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ssss1. Lamson, Wolfe & Co., Publishers, Boston.

Meanwhile Arnold, after unexampled sufferings and equal heroism, had reached Point Levi, opposite Quebec, on the ninth of November, only to find that the garrison had been strengthened, and that he was stranded, in the midst of a severe winter, upon an inhospitable, barren bluff. The strongest fortress in America, defended by two hundred heavy cannon, and the capture of which had been the inspiration of his adventurous campaign, was in full sight. Every condition which Washington had declared to be essential to success had failed of realization. On the fifth of October Washington wrote to Schuyler: “If Carleton is not driven from St. John’s, so as to be obliged to throw himself into Quebec, it must fall into our hands, as it is left without a regular soldier, as the captain of a brig from Quebec to Boston says. Many of the inhabitants are most favorably disposed to the American cause, and that there is there the largest stock of ammunition ever collected in America.” On the same day he also writes “Arnold expected to reach Quebec in twenty days from September twenty-sixth, and that Montgomery must keep up such appearances as to fix Carleton, and prevent the force in Canada from being turned on Arnold; but if penetration into Canada be given up, Arnold must also know it, in time for retreat.” And again: “This detachment (Arnold’s) was to take possession of Quebec, if possible; but at any rate, to make a diversion in favor of Schuyler.”


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