The fleet sailed, as already mentioned, on the 9th August. The admiral's pennon floated from the Six Friends, the vice-admiral's from the John and Thomas. The vice-admiral for the occasion was Major John Walley; the third in command, apparently, was a Major Thomas Savage. Had the winds been favourable, the expedition might easily have reached Quebec within a month. They were most unfavourable, however; and it was not till the 3rd October that it arrived off Tadousac. Here the ships were brought to anchor, and a council of war was held. Four days later the fleet had only advanced fifty miles, and it took eight days more to reach a point off the Island of Orleans near the present village of St. Jean, where it anchored for a few hours. Here Walley proposed that the men, who had been for weeks confined on shipboard, should be allowed to land and "refresh themselves," and that opportunity should be taken to form the several companies, and get everything into perfect order before proceeding to an attack. He was overruled however; and, taking advantage of a rising tide, the fleet slipped up the river, and at daybreak on Monday the 16th October made its appearance in the harbour of Quebec.
We have seen that, during the month of August and part of the month of September Frontenac was engaged at Montreal with his western Indians. It was during this time that Schuyler made his attack on Laprairie. After the departure of the Indians, Frontenac remained in Montreal to complete his measures for the defence of the country, and hoping also to get news of his embassy to the Iroquois. His return to Quebec was fixed for the 10th October, and on the afternoon of that very day a messenger who had been sent post haste by Prevost, the major in command of the troops at Quebec, placed in his hands two letters. The first, dated the 5th October, told him that an Abenaquis Indian had arrived at Quebec from the neighbourhood of Pentagouet deputed by his tribe to bring important news obtained from a captive New England woman, namely that, about six weeks before, a considerable fleet had sailed from Boston for the capture of Quebec. The second letter, written later on the same day, said that one Sieur de Cannanville had arrived from Tadousac, where he had seen twenty-four ships, eight of which appeared of considerable size.
It does not say much for Frontenac's intelligence department, if such an institution existed in that day, that he should have known nothing of the preparations which had been going on in Boston during the previous spring and summer. His first impulse was to disbelieve the news now brought, but none the less he lost no time in starting for Quebec with the intendant, Champigny. The first boat he embarked in proved leaky, and came near foundering. He transhipped into a canoe, and went as far as was possible before dark. On the afternoon of the next day a further message was received from Prevost confirming his first, and saying that the enemy had captured, about thirty leagues below Quebec, a vessel in which were two ladies. This looked serious, and the count sent back Captain de Ramesay to Montreal with orders to Callières, the governor, to march to Quebec at once with all the troops he could gather at Montreal or pick up on the way. He himself made all possible haste, and arrived at Quebec at ten o'clock in the morning of Saturday, the 14th October.
Work on the fortifications of Quebec had been more or less in progress all summer; but from the moment that the first news of the intended attack had been received, Prevost had been particularly active in planting batteries, digging trenches, and doing other work of immediate necessity. He had also despatched a long-boat and a canoe, both well armed, under the charge of his brother-in-law, Grandville, to make a reconnaissance in the direction of Tadousac, and had sent orders to the militia captains of the neighbouring parishes of Beauport and Beaupré, and also to those on the Island of Orleans, to hold their men in readiness to march into the city, and meantime to watch the enemy, that they might offer all possible opposition to his landing. Frontenac employed his time on the 14th and 15th in examining and perfecting the general system of defence; and he was much pleased as well as surprised to find how much Prevost had accomplished in a few days. Two principal batteries had been established in the Upper Town, one, consisting of eight guns, to the right of the château, and one of three guns on the rock overlooking Mountain Hill known as Sault au Matelot. Two batteries of three guns each were placed on the river bank, one near the present market-place, and the other near where the Custom House now stands. Most of the pieces were eighteen pounders. The non-combatant inhabitants of the surrounding country had come into the city in considerable numbers, bringing with them what they could in the way of provisions. On Sunday two canoes were sent down the river to warn the vessels that were expected to arrive from France to keep out of harm's way. On their safe arrival the life almost of the colony might be said to depend. At seven o'clock on Sunday evening news came that the hostile fleet had passed the eastern end of the Island of Orleans. There was not much sleeping that night. At three o'clock on Monday morning their distant lights could be seen down the river. At daybreak there could be counted in the harbour, some authorities say thirty-two, and some thirty-four, English sails.
A few hours of tense expectation elapsed, and then a boat carrying a flag of truce was seen putting out from the admiral's ship. It bore an envoy from Phipps, who was to demand of the governor the surrender of the place. A boat put out from the shore to meet it, and the envoy, having been taken on board, was blindfolded, and brought ashore. Here, according to one account, he was crowded and hustled, and made to clamber over unnecessary obstacles, the object being to persuade him that the place was more numerously defended and more difficult of entrance than it really was. In reading the contemporary narratives it is often difficult to know what to believe. Nearly all are vitiated by extreme generality of statement and inaccuracy in detail. That of La Hontan betrays the enormous mendacity of the writer, who, so long as he could be amusing and sensational, was absolutely indifferent as to facts. Checking one by another, however, it is not impossible to arrive at a fairly coherent and credible narrative. It was about ten in the forenoon when the messenger was introduced into the reception-room of the Château St. Louis. The mise en scène had been carefully arranged for the moment when the bandage should be removed from his eyes. Frontenac was there in a gorgeous uniform and looking the soldier and seigneur from head to foot. Around him, also in uniform, stood the members of his staff and the principal military and civil officers of the colony. It was such an array of military and official pomp as simple New England eyes had probably never gazed on. History does not seem to have preserved the name or rank of the messenger, and we have no certain information as to the effect produced upon him by the gallant and brilliant company that met his gaze. All we know is that he handed a letter from Phipps to the haughty governor, and awaited his answer. The letter read as follows:—
"Sir William Phipps, Knight, General and Commander-in-Chief, in and over their Majesties' forces of New England, by sea and land, to Count Frontenac, Lieutenant-General and Governour for the French King at Canada; or in his absence to his deputy, or him or them in chief command at Quebeck.
"The war between the Crowns of England and France doth not only sufficiently warrant, but the destruction made by the French and Indians, under your command and encouragement, upon the persons and estates of their Majesties' subjects of New England, without provocation on their part, hath put them under the necessity of this expedition for their own security and satisfaction. And although the cruelties and barbarities used against them by the French and Indians might, upon the present opportunity, prompt unto a severe revenge, yet, being desirous of avoiding all inhuman and unchristian-like actions, and to prevent shedding of blood as much as may be.
"I, the aforesaid William Phipps, Knight, do hereby in the name and on behalf of their most excellent Majesties, William and Mary, King and Queen of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defenders of the Faith, and by order of their said Majesties' government of Massachusetts colony in New England, demand a present surrender of your forts and castles, undemolished, and the king's and other stores, unembezzled, with a reasonable delivery of all captives; together with a surrender of all your persons and estates to my dispose: upon the doing whereof you may expect mercy from me, as a Christian, according to what shall be found to be for their Majesties' service and the subjects' security. Which, if you refuse forthwith to do, I am come provided, and am resolved, by the help of God, in whom I trust, by force of arms to revenge all wrongs and injuries offered, and bring you under subjection to the Crown of England, and, when too late, make you wish you had accepted of the favour tendered.
"Your answer positive in an hour returned by your own trumpet, with the return of mine, is required upon the peril that will ensue."[45]