d entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Quebec strained eager eyes for the succouring sail. Night and day the
tiny garrison stood to the guns, resolving to spend their remaining
fifty pounds of gunpowder with equal fervour in welcome of friend or
foe.

But weeks wore into months, and misery and despair proportionately
increased. Here were nearly a hundred persons huddled in a decayed
fortress in the wilderness, with seven ounces of pounded pease for a
daily ration. By and by this supply also failed, and the starving
inhabitants were driven into the wood in search of acorns and roots.
Then came the news, which Champlain had long been dreading, that De
Roquemont's fleet had fallen into the hands of Sir David Kirke. The
last hope of saving Quebec was now brushed away. But the English fleet
did not yet summon the garrison to surrender, and instead of making
immediate assault, Kirke continued to blockade the River and the Gulf.

Another winter dragged by, and spring came again. The people continued
to starve, ever hoping that the enemy would raise the siege. This hope
was not to be fulfilled. On the 19th of July three English ships
sailed up the river, and with the apathy of despair the gallant
Champlain and his sixteen famished soldiers watched them anchor in the
basin. The bitter end was come.

Next day, the 20th of July, 1629, the English flag floated, for the
first time, over the fortress of Quebec. "There was not in the sayde
forte at the tyme of the rendition of the same, to this examinate's
knowledge, any victuals, save only one tubb of bitter roots"--such is
the evidence of one of Kirke's captains. This, in brief, is the story
of the first of the five sieges of Quebec.

When Lewis Kirke, the Admiral's brother, took possession of the city
in the name of King Charles, he treated his captives with high
courtesy. The French inhabitants were given the option of remaining in
peaceful possession of their homes, or being transported back to
France. Louis Hebert, the chemist, and his relatives the Couillards,
the only two families of colonists in the strict sense of the word,
elected to remain on their small holdings. Champlain and the Jesuits,
choosing to return to France, embarked in the ship of Thomas Kirke,
who was sailing down the river to join his brother's fleet at
Tadousac. When they were opposite Mal Baie, about twenty-five leagues
below Quebec, a strange sail bore in sight. She proved to be a French
ship which had