[Footnote 702:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1759.]

[Footnote 703:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 20 [_?_] Mai, 1759.]

It was in the midst of all these preparations that Bougainville arrived from France with news that a great fleet was on its way to attack Quebec.  The town was filled with consternation mixed with surprise, for the Canadians had believed that the dangerous navigation of the St. Lawrence would deter their enemies from the attempt.  “Everybody,” writes one of them, “was stupefied at an enterprise that seemed so bold.”  In a few days a crowd of sails was seen approaching.  They were not enemies, but friends.  It was the fleet of the contractor Cadet, commanded by officer named Kanon, and loaded with supplies for the colony.  They anchored in the harbor, eighteen sail in all, and their arrival spread universal joy.  Admiral Durell had come too late to intercept them, catching but three stragglers that had lagged behind the rest.  Still others succeeded in eluding him, and before the first of June five more ships had come safely into port.

When the news brought by Bougainville reached Montreal, nearly the whole force of the colony, except the detachments of Bourlamaque and La Corne, was ordered to Quebec.  Montcalm hastened thither, and Vaudreuil followed.  The Governor-General wrote to the Minister in his usual strain, as if all the hope of Canada rested in him.  Such, he says, was his activity, that, though very busy, he reached Quebec only a day and a half after Montcalm; and, on arriving, learned from his scouts that English ships-of-war had already appeared at Isle-aux-Coudres.  These were the squadron of Durell.  “I expect,” Vaudreuil goes on, “to be sharply attacked, and that our enemies will make their most powerful efforts to conquer this colony; but there is no ruse, no resource, no means which my zeal does not suggest to lay snares for them, and finally, when the exigency demands it, to fight them with an ardor, and even a fury, which exceeds the range of their ambitious designs.  The troops, the Canadians, and the Indians are not ignorant of the resolution I have taken, and from which I shall not recoil under any circumstance whatever.  The burghers of this city have already put their goods and furniture in places of safety.  The old men, women, and children hold themselves ready to leave town.  My firmness is generally applauded.  It has penetrated every heart; and each man says aloud:  ’Canada, our native land, shall bury us under its ruins before we surrender to the English!’ This is decidedly my own determination, and I shall hold to it inviolably.”  He launches into high praise of the contractor Cadet, whose zeal for the service of the King and the defence of the colony he declares to be triumphant over every difficulty.  It is necessary, he adds, that ample supplies of all kinds should be sent out in the autumn, with the distribution of which Cadet offers to charge himself, and to account for them at their first cost; but he does not say what prices his disinterested friend will compel the destitute Canadians to pay for them.[704]