“December 20th.—­The winter is become almost insupportably cold.  The men are notwithstanding obliged to drag all the wood used in the Garrison on sledges from St. Foy, about four miles distance.  This is a very severe duty; the poor fellows do it however with great spirit, tho’ several of them have already lost the use of their fingers and toes by the incredible severity of the frost, and the country people tell us it is not yet at the worst.  Some men on sentry have been deprived of speech and sensation in a few minutes, but hitherto, no person has lost his life, as care is taken to relieve them every half hour or oftener when the weather is very severe.  The Garrison in general are but indifferently cloathed, but our regiment in particular is in a pitiful situation having no breeches, and the Philibeg is not all calculated for this terrible climate.  Colonel Fraser is doing all in his power to provide trowsers for them, and we hope soon to be on a footing with other Regiments in that respect.

“January, 1760.—­Nothing remarkable during this month.  The duty is very severe on the poor men; we mount every day a guard of about one hundred men, and the whole off duty with a subaltern officer from each Regiment are employed in dragging fire wood; tho’ the weather is such that they are obliged to have all covered but their eyes, and nothing but the last necessity obliged any men to go out of doors.”

Early in February the St. Lawrence froze over.  On February 13th the British established a force in the Church at St. Joseph at Point Levi but it was attacked by the French and then, on February 24th, Murray sent a rescue party.  The Highlanders and the 28th went across on the ice and nearly intercepted the retreat of the French force, which was driven off.  The kilted Highlanders marching on the ice in the bitter winter weather make an interesting picture.  But by this time, no doubt, they were not bare-legged!

Towards the end of March there was much illness and Fraser writes:  “The Scurvy, occasioned by salt provisions and cold, has begun to make fierce havock in the garrison, and it becomes every day more general.  In short, I believe there is scarce a man of the Army entirely free from it.”  On the 24th of April he writes again:  “Great havock amongst the Garrison occasioned by the Scurvy, &c.; this is the more alarming, as the General seems certain that the French are preparing to come and attack the place, and will he says, be here in a very few days.”

Of the garrison of 5653 no less than 2312 were on the sick list, when, on the 26th, came the great crisis of the defence of Quebec: 

“On the night of the 26th April, a man of the French army who, with some others had been cast away in a boat that night, came down the river on a piece of ice, and being taken up next morning at the Town, gave the General information that the chevalier de Levi [Levis] was within twenty miles of us, with an army of about twelve thousand men, made up of regulars, Canadians and savages.