Why, with
numbers still superior, they went off in such haste, it is hard to
say. They left behind them thirty-four cannon and six mortars, with
petards, scaling-ladders, tents, ammunition, baggage, intrenching
tools, many of their muskets, and all their sick and wounded.
The effort to recover Quebec did great honor to the enterprise
of the French; but it availed them nothing, served only
to waste resources that seemed already at the lowest ebb,
and gave fresh opportunity of plunder to Cadet and his crew,
who failed not to make use of it.
After the battle of Ste.-Foy Murray sent the frigate "Racehorse"
to Halifax with news of his defeat, and from Halifax it was sent
to England. The British public were taken by surprise. "Who the
deuce was thinking of Quebec?" says Horace Walpole. "America was
like a book one has read and done with; but here we are on a
sudden reading our book backwards." Ten days passed, and then
came word that the siege was raised and that the French were gone;
upon which Walpole wrote to General Conway: "Well, Quebec is
come to life again. Last night I went to see the Holdernesses.
I met my Lady in a triumphal car, drawn by a Manx horse,
thirteen little fingers high, with Lady Emily. Mr. Milbank
was walking by himself in ovation after the car, and they
were going to see the bonfire at the alehouse at the corner.
The whole procession returned with me; and from the Countess's
dressing-room we saw a battery fired before the house, the mob crying,
'God bless the good news!' These are all the particulars I know of the
siege.
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