ten in the
evening
So soon as the first canoe was made , Cary Singleton launched it , and , accompanied by two men , made the reconnoissance which so much frightened the gossipping laundresses . He did not approach the north shore as near as he had intended , for fear that the women might give the alarm and betray his design , but he saw enough through his glass to enable him to report that the secluded basin , sheltered by dense trees , and known as Wolfe 's Cove , would be a favorable place for the landing of the invading army . Accordingly , after three days devoted to the repose of his troops , and the replenishing of his stores from the neighboring farm houses , Arnold , on the night of the 13th November , undertook to cross the St. Lawrence . He was favored by darkness and a storm , and from ten in the evening till four in the morning , by the aid of thirty birch-bark canoes and a few rafts , he was engaged in the hazardous work . Backwards and forwards the fragile vessels plied silently over the broad bosom of the river , bearing a freight of taciturn armed men , on the point of whose muskets literally trembled the fate of Canada . As the morning dawned the whole of the Continental army , with the exception of 160 men who were left at Levis , was safe in the recess of Wolfe 's Cove , and Arnold had won another stake in the lottery of war . Very early that same morning , Zulma Sarpy drove into Quebec , accompanied by a single servant .