1690.] APPROACH OF PHIPS. 259 



at once with the intenclant in a small vessel, which 

 proved to be leaky, and was near foundering with 

 all on board. He then took a canoe, and towards 

 evening set out again for Quebec, ordering some 

 two hundred men to follow him. On the next 

 day, he met another canoe, bearing a fresh 

 message from Prevost, who announced that the 

 English fleet had been seen in the river, and that 

 it was already above Tadoussac. Frontenac now 

 sent back Captain de Ramsay with orders to Cal- 

 lieres, governor of Montreal, to descend immedi- 

 ately to Quebec with all the force at his disposal, 

 and to muster the inhabitants on the way. Then 

 he pushed on with the utmost speed. The autum- 

 nal storms had begun, and the rain pelted him with- 

 out ceasing ; but on the morning of the fourteenth 

 he neared the town. The rocks of Cape Diamond 

 towered before him ; the St. Lawrence lay beneath 

 them, lonely and still ; and the Basin of Quebec 

 outspread its broad bosom, a solitude without a sail. 

 Frontenac had arrived in time. 



He landed at the Lower Town, and the troops and 

 the armed inhabitants came crowding to meet him. 

 He was delighted at their ardor. 1 Shouts, cheers, 

 and the waving of hats greeted the old man as he 

 climbed the steep ascent of Mountain Street. Fear 

 and doubt seemed banished by his presence. Even 

 those who hated him rejoiced at his coming, and 

 hailed him as a deliverer. He went at once to in- 

 spect the fortifications. Since the alarm a week 

 before, Prevost had accomplished wonders, and 



1 Frontenac au Ministre, 9 et 12 Nov., 1690. 



