It was long before he was able to speak
intelligibly; but at last, being revived by cordials and other remedies,
he found strength to tell his benefactors that he was a sergeant of
artillery in the army that had come to retake Quebec; that in
trying to land a little above Cap-Rouge, his boat had been
overset, his companions drowned, and he himself saved by
climbing upon the cake of ice where they had discovered him;
that he had been borne by the ebb tide down to the Island of
Orleans, and then brought up to Quebec by the flow; and,
finally, that Levis was marching on the town with twelve
thousand men at his back.
He was placed in a hammock and carried up Mountain
Street to the quarters of the General, who was roused from
sleep at three o'clock in the morning to hear his story. The
troops were ordered under arms; and soon after daybreak
Murray marched out with ten pieces of cannon and more than
half the garrison. His principal object was to withdraw the
advanced posts at Ste.-Foy, Cap-Rouge, Sillery, and Anse du
Foulon. The storm had turned to a cold, drizzling rain, and the
men, as they dragged their cannon through snow and mud,
were soon drenched to the skin. On reaching Ste.-Foy, they
opened a brisk fire from the heights upon the woods which now
covered the whole army of Levis; and being rejoined by the
various outposts, returned to Quebec in the afternoon, after
blowing up the church, which contained a store of munitions
that they had no means of bringing off.
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