"The tempest did not last long enough to serve our turn as we hoped. The Governor trusted it would have destroyed the whole fleet; but from what I can learn, nothing was really lost except a few of the flat-bottomed landing boats used in the disembarkation of the troops. The English are certainly notable sailors; but it is with her soldiers that we shall have more directly to deal. Still, I wish we could have sunk her ships; it would have placed her on the horns of a dilemma."
"I have heard," said the Abbe, "that the Governor talks of destroying the fleet by fire. He has made considerable preparation for such an attempt."
Montcalm smiled slightly.
"True; he has been busy with his fire ships for some while. For my own part, I have but limited faith in them. They have cost us a million, and I doubt whether they will prove of any service; yet Vaudreuil is very confident."
"The Governor is wont to be confident--till the moment of actual peril arrives," said the Abbe thoughtfully. "Well, we shall see--we shall see. When are these notable fire ships to be sent forth?"
"I think tomorrow night," answered Montcalm, "but that is a matter which rests with the Governor. I have no concern in it; and when such is the case, I offer no advice and take no part in the arrangements. Doubtless I shall see what is going on from some vantage point; but Monsieur de Vaudreuil will not take counsel with me in the matter."
"Fire ships!" cried the midshipmen, when Colin told them what he had heard; "do they think to frighten English mariners with fireworks and bonfires? Good! let them try and see. And O Colin, good Colin, if they are going to send down fire ships upon the fleet, let us be there to see!"
Colin desired nothing better himself. He was all agog to see the thing through. And why should they not? It was not difficult to obtain a boat, and in the darkness and confusion the four lads would easily be able to follow the fire ships and see the whole thing through. The midshipmen could navigate a boat with anyone, and Colin had learned much of their skill. All day they were often to be seen skimming about the basin of the St. Lawrence, prospecting about for news, and watching the movements of the English soldiers on sh.o.r.e, or of the fleet anch.o.r.ed a few miles farther off. They had only to steal away unnoticed, and take to their boat before the excitement began, and they could follow the phantom ships upon their mysterious way, and watch the whole attempt against the English fleet.
"Ah, but take me," cried Corinne, when she heard the discussion--"do take me! It is so hard to be a girl, and see nothing! I will not be in your way. I will not scream and cry, or do anything like that. I only want to watch and see. I shall not be afraid. And I want so much to see something! I know I could slip away without anyone"s knowing or missing me. Only say you will take me!"
"Of course we will take you, Mademoiselle Corinne," cried Paul, with boyish gallantry; "why should you not see as well as we? I have a sister Margery at home who would be as wild to go as you can be. She is as good as a boy any day. Wrap yourself well up in a great cloak, so that you may keep warm, and so that n.o.body can guess we have a lady on board, and we will take care of you, never fear!"
Corinne clapped her hands gaily; although growing to maidenhood, she had the heart of a child, and was full of delight at the thought of anything that promised adventure and excitement.
"How good you are! And pray call me not "Mademoiselle" any more; call me Corinne--all of you. Let me be an English girl, and your sister; for, in sooth, I feel more and more English every day of my life. Sometimes I fear that I shall be hanged for a traitor to the cause; for I find myself on the side of our English rivals more and more every day!"
The compact thus sealed was easily carried out. The Abbe and his sister, Madame Drucour, were keenly interested in the attempt of the fire ships against the English fleet, and were to watch proceedings from the steeple of the Recollet Friars. The daylight lasted long now, and supper was over before the shadows began to fall; and the excited lads were able to wait till the seniors had started forth before they made their own escape down to the harbour.
Corinne wrapped herself in a long black cloak, drawing the hood over her head, and thus disguising herself and her s.e.x completely from any prying eyes; but indeed they scarcely met anyone as they hurried along through the narrow streets to the unfrequented wharf, where the boys had brought up the boat earlier in the day. Quickly they were all aboard, and were gliding through the darkening water, whilst the crowd gathered at quite a different part of the harbour showed where the launch of the fire ships was going on.
Colin described them as well as he could.
"There are three or four big ones, and Monsieur Delouche is in command; and then there is a great fire raft, as they call it--a lot of schooners, shallops, and such like, all chained together--a formidable-looking thing, for I got one of the sailors to show it me. I suppose they are all pretty much alike, crammed with explosives and combustibles; old swivels and guns loaded up to the muzzle, grenades, and all sorts of things like that, some of them invented for the occasion. We must give these fellows a wide berth when once they are set alight; for they will burn mightily, and shower lead and fire upon everything within reach. I only trust they may not do fearful damage to the English ships!"
"Not they!" cried Peter, with a fine contempt in his voice. "The Frenchies are safe to make a muddle of it somewhere; and our bold jack tars won"t be scared by noise and flame. You"ll soon see the sort of welcome they will give these fiery messengers."
The night darkened. There was no moon, and the faint wreaths of vapour lay lightly upon the wide waste of waters. Corinne gazed about her with a sense of fascination. She had never before been so far out upon the river; and how strange and ghostlike it appeared in the silence of the night!
Ten o"clock struck from the clocks in the town behind them, and Colin turned back to look towards the harbour.
"They were to start at ten," he remarked. "Let us lie to now and watch for them. We must give them a wide berth, but not be too far distant to see what they do."
Corinne gazed, breathless with excitement, along the darkening water. The silence and increasing darkness seemed to weigh upon them like a tangible oppression. They could hear their own excited breathing; and all started violently when Arthur"s voice suddenly broke the silence by exclaiming:
"I see them! I see them--over yonder!"
The boat in which the eager lads and equally eager girl were afloat was drifting about not very far distant from the Point of Orleans, where were an English outpost and some English shipping, although the main part of the fleet was some distance further on. The watchers expected that the ghostly ships, gliding upon their silent way, would pa.s.s this first shipping in silence and under cover of the darkness, and only begin to glow and fire when close to the larger part of the hostile fleet. Yet as they watched the oncoming vessels through the murk of the night, they saw small tongues of flame beginning to flicker through the gloom, and run up the masts and sails like live things; and all in a moment came a smothered roar and a bright flashing flame which, for the few seconds it lasted, showed the whole fire fleet stealing onwards, and the boats by which the crews of them were making good their escape.
"They have fired them too soon!" cried Colin, in great excitement.
"I know they were not to have done it till they had pa.s.sed the Point and got well into the south channel, where all the shipping lies."
"Hurrah!" cried Peter, waving his cap; "did we not say that the Frenchies would make a mess of it? They may be good for something on land; but at sea--"
There was no hearing the end of the sentence; for with a roar like that of a volcano in eruption one of the ships burst into a ma.s.s of flames, whilst the rest became lighted up by the glare, and were soon adding to the conflagration--the fire racing up their masts and rigging, and showing them against the black waters like vessels of lambent flame.
"How beautiful, yet how terrible!" cried Corinne, as she gazed with fascinated eyes. "But look--look--look--look how the water is torn up with the shower of lead that falls from them! Are they not like fiery dragons spouting out sheets of fire? Oh, and listen how they hiss and roar! Are they not like live things? Oh, it is the most terrible thing I have ever seen. How glad I am that they are not running amongst the English ships! They are beautiful, terrible creatures; but I think they are doing no hurt to anything."
"And look yonder!" cried Peter, pointing landwards in great excitement; "see those long red lines drawn up on sh.o.r.e! Those are our English soldiers, all ready to receive the foe should they seek to land under cover of this noise and smoke and confusion. As though our British grenadiers would be scared by false fire like yon fireworks!"
"And see, see again!" yelled Paul, still more excited--"see our sailors getting to their boats! They are going to row out and grapple those flaming monsters. See if it be not so. They are drifting down a little too near our few ships. You will see now for yourself, Corinne, the stuff of which our mariners are made!"
"Oh surely, surely they will not go near those terrible vessels!"
cried Corinne.
"Yes, but they will," cried Arthur, watching their movements keenly; "oh, would I were with them to help! See, see! they are getting their grappling irons into the boats. That means they are going to grapple these blazing ships, and tow them somewhere out of harm"s way. Hurrah for England and England"s sailors! Now you will see what our answer will be to these fiery messengers."
Corinne clasped her hands in mute wonder and amaze as the boats shot off from sh.o.r.e, bearing straight down upon the great fire raft--the most formidable of all the fleet--which was spouting flame and lead, and blazing like a live volcano, roaring the while like a veritable wild beast, as though animated by a demon of fury.
"They never can go near it; they will be burned alive!" cried the girl, in affright.
But the midshipmen watched the tactics of the boats with eyes full of eager comprehension.
"They will tackle it somehow, you will see," cried Peter. "See, they are getting round to the leeward of it, and they will lie off till it has finished its most deadly spouting. But it is drifting down upon the ships at anchor. They will never let it get amongst them. You will see--you will see! O brave jack tars, show the mettle you are made of in the eyes of all Quebec this night!"
Corinne could scarcely bear to look, and yet she could not turn her eyes away. The English sailors, laughing and joking the while, swarmed round the fiery monster in their boats, singing out to one another, and at favourable moments flinging their grappling irons and sheering off again.
"All"s well! all"s well!" they kept calling out, as one after another they fixed their hold; then with united and manful effort, and with a sing-song sound which came rolling over the water with strange effect, they commenced towing their blazing prize away from the ships she was nearing rather too threateningly, whilst great shouts and rounds of cheering went up from those afloat and ash.o.r.e.
"Oh, well done, well done, brave men!" cried Corinne, roused to a keen enthusiasm; and in one of the pauses of the cheering, when silence had fallen upon the spectators owing to a sudden vicious outrush of flame, which seemed for a moment as though it must overwhelm the gallant English tars, a voice came from one of the tow boats, calling out to a companion in another:
"I say, Jack, didst thou ever take h.e.l.l in tow afore?"
The monster raft, flaming and sputtering, together with the other fire ships beyond, was coolly towed ash.o.r.e by the intrepid sailors, and all were left to burn away harmlessly upon the strand, where they could hurt nothing; whilst peals of laughter and cheering went up from the English camp.
"Poor Monsieur de Vaudreuil!" exclaimed Colin, as he prepared to sail back to the dark city, "I wonder if he has seen the fate of his vaunted fire ships?"
Chapter 4: Hostilities.
"Alas! alas!" wailed the townsfolk, when the news of the fiasco of the fire ships was made known, "those dogs of English are too much for us upon the water; but let them attempt to meet us on land, and we will show them what we can do!"
"Do they think French soldiers are the only ones who can fight?"
asked Arthur, with a note of wondering scorn in his voice, as the sense of these words came to him. "Well, they will have their wish fast enough, I doubt not! Wolfe is here; and if he cannot fight, write me down an a.s.s! They have seen what the sailors can do; now we will show them what our soldiers are good for!"
"Don"t boast, Arthur," quoth Peter, the eldest of the trio; "we can do without great swelling words. The French boast themselves into the belief that they hold this whole vast continent in possession.
We must not be like them, and seek to boast ourselves into Quebec!
We will wait till our flag is flying from yon battlement, and then it will be time enough to talk."
"All right," answered Arthur gaily; "I"ll wager it will not be long before we see it there!"