Count Frontenac / Makers of Canada, Volume 3

by William Dawson LeSueur

Frontenac was not versed in the English language, so the letter was given to an interpreter to translate. When the latter had finished the reading, the envoy presented his watch to the governor, observing that it was then ten o'clock, and that he would have to have an answer by eleven. The dignity of the assembled officers was much hurt by the brusque terms of Phipps's summons; and, before Frontenac had had time to frame his reply, one of them cried out that Phipps was nothing but a pirate, and that the man before them should be hanged. Frontenac was not disposed to go so far. "Tell your general," he said, "that I do not recognize King William, and that the Prince of Orange is a usurper, who has violated the most sacred ties of blood in attempting to dethrone his father-in-law. I recognize no other sovereign in England than King James. Your general ought not to be surprised at the hostilities he says are carried on by the French against the Massachusetts colony; since he might expect that the king, my master, having received the King of England under his protection, and being ready to replace him on the throne by force of arms, as I am informed, would order me to wage war in this country on a people in rebellion against their lawful sovereign. Does your general imagine," he continued, pointing to the officers who filled the room, "that, even if he offered me better conditions, and I were of a temper to accept them—does he think that so many gallant gentlemen would consent to it, or advise me to place any confidence in the word of a man who violated the capitulation he made with the governor of Port Royal, one who has been wanting in loyalty to his rightful sovereign, and who, unmindful of the personal benefits received by him from that sovereign, adheres to the fortunes of a prince who, while trying to persuade the world to accept him as the liberator of England and defender of the faith, tramples on the laws and privileges of the kingdom, and overturns the English Church? This is what the divine justice invoked by your general in his letter will not fail some day to punish severely."

It is possible that the terms of the governor's answer may have been somewhat conventionalized by his secretary, to whose pen we are indebted for a report of it.[46] Phipps speaks of it as "a reviling answer," the drift of which was that he and those with him were traitors for "having taken up with a usurper, and seized upon that good Christian Sir Edmund Andros." The messenger, who doubtless felt his position somewhat uncomfortable, asked the count whether he would not give him an answer in writing. "No!" was the reply; "the only answer I will give will be from the mouth of my cannon and musketry, that he may learn that it is not in such a style that a person of my rank is summoned." Whatever he might forget, Frontenac could not forget his personal rank. There was now no more to be said; the messenger's eyes were again bandaged, and he was conducted back to his boat.

So now, Sir William, your work is cut out for you! There is the fortress; take it. This is not Port Royal, nor is that hard-featured warrior Menneval. This is a city set on a hill. Its guns are shotted and skilfully disposed. It has defenders by the hundred; and before night closes their numbers will be doubled; for Callières is on the march with all the troops that can be spared from Montreal, Three Rivers and other posts—eight hundred fighting men in all. Behind those ramparts, or awaiting you in the rear of the town, are men accustomed to warfare whether in the open field or in forest ambush. The adventure is one of great pith and moment, if you can but succeed in it!

The probability is that by this time Phipps had begun to take a more serious view of his task. He was one of those men who require to be favoured by luck. He was better at making a dash than at organizing victory. He had courage and a good deal of practical skill in navigation, but there is no evidence that he possessed the talents of a military commander. The readiness with which the inhabitants of Acadia had renounced their French allegiance had led him to believe that in Canada he might actually be welcomed as a liberator.[47] Of any such disposition on the part of the Canadians there had certainly been no sign as yet. It was reported at Quebec that he had attempted to land some men at Rivière Ouelle, and had been repulsed by the inhabitants under the leadership of their curé. The story, however, as given by Mère Juchereau, had plainly passed through the hands of the mythmakers before she got hold of it, for she tells us that "the moment the first boat was within musket shot, the curé ordered a volley, which killed the whole crew with the exception of two men who made off in great haste." Walley's journal makes no mention of any attempt to land, and the story may be assumed to be an imaginative invention. What at least may be regarded as certain is that, up to the date of his arrival before Quebec, Phipps had not received any encouraging overtures from the inhabitants. Other causes of anxiety were not wanting. Smallpox had broken out in his fleet, and the weather was most bitterly cold for the season. On the day of the summons and the following day he and his force remained inactive. On the afternoon of the first day Iberville and his brother Maricourt, returning with a few of their men from Hudson's Bay, landed safely at Beauport in sight of the ships, having slipped up the North Channel in a couple of canoes. In the evening about seven o'clock Callières, governor of Montreal, marched into the city at the head of eight hundred men. Shouts of welcome, mingled with martial music, reached the ears of the English, and were rightly interpreted as meaning that the city had received reinforcements.

The plan of the attack was that a body of men should be landed on the Beauport flats to the north of the city, and endeavour to obtain access by crossing the river St. Charles; that the principal war vessels should take up their position in front of the city; that others should move further up so as to create the impression that troops were to be landed above Cape Diamond, in order to take the city in the rear; and that the bombardment should only begin when a signal had been received that the troops at the other side had made their entrance. The scheme was a good one, but it was not well carried out. On Wednesday forenoon about thirteen hundred men under Major Walley were landed, apparently without opposition, though there were troops in abundance—levies from Beauport and Beaupré, Indians from Lorette, as well as the forces within the city—who could have made the landing exceedingly difficult and costly in lives, had they been led to the spot; particularly as the enemy had to wade knee-deep, and even waist-deep, in icy water in order to get to land. The landing having been effected, Walley drew up his force in companies, selecting four to act as an advance guard, or, as he calls them, "forlorns," and then ordered a march for the higher ground. They had not gone a hundred yards before there was firing from cover on both flanks, particularly from the right; there, Walley says, "there was a party galled us considerably." A charge having been ordered the defenders gave way, but continued to fire from swamp and bush as they retreated.[48] In the pursuit Walley gained a position not far from the St. Charles River. He was expecting some vessels to come into the river with supplies, and for that reason, as well as for others, wished to be near it. One or two houses and barns gave a little shelter, but many of the men had to lie out all night. If we may trust his statement his loss in killed on that day was four, and in wounded sixty. Considering the nature of the landing, "it was a great mercy," he says, "we had no more damage done us." He judged that he had killed some twenty of the Canadians, but that was a vast over-estimate. The Chevalier de Clermont, an experienced and valuable officer, had been killed, and Juchereau de St. Denis, who commanded the Beauport militia, had been wounded; but the total of killed and wounded on the Canadian side did not probably exceed the figure mentioned.

In the course of the day a Frenchman, who was a fugitive from his own side, surrendered to Walley's men, and from him the New England commander learned the somewhat discouraging news that the defensive forces in the city far outnumbered the whole of Phipps's expedition. Troops had been pouring in from different quarters both before and after the governor's arrival, and the last body of men brought by Callières had raised the total to about three thousand. Walley threatened the man very seriously as to what would happen if he did not tell the truth, and he seems to have heeded the warning. The number he mentioned agrees with the figures given by the contemporary historian Belmont, and also by Captain Sylvanus Davis, who was a prisoner in Quebec during the siege.

According to the arrangement made between Phipps and Walley, the former was only to begin the bombardment after the latter had forced an entrance into the town. Moreover, small armed vessels were to sail into the St. Charles, to assist his passage of that river and to furnish his force with necessary supplies of food and ammunition. Why this arrangement was departed from is not very clear; but about four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon Phipps moved his four principal vessels up before the town, and no sooner had he come within cannon shot than the shore batteries opened fire. Then ensued a duel in which the defence had all the best of it. Their guns were much better served than those of the assailants, and they had excellent marks to shoot at. The fight was maintained till after dark, by which time Phipps had fired away nearly all his ammunition and accomplished virtually nothing. One boy in the town had been killed by a splinter of rock; the buildings in the town had scarcely been injured at all. Phipps says he dismounted some of the enemy's best guns, but his story is unconfirmed. Certain it is that his vessels suffered serious damage in hulls, masts, and rigging, and that, after a brief renewal of the encounter the next morning, he drew them all off.

An incident which has given rise to a good deal of discussion may here be referred to. The flag of the admiral's vessel was shot away and fell into the river. It was captured by some men from the shore, but whether under the very heroic circumstances described by an eminent Canadian poet on the authority of Père Charlevoix, is, to say the least, open to doubt. Charlevoix has it that, no sooner had the flag fallen into the water and begun to drift away, than some Canadians swam out and seized it, notwithstanding the fire directed on them from the ships. Contemporary writers know nothing of any such feat. The one who comes nearest to the father's account of the matter is Mère Juchereau, who says that "our Canadians went out rashly in a bark canoe and brought it to land under the noses of the English." She does not even say they were fired on. How near they got to the English we can hardly judge from the expression "à la barbe des Anglais," which is not a measure of length. On the other hand we have from a contemporary writer, the Récollet, Père Leclercq, whose book was published in 1691, the year following the attack on Quebec, a plain, consistent statement as to how the thing happened, and one the terms of which are in distinct conflict with the popular version. After describing how the vice-admiral's ship had been the first to withdraw beyond the reach of the shore batteries, he continues: "The admiral [Phipps] followed him pretty closely and with precipitation, paying out the whole length of his anchor-cable, and then letting it go. His flag, which drifted away in the river, was left to our discretion, and our people went and fished it out."[49] The words used plainly imply that there was neither difficulty nor danger in recovering the flag; and this be it remembered was the story Leclercq heard at the time, and published almost immediately. Frontenac, who would certainly have been pleased to approve the bravery of his people, simply says that Phipps lost his flag, "which remained in our possession"; while Monseignat's statement in what may be regarded as the official narrative, is that the admiral's flag and another were borne in triumph to the church. Charlevoix's lack of accuracy in details is evident in the very paragraph in which he deals with this incident; for he says that no sooner had Phipps's messenger returned to his ship, than, to the great surprise of the English, shots were fired from one of the Lower Town batteries, and that the first one carried away the flag. This is pure romance. Phipps's vessel was not within range at the time, and no shots were exchanged till late in the afternoon of Wednesday, two days later. The loquacious La Hontan, who at least knows how to adorn a tale, if not point a moral, knows nothing of this particular occurrence, otherwise he would certainly have included it in a narrative which, it is evident, he aimed at making as lively and piquant as possible. It is no disparagement of the valour of the defenders of Quebec to doubt whether the incident took place as described either by Charlevoix, who did not visit the country till thirty years after the event, and did not publish his book till twenty-four years later, or by Mère Juchereau. Many a brave deed has passed unnoticed of history; and, en revanche, many an insignificant act has been wrapped round by legend with clouds of glory. If there is reason to doubt whether this particular deed was done in a specially heroic, or even in a very dramatic manner, there are incidents in abundance left to attest the heroism of the French-Canadian race. The legends of a people bear witness to its ideals, and help to repair the wrongs that history does by leaving so much that is truly memorable and admirable unrecorded.

While Phipps on Thursday was drawing off his shattered vessels, Walley and his men were having a very miserable time ashore. The succour he was expecting did not arrive. Instead he received what he did not want at all—six field-pieces, twelve-pounders, weighing about eight hundred pounds each, which the nature of the ground made it impossible to use, and which thus proved a simple embarrassment. However, thinking the vessels would arrive later in the day, Walley moved his men somewhat nearer to the town, and took up a position rather better both for shelter and for defence. This movement does not seem to have been opposed by the Canadian forces, as there is no mention in the narratives of any fighting on this day. The vessels did not come with the evening tide as hoped; and Walley, in his simple narrative, says: "We stood upon our guard that night, but found it exceeding cold, it freezing that night so that the next morning the ice would bear a man." The position was both distressing and precarious, and a council of war was called during the night to consider what should be done. By this time the assailing force had some idea of the nature of the task they had undertaken: to advance in the face of skirmishers having every advantage of position; to ford a river behind which a thousand men and several pieces of artillery were posted; and, should they by any miracle succeed in that, to encounter a couple of thousand more within the walls of the town. Many of their men were sick, some were literally freezing, others worn and exhausted. Their provisions were short, their ammunition very low. The decision of the council was that Walley should go on board the admiral's vessel next day and ask for instructions.

During Walley's absence on Friday forenoon, skirmishing was renewed with losses on both sides, but chiefly on that of the New Englanders. On the French side M. de Ste. Hélène received a wound in the thigh, from which he died in hospital some weeks later. Phipps consented to a retreat; and Walley, on returning to land in the afternoon, began to prepare for it. The following morning before daylight boats arrived to take the men off; but Walley, discovering too great haste on the part of his men to embark, ordered the boats back. There was further skirmishing during the day consequent upon Walley's desire to keep the enemy at a respectful distance, so that the embarkation he hoped to make that night might not be interfered with. Towards evening he used some boats that he had to send off his sick and wounded, but was careful not to afford any indication of a general retreat. This was finally accomplished, not without haste, noise, and confusion bordering on insubordination, between dark and one or two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, the 22nd. Through some gross mismanagement five of the eight cannon that had been landed were left behind for the greater glory of the enemy.