It was pitiful to see the condition of the town, for the destruction by the bombardment had been almost complete. The Lower Town no longer existed, and scarce a building remained along the front of the Upper. Angelique and I wandered towards the familiar rue du Parloir, to find but a line of crumbling walls, blackened and roofless; before it our little isle of houses, as well as the Bishop's Palace, lay a mass of ruin, and behind it stood the wrecked Cathedral. Every building that could serve as a mark had suffered in some measure, and the chapel of our convent was the only sacred place left in this city of churches where worship could be celebrated. Here mass and vespers alternated with the services of the Episcopalian and Presbyterian divines, and I am certain none suffered from the near fellowship of the other. A detachment of Archie's regiment, the Fraser Highlanders, was quartered on us for the winter, and with them the community shared their diminished hospitality; they, in turn, lent us their services in collecting firewood and in drawing water, and it was surprising to mark the good-will that was shown on both sides. Not only were they granted full permission to smoke in the quarters assigned to them, but the nuns, taking compassion on their unsuitable, and, in their eyes, almost indecent, dress, fell to work at knitting for them long stockings of the heaviest wool, which occasioned loud laughter and much sly jesting among the men, and on our side Angelique provoked some of the younger nuns to such merriment by her sallies on the subject that they thereby incurred the disapprobation of their more serious-minded elders. For this attention General Murray sent to the Superior a most gracious acknowledgment of his gratitude towards the community, but it remained for the men themselves to cap the climax. Every morning it was the practice of the Superior to make a round of the convent, including those portions set apart for the Highlanders, and on this duty I was in the habit of accompanying her, as the men took a great pleasure in my Gaelic; and it was an acceptable service to me to cultivate their good-will towards the community by this simple favour. I knew many of them by name, and indeed some of them could claim kinship with me, notably Neil, the sergeant, whom I have already mentioned, a fine specimen of our people, standing well over six feet in his buckled shoes. One morning, as we entered the hall set aside for the men, we heard a sharp command from the sergeant, and to our surprise we found the men not only drawn up in line to meet us--which was a voluntary mark of respect they paid the Superior--but now, there stood every man in full dress, with cocked and feathered bonnet on his head, claymore by his side, and firelock in his hand, and every pair of sturdy legs encased in the long grey stockings knitted by the nuns. The sergeant gravely stepped forward, and, saluting the Superior, addressed her in his most correct English: