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enthusiasm of his men, who saw that only the failure of food and
ammunition could bring them to defeat. Both besiegers and besieged
dwelt in hourly expectation of ships from Europe--De Levis, because he
had sent to France for help at once upon Montcalm's defeat, and Murray
because the return of the English fleet was part of the first plan of
campaign. Both knew that the fate of Quebec belonged to the fleet
arriving first.

At last, on the 9th of May, a ship of war was descried in the river.
The gaunt and toil-worn garrison were almost prostrate with
excitement. Slowly the frigate beat up into the basin before the town,
not yet displaying her ensign. Through a mishap to the halyards, no
flag floated over the high bastion of Cape Diamond; but to make the
stranger declare herself, Murray ordered a sailor to climb up the
citadel flag-staff with the colours. Immediately the Union Jack ran up
to the frigate's masthead, and the pent-up feelings of the garrison
found relief. It was the _Leostaff_, no stranger, indeed, to Quebec;
and she brought news that Colville's fleet was already in the river.
"The gladness of the troops," writes Captain Knox, "is not to be
expressed. Both officers and soldiers mounted the parapets in the face
of the enemy, and huzzaed with their hats in the air for almost an
hour. The garrison, the enemy's camp, the bay, and circumjacent
country resounded with our shouts and the thunder of our artillery,
for the gunners were so elated that they did nothing but fire and load
for a considerable time."

The French commander, however, was not the man to abandon the siege on
account of a single warship, for as yet he did not know that the
_Leostaff_ was but the herald of further arrivals; and his guns
continued to hurl grenades and roundshot into the city. The English
batteries returned their fire with so much violence that De Levis
again determined to try and carry the place by direct assault.
Scaling-ladders and battering-rams were made ready, but no opportunity
came to use them. Another week of vigorous siege passed; and at
nightfall, on the 15th of May, to the unspeakable joy of the harassed
garrison, the _Vanguard_ and the _Diana_, British ships of war, came
to anchor in the basin. Next morning the three vessels made their way
up the river past Quebec, and attacked the French squadron which had
brought the army of De Levis from Montreal. These were the ships, it
will be remembered, which withdrew up th