[Illustration:  THE MANOR HOUSE AT MURRAY BAY

(The upper view from the West, the lower from the East)]

Montgomery’s was a hazardous plan.  He had resolved to try to seize the Lower Town first and then to get his troops into the Upper Town by way of the steep Mountain Street, thus taking the defenders of the walls in the rear.  It was a desperate venture, depending for its success largely upon the surprise of the garrison which Malcolm Fraser’s thorough-going alarm had prevented.  Montgomery himself, with a force of several hundred men, marched to the Lower Town from Wolfe’s Cove along the narrow path under the cliffs, a distance of nearly two miles, with progress impeded by darkness, by heavy snow-drifts, and by blocks of ice which the tide had strewn along the shore.  His men struggled on in the dark hoping to surprise the post which guarded the road below Cape Diamond at a point called Pres de Ville.  Here were some fifty defenders and the tale of what happened is soon told.  The guardians of the post were on the alert, for at it, too, Malcolm Fraser’s warning had been effective.  As Montgomery bravely advanced, at the head of his men, there was a flash and a roar in the darkness and the blinding snow storm, and, a moment after, Montgomery lay dead in the snow with a bullet through his head.  Two or three other officers were struck down.  The British heard groans and then there was silence.  As daylight came they saw hands and arms protruding from the snow, but only slowly did they realize that the chief of their foes was killed.

Nairne was on duty elsewhere but he did not miss severe fighting.  Arnold was to advance on the Lower Town from the north-eastern suburb, St. Roch’s, to meet at the foot of Mountain Street Montgomery coming from the west.  At first he was more fortunate than Montgomery.  When the rocket from Cape Diamond went up he set out.  The storm was frightful but it served to conceal Arnold’s force from Quebec’s sentries.  The Americans passed under the height where stands the Hotel Dieu.  Here Nairne was stationed with a small guard.  They spied the Americans in the darkness and kept up as effective a fire as the dim light permitted.  But the assailants were able to advance along the whole east side of Quebec and to reach the entrance to the Sault au Matelot, a short and narrow street opening into the steep Mountain Street, by which alone the Upper Town could be reached.  Here fortune favoured them for, apparently, in spite of Fraser’s alarm, they surprised the guard at the first barrier by which the street was closed.  The street itself they secured but when they reached the second barrier at its farther end, commanding the road to the Upper Town, it was well defended by an alert garrison.  Arnold had already been wounded and taken to the rear and Morgan, an intrepid leader, was in command of the assailing force.  Every moment he expected that Montgomery would arrive to attack the second barrier on the Sault au Matelot from the West as he attacked it from the East.  But Montgomery was dead and Morgan waited in vain.