Meanwhile Montgomery was racing for Carleton and Carleton was racing for Quebec.  Montgomery’s advance-guard had hurried on to Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu, forty-five miles below Montreal, to mount guns that would command the narrow channel through which the fugitive governor would have to pass on his way to Quebec.  They had ample time to set the trap; for an incessant nor’-easter blew up the St Lawrence day after day and held Carleton fast in Montreal, while, only a league away, Montgomery’s main body was preparing to cross over.  Escape by land was impossible, as the Americans held Berthier, on the north shore, and had won over the habitants, all the way down from Montreal, on both sides of the river.  At last, on the afternoon of the 11th, the wind shifted.  Immediately a single cannon-shot was fired, a bugle sounded the fall in! and ‘the whole military establishment’ of Montreal formed up in the barrack square—­one hundred and thirty officers and men, all told.  Carleton, ‘wrung to the soul,’ as one of his officers wrote home, came on parade ’firm, unshaken, and serene.’  The little column then marched down to the boats through shuttered streets of timid neutrals and scowling rebels.  The few loyalists who came to say good-bye to Carleton at the wharf might well have thought it was the last handshake they would ever get from a British ‘Captain-General and Governor-in-chief’ as they saw him step aboard in the dreary dusk of that November afternoon.  And if he and they had known the worst they might well have thought their fate was sealed; for neither of them then knew that both sides of the St Lawrence were occupied in force at two different places on the perilous way to Quebec.

The little flotilla of eleven vessels got safely down to within a few miles of Sorel, when one grounded and delayed the rest till the wind failed altogether at noon on the 12th.  The next three days it blew upstream without a break.  No progress could be made as there was no room to tack in the narrow passages opposite Sorel.  On the third day an American floating battery suddenly appeared, firing hard.  Behind it came a boat with a flag of truce and the following summons from Colonel Easton, who commanded Montgomery’s advance-guard at Sorel: 

SIR,—­By this you will learn that General Montgomery is in Possession of the Fortress Montreal.  You are very sensible that I am in Possession at this Place, and that, from the strength of the United Colonies on both sides your own situation is Rendered Very disagreeable.  I am therefore induced to make you the following Proposal, viz.:—­That if you will Resign your Fleet to me Immediately, without destroying the Effects on Board, You and Your men shall be used with due civility, together with women & Children on Board.  To this I shall expect Your direct and Immediate answer.  Should you Neglect You will Cherefully take the Consequences which will follow.