ints were invoked, and the aid of Heaven was implored by masses,
processions, and penances, as in New England by a dismal succession of
fasts. Mother Juchereau de Saint-Denis tells us how devout Canadians
prayed for help from God and the most holy Virgin; "since their glory
was involved, seeing that the true religion would quickly perish if the
English should prevail." The general alarm produced effects which,
though transient, were thought highly commendable while they lasted. The
ladies, according to Mother Juchereau, gave up their ornaments, and
became more modest and more pious. "Those of Montreal," pursues the
worthy nun, "even outdid those of Quebec; for they bound themselves by
oath to wear neither ribbons nor lace, to keep their throats covered,
and to observe various holy practices for the space of a year." The
recluse of Montreal, Mademoiselle Le Ber, who, by reason of her morbid
seclusion and ascetic life, was accounted almost a saint, made a flag
embroidered with a prayer to the Virgin, to be borne against the
heretical bands of Nicholson.

When that commander withdrew, his retreat, though not the cause of it,
was quickly known at Montreal, and the forces gathered there went down
to Quebec to aid in repelling the more formidable attack by sea. Here
all was suspense and expectancy till the middle of October, when the
report came that two large ships had been seen in the river below. There
was great excitement, for they were supposed to be the van of the
British fleet; but alarm was soon turned to joy by the arrival of the
ships, which proved to be French. On the nineteenth, the Sieur de la
Valterie, who had come from Labrador in September, and had been sent
down the river again by Vaudreuil to watch for the English fleet,
appeared at Quebec with tidings of joy. He had descended the St.
Lawrence in a canoe, with two Frenchmen and an Indian, till, landing at
Isle aux Oeufs on the first of October, they met two French sailors or
fishermen loaded with plunder, and presently discovered the wrecks of
seven English ships, with, as they declared, fifteen or sixteen hundred
dead bodies on the strand hard by, besides dead horses, sheep, dogs, and
hens, three or four hundred large iron-hooped casks, a barrel of wine
and a barrel and a keg of brandy, cables, anchors, chains, planks,
boards, shovels, picks, mattocks, and piles of old iron three feet
high.[180]

"The least devout," writes Mother Juchereau, "were touched b