We Were At A Loss To Know The Meaning Of All This, When The Commanding Officer Of Artillery Bethought Himself To Go And Acquaint General Murray (Who Had Taken Up His Quarters In Saint Louis Street, Now (1828) The Officer's Barracks) Of The Circumstance:

He found the General in a meditative mood, sitting before the fire in the chimney place.

On the Officer acquainting him that there was a ship of war in sight, the General was quite electrified! He instantly got up, and, in the greatest fury, order'd the Officer to have the colours immediately hoisted on the citadel! Away he went, but dev'l a bit could the halliards be made to go free until at last, a sailor was got hold of, who soon scrambl'd up the flagstaff, and, put all to rights in a jiffy.

All this time the ship of war did not show her own colours, not knowing whether the town was in the hands of the French or the English, but as soon as she perceived our flag, she hoisted English colours, and shaped her course towards the town, and was soon safe at anchor opposite to the King's Wharf. Our men had been all the winter in bad spirits from coughs and colds, and, their having been obliged to retreat from the French, did'nt help much to mend the matter. However, when they heard that an English man-o-war was come, it was astonishing how soon they became stout-hearted; faith, they were like lions, and just as bold! The man-o-war prov'd to be the "Lowestoffe," which had been detached from the main fleet below, with orders to make the best of time through the ice, and take up the earliest intelligence of the approach of the fleet. Her sides were very much torn by the floating ice. Our having hoisted colours for the first time since the conquest, and a ship of war having made her appearance, led the French to imagine that there was something strange going on. Indeed they expected a fleet as well as ourselves, and this arrival brought them out of their trenches, as thick as midges; they appeared to us like so many pigeons upon a roost! whilst they were gaping at us in such an exposed position, they received a salute from the whole line of our guns, extending from Cape Diamond down to the Barrack Bastion, and yet they went off almost like a single volley. It was fearful enough to see how they tumbled down in their intrenchments, like so many sacks of wool! Their seeing soldiers passing ashore from our frigate, they thought that we were about to receive powerful reinforcements, and they scamper'd away, their killed and wounded men along with them. Our men soon were allow'd to go out, and they regaled themselves upon the soup and pork which the French had left cooking on the fires. That single discharge disabled so many of our guns, that we had to get others then in the lower town, and our men were so weak that they could not drag them up, but which was at last done with the help of the sailors just arrived in the Fleet.

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