Lee, in reply, dated Stamford, Jan. 23d, disclaimed all intention of commencing actual hostilities against the men-of-war in the harbor; his instructions from the commander-in-chief being solely to prevent the enemy from taking post in the city, or lodging themselves on Long Island. Some subordinate purposes were likewise to be executed, which were much more proper to be communicated by word of mouth than by writing. In compliance with the wishes of the committee, he promised to carry with him into the town just troops enough to secure it against any present designs of the enemy, leaving his main force on the western border of Connecticut. “I give you my word,” added he, “that no active service is proposed, as you seem to apprehend. If the ships of war are quiet, I shall be quiet; but I declare solemnly, that if they make a pretext of my presence to fire on the town, the first house set on flames by their guns shall be the funeral pile of some of their best friends.” In a letter to Washington, written on the following day, he says of his recruiting success in Connecticut: “I find the people throughout this province, more alive and zealous than my most sanguine expectations. I believe I might have collected two thousand volunteers. I take only four companies with me, and Waterbury’s regiment. * * * These Connecticutians are, if possible, more eager to go out of their country, than they are to return home, when they have been absent for any considerable time.” Speaking of the people of New York, and the letter from their Provincial Congress, which he encloses: “The whigs,” says he, “I mean the stout ones, are, it is said, very desirous that a body of troops should march and be stationed in the city—the timid ones are averse, merely from the spirit of procrastination, which is the characteristic of timidity. The letter from the Provincial Congress, you will observe, breathes the very essence of this spirit; it is wofully hysterical.” By the by, the threat contained in Lee’s reply about a “funeral pile,” coming from a soldier of his mettle, was not calculated to soothe the hysterical feelings of the committee of safety. How he conducted himself on his arrival in the city, we shall relate in a future chapter. CHAPTER XV. MONTGOMERY BEFORE QUEBEC—HIS PLAN OF OPERATIONS—A SUMMONS TO SURRENDER—A FLAG INSULTED—THE TOWN BESIEGED—PLAN OF AN ESCALADE—ATTACK OF THE LOWER TOWN—MONTGOMERY IN THE ADVANCE—HIS DEATH—RETREAT OF COL. CAMPBELL—ATTACK BY ARNOLD—DEFENCE OF THE LOWER TOWN—ARNOLD WOUNDED—RETREAT OF THE AMERICANS—GALLANT RESOLVE OF ARNOLD.