1690.] ALARM OF THE FRENCH. 281 



lege during the attack, ready, should the heretics 

 prevail, to repair to their chapel, and die before 

 the altar. Rumor exasperated the numbers of the 

 enemy, and a general alarm pervaded the town. 

 It was still greater at Lorette, nine miles distant. 

 The warriors of that mission were in the first skir- 

 mish at Beauport ; and two of them, running off in a 

 fright, reported at the village that the enemy were 

 carrying every thing before them. On this, the 

 villagers fled to the woods, followed by Father Ger- 

 main, their missionary, to whom this hasty exodus 

 suggested the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. 1 

 The Jesuits were thought to have special reason 

 to fear the Puritan soldiery, who, it was reported, 

 meant to kill them all, after cutting off their ears 

 to make necklaces. 2 



When news first came of the approach of Phips, 

 the bishop w r as absent on a pastoral tour. Hasten- 

 ing back, he entered Quebec at night, by torch- 

 light, to the great joy of its inmates, who felt that 

 his presence brought a benediction. He issued a 

 pastoral address, exhorting his flock to frequent 

 and full confession and constant attendance at mass, 

 as the means of insuring the success of their arms. 3 

 Laval, the former bishop, aided his efforts. " We 

 appealed," he writes, " to God, his Holy Mother, 

 to all the Angels, and to all the Saints." 4 Nor was 



1 " II nous ressouvint alors de la fuite de Xostre Seigneur en Egypte." 

 Pere Germain, Relation. 



2 Ibid. 



8 Lettre pastorale pour disposer les Peuples de ce Diocese a se bien deffendre 

 contre les Angluis (Reg. de l'Eveche de Quebec). 

 * Laval a , Nov. 20, 1690. 



