The army marched that morning, the eighteenth.  In the evening it reached St. Augustin; and here it was stopped by the chilling news that Quebec had surrendered.  Utter confusion had reigned in the disheartened garrison.  Men deserted hourly, some to the country, and some to the English camp; while Townshend pushed his trenches nearer and nearer to the walls, in spite of the cannonade with which Piedmont and his artillerymen tried to check them.  On the evening of the seventeenth, the English ships of war moved towards the Lower Town, and a column of troops was seen approaching over the meadows of the St. Charles, as if to storm the Palace Gate.  The drums beat the alarm; but the militia refused to fight.  Their officers came to Ramesay in a body; declared that they had no mind to sustain an assault; that they knew he had orders against it; that they would carry their guns back to the arsenal; that they were no longer soldiers, but citizens; that if the army had not abandoned them they would fight with as much spirit as ever; but that they would not get themselves killed to no purpose.  The town-major, Joannes, in a rage, beat two of them with the flat of his sword.

The white flag was raised; Joannes pulled it down, thinking, or pretending to think, that it was raised without authority; but Ramesay presently ordered him to go to the English camp and get what terms he could.  He went, through driving rain, to the quarters of Townshend, and, in hope of the promised succor, spun out the negotiation to the utmost, pretended that he had no power to yield certain points demanded, and was at last sent back to confer with Ramesay, under a promise from the English commander that, if Quebec were not given up before eleven o’clock, he would take it by storm.  On this Ramesay signed the articles, and Joannes carried them back within the time prescribed.  Scarcely had he left the town, when the Canadian horsemen appeared with their sacks of biscuit and a renewed assurance that help was near; but it was too late.  Ramesay had surrendered, and would not break his word.  He dreaded an assault, which he knew he could not withstand, and he but half believed in the promised succor.  “How could I trust it”? he asks.  “The army had not dared to face the enemy before he had fortified himself; and could I hope that it would come to attack him in an intrenched camp, defended by a formidable artillery?” Whatever may be thought of his conduct, it was to Vaudreuil, and not to him, that the loss of Quebec was due.

The conditions granted were favorable, for Townshend knew the danger of his position, and was glad to have Quebec on any terms.  The troops and sailors of the garrison were to march out of the place with the honors of war, and to be carried to France.  The inhabitants were to have protection in person and property, and free exercise of religion.[806]

[Footnote 806:  Articles de Capitulation, 18 Sept. 1759.]