Part 8 (2/2)

According to the arrangement made between Phipps and Walley, the former was only to begin the bombardment after the latter had forced an entrance into the town. Moreover, small armed vessels were to sail into the St. Charles, to a.s.sist his pa.s.sage of that river and to furnish his force with necessary supplies of food and ammunition. Why this arrangement was departed from is not very clear; but about four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon Phipps moved his four princ.i.p.al vessels up before the town, and no sooner had he come within cannon shot than the sh.o.r.e batteries opened fire. Then ensued a duel in which the defence had all the best of it. Their guns were much better served than those of the a.s.sailants, and they had excellent marks to shoot at. The fight was maintained till after dark, by which time Phipps had fired away nearly all his ammunition and accomplished virtually nothing. One boy in the town had been killed by a splinter of rock; the buildings in the town had scarcely been injured at all. Phipps says he dismounted some of the enemy's best guns, but his story is unconfirmed. Certain it is that his vessels suffered serious damage in hulls, masts, and rigging, and that, after a brief renewal of the encounter the next morning, he drew them all off.

An incident which has given rise to a good deal of discussion may here be referred to. The flag of the admiral's vessel was shot away and fell into the river. It was captured by some men from the sh.o.r.e, but whether under the very heroic circ.u.mstances described by an eminent Canadian poet on the authority of Pere Charlevoix, is, to say the least, open to doubt. Charlevoix has it that, no sooner had the flag fallen into the water and begun to drift away, than some Canadians swam out and seized it, notwithstanding the fire directed on them from the s.h.i.+ps.

Contemporary writers know nothing of any such feat. The one who comes nearest to the father's account of the matter is Mere Juchereau, who says that ”our Canadians went out rashly in a bark canoe and brought it to land under the noses of the English.” She does not even say they were fired on. How near they got to the English we can hardly judge from the expression ”_a la barbe des Anglais_,” which is not a measure of length.

On the other hand we have from a contemporary writer, the Recollet, Pere Leclercq, whose book was published in 1691, the year following the attack on Quebec, a plain, consistent statement as to how the thing happened, and one the terms of which are in distinct conflict with the popular version. After describing how the vice-admiral's s.h.i.+p had been the first to withdraw beyond the reach of the sh.o.r.e batteries, he continues: ”The admiral [Phipps] followed him pretty closely and with precipitation, paying out the whole length of his anchor-cable, and then letting it go. His flag, which drifted away in the river, was _left to our discretion_, and our people went and fished it out.”[49] The words used plainly imply that there was neither difficulty nor danger in recovering the flag; and this be it remembered was the story Leclercq heard at the time, and published almost immediately. Frontenac, who would certainly have been pleased to approve the bravery of his people, simply says that Phipps lost his flag, ”which remained in our possession”; while Monseignat's statement in what may be regarded as the official narrative, is that the admiral's flag and another were borne in triumph to the church. Charlevoix's lack of accuracy in details is evident in the very paragraph in which he deals with this incident; for he says that no sooner had Phipps's messenger returned to his s.h.i.+p, than, to the great surprise of the English, shots were fired from one of the Lower Town batteries, and that the first one carried away the flag.

This is pure romance. Phipps's vessel was not within range at the time, and no shots were exchanged till late in the afternoon of Wednesday, two days later. The loquacious La Hontan, who at least knows how to adorn a tale, if not point a moral, knows nothing of this particular occurrence, otherwise he would certainly have included it in a narrative which, it is evident, he aimed at making as lively and piquant as possible. It is no disparagement of the valour of the defenders of Quebec to doubt whether the incident took place as described either by Charlevoix, who did not visit the country till thirty years after the event, and did not publish his book till twenty-four years later, or by Mere Juchereau.

Many a brave deed has pa.s.sed unnoticed of history; and, en revanche, many an insignificant act has been wrapped round by legend with clouds of glory. If there is reason to doubt whether this particular deed was done in a specially heroic, or even in a very dramatic manner, there are incidents in abundance left to attest the heroism of the French-Canadian race. The legends of a people bear witness to its ideals, and help to repair the wrongs that history does by leaving so much that is truly memorable and admirable unrecorded.

While Phipps on Thursday was drawing off his shattered vessels, Walley and his men were having a very miserable time ash.o.r.e. The succour he was expecting did not arrive. Instead he received what he did not want at all--six field-pieces, twelve-pounders, weighing about eight hundred pounds each, which the nature of the ground made it impossible to use, and which thus proved a simple embarra.s.sment. However, thinking the vessels would arrive later in the day, Walley moved his men somewhat nearer to the town, and took up a position rather better both for shelter and for defence. This movement does not seem to have been opposed by the Canadian forces, as there is no mention in the narratives of any fighting on this day. The vessels did not come with the evening tide as hoped; and Walley, in his simple narrative, says: ”We stood upon our guard that night, but found it exceeding cold, it freezing that night so that the next morning the ice would bear a man.” The position was both distressing and precarious, and a council of war was called during the night to consider what should be done. By this time the a.s.sailing force had some idea of the nature of the task they had undertaken: to advance in the face of skirmishers having every advantage of position; to ford a river behind which a thousand men and several pieces of artillery were posted; and, should they by any miracle succeed in that, to encounter a couple of thousand more within the walls of the town. Many of their men were sick, some were literally freezing, others worn and exhausted. Their provisions were short, their ammunition very low. The decision of the council was that Walley should go on board the admiral's vessel next day and ask for instructions.

During Walley's absence on Friday forenoon, skirmis.h.i.+ng was renewed with losses on both sides, but chiefly on that of the New Englanders. On the French side M. de Ste. Helene received a wound in the thigh, from which he died in hospital some weeks later. Phipps consented to a retreat; and Walley, on returning to land in the afternoon, began to prepare for it.

The following morning before daylight boats arrived to take the men off; but Walley, discovering too great haste on the part of his men to embark, ordered the boats back. There was further skirmis.h.i.+ng during the day consequent upon Walley's desire to keep the enemy at a respectful distance, so that the embarkation he hoped to make that night might not be interfered with. Towards evening he used some boats that he had to send off his sick and wounded, but was careful not to afford any indication of a general retreat. This was finally accomplished, not without haste, noise, and confusion bordering on insubordination, between dark and one or two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, the 22nd.

Through some gross mismanagement five of the eight cannon that had been landed were left behind for the greater glory of the enemy.

A council of war was held on board the admiral's s.h.i.+p on that lamentable Sunday. Further offensive schemes were discussed; but, even as they talked, the leaders knew that nothing of any moment could be accomplished. They had all but exhausted their ammunition, and their provisions were running low. There was a great deal of sickness among the men, and the casualties ash.o.r.e and in the bombardment had not been inconsiderable. In the end, they appointed a prayer-meeting for next day ”to seek G.o.d's direction” as Walley expresses it, but the weather was unfavourable for a meeting. Some of the s.h.i.+ps, in fact, dragged their anchors, and were in danger of being driven on the town. The following day the whole fleet slipped down to the Island of Orleans on the homeward track.

Walley in his _Journal_, apparently an honest piece of work, sums up comprehensively the causes of the failure: ”The land army's failing, the enemy's too timely intelligence, lying three weeks within three days'

sail of the place, by reason whereof they had time to bring in the whole strength of their country, the shortness of our ammunition, our late setting out, our long pa.s.sage, and many sick in the army--these,” he says, ”may be reckoned as some of the causes of our disappointment.”

Reasons enough surely. On both sides the hand of Providence was seen.

”Well may you speak of this country,” writes Laval to Denonville, ”as the country of miracles.” Had Phipps arrived but one week sooner he would certainly, in Laval's opinion, have captured the city, and that he did not arrive sooner was due to unfavourable winds. Similarly, Sister Anne Bourdon, archivist of the Ursuline Convent, writes that, when the first news of the approach of the English was received, nothing was spared in the way of religious practices ”to appease divine justice.”

The happy result was that ”Heaven, granting our prayers, sent winds so contrary that the enemy in nine days only made the distance they might otherwise have made in half a day.” So Mere Juchereau of the Hotel Dieu: ”G.o.d doubtless stopped them, to give the Montrealers time to arrive.”

Bishop Saint Vallier improved the occasion to stimulate the piety of his people. ”Let us,” he said, ”raise our eyes, my dear children, and see G.o.d holding the thunder in His hand, which He is ready to let fall on us. He is causing it now to rumble in order to awaken you from the slumber of your sins.”

On the English side no less solemn a view was taken of the events of the time. Governor Bradstreet, of Ma.s.sachusetts, writing to the agents of the colony in England, speaks of ”the awful frown of G.o.d in the disappointment of that chargeable [costly] and hazardous enterprise.”

”Shall our Father,” he exclaims, ”spit in our face, and we not be ashamed? G.o.d grant that we may be deeply humbled and enquire into the cause, and reform those sins that have provoked so great anger to smoke against the prayers of his people, and to answer us by terrible things in righteousness.” Cotton Mather in like manner speaks of ”an evident hand of Heaven, sending one unavoidable disaster after another.” He also reports a saying of Phipps, that, though he had been accustomed to diving in his time, he ”would say that the things which had befallen him in this expedition were too deep to be dived into.” The total loss of life on the part of the New England forces, taking s.h.i.+pwreck and disease into account, must have run far into the hundreds. Phipps estimated his loss in the engagements at Quebec at thirty, and possibly the number of those actually killed did not much exceed that figure. On the Canadian side the number of killed has been placed at nine, and of the wounded at fifty-two.[50]

All that remained now was to make the best of their melancholy way to Boston. Frontenac had sent a small force under M. Subercase to the Island of Orleans to watch the departing fleet, which might, had its commander been so minded, have committed serious depredations on the parishes along the river. Phipps sent ash.o.r.e to ask Subercase if there would be any objection to his buying supplies from the inhabitants. The reply was that he might buy what he liked, and a lively trade, very profitable to the farmers, at once sprang up between them and the squadron. Negotiations for an exchange of prisoners followed. Phipps, as we have seen, had captured some on his way up; and he had with him two ecclesiastics whom he had taken in Acadia. The French on their side had Sylva.n.u.s Davis, the former commandant of Fort Loyal, two daughters of Captain Clarke who had been killed in the attack on that fort, and a little girl called Sarah Gerrish. All these had received good treatment during their detention at Quebec, and the little girls had particularly endeared themselves to the nuns to whose charge they had been confided, and who were much grieved at having to give them up.

If the weather had been bad on the way to Quebec it was worse on the return. Without the aid of a pilot, Phipps had succeeded in bringing all his vessels safely to Quebec, but on the home voyage several were lost.

One, Cotton Mather relates, was never heard of. A second was wrecked, but most of its crew were saved. A third was cast on the coast, and all on board, with the exception of one man, perished through drowning, starvation, or at the hands of the Indians. A fourth was stranded on the Island of Anticosti. There seemed to be no means of escape from this dreary sh.o.r.e; and forty-one of the crew had already died of hards.h.i.+p, when the captain, John Rainsford by name, and four others determined that they would try to reach Boston in an open boat, in order that, if they escaped the perils of the sea, they might send help to those still alive on the island. It was the 25th March when they put forth in their most precarious craft. ”Through a thousand dangers from the sea and ice, and almost starved with hunger and cold,” to use the words of Cotton Mather's recital, they arrived at Boston on the 11th May. As soon as a proper vessel could be procured, Rainsford started back to rescue the survivors. Four had died during his absence. Death was staring the remainder in the face, when the sail they had hardly dared to hope for flickered on the horizon. It was too good to be true, and yet it was true. Their heroic captain had come to their relief; and on the 28th June he landed them, seventeen in number, once more on New England soil.

[Footnote 44: See ”Winthrop's Journal” in _New York Colonial Doc.u.ments_, vol. iv. p. 193.]

[Footnote 45: The letter is given in Cotton Mather's _Magnalia_, vol. i.

p. 186.]

[Footnote 46: _New York Colonial Doc.u.ments_, vol. ix. p. 486.]

[Footnote 47: The same mistake was destined to be made in later days, more than once, under the English regime.]

[Footnote 48: ”La Canardiere (the name given to the flats where the New Englanders landed) was in those days nothing but a horrible marsh, covered with impenetrable woods thickly fringed with underbrush. So dense was the thicket that in full daylight our skirmishers were invisible to the English, who in their exasperation had nothing to guide them in firing but the smoke of their enemies' muskets.”--Myrand, _Sir William Phipps devant Quebec_, p. 271.]

[Footnote 49: _Premier Etabliss.e.m.e.nt de la Foi_, vol. ii. p. 434. As Leclercq is the one authority of importance of whom Mr. Myrand, in his discussion of this matter, makes no mention, his exact words, which I have not elsewhere seen reproduced, may be quoted: ”L'amiral le suivit (le contre-amiral) d'a.s.sez pres et avec precipitation; il fila tout le cable de son ancre qu'il abandonna; son pavillon fut emporte dans la riviere et laisse a notre discretion, que nos gens allerent pecher.”]

[Footnote 50: In his work already quoted, _Sir William Phipps devant Quebec_, Mr. Myrand goes very carefully, and in a spirit of great impartiality, into the question of the probable losses on the New England side. Those on the Canadian side he is able to establish by means of authentic records. Mr. Myrand has laid his readers under great obligations by reprinting the princ.i.p.al original doc.u.ments bearing on the Phipps expedition, as well as by his own intelligent discussion of the whole episode.]

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