to receive the guns necessary to make a breach.

But the most considerable of his bad pieces was a twelve pounder,
which he mounted upon batteries, firing at times with the greatest
economy, as he had but a small store of gunpowder. There needed only
the arrival of a ship from France with artillery and ammunition to
crown M. de Levis with glory. The English in Quebec confessed that the
first flag that would appear in the St. Lawrence would decide the
question, if Canada should remain in possession of the English or
return to the French.

No ships arrived from France with artillery. The fate of Canada was at
last settled by the appearance of three English men-of-war, on the 7th
of May. They ascended immediately the St. Lawrence without stopping at
Quebec. They attacked the small French frigates--at the Ance du
Foulon, about a mile above the town--which had passed the winter in
Canada; took some of them, burned others, and, in short, destroyed in
an instant all the French marine. This unlooked-for arrival, instead
of the vessel which M. de Levis expected from France, so astonished
and terrified the French army, that they immediately raised the
siege--and that without any necessity for it. They again left as a
present for the English their tents and their baggage, as they had
done previously on retiring from Beauport, after the battle of the
13th September. Such was their consternation that, as if struck by a
thunderbolt, they fled with the utmost precipitation, as if the
English were pursuing them after the loss of a battle. De Vauquelin
alone distinguished himself by a truly heroic bravery. He commanded
one of the small French frigates of about sixteen guns, and fought
like a lion against an English man-of-war of forty guns, until he had
no powder nor shot. He then sent all his crew ashore to M. de Levis,