In the city itself every gate, except the Palace Gate, which gave access to the bridge, was closed and barricaded.  A hundred and six cannon were mounted on the walls.[707] A floating battery of twelve heavy pieces, a number of gunboats, eight fireships, and several firerafts formed the river defences.  The largest merchantmen of Kanon’s fleet were sacrificed to make the fireships; and the rest, along with the frigates that came with them, were sent for safety up the St. Lawrence beyond the River Richelieu, whence about a thousand of their sailors returned to man the batteries and gunboats.

[Footnote 707:  This number was found after the siege.  Knox, II. 151.  Some French writers make it much greater.]

In the camps along the Beauport shore were about fourteen thousand men, besides Indians.  The regulars held the centre; the militia of Quebec and Three Rivers were on the right, and those of Montreal on the left.  In Quebec itself there was a garrison of between one and two thousand men under the Chevalier de Ramesay.  Thus the whole number, including Indians, amounted to more than sixteen thousand;[708] and though the Canadians who formed the greater part of it were of little use in the open field, they could be trusted to fight well behind intrenchments.  Against this force, posted behind defensive works, on positions almost impregnable by nature, Wolfe brought less than nine thousand men available for operations on land.[709] The steep and lofty heights that lined the river made the cannon of the ships for the most part useless, while the exigencies of the naval service forbade employing the sailors on shore.  In two or three instances only, throughout the siege, small squads of them landed to aid in moving and working cannon; and the actual fighting fell to the troops alone.

[Footnote 708:  See Appendix H.]

[Footnote 709:  Ibid.]

Vaudreuil and Bigot took up their quarters with the army.  The Governor-General had delegated the command of the land-forces to Montcalm, whom, in his own words, he authorized “to give orders everywhere, provisionally.”  His relations with him were more than ever anomalous and critical; for while Vaudreuil, in virtue of his office, had a right to supreme command, Montcalm, now a lieutenant-general, held a military grade far above him; and the Governor, while always writing himself down in his despatches as the head and front of every movement, had too little self-confidence not to leave the actual command in the hands of his rival.

Days and weeks wore on, and the first excitement gave way to restless impatience.  Why did not the English come?  Many of the Canadians thought that Heaven would interpose and wreck the English fleet, as it had wrecked that of Admiral Walker half a century before.  There were processions, prayers, and vows towards this happy consummation.  Food was scarce.  Bigot and Cadet lived in luxury; fowls by thousands were fattened with wheat for their tables, while the people were put on rations of two ounces of bread a day.[710] Durell and his ships were reported to be still at Isle-aux-Coudres.  Vaudreuil sent thither a party of Canadians, and they captured three midshipmen, who, says Montcalm, had gone ashore pour polissonner, that is, on a lark.  These youths were brought to Quebec, where they increased the general anxiety by grossly exaggerating the English force.