Chambly is only a short day’s march from Montreal to the west and St Johns to the south; so its capture meant that St Johns was entirely cut off from the Richelieu to the north and dangerously exposed to being cut off from Montreal as well.  Its ample stores and munitions of war were a priceless boon to Montgomery, who now redoubled his efforts to take St Johns.  But Preston held out bravely for the remainder of the month, while Carleton did his best to help him.  A fortnight earlier Carleton had arrested that firebrand, Walker, who had previously refused to leave the country, though Carleton had given him the chance of doing so.  Mrs Walker, as much a rebel as her husband, interviewed Carleton and noted in her diary that he ‘said many severe Things in very soft & Polite Termes.’  Carleton was firm.  Walker’s actions, words, and correspondence all proved him a dangerous rebel whom no governor could possibly leave at large without breaking his oath of office.  Walker, who had himself caused so many outrageous arrests, now not only resisted the legal arrest of his own person, but fired on the little party of soldiers who had been sent to bring him into Montreal.  The soldiers then began to burn him out; whereupon he carried his wife to a window from which the soldiers rescued her.  He then surrendered and was brought into Montreal, where the sight of him as a prisoner made a considerable impression on the waverers.

A few hundred neighbouring militiamen were scraped together.  Every one of the handful of regulars who could be spared was turned out.  And Carleton set off to the relief of St Johns.  But Seth Warner’s Green Mountain Boys, reinforced by many more sharpshooters, prevented Carleton from landing at Longueuil, opposite Montreal.  The remaining Indians began to slink away.  The French-Canadian militiamen deserted fast—­’thirty or forty of a night.’  There were not two hundred regulars available for a march across country.  And on the 30th Carleton was forced to give up in despair.  Within the week St Johns surrendered with 688 men, who were taken south as prisoners of war.  Preston had been completely cut off and threatened with starvation as well.  So when he destroyed everything likely to be needed by the enemy he had done all that could be expected of a brave and capable commander.

It was the 3rd of November when St Johns surrendered.  Ten days later Montgomery occupied Montreal and Arnold landed at Wolfe’s Cove just above Quebec.  The race for the possession of Quebec had been a very close one.  The race for the capture of Carleton was to be closer still.  And on the fate of either depended the immediate, and perhaps the ultimate, fate of Canada.