During the winter the French made several demonstrations against the British outposts at Point Levi, Cape Rouge, St. Foy, and Lorette, without, however, any result beyond bloodshed and mutually inflicted suffering; but on the 6th of April, M. de Bourlemaque, with three battalions of regular troops and a body of militia, marched from Jacques Cartier upon Cape Rouge, with the hope of surprising the English detachment at that place. His troops lay on their arms that night, with the exception of two companies of Grenadiers, whom he sent to reconnoiter. On their return the main body became alarmed, supposing them to be English troops, and fired among them; the Grenadiers returned the fire, and the disastrous mistake was not discovered until twenty-two of their men were killed and wounded. Before dawn the unlucky expedition returned to their quarters at Jacques Cartier. On the 17th of April, 1760, De Levi left Montreal with all his available force, and, collecting on his way the several detached corps, arrived in the neighborhood of Cape Rouge with eight battalions of regular troops, recruited to 4500 men, 6000 Canadians, of whom 200 were cavalry and 250 Indians. His heavy artillery, ammunition, and stores, followed his march by the river in bateaux and other vessels. Meanwhile Murray lost no time in strengthening his position at Quebec. He erected eight timber redoubts outside the works of the city, and armed them with artillery; he broke up the neighboring roads, laid in eleven months' provision, and repaired 500 of the houses, which the English shot had ruined, for quarters for his troops. The outposts which he had established in the country round Quebec proved of considerable advantage: by them his movements were concealed, and those of the enemy watched. The inhabitants of eleven parishes in the vicinity placed themselves under British protection, and swore allegiance to the British crown: they subsequently proved very useful in supplying fresh provisions and firewood for the army to their utmost ability. Nevertheless, Murray's troops were obliged to undergo great hardship in collecting fuel for themselves: no less than a fourth of the whole army had to march ten miles each day, for many successive days, to cut timber in the forests, and numbers of the men were frost-bitten, or sank altogether under the trial. The scurvy raged also with extraordinary violence in the garrison; many fell victims to that dreadful disease; but a decoction of the hemlock spruce, recommended by an old Canadian, was at length successfully employed as a remedy. The severity of the duty and the monotony of the winter proved intolerable to not a few of the British soldiers; designing Frenchmen were at hand to profit by this opportunity; they persuaded many of the soldiers to leave their colors, and the spirit of desertion was not checked till some of those taken in the act were hanged, and their abettors subjected to a like punishment.