to his ship. Phips' council of war was extremely vexed by the reply, having expected to fall upon a defenceless and panicked city. That evening, drums and fifes were heard approaching Québec, followed by heavy cheering from the town: Louis-Hector de Callière had arrived with the remaining Montréal militia, giving Frontenac numerical parity with the New Englanders. Battle The New Englanders saw that the only possible place to crack the defences was on the city's northeastern side, where the walls were weakest. Their plan was to land their main force on the Beauport shore east of the Saint Charles River, and have it cross the river in the fleet's boats, along with the field guns. When the landing force was on the heights west of Québec, the fleet would attack the city and land a second force there. Frontenac had expected the land attack to come from Beauport, and the banks of the river had already been built up with field fortifications on the southwestern side. He proposed to fight only a skirmishing action there, holding his regulars in reserve for a European-style battle on the open ground west of Québec. However, the open battle never took place. The 1,200-strong English landing force under Major John Walley, Phips' second-in-command, never got across the Saint Charles. Frontenac had sent strong detachments of Colony of Canada militiamen under Jacques Le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène, along with some First Nation warriors, into the wooded areas east of the river. When the English landed on 18 October, they were immediately harassed by Colony of Canada militia, while the ships' boats mistakenly landed the field guns on the wrong side of the Saint Charles. Meanwhile, Phips's four large ships, quite contrary to the plan, anchored before Québec and began bombarding the city until 19 October, at which point the English had shot away most of their ammunition. The French shore batteries had also proved to be much more than a match, and the ships were pounded until the rigging and hulls were badly damaged; the ensign of Phips' flagship the Six Friends was cut down and fell into the river, and under a hail of musket shots, a daring group of members of the colony of Canada paddled a canoe up to the ships to capture it. Unscathed, they triumphantly brought the ensign back to the Governor. During the bombardment, the land force under Walley remained