No one had been more insistent on retreat than Arnold, who several days earlier had traveled from Montreal to inspect the flimsy defenses at Chambly and St. Johns. All hope for luring Canadians to the American cause was now gone, he wrote Sullivan. “Let us quit them & secure our own country before it is too late. There will be more honor in making a safe retreat than hazarding a battle,” he urged. “I am content to be the last man who quits this country, and fall so that my country rise. But let us not fall together.”
