The sight of this handkerchief explained the whole movement.
"A summons to surrender!" was the word that passed along the Continental ranks, and nearly everybody laughed. The officers could scarcely conceal their disgust, and some of them loudly protested against being compelled to witness the humiliation which they were certain was about to ensue.
"A flag of truce!" exclaimed the crowds on the ramparts of the city, and their curiosity was excited as to the purport of the contemplated parley. It is safe to say that no one suspected a demand for capitulation, as nothing could appear more ridiculous under the circumstances.
The officer with the trumpeter advanced rapidly over the vacant ground which lay between their line of battle and the walls of Quebec. At stated intervals, according to the rules of the service, the trumpet was sounded, but no response came from the city. Finally the two envoys stopped and stood in full view of the two camps.
"What a handsome fellow it is," said Zulma to Pauline.
The girls were in an excellent position for observing all that took place, and were so interested that even the timid Pauline forgot her anxieties about her father.
"Do you mean the trumpeter?"
"Oh, he is well enough. But I mean the officer who bears the flag."
The two friends were discussing this point when their attention was arrested by a movement at the gate almost beneath them. A British officer walked out alone and went direct to the flag-bearer.
"It cannot be," exclaimed Pauline.