After having been for sixteen years an English colony, Canada was invaded in 1775 by the forces of the thirteen older English colonies to the south, which, after a series of altercations and misunderstandings, due largely to their refusal in the past days to contribute toward the expense of the military forces which had been maintained on their frontiers "at England's cost to defend her American children against the French and their Indian allies",[71] had consorted together in revolution against their parent State. After entering Montreal, which had been abandoned to them, the Revolutionary forces concentrated around the walls of Quebec for an assault upon the citadel. Below were the rebels against the British crown; above, upon the King's bastion on Cape Diamond, flew the two-crossed Union Jack, and within the fortress, under Sir Guy Carleton, the friend and fellow-soldier of Wolfe, was a garrison of 1,800 men, one-third of whom were French Canadian militia, headed by Colonel Lecompte Dupré. The invaders from New York were, however, reckoning without their host. They had expected to find the French Canadians dissatisfied with their lot; but, instead, they found them standing side by side with their British friends, and joining with them in common defence of their native Canadian land. [71] Goldwin Smith: "The United States' Political History." The assault commenced on the night of December 31st, 1775. At the point of attack at Près-de-Ville, in lower town, the guard was under the command of Captain Chabot and Lieutenant Picard, of the French Canadian militia, and the guns were served by sailors from the British ships, with Sergeant Hugh McQuarters, of the Royal Artillery, in charge. The attack was boldly met. General Montgomery, the leader of the United States forces, was killed; General Arnold, his second in command, wounded, and the whole invading force was put to rout. Thus were the historic heights and ramparts of old Quebec again crowned with a British victory, but this time with one in which the French Canadians were themselves the brave defenders of the Union Jack. No wonder the French-speaking Canadian looks upon his British flag with pride, and, as one of his compatriots, Sir Adolphe Chapleau, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec in 1897, has so well said, "is French in nationality, but British in patriotism"--for beneath the Union Jack he dwells secure in possession of his dearest rights, and under it has victoriously driven the United States invaders back each time they have ventured to attack his loved Canadian soil. While such loyalty to the national flag was shown in Eastern Canada, so was it also displayed later on in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and in the country of Canada yet farther to the West.