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Chapter 7 - part 3 · History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution

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  Section twenty five of History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American
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  Revolution, Volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
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  in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox
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  dot org. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution,
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  Volume one by Mercy Otis Warren. Chapter seven, Part three, a
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  detail of the sufferings of one family will evinced. The wretched situation of all
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  in that province, who had the courage to complain of the measures of administration
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  are indulged a favorable bowl opinion of the exertions of the other colonies. The
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  singular mode of bending the minds of men of liberal opinions to the designs of
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  government was first experimented on mister Walker, an English gentleman of fortune and nobilities,
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  who had been many years of resident of Montreal. Is avowed dislike of
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  the Quebec Bill, drew on him the resentment of the officers of government,
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  and embowed him in altercation and danger. He had in answer to the serve
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  on maxim quid, the rerooir Isthmatra, repeated by one Rouvel Cully replied that
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  with regard to Monsieur Rouvel, it might be so as he ate his Majesty's
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  bread. But added, I deny that the King is my master. I
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  respect him as my lawful sovereign, and am ready to pay due obedience to
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  his lawful commands. But I cannot acknowledge any one as my master. While
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  I live by my own industry and I received pay from the King. Perhaps
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  my acknowledgments may be equally submissive. Rouvel immediately informed General Carleton of this conversation.
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  His prudence was commended, and soon after appointed one of the judges of
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  the Supreme Court at Montrey. All disappointment was equally astonishing to the French inhabitants
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  as it was disgusting to the english Men of all descriptions had a very ill
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  opinion of Rubel. The recent conversation between him and mister Walker was misrepresented and
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  exaggerated. The partisans of the Crown and the offices of the army were highly
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  exasperated against him, and soon after resentment was carried so far as to attempt
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  the assassination of mister Walker. A number of soldiers under the command of a
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  Captain Disney, entered his house in the evening, when it suffered with a
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  few friends. On a sudden noise at the door of the hall, Missus
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  Walker imagined it to be some Canadians who had been the preceding day on business
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  with mister Walker as an officer of justice. Without any hesitation, Chief pronounced
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  entree. But to her inexpressible surprise, the next moment she saw through the
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  glasses of the inner door a number of faces, some of them blacked,
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  others covered with the visit of crape, all rising on the steps and rushing
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  with precipitation into the room. In an agony of surprise, she exclaimed,
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  Good God, this is murder. Mister Walker sat with his back to the
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  door, and before he had time to rise, he received from one of
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  the ruffians a violent stroke of a broad sword on his head. He attempted
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  to recover his arms and defend himself, but wounded in a most cruel manner.
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  He sunk motionless on the floor when one of the villains kneeled on his
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  breast and cut off his right ear, while he so far retained his senses
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  as to hear one of them say, damn him, he is dead.
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  After recovering from his wounds, he commenced a silver process against Disney and his
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  party. The crime was proved with all its atrocious aggravations, but justice had
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  not its operation, either in compensation to the sufferer or punishment of the guilty.
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  Mister Walker, finding himself unsafe in the city, retired to his country
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  house, determined to amuse himself with his books and his farm without further attention
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  to political or public scenes. But his persecution was not at an end.
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  He had not long resided in his villa before he was molested in a still
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  more barbarous manner. A party of thirty soldiers was sent by Governor Carleton to
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  bring him dead or alive, to Quebec. They surrounded his house just before
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  day and summoned him to surrender. Instead of a compliance, he courageously endeavored
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  to defend himself and his family until the party without set fire to his house
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  in several places, when he was obliged to escape the claims by throwing himself
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  from the third story. In the fall from a window was such a height
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  one of his legs was broken, which left him to the mercy of his
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  antagonists, who made him their prisoner and conducted him to Quebec. Where who
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  was loaded with irons, denied the use of pen, ink and paper,
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  and forbidden even the light of a taper. In his darksome cell, Missus
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  Walker, a lady of great elegance and sensibility, had, in the terror
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  of the night, leaped from a second story window and walked through the snow
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  till exhausted by fear and fatigue, she was overtaken by one of the party,
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  who had the compassion to throw his cloak over her and conduct her to
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  a neighboring house. She soon after made her escape from that part of the
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  country over the lakes, accompanied by the commissioners Congress had some time before sent
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  on to confer with and secure the interest of the Canadians. The boating which
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  she crossed one of those island seas, passed another almost within call, which
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  conveyed her husband, a prisoner, to Quebec. It has already been observed
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  that an address had been sent by Congress to the inhabitants of Canada, couched
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  in nervous, friendly and pathetic terms, reminding them of their common danger and
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  urging them to reunion with the other colonies in defense of their common rights.
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  But the mixture of French, British America, and savage inhabitants of that country
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  went. It very uncertain how far the other colonies might depend on the aid
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  or friendship of the Canadians. Congress, apprised of the situation of Affaeus,
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  there judged it prudent to endeavor to engage the people of all descriptions in that
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  quarter more firmly to the interest of the Union. It was thought of favorable
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  crisis for this purpose when the flower of the British troops then in America was
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  shut up in Boston, and when the governors of the southern provinces, interrupted
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  in their negotiation with the Indians, had taken refuge on board the King's ships,
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  either from real or imagined personal danger. This was an important business,
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  as whoever possesses Canada will in a great measure command the numerous tribes beyond the
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  lakes. A respectable delegation was sent to Montreal to treat with the white inhabitants,
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  and as far as possible to conciliate or secure the copper colored nations.
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  The importance of possessing Canada strongly impressed the minds at this time. A gentleman
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  of the first penetration. A very respectable committee was sent by Congress into the
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  country, with doctor Franklin at the head of the mission, whose talents as
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  a statesman, perfect knowledge to the French language, extensive literary acquaintance with that
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  nation, urbanity of manners, courteous deportment, united with a prudent reserve,
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  marked him as a suitable to negotiate with, and endeavored to attach the Canadians
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  of all descriptions to the American Union. Mister Carroll of Maryland, a clergyman
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  of the Roman Catholic profession, assent on with the delegation to administer the ordinances
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  of religion, baptism, absolution, et cetera, which they had been denied
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  for some time by their clergy under British influence, who instead of bestowing the
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  blessings of the Church, had denounced their anathemas to the great grievance of many
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  tender consciences, and threatened the vengeance of Heaven as well as Earth on failure
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  of due submission to parliamentary mandates. These efforts to engage and fix the Canadians
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  to a certain point failed. The committee returned with little success. Where its
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  in professions are of little avail when the sword is or is about to be
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  lifted for decision. Congress now found that a force sufficient to strengthen the hands
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  of theirs in that province was the only mode to be relied on. In
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  consequence of this necessity, they directed to regiments of New York militia and a
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  body of New Englanders, consisting in the whole of about three thousand men,
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  to proceed, under the command of the General Schuyler and Montgomery, by the
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  Lake Champlain, to the River Sorel, which empties itself into the Saint Lawrence,
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  and immediately attempt the reduction of Quebec. They arrived at the Isle Nois,
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  which lies at the entrance of that river, in the autumn of one
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  thousand, seven hundred and seventy five. The commander there published a declaration announcing
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  the reasons of this movement and inviting the inhabitants of every description to arrange themselves
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  under the banners of liberty and unite in the common Clause of America. After
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  this, they immediately pushed on through woods, swamps, and morasses to a
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  ford about twelve miles distance. Here, an unexpected attack from a large party
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  of Indians obliged them to retreat to their former post and wait the arrival of
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  reinforcements. On this retreat to the Isle Law, General Schuylder immediately returned to
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  Albany. The ostensible reason was the broken state of his health, which indeed
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  was so impaired as to render him unfit for the fatigue of such a service.
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  Thus the whole weight of the war in that quarter was left to the
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  intrepid Montgomery, who, though qualified by his courage, capacity and military experience,
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  was not in force sufficient, but so great an undertaking. He,
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  however, notwithstanding the vigilance of General Carleton, made himself master of the forts
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  of Champlays in Saint John's, and with various other successors, arrived at Montreal
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  about the middle of November. General Carlton arrived there some time before, and
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  had made every exertion for the preservation of all the posts in the neighborhood,
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  as well as those above mentioned. But the people disaffected and his army weak,
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  his efforts were blasted, and he thought himself happy to escape the vigilance
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  of Montgomery, who had placed guards every post for his interception. He,
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  however, in a dark night in an open boat, fortunately passed them all
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  and arrived at Quebec in safety. When General Montgomery arrived at Montreal, the
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  inhabitants, both French and English, which to surrounded by capitulation, but with
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  the spirit and dignity consisted with his usual character, he refused this, though
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  at the same time he gave them the strongest assurances of justice, security and
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  personal safety. He pledged his honor for their peaceable possession of their property and
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  the free exercise of their religion. He expressed in oral terms his disposition to
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  protect the inhabitants on the same footing with the other American colonies. He then
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  demanded the possession of the gates and the keys of all the public stores,
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  and ordered them to be delivered by nine o'clock the ensuing warning. Accordingly,
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  the gates were thrown open, and his troops entered at the appointed hour.
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  Thus, without the smallest resistance, he took possession of this important post.
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  He treated every class of inhabitants with the lenity and politeness which at once attached
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  them to his person, strengthened their prejudices against the British government, and cherished
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  the favorable ideas many had before imbined. Both of the Americans and the cause
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  of which they were engaged. When Montgomery had made all proper arrangements for the
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  security and peace of Montreal, he prepared immediately to go forward and invest Quebec,
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  then in a week defenseless condition, their governor absent, the inhabitants disaffected,
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  and but a handful of troops in the garrison. When General Carleton left
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  the neighborhood of Montreal, he made the utmost dispatch to reach and put the
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  capital of Canada in a proper state of defense. But he found Quebec in
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  the greatest consternation and danger, and were courted, not apprehended, and scarcely
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  conceived possible from the novelty and hazard of the undertaking. A detachment of upwards
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  of one thousand men, having marched from the army near Boston the command of
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  the silvand having given to Colonel Arnold, a young soldier of fortune who held
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  an equal contemptu both danger and principle, they took passage at Merrivach and arrived
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  at the mouth of the Countepec on the twenty second of September, there finding
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  it probable their provisions might fall short. When there could be no possibility of
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  a fresh lime apply. Arnold sent back three hundred of his men footmolt.
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  These appeared ready to desert, with the field officer at their head if they
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  had not been repermitted to return, and a footnote. Most of the remainder
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  embarked in batteas prepared for the purpose. A small division of the troops marched
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  slowly and kept the banks of the river. Then came together every night,
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  though frequently interrupted in their progress by rocks, walls, rapids, and carrying
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  places, where they were obliged to carry their boats for several miles together on
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  their shoulders. With incredible perseverance, they traversed woods, mountains, swamps,
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  and precipices, and were obliged alternately to cut their way when a human foot
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  had trodden, to forge shallows, or tempt the navigation of a rapid stream
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  with a rocky bottom, which seemed not designed as a passage for any human
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  being to attempt. At the same time, their provisions were so reduced that
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  they were obliged to eat their own dogs and convert the shoe lever into food.
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  But with astonishing resolution, they surmounted every obstacle, and near two thirds
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  of the detachment completed a route of several hundred miles through hideous wilderness unexplored before
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  but by the beasts and savages of the forest. It was at the time
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  thought that if the historian did justice to the heroic firmness of this little party,
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  that it would be as honorable a testimony of the exertions of human intrepidy
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  as the celebrated march are the renowned Hannibal. But the enterprising spirit of America
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  has since taught her sons to tread over a track of the forlorn desert,
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  so much more extensive that this now appears, but in epitome of their hardihood.
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  Colonel Arnold, with his little army, almost exhausted by hunger and fatigue,
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  reached the Canadian settlements on the third of November. He was received in
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  a friendly manner, and a liberal supply of provisions was collected by his relief.
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  By the alacrity of the inhabitants, he was in a few days furnished
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  with boats to cross the Saint Lawrence, and by favor of the night,
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  he effected his passage in spite of the vigilance of several frigates that lay in
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  the river. When he sat down before Quebec, he found all the batteries
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  manned from the shipping, but having no artillery, he could do little more
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  than parade before the city and wait the arrival of General Montgomery and of Section
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  twenty five.