"The
gladness of the troops," says Knox, "is not to be expressed.
Both officers and soldiers mounted the parapet in the face
of the enemy and huzzaed with their hats in the air for almost
an hour. The garrison, the enemy's camp, the bay, and circumjacent
country resounded with our shouts and the thunder of our artillery;
for the gunners were so elated that they did nothing but load and
fire for a considerable time. In short, the general satisfaction
is not to be conceived, except by a person who had suffered the
extremities of a siege, and been destined, with his brave friends
and countrymen, to the scalping-knives of a faithless conqueror
and his barbarious allies." The "Lowestoffe" brought news that a
British squadron was at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, and would
reach Quebec in a few days.
[Footnote 834: Thompson in _Revue Canadienne_, IV. 866.]
Levis, in ignorance of this, still clung to the hope that
French ships would arrive strong enough to overpower the
unwelcome stranger. His guns, being at last in position,
presently opened fire upon a wall that was not built to bear
the brunt of heavy shot; but an artillery better and more
numerous than his own almost silenced them, and his gunners
were harassed by repeated sallies. The besiegers had now no
real chance of success unless they could carry the place by
storm, to which end they had provided abundant scaling-ladders
as well as petards to burst in the gates.
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