"He says that Arnold has crossed the line?" "Yes, Your Excellency." "And that he is actually marching on Quebec?" "Yes, Your Excellency." "And that he is within----?" "Sixty miles of the city." The Lieutenant-Governor plucked his velvet bonnet from his head and flung it on the table. "Did you say sixty miles?" "Sixty miles, sir." His Excellency quietly took up his cap, set it on his head, threw himself back in his seat, placed his elbows on the elbows of the chair, closed his palms together perpendicularly, moved them up and down before his lips, and with his eyes cast to the ceiling, entered upon this little calculation. "Sixty miles. At the rate of fifteen miles a day, it will take Mr. Arnold four days to reach Levis. This is the seventh, is it not? Then, on the eleventh, we may expect that gentleman's visit." "Arnold will make two forced marches of thirty miles each, Your Excellency, and arrive opposite this city in two days. This is the seventh; on the ninth, we shall see his vanguard on the heights of Levis." "Ho! Ho! And is that the way the jolly rebel is carrying on? He must have had a wonderful run of luck all at once. The last we heard from him, his men had mutinied and were about to disband." "That was because they were starving." "And have they been filled, forsooth?" "They have, sir." "By whom?" "By our own people at Sertigan and further along the Chaudiere." "But horses? They are known to have lost them all in the wilderness." "They have been replaced." "Not by our own people, surely." "Yes, sir, by our own people." "Impossible. Our poor farmers have been robbed and plundered by these rascals." "Excuse me, Your Excellency, but these rascals pay and pay largely for whatever they require." "In coin?" "No, sir, in paper." "Their Continental paper?" "The same." "Rags, vile rags." "That may be. But our farmers accept them all the same and freely." Roderick here produced the small parcel which he had deposited in his breast pocket, and having unfolded it, drew forth several slips which he handed to His Excellency. They were specimens of American currency, and receipts signed by Arnold and others of his officers for cattle and provisions obtained from Canadian farmers.