QUEBEC BESIEGED.

Mr. Murray, far from being dispirited by his defeat, no sooner retired within the walls of Quebec, than he resolved to prosecute the fortifications of the place, which had been interrupted by the severity of the winter; and the soldiers exerted themselves with incredible alacrity, not only in labouring at the works, but also in the defence of the town, before which the enemy had opened trenches on the very evening of the battle. Three ships anchored at the Foulon below their camp; and for several days they were employed in landing their cannon, mortars, and ammunition. Meanwhile they worked incessantly at their trenches before the town; and on the eleventh day of May, opened one bomb-battery, and three batteries of cannon. Brigadier Murray made the necessary dispositions to defend the place to the last extremity: he raised two cavaliers, contrived some out-works, and planted the ramparts with one hundred and thirty-two pieces of artillery, dragged thither mostly by the soldiery. Though the enemy cannonaded the place with great vivacity the first day, their fire soon slackened; and their batteries were in a manner silenced by the superior fire of the garrison: nevertheless, Quebec would in all probability have reverted to its former owners, had a French fleet from Europe got the start of an English squadron in sailing up the river.