THE SITUATION AT QUEBEC
IMMEDIATELY after the fall of Quebec, the English resolved to hold the
city at any cost, and to that end every defense was strengthened without
loss of time.
As Wolfe was dead and Monckton wounded and unable to act, the command
fell upon General Murray. Under his directions the soldiers leveled the
breastworks erected on the Plains of Abraham, so that they might give no
shelter to any advancing French army, and strengthened the defenses of
Quebec proper. The men also cut and brought in large quantities of
firewood, for use during the winter, which all felt would be long and
bitter, and likewise aided in storing the provisions sent ashore from
the fleet.
The ships could not winter very well in the river, and it was not long
before they left, taking with them also a portion of the grenadiers and
rangers. At Quebec were left ten battalions of grenadiers, one company
of rangers, a strong force of the artillery, and likewise a sprinkling
of Colonial free lances and friendly Indians—the latter to be used
chiefly as scouts, spies, and messengers.
The city had suffered much from the bombardment of the artillery. The
cathedral was honeycombed with cannon balls, and many public buildings
and private houses and shops had been completely wrecked. The people who
were left in the place were almost terror-stricken, and it was a long
time before quiet, and even a semblance of order, could be restored.
For over a week Henry was kept at work on the outer defenses of the
city. It was hard labor, but he did not grumble, having already realized
that the path of the soldier is not one simply of glory. The death of
Silvers made him unusually sober, and in his heart he was sincerely
thankful that an all-powerful Providence had spared his life.
The middle of the winter found Henry on guard at the lower end of the
city. Here were a number of stores which had been broken down by the
bombardment, and some of the owners were missing. A quantity of goods
had been stolen, and Henry and four other soldiers were set at the task
of guarding the property.
On the second day that Henry was on guard he noticed something which did
not at all please him. Two of the soldiers, named Fenley and Prent, were
unusually friendly, and, when they supposed they were not being watched,
one or the other would slip into one of the stores. When the fellow
would reappear, he would have something concealed under his coat, and
this, later on, he would pass over to another soldier, named Harkness,
who had charge of a watch-house a square away.
“I believe that those fellows are up to no good,” thought Henry, after
he had watched the movements of the three soldiers several times. “They
act like a regular pack of sneaks.”
But Henry was too open-hearted and square to suspect the trio of
deliberate wrongdoing, until one day Prent accosted him and asked him
how he liked his pay as a soldier.
“I think we get mighty little for what we do,” said Prent. “And Fenley
and Harkness think the same.”
“It is certainty not much,” answered Henry, totally unsuspicious that he
was being “sounded.”
“Wouldn’t you like to have the chance to make a bit more?” went on
Prent, in a lower voice, and with an anxious look around.
“What do you mean, Prent?”
“Oh, nothing much, only if you’d like to make some money on the outside,
perhaps I can place you in the way of it.”
“I am out to make any money that I can make honestly,” answered the
young soldier.
“Oh! Well, this isn’t—well, it isn’t just work, you know. But you can
make a neat sum if you want to stand in the game.”
“I’ll stand in no game that isn’t strictly honest,” burst out Henry, and
now his suspicion was aroused.
“Oh, all right!”
“What have you in mind to do?”
“Nothing—if that’s the way you feel about it,” retorted Prent, and
turning on his heel, he walked rapidly away.
After that the other soldiers were more careful than ever of their
movements. But Henry could not get the talk out of his mind, and he at
last resolved to play the spy, and see what they were doing, or proposed
to do.
One day Henry was on guard, from two in the afternoon until six. At that
hour Fenley came to relieve him, while Prent came to relieve another
soldier named Groom. Groom at once retired to his quarters, but Henry
merely walked around the corner, where he secreted his musket in an
out-of-the-way place, and then crawled back in the darkness, for the
winter day was now at an end.
From the broken stonework of a house steps, Henry saw Prent walk up and
down his beat several times, meeting Fenley at one end. Then Prent gave
a low whistle, to which Fenley instantly responded. A moment later Prent
disappeared into one of the stores he had been set to guard.
“He is up to no good, that is certain,” reasoned Henry. “I wish I could
see just what he is doing.”
Watching his opportunity, he sped quickly across the street, which at
this point was not very wide. The store, or shop, stood on a corner, and
on the side was a broken window, partly boarded up. A board was loose at
its lower end, and, lifting it up, Henry crawled through the window.
All was dark around him, and, standing on the floor, near some boxes, he
listened intently. He knew that Prent could not be far away.
Presently he heard a foot bang against a box or barrel. “Hang the luck!”
came in Prent’s voice. “It’s as dark as the River Styx! I’ll have to
make a light, or I’ll break my neck.” The striking of a flint in a
tinder-box followed, and soon Henry saw the faint light of a tallow dip.
Prent was moving toward a stairs leading into a cellar, and this brought
him to within a few feet of where Henry was crouching. But the young
soldier remained undiscovered, and in a moment more he heard the other
soldier shuffle carefully down the stairs and walk across the cellar
floor.
Henry’s curiosity was now aroused to a high pitch, and he resolved to
see what was taking place in the cellar, no matter what the risk to be
run. He tiptoed his way to the stair, and went down step by step on his
tiptoes.
The stairs creaked, but the sound was not heard by Prent, who was
rummaging around a score of small boxes, all of hard wood, bound with
iron. One of the boxes was open and showed that it was filled with
surgical and mathematical instruments.
“Bah! I cannot do much with that truck!” Prent muttered, after looking
some of the articles over. “The other boxes probably contain things more
to my liking.”
The fellow had brought a hatchet and chisel with him, and was soon at
work prying open another iron-bound box. Occasionally he paused to
listen, as if waiting for a signal from Fenley, but none came, and he
continued his work.
When the second box came open, Henry could scarcely repress a cry of
amazement. The box was filled with silverware, for the shop was one
which had been used by a gold and silver smith. There were silver
drinking cups and decanters, and also half a dozen silver trays, and
frames for miniatures.
“Ha! Now we have the right thing!” muttered Prent, gazing at the
collection with satisfaction. “If we can only get it away without being
discovered we will be rich.”
“He has turned thief!” thought Henry. “What a rascal! And I thought he
was an honest soldier!”
He watched Prent examine the various silver things, and place some in
his pockets and his breast. Then the fellow started to open up another
of the iron-bound boxes.
Henry was in a quandary, not knowing what to do. He felt that it was his
duty to report Prent, and have the man arrested. But then he remembered
the order that had but recently been issued by General Murray—that any
man caught plundering in Quebec should be hanged.
“I can’t see the fellow strung up,” thought the young soldier. “That
would be too horrible. Perhaps if I talk to him he’d get out and leave
the things alone.”
At first Henry decided that he would talk to the would-be thief when he
left the building. But then he remembered that it would be best to have
Prent put the things back in the boxes and nail the latter up. A few
steps took him to the stairs, and once there he called softly:
“Prent!”
Had a gun gone off at his ear the evil-doer would not have been more
astonished. He dropped the silver mug he was examining and leaped back a
step.
“Wh—who calls?” he gasped.
“Prent, I have caught you fairly and squarely, and I want you to leave
those things alone.”
“Ha, so it is you, Henry Morris!” burst from the other soldier’s lips.
And then he added quickly: “Are you alone?”
“I am.”
“What brought you here?”
“I came to find out what your little game was. I reckon I know the
truth.”
“You don’t know anything,” blustered Prent. The exposure had come so
unexpectedly he knew not what to say.
“I know you are here for no good purpose. If it were otherwise you would
not come here like a thief in the night.”
“Are you going to expose me?”
“That depends on yourself. I have no desire to see you hanged.”
At these words Prent gave a shiver, for he was at heart a coward.
“I—I—you——” he stammered, and could not go on.
“Listen to me, Prent, and you may save yourself a whole lot of trouble,”
went on Henry, as calmly as he could. “I hate to play the spy on a
fellow soldier, but I felt that it was necessary, after what you had
said to me. You wanted to draw me into this robbery. Now, as I said
before, I don’t want to see you hanged, or even sent to prison. But I am
not going to allow you to rob this place, either.”
“I haven’t said I was going to rob it yet,” burst out Prent. “I—I
haven’t taken a thing.”
“You have. Your pockets and your breast are full of silverware. Now I
want you——”
At this moment came a loud whistle from outside, followed by the
pounding of a musket butt on an outer cellar door.
“An alarm! Let me get out of here!” yelled Prent and made a leap for the
stairs, which were narrow and old.
Before Henry could stand on guard he found himself in the other
soldier’s grasp. Then Prent gave him a shove which sent him over the
side of the steps head first. Henry tried to save himself, but went down
between two barrels with a crash. Before he could extricate himself from
the tight position his assailant had fled. Then the tallow dip
spluttered up and went out, and the young soldier was left in total
darkness.
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