[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 37 



Carrillon les ennemis de la religion. C'est Dieu qui a fait un vrai 

 prodige dans cette occasion. Je ai voulu Le servir, je Lui raporte tout, 

 et je reçois avec reconnaissance votre compliment et celui de votre 

 Illustre Communauté." 



Day by day new stories of British preparations against Quebec were 

 told through the grille at the convent. The taking of Louisbourg left 

 New France shrunken, starved and isolated in the grip of a hostile sea. 

 Three hundred French ships were taken on the Atlantic that year. No 

 mail came oui} from France for eight silent months of disappointment. 

 And when Bougainville arrived in the spring of 1759, the convent his- 

 torian significantly praises his skill and bravery in having " penetrated 

 the enemy's lines." Even the scanty fare usual in the refectory had to 

 be reduced to four ounces of bread a day. Clothes, books, household 

 necessities — everything — were lacking, Montcalm had only a little horse- 

 flesh at his dinners, his army was on half rations, the habitants often 

 on less. Only Bigot and A^audreuil fared sumptuously and gnawed the 

 people to Ijhe bone. 



On the 26th of June the British fleet appeared in the South Channetl 

 of Orleans ; and the Ursuline annalist that evening closed her entry (with 

 tjie words : " The colony is lost !" From the convent there was a full 

 view of Montcalm's seven miles of enti^enchments along the Beauport 

 shore, from the mouth of the St. Charles to the Falls of Montmorency. 

 The British men-of-war could be seen feeling their way into the harbour ; 

 Wolfe's soldiers landing in detachments at the Island of Orleans, and 

 afterwards, in great strength, just beyond the Falls. At nine o'clock on 

 the night of the 12tli of July the bombardment from the Levis batteries, 

 across the St. Lawrence, suddenly began ; and " at the first discharge 

 from the English batteries the convent was struck in many places. We 

 passed the night before the Blessed Sacrament, in such terrors as may 

 be imagined." The next morning the Superior, La Mère Migeon de la 

 Nativité, headed a sorrowful procession to the General Hospital, each 

 nun carrying all she took with her in a little bundle. Ten volunteers 

 remained to safeguard the convent, as best they could, under the brave 

 Mère Davanne, and with the assistance of their chaplain, Father Eesche, 

 and two of his friends. 



The General Hospital had already become a sanctuary for 800 

 people, including the nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu, who, like the Ursulines, 

 immediately took the harassing duty of nursing the sick and wounded 

 in overcrowded wards and with hardly any proper hospital appliances. 

 Wolfe's unsuccessful assault on the Heights of Montmorency sent in 

 many patients. Among them was Captain Ochterloney, of tllie Eoyal 

 Americans, who had been wounded in a duel the dav before; had left 



