All the workmen aboutMontreal were busied in making tools
and gun-carriages. Stores were impressed from the merchants; and
certain articles, which could not otherwise be had, were smuggled,
with extraordinary address, out of Quebec itself.[827] Early in
spring the militia received orders to muster for the march. There
were doubts and discontent; but, says a contemporary, "sensible
people dared not speak, for if they did they were set down as
English." Some there were who in secret called the scheme
"Levis' folly;" yet it was perfectly rational, well conceived,
and conducted with vigor and skill. Two frigates, two sloops-of-war,
and a number of smaller craft still remained in the river, under
command of Vauquelin, the brave officer who haddistinguished himself
at the siege of Louisbourg. The storesand cannon were placed on
board these vessels, the army embarkedin a fleet of bateaux, and on
the twentieth of April thewhole set out together for the scene of
action. They comprised eight battalions of troops of the line and
two of colony troops; with the colonial artillery, three thousand
Canadians, and four hundred Indians. When they left Montreal, their
effective strength, besides Indians, is said by Levis to have been six
thousand nine hundred and ten, a number which was increased
as he advanced by the garrisons of Jacques-Cartier, Deschambault,
and Pointe-aux-Trembles, as well as by the Canadians on both side
of the St.
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