Quebec, in the year of grace 1748.

A group of French and Canadian officers, in the military uniforms of
Louis XV., stood leaning on their swords, as they conversed gaily
together on the broad gravelled walk at the foot of the rampart.
They formed the suite in attendance upon the Governor, who was out
by sunrise this morning to inspect the work done during the night by
the citizens of Quebec and the habitans of the surrounding country,
who had been hastily summoned to labor upon the defences of the
city.

A few ecclesiastics, in black cassocks, dignitaries of the Church,
mingled cheerfully in the conversation of the officers. They had
accompanied the Governor, both to show their respect, and to
encourage, by their presence and exhortations, the zeal of the
colonists in the work of fortifying the capital.

War was then raging between old England and old France, and between
New England and New France. The vast region of North America,
stretching far into the interior and southwest from Canada to
Louisiana, had for three years past been the scene of fierce
hostilities between the rival nations, while the savage Indian
tribes, ranged on the one side and on the other, steeped their
moccasins in the blood of French and English colonists, who, in
their turn, became as fierce, and carried on the war as
relentlessly, as the savages themselves.

Louisbourg, the bulwark of New France, projecting its mailed arm
boldly into the Atlantic, had been cut off by the English, who now
overran Acadia, and began to threaten Quebec with invasion by sea