274 DEFENCE OF QUEBEC. [1690. 



eral Canadians padclled out in a birch canoe, secured 

 it, and brought it back in triumph. On the spire 

 of the cathedral in the Upper Town had been hung 

 a picture of the Holy Family, as an invocation of 

 divine aid. The Puritan gunners wasted their am- 

 munition in vain attempts to knock it down. That 

 it escaped their malice was ascribed to miracle, but 

 the miracle would have been greater if they had 

 hit it. 



At length, one of the ships, which had suffered 

 most, hauled off and abandoned the fight. That of 

 the admiral had fared little better, and now her 

 condition grew desperate. With her rigging torn, 

 her mainmast half cut through, her mizzen-mast 

 splintered, her cabin pierced, and her hull riddled 

 with shot, another volley seemed likely to sink her, 

 when Phips ordered her to be cut loose from her 

 moorings, and she drifted out of fire, leaving cable 

 and anchor behind. The remaining ships soon 

 £ave over the conflict, and withdrew to stations 

 where they could neither clo harm nor suffer it. 1 



Phips had thrown away nearly all his ammuni- 

 tion in this futile and disastrous attack, which should 

 have been deferred till the moment when Walley, 

 with his land force, had gained the rear of the 

 town. Walley lay in his camp, his men wet, shiver- 

 ing with cold, famished, and sickening with the 

 small-pox. Food, and all other supplies, were to 

 have been brought him by the small vessels, which 



1 Besides authorities before cited, Le Clercq, Etablissement de la 

 Fon, 11. 434; La Potherie, III. 118; Rapport de Champigny, Oct., 1690; 

 Laval, Lettre a . 20 Nov., 1600. 



