catholic; but the
French Canadian clergy refused to forget the attack of Congress on the
Quebec Act, and remained loyal to England.

[Illustration: BENEDICT ARNOLD]

For almost a year, in desultory fashion, the campaign against Canada
dragged on, Carleton reoccupying and fortifying Montreal, Three Rivers,
St. John's, and Chamby, then pushing up Champlain Lake in October of
1776, with three large vessels and ninety small ones. Between Valcour
Island and the mainland he caught Benedict Arnold with the Congress
boats on October 11, and succeeded in battering them to pieces before
{310} Arnold could extricate them. As the boats sank, the American
crews escaped ashore; but the English went no farther south than Crown
Point this year. If Carleton had failed at Quebec, there can be no
doubt Canada would have been permanently lost to England; for the
following year France openly espoused the cause of Congress, and
proclamations were secretly smuggled all through Canada to be posted on
church doors, calling on Canadians to remain loyal to France.
Curiously enough, it was Washington, the leader of the Americ