— 33 — 



of the leaf. An indistinct white spot in the purple 

 distance — the first snow soon however to melt away 

 — crowns the lofty peak of Cape Tourmente on the 

 North shore of the St Lawrence. 



One by one the hated, black hulls of the frigates, 

 emerge, a hideous reality, from the rising fog : thirty- 

 four Boston men-of-war, flaunting defiantly at their 

 mast heads, the dreaded flag of the mistress of the sea, 

 old England. The damp, dropping sails, frosted over, 

 are being stowed away ; the ships have all swung with 

 the tide ; a vague, and ominous silence pervades the 

 public squares and usually noisy market-place. " How 

 is Monsieur le Gouverneur to defend the city " ? one 

 asks : some few have faith in the .sturdy, able, old 

 warrior, to whom fear is unknown. The majority incline 

 to take the gloomiest view of the future. " Let us pray 

 to the Virgin " ! repeats, with upturned gaze and trem- 

 bling lips, the lady superior of a monastery, just returned 

 from visiting the Bishop for advice. 



Towards two o'clock, a boat put out from the 

 admiral's ship bearing a white flag. Four canoes leave 

 the lower-town to meet it midway. It brings an officer 

 bearing a letter from Sir William Phips to the French 

 Commander. 



Let us allow the brilliant biographer of Frontenac, 

 Francis Parkman, to describe this incident : 



" He, (the bearer of the flag of truce) was taken into 

 one of the canoes and paddled to the quay, after being 

 completely blind-folded by a bandage which covered 

 half his face. Prevost received him as he landed, and 

 ordered two sergeants to take him by the arms and lead 

 him to the governor. His progress was neither rapid, 

 nor direct. They drew him hither and thither, delight- 

 ing to make him clamber in the dark over every pos- 

 sible obstruction ; while a noisy crowd "hustled him, and 

 laughing women called him Colin Maiilard, the name of 

 the chief player in blindman's buff ; amid a prodigious 

 hubbub, intended to bewilder him and impress him 

 3 



