[1] On 22 May, Phips recorded "We cut down the cross, rifled the Church, pulled down the High-Altar, breaking their images"; and on 23 May, "kept gathering Plunder both by land and water, and also under ground in their Gardens".

[4] Count Frontenac returned to Canada for a second term as Governor-General, and ordered the construction of a wooden palisade to enclose the city from the fort at the Château Saint-Louis to the Saint-Charles River.

Facing the plains on the west side was the strong point of the landward defences — a windmill called Mont-Carmel where a three-gun artillery battery was in place.

[4] Meanwhile, a mobile war party of 150 Albany militia and Iroquois warriors under Captain John Schuyler marched and canoed overland to Montréal, imitating the petite guerre tactics (long-range expeditions into enemy territory) perfected by the French colonists.

[5] Schuyler's expedition was designed to seize Montréal and pin French forces south of Québec, allowing the Boston fleet to sail against the capital unopposed.

Smallpox, lack of supplies, and disagreements among the officers caused most of the militia and Iroquois to turn back in disgust, leaving Schuyler with a fraction of the 855 men promised by the New England authorities.

Too weak to risk a battle with the town's garrison, Schuyler destroyed some houses and livestock and turned for home with 19 captives before the French militia could respond.

[1][4] Bad weather, contrary winds, and the lack of pilots familiar with the Saint Lawrence River hampered progress, and Phips did not anchor in the Québec basin until 16 October.

The proud and temperamental Frontenac was so enraged that he wanted to have the envoy hanged before the full view of the English fleet, and it was only because of the Bishop of Québec, François de Laval, that he was calmed.

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.

Frontenac had sent strong detachments of Colony of Canada militiamen under Jacques Le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène,[1] along with some First Nation warriors, into the wooded areas east of the river.

[1] Phips' defeat was complete and disastrous; fortunately for the French, since food was lacking to feed the large force assembled to defend Quebec in case of a prolonged siege.

[1] Governor of New York Henry Sloughter captured the mood in the English colonies when he wrote: The whole country from Pemaquid to Delaware is extremely hurt by the late ill managed and fruitless expedition to Canada, which hath contracted £40,000 debt and about 1,000 men lost by sickness and shipwrack and no blow struck for want of courage and conduct in the Officers.

When news of the expedition reached Versailles, Louis XIV ordered a medal struck bearing the inscription: Kebeca liberata M.DC.XC–Francia in novo orbe victrix, or "Deliverance of Québec 1690–France victorious in the New World.

[11] His brother, Charles Le Moyne, won fame for his part in the battle, and he later received an additional grant of land for his services and became the first Baron de Longueuil.

[4] Similarly, Frontenac realised the defences needed significant improvement, and in 1692, he gave Ingénieur du Roi Josué Berthelot de Beaucours the task of designing a fortress that could withstand a European-style siege.

[4] This was delayed by the Canadian winter, and work commenced in the summer of 1693 on an earth rampart with large bastions to enclose the city, and pointed wooden stakes to top the walls.

[4] Although another expedition was launched against Québec during Queen Anne's War in 1711, it failed to reach its target when transports wrecked with great loss of life in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.