sengers to the gates, under a flag of truce, Carleton would not
receive them; the only message he would take, he said, would be an
appeal to the mercy of the King, against whom they were in rebellion.
Montgomery, too, showed for his foe lofty scorn, in words at least. On
December 15th in General Orders he spoke of "the wretched garrison"
posted behind the walls of Quebec, "consisting of sailors unacquainted
with the use of arms, of citizens incapable of the soldier's duty and
[a gibe at the corps in which Nairne served] a few miserable emigrants."
He went on to promise his troops that when they took Quebec "the effects
of the Governor, garrison, and of such as have been active in misleading
the inhabitants and distressing the friends of liberty" should be
equally divided among the victors. The opposing sides showed, in truth,
the bitterness and exasperation of family quarrels and abandoned the
usual courtesies of war. The Americans lay in wait to shoot sentries;
they fired on single persons walking on the ramparts. It was reported to
the British that Montgomery had said "he would dine in Quebec or in Hell
on Christmas"--gossip probably untrue, as a British diarist of the time
is fair enough to note, since it is not in accord with the dignity and
sobriety of Montgomery's character.

He did what he could to make possible this Christmas festivity within
Quebec's walls. His men got together some five hundred scaling ladders.
Then heavy snow came and the defenders jeered at such preparations: "Can
they think it possible that they can approach the walls laden with
ladders, sinking to the middle every step in snow? Where shall we be
then? Shall we be looking on cross-armed?" The clear and inconceivably
cold weather was also one of Quebec's defences for, as one diarist puts
it, no man, after being exposed to it for ten minutes, could hold arms
in his half-frozen hands firmly enough to do any execution. But by
nothing short of death itself was Montgomery to be daunted; steadily he
made his plans to assault the town.

Meanwhile Quebec was ready. Carleton ordered out of the town all who
could not assist to the best of their power in the defence. Some shammed
illness to escape their tasks. But this was the exception. Well-to-do
citizens worked zealously, took their share of sentry duty on the
bitterly cold nights, and submitted to the commands of officers in the
militia, their inferiors in education and fortune. On the loftiest poi