260 MASSACHUSETTS ATTACKS QUEBEC. [1690. 



not only completed the works begun in the spring, 

 but added others to secure a place which was a 

 natural fortress in itself. On two sides, the Upper 

 Town scarcely needed defence. The cliffs along 

 the St. Lawrence and those along the tributary 

 river St. Charles had three accessible points, 

 guarded at the present clay by the Prescott Gate, 

 the Hope Gate, and the Palace Gate. Prevost had 

 secured them by barricades of heavy beams and 

 casks filled with earth. A continuous line of pali- 

 sades ran along the strand of the St. Charles, from 

 the great cliff called the Saut au Matelot to the 

 palace of the intendant. At this latter point be- 

 gan the line of works constructed by Frontenac to 

 protect the rear of the town. They consisted of 

 palisades, strengthened by a ditch and an em- 

 bankment, and flanked at frequent intervals by 

 square towers of stone. Passing behind the garden 

 of the Ursulines, they extended to a windmill on a 

 hillock called Mt. Carmel, and thence to the brink 

 of the cliffs in front. Here there was a battery of 

 eight guns near the present Public Garden ; two 

 more, each of three guns, were planted at the top 

 of the Saut au Matelot ; another at the barricade 

 of the Palace Gate ; and another near the windmill 

 of Mt. Carmel ; while a number of light pieces were 

 held in reserve for such use as occasion might re- 

 quire. The Lower Town had no defensive works ; 

 but two batteries, each of three guns, eighteen 

 and twenty-four pounders, were placed here at 

 the edge of the river. 1 



1 Relation de Monseignat; Plan de Quebec, par Villeneure, 1600; Rela- 

 tion du Mercure Galant, 1691. The summit of Cape Diamond, which 



