“We will show you the city tomorrow,” said Colin, when he took their guests up to the lofty where they were to sleep in company.  “My sister and I are half English ourselves.  I sometimes think that in her heart of hearts Corinne would like to see the English flag floating over the towers of Quebec.”

“Hurrah for Mademoiselle Corinne!” cried the lad Peter, throwing his cap into the air.  “I thought you two looked little like the dark-skinned Frenchies!  We shall be friends then, and when the town falls we will take care that no harm comes to you.  But we mean to have Quebec; so you may make up your mind to that!”

Chapter 3:  Mariners Of The Deep.

“I must go!  I must go!” shouted Colin, bursting into the house, mad with excitement and impetuosity.

“My uncle, you will let me go!  I must see this great and mighty fleet for myself.  They say it is coming up the mighty river’s mouth.  Some say it will be wrecked ere it reach the Isle of Orleans!  Let me go and see it, I pray, and I will return and tell you all.”

The whole city was in a ferment.  For long weeks had the English fleet been watched and waited for—­for so long, indeed, that provisions were already becoming a little scarce within the town, in spite of the convoy which had arrived earlier in the year.  So many mouths were there to feed that the question of supply was causing anxiety already.  Still with care there was enough to last for a considerable time.  Only the delay of the English vessels had upset the calculations of the men in charge of the commissariat department, and the people had to be put upon rations, lest there should be a too quick consumption of the stores.

This had caused a little murmuring and discontent, and the long waiting had tried the citizens more than active work would have done.  It had given Montcalm time to fortify his camp very strongly, and make his position all that he desired; but it had been a wearisome time to many, and the Canadian troops were already discontented, and wearying to get away from the life of the camp, back to their own homes and fields and farms.

But now hot midsummer had come, and with it the.  English foe.  A fast-sailing sloop had brought word that the junction of the squadrons was taking place just off Cape Tourmente, and Colin was wild to take boat and go to see the great ships.

“They are saying that they must all be wrecked in trying to navigate the Traverse,” cried the boy; “but Peter and Paul and Arthur laugh to scorn the notion, and say that we do not know what sort of men the English mariners are.  Some say that Admiral Durell has already captured the pilots who live there, ready to take the French ships up and down.  Let me go and learn what is happening.  Let me take a boat, and take Peter and Paul and Arthur with me.  They know how to manage one as well as any sailor in the town.  Let us go, my uncle, and bring you word again.”