42 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



prevent Levis from closing in to the conunanding heights at decisive 

 ranges. A desperate fight ensued; far bloodier than the fii-st battle of 

 the i^laijis, and in a lew houi-s the little British anny staggered in, 

 beaten back to its walls, with the loss of more than a third of its numbers. 

 The Frenx?h arn\y had lost even more men; and the convent was pres- 

 ently filled with the wounded of both sides. Levis opened his batteries: 

 all the dangers of a siege began again, and at much closer quarters than 

 the year before. The vanguard of a fleet was reported coming up stream 

 under a press of sail. It rounded into harbour after dark ; and a French 

 ofhcer on tlie Beauport shore sent off a message to Levis to say the 

 Flinch reinforcements had arrived at last! The nimour flew round 

 and fired the besiegers to instant action. But just as they were about 

 to carr\' the town by assault they found they were mistaken, and that the 

 whole British fleet was coming to relieve Quebec and cut off their own 

 retreat. They at once raised the siege, retired in all haste on Montreal ; 

 and therO;, brought to bay by irresistible forces on land and water, they 

 laid down tlieir arms forever. Three years later the convent aamaW 

 record the momentous chjange of sovereignt}- in these few and simple 

 words: — " On the 24th of May, 1763, a treaty of peace was signed be- 

 tween the Kings of France and England. Canada is left to the English. 

 God grant religion may continue to flourish there!" 



This devout wish seemed at first destined to disappointment, in the 

 sense desired by the annalist. The good and great Bishop de Pontbriand 

 died before the final surrender, and the Canadian branch of the Church 

 was bereft of its ordinary head, at the very time tliat the Stfate was 

 wrested from its Mère-Patrie. For eight years, from 1758 to 1766, not 

 a novice joined the thinning ranks; and the novitiate, consequently, 

 soon ceased to exist. " To add to our difficulties, all commerce with 

 France is forbidden: yet what credit could the Canadian merchant, even 

 if not already ruined, hop© for in London? And how many articles of 

 prime necessity, especially for the Church and altar, and for the apparel 

 of persons living in religious communities, are no longer to be found on 

 the list of English manufactures, since their proscription by the law of 

 the land!" 



However, the nuns faced every privation with undaunted courage. 

 They did Indian bark work, which they sold to the British officers' 

 families. Perhaps they were taught by Esther Wheelwright, who was 

 elected Superior in 1761, and who might still have retained the art she 

 learnt in her five years' wanderings in the forest, between her Puritan 

 home and the convent. 'J'hey earned a little money from their own people 

 by embroidery and gilding and other work useful in restoring religious 

 service in the ruined churches. They were poorer than they had ever 



