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"Welcome back, Lieutenant," said the Governor, with a weary smile and extending both his hands. Hardinge bowed and at once delivered his despatches. Cramahé having rapidly glanced over them, handed them to his colleagues, then turning to the young officer, said: "It is clear that the storm which has been gathering over this province must break upon Quebec. This is the old city of destiny.
The capture of Montreal would be glory enough for Montgomery. That of Quebec belonged of right to Benedict Arnold. If there were risks, there were also chances. The regulars were away. The walls were manned only by raw militia. Lieutenant-Governor Cramahé was no soldier.
She concluded by asking herself these questions: "Has my father said or done anything to compromise himself within the last few hours? Why did M. de Cramahé send for him in such haste? The Governor is a friend of the family and must surely have cause for what he has done. And why was my poor father so agitated, why the young officer so grave, why the people so deeply impressed at the scene?"
Pauline trembled like a leaf at this phase of the interview, and timidly looked up to assure herself that the Governor was really earnest in his question. But his open manner dispelled all doubt, and thus, to the infinite relief of the girl, the sole drawback to her thorough enjoyment of the evening was removed. Then her companion's turn came. "Lieutenant Hardinge," said de Cramahé.
Swivels were the smallest kind of ordnance, firing one-, two-, or three-pound balls at short or medium ranges. They were used at convenient points to stop rushes, much like modern machine-guns. Thanks chiefly to Cramahe, the defences were not nearly so 'ruinous' as Arnold at first had thought them.
"Hardinge?" replied the Governor, extending his hand and bending his head to one side, as if trying to recollect something in connection with the name. "Yes," rejoined de Cramahé. "Your Excellency will remember. He is the young officer whose exploits I recounted to you." "Aye, aye!" exclaimed Carleton. "I do remember very well. Hardinge is a familiar name to me.
The Abbe Casgrain comments severely on the course pursued by Governor Lawrence on this occasion: "Not being able," he says, "to dispute the genuineness of the letters of Monckton and Cramahe, Lawrence claimed that the Acadians could only have obtained them by fraud, and he decided with his council, always ready to do his bidding, that they should be regarded as prisoners of war and transported as soon as possible to England.
He was represented at Quebec by a most steadfast lieutenant, the quiet, alert, discreet, and determined Cramahe; and he was leaving Canada after having given proof of a disinterestedness which was worthy of the elder Pitt himself.
"I am certain that I know all," said Hardinge in a significant tone, which was not lost upon his interlocutor, who immediately subjoined: "This can be easily ascertained if you will answer me a few questions. You called upon Lieutenant-Governor Cramahé early on the morning of the seventh?" "I did so."
Whether these Acadians were old inhabitants of the river, or fugitives who had taken refuge there at the time of the Expulsion is not very clear. Lawrence surmised that the certificates had been obtained from Judge Cramahe on the supposition that the people belonged to some river or place in Canada known as St. Johns, and not to the River St.
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