“But wouldn’t you run away if you were afraid of being hanged?” asked Dave quickly.
At this a faint smile crossed General Murray’s face. He was still a young man, and he could understand Dave’s feelings fully.
“It would be better to stay and face a trial—especially if innocent,” he said evasively; and after a few words more they were excused.
“I don’t know whether to be glad or sorry,” remarked Dave, as he and Barringford walked down the street. “What do you say, Sam?”
“I’d rather see Henry run than be hanged,” was the answer. “But it gits me whar he went, especially in the freezin’ cold weather. I hope he didn’t git lost in the snow and froze to death.”
Both Dave and Barringford soon found that Quebec was in a state of suppressed excitement. Alarms had been frequent, and now General Murray felt certain that an attack by the French would not be long delayed.
In this the young commander was correct. The French leader, Lévis, angry to think that Vaudreuil, the Governor-General, would not march on the city immediately after the English took possession, chafed all winter with his troops to do the enemy battle.
But the Governor-General was cautious. He knew that General Amherst, at Crown Point, only wanted a chance to fall upon Montreal, and so it was at Montreal that the French army gathered, and here the majority of them remained until early in April.
Presently came in reports that the English had lost many men by desertion and through sickness, and that Amherst at Crown Point could not yet think of moving, and Vaudreuil at length consented to listen to Lévis.
“We shall never have a better opportunity than now,” said General Lévis. “Murray is at present cut off from all outside supplies. If we wait until summer comes he will obtain re-enforcements from England, Boston, or New York, and then we will have a task that may be beyond us.”