The British garrison had certain little troubles of its own; for discipline always tends to become irksome after a great effort.  Carleton was obliged to stop the retailing of spirits for fear the slacker men would be getting out of hand.  The guards and duties were made as easy as possible, especially for the militia.  But the ’snow-shovel parade’ was an imperative necessity.  The winter was very stormy, and the drifts would have frequently covered the walls and even the guns if they had not promptly been dug out.  The cold was also unusually severe.  One early morning in January an angry officer was asking a sentry why he hadn’t challenged him, when the sentry said, ’God bless your Honour! and I’m glad you’re come, for I’m blind!’ Then it was found that his eyelids were frozen fast together.

News came in occasionally from the outside world.  There was intense indignation among the garrison when they learned that the American commanders in Montreal were imprisoning every Canadian officer who would not surrender his commission.  Such an unheard-of outrage was worthy of Walker.  But others must have thought of it; for Walker was now in Philadelphia giving all the evidence he could against Prescott and other British officers.  Bad news for the rebels was naturally welcomed, especially anything about their growing failure to raise troops in Canada.  On hearing of Montgomery’s defeat the Continental Congress had passed a resolution, addressed to the ’Inhabitants of Canada’ declaring that ’we will never abandon you to the unrelenting fury of your and our enemies.’  But there were no trained soldiers to back this up; and the raw militia, though often filled with zeal and courage, could do nothing to redress the increasingly adverse balance.  In the middle of March the Americans sent in a summons.  But Carleton refused to receive it; and the garrison put a wooden horse and a bundle of hay on the walls with a placard bearing the inscription, ’When this horse has eaten this bunch of hay we will surrender.’  Some excellent practice made with 13-inch shells sent the Americans flying from their new battery at Levis; and by the 17th of March one of the several exultant British diarists, whose anonymity must have covered an Irish name, was able to record that ’this, being St Patrick’s Day, the Governor, who is a true Hibernian, has requested the garrison to put off keeping it till the 17th of May, when he promises, they shall be enabled to do it properly, and with the usual solemnities.’

A fortnight later a plot concerted between the American prisoners and their friends outside was discovered just in time.  With tools supplied by traitors they were to work their way out of their quarters, overpower the guard at the nearest gate, set fire to the nearest houses in three different streets, turn the nearest guns inwards on the town, and shout ‘Liberty for ever!’ as an additional signal to the storming-party that was to be waiting to confirm