Nor was it
for their honor to adopt the savage and cowardly mode of warfare in
which their enemies had led the way. The blow that had been struck was
less an injury to the French than an insult; but, as such, it galled
Frontenac excessively, and he made no mention of it in his despatches
to the court. A few more Iroquois attacks and a few more murders kept
Montreal in alarm till the tenth of October, when matters of deeper
import engaged the governor's thoughts.
A messenger arrived in haste at three o'clock in the afternoon, and
gave him a letter from Prevost, town major of Quebec. It was to the
effect that an Abenaki Indian had just come over land from Acadia,
with news that some of his tribe had captured an English woman near
Portsmouth, who told them that a great fleet had sailed from Boston to
attack Quebec. Frontenac, not easily alarmed, doubted the report.
Nevertheless, he embarked at once with the intendant in a small
vessel, which proved to be leaky, and was near foundering with all on
board. He then took a canoe, and towards evening set out again for
Quebec, ordering some two hundred men to follow him. On the next day,
he met another canoe, bearing a fresh message from Prevost, who
announced that the English fleet had been seen in the river, and that
it was already above Tadoussac.
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