Thus foiled at every point, the wrecks of the little army abandoned their camp, and retreated about three miles from the town; where they hastily fortified themselves, apprehending a pursuit by the garrison. General Carleton, however, contented himself with having secured the safety of the place, and remained cautiously passive until he should be properly reinforced; distrusting the good faith of the motley inhabitants. He is said to have treated the prisoners with a humanity the more honorable, considering the “habitual military severity of his temper;” their heroic daring, displayed in the assault upon the lower town, having excited his admiration. The remains of the gallant Montgomery received a soldier’s grave, within the fortifications of Quebec, by the care of Cramahé, the lieutenant-governor, who had formerly known him. Arnold, wounded and disabled, had been assisted back to the camp, dragging one foot after the other for nearly a mile in great agony, and exposed continually to the musketry from the walls at fifty yards’ distance, which shot down several at his side. He took temporary command of the shattered army, until General Wooster should arrive from Montreal, to whom he sent an express, urging him to bring on succor. “On this occasion,” says a contemporary writer, “he discovered the utmost vigor of a determined mind, and a genius full of resources. Defeated and wounded, as he was, he put his troops into such a situation as to keep them still formidable.”[45] With a mere handful of men, at one time not exceeding five hundred, he maintained a blockade of the strong fortress from which he had just been repulsed. “I have no thoughts,” writes he, “of leaving this proud town until I enter it in triumph. _I am in the way of my duty, and I know no fear!_”[46] Happy for him had he fallen at this moment.—Happy for him had he found a soldier’s and a patriot’s grave, beneath the rock-built walls of Quebec. Those walls would have remained enduring monuments of his renown. His name, like that of Montgomery, would have been treasured up among the dearest though most mournful recollections of his country, and that country would have been spared the single traitorous blot that dims the bright page of its revolutionary history. CHAPTER XVI. CORRESPONDENCE OF WASHINGTON AND SCHUYLER ON THE DISASTERS IN CANADA—REINFORCEMENTS REQUIRED FROM NEW ENGLAND—DANGERS IN THE INTERIOR OF NEW YORK—JOHNSON HALL BELEAGUERED—SIR JOHN CAPITULATES—GENEROUS CONDUCT OF SCHUYLER—GOVERNOR TRYON AND THE TORIES—TORY MACHINATIONS—LEE AT NEW YORK—SIR HENRY CLINTON IN THE HARBOR—MENACES OF LEE—THE CITY AND RIVER FORTIFIED—LEE’S TREATMENT OF THE TORIES—HIS PLANS OF FORTIFICATION—ORDERED TO THE COMMAND IN CANADA—HIS SPECULATIONS ON TITLES OF DIGNITY.