 CHAPTER VI On June 6 Saunders and Wolfe sailed for Quebec with a hundred and forty-one ships. Wolfe's work in getting his army safely off being over, he sat down alone in his cabin to make his will. His first thought was for Catherine Louther, his fiance, who was to have her own miniature portrait which he carried with him, set in jewels and given back to her. Ward, Howe, and Carleton were each remembered. He left all the residue of his estate to my good mother, his father having just died. More than a third of the whole will was taken up with providing for his servants. No wonder he was called the soldier's friend. There was a thrilling scene at Lewisburg as regiment after regiment marched down to the shore with drums beating, bugle sounding, and colours flying. Each night after drinking the king's health they had drunk another toast, British colours on every French fort, port and garrison in North America. Now here they were, the pick of the army and navy, off with Wolfe, to raise those colours over Quebec. The most important military point on the whole continent. On they sailed, all together till they reached the Sogony, a hundred and twenty miles below Quebec. Here, on the afternoon of June 20th, the sun shone down on a site such as the New World had never seen before and has never seen again. The river narrows opposite the Sogony and is full of shoals and islands, so this was the last day the whole one hundred and forty one vessels sailed together, and in their three divisions under those three ensigns, the red, white and blue, which have made the British navy loved, feared and famous round the seven seas. What a sight it was, thousands and thousands of soldiers and sailors crowded those scores and scores of high deck ships, while hundreds and hundreds of swelling sails gleamed white against the sun, across the twenty miles of blue St. Lawrence. Wolfe, however, was not there to see it. He had gone forward the day before. A dispatch boat had come down from Gerelle to say that, in spite of his advanced squadron, Bougainville, Montcom's ablest brigadier, had slipped through with twenty-three ships from France, bringing out a few men and a good deal of ammunition, stores and food. This gave Quebec some sorely needed help. Besides Montcom had found out Pitt's plan, and nobody knew where the only free French fleet was now. It had wintered in the West Indies, but had it sailed for France or the St. Lawrence. At the first streak of dawn on the twenty-third, Gerelle's lookout off Isle-aux-Cordes reported many ships coming up the river under a press of sail. Could the French West Indian fleet have slipped in ahead of Saunders, as Bougainville had slipped in ahead of Gerelle himself? There was a tense moment on board of Gerelle's squadron and in Carleton's camp, in the pale, grey light of early morning, as the bugle sounded, and the bosons blew their whistles and roared their orders, and all hands came tumbling up from below and ran to battle-quarters with a rush of swift bare feet. But the incoming vanship made the private, British signal, and both sides knew that Hall was well. For a whole week the great fleet of one hundred and forty-one ships worked their way through the narrow channel between Isle-aux-Cordes and the North Shore, and then dared the dangers of the traverse below the island of Orleans, where the French had never passed more than one ship at a time, and that only with the greatest caution. The British went through quite easily without a single accident. In two days the great Captain Cook had sounded and marked out the channel better than the French had in a hundred and fifty years, and so thoroughly was his work done that the British officers could handle their vessels in these French waters better without than with the French pilots. Old French Captain Killock took the good will through himself, just next ahead of the Richmond, on board of which was Wolfe. The captured French pilot in the good will was sure she would be lost if she did not go slow and take more care, but Killock laughed at him and said, damn me, but I'll convince you an Englishman can go where a Frenchman dare not show his nose, and he did. On June 26 Wolfe arrived at the west end of the island of Orleans in full view of Quebec. The twenty days voyage from Lewisburg had ended and the twelve weeks siege had begun. At this point we must take the map and never put it aside till the final battle is over. A whole book could not possibly make Wolfe's work plain to anyone without the map, but with the map we can easily follow every move in this the greatest crises in both Wolfe's career and Canada's history. What Wolfe saw and found out was enough to daunt any general. He had a very good army, but it was small. He could count up the help of a mighty fleet, but even British fleets cannot climb hills or make an enemy come down and fight. Montcom, however, was weakened by many things. The Governor, Vaudrill, was a vain, fussy and spiteful fool with power enough to thwart Montcom at every turn. The intended, Bichot, was the greatest nave ever seen in Canada, and the head of a gang of official thieves who robbed the country and the wretched French Canadians right and left. The French army altogether numbered nearly seventeen thousand, almost twice Wolfe's own, but the bulk of it was militia half-starved and badly armed. Both Vaudrill and Bichot could and did interfere disasterously with the five different forces that should have been made into one army under Montcom alone. The French regulars, the Canadian regulars, the Canadian militia, the French sailors ashore, and the Indians. Montcom had one great advantage over Wolfe. He was not expected to fight or maneuver in the open field. His duty was not to drive Wolfe away, or even to keep Amherst out of Canada. All he had to do was to hold Quebec throughout the summer. The autumn would force the British fleet to leave for ice-free waters. Then, if Quebec could only be held, a change in the fortunes of war or a treaty of peace might still keep Canada in French hands. Wolfe had either to tempt Montcom out of Quebec or get into it himself, and he soon realized that he would have to do this with the help of Saunders alone, for Amherst in the south was crawling forward towards Montreal so slowly that no aid from him could be expected. Montcom's position certainly looked secure for the summer. His left flank was guarded by the Montmorency, a swift river that could be forwarded only by a few men at a time in a narrow place, some miles up, where the dense bush would give every chance to his Indians and Canadians. His centre was guarded by entrenchments running from the Montmorency to the St. Charles, six miles of ground, rising higher and higher towards Montmorency, all of it defended by the best troops and the bulk of the army, and none of it having an inch of cover for an enemy in front. The mouth of the St. Charles was blocked by booms and batteries. Quebec is a natural fortress, and above Quebec the high steep cliffs stretched for miles into miles. These cliffs could be climbed by a few men in several places, but nowhere by a whole army if any defenders were there in force, and the British fleet could not land an army without being seen soon enough to draw plenty of defenders to the same spot. Forty miles above Quebec the St. Lawrence channel narrows to only a quarter of a mile, and the down current becomes very swift indeed. Above this channel was the small French fleet, which could stop a much larger one trying to get up, or could even block most of the fairway by sinking some of its own ships. Besides all these defences of man and nature, the French had floating batteries along the North Shore. They also held the Levis Heights on the south shore opposite Quebec, so that ships crowded with helpless infantry could not, without terrible risk, run through the intervening narrows barely a thousand yards wide. A gale blowing downstream was the first trouble for the British fleet. Many of the transports broke loose, and a good deal of damage was done to small vessels and boats. Next night a greater danger threatened, when the Ebtide, running five miles an hour, brought down seven French fire-ships, which suddenly burst into flames as they rounded the point of Levis. There was a display of devil's fireworks such as few men have ever seen or could imagine. Sizzling, crackling, and roaring, the blinding flames leaped into the jet-black sky, lighting up the camps of both armies where thousands of soldiers watched these engines of death sweep down on the fleet. Each of the seven ships was full of mines blowing up and hurling shot and shell in all directions. The crowded mass of British vessels seemed doomed to destruction, but the first spurt of fire had hardly been noticed before the men in the guard-boats began to road to the rescue. Swinging the grappling hooks round at arm's length, as if they were heaving the lead, the blue jackets made the fire-ships fast. The officers shouted, Give way, and presently the whole infernal flotillo was safely stranded. But it was a close thing and very hot work, as one of the happy-go-lucky jack-tars said with more force than grace, when he called out to the boat beside him, Hello, mate, did you ever take Helen Toe before? Vaudriel now made Montcom, who was under his orders, withdraw the men from the Levis Heights, and thus abandoned the whole of the Sochure in front of Quebec. Wolf Delighted at once occupied the same place with half his army and most of his guns. Then he seized the far side of the Montmorency and made his main camp there, without, however, removing his hospitals and stores from his camp on the island of Orleans. So he now had three camps, not divided but joined together by the St. Lawrence, where the fleet could move about between them in spite of anything the French could do. He then marched up the Montmorency to the ford to try the French strength there, and to find out if he could cross the river, march down the open ground behind Montcom, and attack him from the rear. But he was repulsed at the first attempt, and saw that he could do no better at a second. Meanwhile his Levis batteries began a bombardment which lasted two months and reduced Quebec to ruins. Yet he seemed as far off as ever from capturing the city. Bettering down the houses of Quebec brought him no nearer to his object, while Montcom's main body still stood securely in its entrenchments down at Beauport. Wolf now felt he must try something decisive, even if desperate, and he planned an attack by land and water on the French left. Both French and British were hard at work on July 31. In the morning Wolf sent one regiment marching up the Montmorency as if to try the fords again, and another also in full view of the French up along the St. Lawrence from the Levis batteries, as if it were to be taken over by the ships to the north shore above Quebec. Meanwhile Moncton's brigade was starting from the point of Levis in rowboats. The centurion was sailing down to the mouth of the Montmorency. Two armed transports were being purposely run ashore on the beach at the top of the tide, and the Pembroke, Trent, Lowstoff and Racehorse were taking up positions to cover the boats. The men of war and Wolf's batteries at Montmorency then opened fire on the point he wished to attack, and both of them kept it up for eight hours from ten till six. All this time the Levis batteries were doing their utmost against Quebec, but Montcom was not to be deceived. He saw that Wolf intended to storm the entrenchments at the point at which the cannon were firing, and he kept the best of his army ready to defend it. Wolf and the Lewisburg Grenadiers were in the two armed transports when they grounded at ten o'clock. To his disgust and to Captain Cook's surprise both vessels struck fast in the mud nearly half a mile from shore. This made the Grenadiers muskets useless against the advanced French readout, which stood at high watermark, and which overmatched the transports both because of these had grounded in such a way that they could not bring their guns to bear in replay. This stranded vessels soon became a death trap. Wolf's cane was knocked out of his hand by a cannon-ball. Shells were bursting over the deck, smashing the mass to pieces, and sending splinters of wood and iron flying about among the helpless Grenadiers and gunners. There was nothing to do but order the men back to the boats and wait. The tide was not low till four, the weather scorchingly hot, a thunderstorm was brewing, the readout could not be taken. The transports were a failure, and every move had to be made in full view of the watchful Montcom, whose entrenchments at this point were on the top of a grassy hill nearly two hundred feet above the muddy beach. But Wolf still thought he might succeed with the main attack at low tide, although he had not been able to prepare it at high tide. His murmurancy batteries seemed to be pitching their shells very thickly into the French, and his three brigades of infantry were all ready to act together at the right time. Accordingly for the hottest hours of that scorching day Montcom's men grilled the boats while Townsend's and Murray's waited in camp. At four the tide was low, and Wolf ordered the landing to begin. The tidal flats ran out much further than anyone had supposed. The heavy-laden boats struck on an outer ledge and had to be cleared, shoved off, refilled with soldiers, and brought round to another place. It was now nearly six o'clock, and both sides were eager for the fray. Townsend's and Murray's brigades had forwarded the mouth of the murmurancy, and were marching along to support the attack when suddenly, and unexpectedly, the grenadiers spoiled it all. Wolf had ordered the Lewisburg grenadiers and the ten other grenadier companies of the army to form up and rush the Redoubts. But what with the cheering of the sailors as they landed the rest of Montcom's men and their own eagerness to come to close quarters at once, the Lewisburg men suddenly lost their heads and charged before everything was ready. The rest followed them pale mel, and in less than five minutes the Redoubts was swarming with excited grenadiers while the French, who had held it, were clambering up the grassy hill into the safer entrenchments. The Redoubts was certainly no place to stay in. It had no shelter towards its rear, and dozens of French cannon and thousands of French muskets were firing into it from the heights. An immediate retirement was the only proper course. But there was no holding the men now. They broke into another, mad charge straight at the hill, and they reached it amid a storm of musket-balls and grapeshot. The heavens joined in with a terrific storm of their own. The rain burst in a perfect deluge, and the hills became almost impossible to climb, even if there had been no enemy pouring dust showers of fire from the top. When Wolf saw what was happening he immediately sent officers running after the grenadiers to make them come back from the Redoubts. And these officers now passed the word to retire at once. This time the grenadiers, all that were left to them, obeyed. Their two mad rushes had not lasted a quarter of an hour, yet nearly half of the thousand men they started with were lying dead or wounded on that fatal ground. Wolf now saw that he was hopelessly beaten and that there was not a minute to lose in getting away. The boats could take only Moncton's men, and the rising tide would soon cut off Townsend's and Murray's from their camp beyond the mouth of the Montmorency. The two stranded transports, from which he had hoped so much that morning, were set on fire. And, under cover of their smoke and of the curtain of torrential rain, Moncton's crestfallen men got into their boats once more. Townsend's and Murray's brigades, enraged at not being brought into action, turned to march back by the way they had come, so eagerly only an hour before. They moved off in perfect order, but as they left the battlefield they waved their hats in defiance at the jeering Frenchmen, challenging them to come down and fight it out with bayonets hand to hand. Many gallant deeds were done that afternoon, but none more gallant than those of Captain Octolani and Lieutenant Payton, both Grenadier officers and the Royal Americans. Octolani had just been wounded in a duel, but he said his country's honour came before his own. And, sicken wounded as he was, he spent those panting hours in the boats without a murmur, and did all he could to form his men up under fire. In the second charge he fell, shot through the lungs, with Payton beside him, shot through the leg. When Wolf called the Grenadiers back, a rescue party wanted to carry off both officers to save them from the scalping knife. But Octolani said he would never leave the field after such a defeat, and Payton said he would never leave his captain. Presently a Canadian regular came up with two Indians, grabbed Octolani's watch, sword and money, and left the Indians to finish him. One of these savages clubbed him with a musket, while the other shot him in the chest and dashed in with a scalping knife. In the meantime Payton crawled on his hands and knees to a double-barreled musket and shot one Indian dead, but missed the other. This savage now left Octolani, picked up a bayonet, and rushed at Payton who drew his dagger. A terrible life-and-death fight followed, but Payton, at last, got a good point well-driven home, straight through the Indians' heart. A whole scalping party now appeared. Octolani was apparently dead, and Payton was too exhausted to fight any more. But at this very moment another British party came back for the rest of the wounded and carried Payton off to the boats. Then the Indians came back to scalp Octolani. By this time, however, some French regulars had come down, and one of them, finding Octolani still alive, drove off the Indians at the point of the bayonet, secured help, and carried him up the hill. Montcom had him carefully taken into the General Hospital, where he was tenderly nursed by the nuns. Two days after he had been rescued, a French officer came out for his clothes and other effects. Wolf then sent in twenty guinea for his rescuer with a promise that in return for the kindness shown to Octolani the General Hospital would be specially protected if the British took Quebec. Towards the end of August Octolani died, and both sides ceased firing while a French captain came out to report his death and return his effects. This was by no means the only time the two enemies treated each other like friends. A party of French ladies were among the prisoners brought into Wolf one day, and they certainly had no cause to complain of him. He gave them a dinner at which he charmed them all by telling them about his visit to Paris. The next morning he sent them into Quebec with his aid to camp under a flag of truce. Another time the French officers sent him a kind of wine, which was not to be had in the British camp, and he sent them some not to be had in their own. But the stern work of war went on and on. Though the weary month of August did not seem to bring victory any closer than disastrous July, Wolf knew that September was to be the end of the campaign, the now or never of his whole career, and knowing this he set to work head and heart and soul on making the plan that brought him victory, death, and everlasting fame. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sarah Jennings. On August 19th an aid to camp came out of the farmhouse at Montmorency which served as the headquarters of the British Army to say that Wolf was too ill to rise from his bed. The bad news spread like wildfire throughout the camp and fleet and soon became known among the French. A week passed, but Wolf was no better. Tossing about on his bed in a fever he thought bitterly of his double defeat, of the critical month of September, of the grim strength of Quebec, formed by nature for a stronghold, and then worse still of his own weak body, which made him most helpless just when he should have been most fit for his duty. Feeling that he could no longer lead in person, he dictated a letter to the Brigadiers, sent them the secret instructions he had received from Pitt and the King, and asked them to think over his three new plans for attacking Montcombe at Beauport. They wrote back to say they thought the defeats at the upper fords of the Montmorency and at the heights facing the St. Lawrence showed that the French could not be beaten by attacking the Beauport lines again, no matter from what side the attack was made. They then gave him a plan of their own, which was to convey the army up the St. Lawrence and fight their way ashore somewhere between Cap Rouge, nine miles above Quebec, and Pointeau-Tromb, 22 miles above. They argued that by making a landing there, the British could cut off Montcombe's communications with Three Rivers and Montreal, from which his army drew its supplies. Wolfe's letter was dictated from his bed of sickness on the 26th. The Brigadiers answered him on the 29th. Saunders talked it all over with him on the 31st. Before this, the fate of Canada had been in a fair of weeks. Now it was a matter of days. For the morrow would dawn on the very last possible month of the siege, September. After his talk with Saunders, Wolfe wrote his last letter home to his mother, telling her of his desperate plight. The enemy puts nothing to risk, and I can't in conscience put the whole army to risk. My antagonist has wisely shut himself up in inaccessible entrenchments, so that I can't get at him without spilling a torrent of blood, and that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcombe is at the head of a great number of bad soldiers, and I am at the head of a small number of good ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight him. But the wary old fellow avoids an action, doubtful of the behaviour of his army. People must be of the profession to understand the disadvantages and difficulties we labour under, arising from the uncommon natural strength of the country. On September 2nd he wrote his last letter to Pitt. He had asked the doctors to patch him up, saying that if they could make him fit for duty for only the next few days, they need not trouble about what might happen to him afterwards. Their patching up certainly cleared his fevered brain, for this letter was a masterly account of the whole siege and the plans just laid to bring it to an end. The style was so good indeed, that Charles Townsend said his brother George must have been the real author, and that Wolfe, whom he dubbed a fiery-headed fellow only fit for fighting, could not have done any more than sign his name. But when George Townsend's own official letter about the battle in which Wolfe fell was also published, and was found to be much less effective than Wolfe's, Selwyn went up to Charles Townsend and said, Look here Charles, if your brother wrote Wolfe's letter, who the devil wrote your brothers? Wolfe did not try to hide anything from Pitt. He told him plainly about the two defeats and the terrible difficulties in the way of winning any victory. The whole letter is too long for quotation, and odd scraps from it give no idea of Wolfe's lucid style. But here are a few which tell the gist of the story. I found myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the generals to consult together. They are all of opinion that, as more ships and provisions are now God above the town, they should try by conveying up five thousand men to draw the enemy from his present position and bring him to an action. I have acquiesced in their proposal, and we are preparing to put it into execution. The Admiral will readily join in any measure for the public service. There is such a choice of difficulties that I own myself at a loss how to determine. The affairs of Great Britain I know require the most vigorous measures. You may be sure that the small part of the campaign which remains shall be employed as far as I am able for the honour of his majesty and the interest of the nation. I am sure of being well seconded by the admirals and generals. Happy if our efforts here can contribute to the success of his majesty's arms in any other part of America. On the thirty-first, the day he wrote to his mother and had his long talk with Saunders, Wolfe began to send his guns and stores away from the Montmorency camp. Carlton managed the removal very cleverly, and on September 3rd only the five thousand infantry who were to go up the St. Lawrence were left there. Wolfe tried to tempt Moncombe to attack him, but Moncombe knew better, and half suspected that Wolfe himself might make another attack on the Boport lines. When everything was ready, all the men at the point of Levy who could be spared put off in boats and rode over towards Boport, just as Moncombe's men had done on the disastrous last day of July. At the same time, the main division of the fleet under Saunders made as if to support these boats, while the Levy batteries thundered against Quebec. Carlton gave the signal from the beach at Montmorency when the tide was high, and the whole five thousand infantry marched down the hill, got into their boats, and rode over to where the other boats were waiting. The French now prepared to defend themselves at once, but as the two divisions of boats came together they both rode off through the gaps between the men of war. Wolfe's army had broken camp and got safely away right under the noses of the French, without the loss of a single man. A whole week from September 3rd to 10th was then taken up with trying to see how the Brigadier's plan could be carried out. The plan was good as far as it went. An army is even harder to supply than a town would be if the town was taken up bodily and moved about the country. An army makes no supplies itself, but uses up a great deal. It must have food, clothing, arms, ammunition, stores of all kinds, and everything else it needs to keep it fit for action. So it must always keep what are called communications, with the places from which it gets these supplies. Now Wolfe's and Montcombe's armies were both supplied along St. Lawrence. Wolfe's from below Quebec, and Montcombe's from above. But Wolfe had no trouble about the safety of his own communications, since they were managed and protected by the fleet. Even before he first saw Quebec, a convoy of supply ships had sailed from the maritime provinces for his army under the charge of a man of war. And so it went on all through the siege. Including 49 men of war, no less than 277 British vessels sailed up to Quebec during this campaign, and not one of them was lost on the way. Though the St. Lawrence had then no lighthouses, buoys, or other aids to navigation as it has now, and though the British officers themselves were compelled to take the ships through the worst places in these foreign and little-known waters, the result was that there were abundant supplies for the British army the whole time, thanks to the fleet. But Montcombe was in a very different plight. Since the previous autumn, when Wolfe and Hardy had laid waste the coast of Gaspe, the supply of sea fish had almost failed. Now the whole country below Quebec had been cut off by the fleet, while most of the country round Quebec was being laid waste by the army. Wolfe's orders were that no man, woman, or child was to be touched, nor any house or other buildings burnt, if his own men were not attacked. But if the men of the country fired at his soldiers, then they were to be shot down, and everything they had was to be destroyed. Of course women and children were strictly protected under all circumstances, and no just complaint was ever made against the British for hurting a single one. But as the men persisted in firing, the British fired back, and destroyed the farms where the firing took place, on the fair play principle that it is right to destroy whatever is used to destroy you. It thus happened that, except at a few little villages where the men had not fired on the soldiers, the country all around Quebec was like a desert, as far as supplies for the French were concerned. The only way to obtain anything for their camp was by bringing it down to St. Lawrence from Montreal, Sorrel, and Three Rivers. French vessels would come down as far as they dared, and then send the supplies on in barges, which kept close in under the North Shore above Quebec, where the French outposts and batteries protected them from the British men of war that were pushing higher and higher up the river. Some supplies were brought in by land after they were put ashore above the highest British vessels. But as a hundred tons came far more easily by water than one ton by land, it is not hard to see that Montcom's men could not hold out long if the St. Lawrence near Quebec was closed to supplies. Wolfe, Montcom, the Brigadiers, and everyone else on both sides knew this perfectly well. But as it was now September, the fleet could not go far up the much more difficult channel towards Montreal. If it did and took Wolfe's army with it, the few French men of war might dispute the passage, and some sunken ships might block the way, at all events for a time. Besides, the French were preparing to repulse any landing up the river between Cap Rouge, nine miles above Quebec, and Deshambeau, 40 miles above, and with good prospect of success, because the country favoured their irregulars. Moreover, if Wolfe should land many miles up, Montcom might still hold out far down in Quebec for the few days remaining till October. If on the other hand the fleet went up and left Wolfe's men behind, Montcom would be safer than ever at Beauport and Quebec, because how could Wolfe reach him without a fleet when he had failed to reach him with one? The life and death question for Wolfe was how to land close enough above Quebec, and soon enough in September, to make Montcom fight it out on even terms and in the open field. The Brigadiers' plan of landing high up seemed all right till they tried to work it out. Then they found troubles in plenty. There were several places for them to land between Cap Rouge, nine miles above Quebec, and Pointeau Trombe, 13 miles higher still. Ever since July 18th British vessels had been passing to and fro above Quebec. And in August, Murray, under the guard of Holmes's squadron, had tried his brigade against Pointeau Trombe, where he was beaten back, and at Deschambaud, 20 miles farther up, where he took some prisoners and burnt some supplies. To ward off further and perhaps more serious attacks from this quarter, Montcom had been keeping Bougainville on the lookout, especially around Pointeau Trombe, for several weeks before the Brigadiers arranged their plan. Bougainville now had 2,000 infantry, all the mounted men, nearly 300, and all the best Indian and Canadian scouts, along the 13 miles of shore between Cap Rouge and Pointeau Trombe. His land and water batteries had also been made much stronger. He and Montcom were in close touch, and could send messages to each other and get an answer back within four hours. On the 7th, Wolf and the Brigadiers had a good look at every spot around Pointeau Trombe. On the 8th and 9th, the Brigadiers were still there, while five transports sailed past Quebec on the 8th to join homes who commanded the Upper River Squadron. Two of Wolf's brigades were now on board the transports with homes. But the whole three were needed, and this need at once entailed another difficulty. A successful landing on the North Shore above Quebec could only be made under cover of the dark, and Wolf could not bring the third brigade, under cover of night, from the island of Orlean in the Pointeau Levy, and land it with the other two twenty miles up the river before daylight. The tidal stream runs up barely five hours, while it runs down more than seven, and winds are mostly down. Next, if instead of sailing, the third brigade marched twenty miles at night across a very rough country on the South Shore, it would arrive later than ever. Then only one brigade could be put ashore in boats at one time in one place, and Bougainville could collect enough men to hold it in check while he called in reinforcements, at least as fast on the French side as the British could on theirs. Another thing was that the wooded country favoured the French defence, and hindered the British attack. Lastly, if Wolf and Saunders collected the whole five thousand soldiers and a still larger squadron and convoy up the river, Montcombe would see the men and ships being moved from their positions in front of his boat-ported trenchments, and would hurry to the threatened shore between Cap Rouge and Punto-Tromba almost as soon as the British, and certainly in time to reinforce Bougainville and repulse Wolf. The ninth was Wolf's last Sunday. It was a cheerless, rainy day, and he almost confessed himself beaten for good as he sat writing his last official letter to one of Pitt's friends, the Earl of Holderness. He dated it, on board the Sutherland, at anchor off Cap Rouge, September 9th, 1759. He ended it with gloomy news. I am so far recovered as to be able to do my business, but my constitution is entirely ruined, without the consolation of having done any considerable service to the state, or without any prospect of it. The very next day, however, he saw his chance. He stood at Echemin, on the south shore, two miles above Quebec, and looked long and earnestly through his telescope at the Foulon Road, a mile and a half away, running up to the plains of Abraham, from the As-de-Foulon, which has ever since been called Wolf's Cove. Then he looked at the plains themselves, especially at a spot only one mile from Quebec, where the flat and open ground formed a perfect field of battle for his well-drilled regulars. He knew the Foulon Road must be fairly good, because it was the French line of communication between the As-de-Foulon and the Beauport Camp. The Cove and the nearest point of the camp were only two miles and a quarter apart, as the crow flies, but between them rose the table land of the plains three hundred feet above the river. Thus they were screened from each other, and a surprise at the Cove might not be found out too soon at the camp. Now, Wolf knew that the French expected to be attacked either above Cap Rouge, up towards Pointe-aux-Traumes, or below Quebec, down in their Beauport entrenchments. He also knew that his own army thought the attack would be made above Cap Rouge. Thus the French were still very anxious about the six miles at Beauport, while both sides were keenly watching each other all over the thirteen miles above Cap Rouge. Nobody seemed to be thinking about the nine miles between Cap Rouge and Quebec, and least of all about the part nearest Quebec. Yes, one man was thinking about it, and he never stopped thinking about it till he died. That man was Montcombe. On the fifth, when Wolf began moving upstream, Montcombe had sent a whole battalion to the plains. But on the seventh, when the British generals were all at Pointe-aux-Traumes, Vaudrye, always ready to spite Montcombe, ordered this battalion back to camp, saying the British haven't got wings, they can't fly up to the plains. Wolf, of course, saw that the battalion had been taken away, and he soon found out why. Vaudrye was a great talker, and could never keep a secret. Wolf knew perfectly well that Vaudrye and Bigot were constantly spoiling whatever Montcombe was doing, so he counted on this trouble in the French camp, as he did on other facts and chances. He now gave up all idea of his old plans against Beauport, as well as the new plan of the Brigadiers, and decided on another plan of his own. It was new in one way, because he had never seen a chance of carrying it out before. But it was old in another way, because he had written to his uncle from Louisbourg on May 19th, and spoken of getting up the heights four or five miles above Quebec if he could do so by surprise. Again, even so early in the siege as July 18th, he had been shaping at what he called the coldness of the fleet about pushing up beyond Quebec. The entry in his private diary for that day is, The Sutherland and Squirrel, two transports, and two armed sloops, passed the narrow passage between Quebec and Levy without losing a man. Next day his entry is more skating still. Reconnoitred the country immediately above Quebec and found that if we had ventured the stroke that was first intended, we should infallibly have succeeded. This shows how long he had kept the plan waiting for the chance, but it does not prove that he had missed any earlier chances through the coldness of the fleet, for it is significant that he afterwards struck out infallibly, and substituted probably. While it must be remembered that the Sutherland and her consorts formed only a very small flotilla, that they passed Quebec in the middle of a very dark night, that the St. Lawrence above the town was intricate and little known, that the loss of several men of war might have been fatal, that the enemy's attention had not become distracted in July to anything like the same bewildering extent as it had in September, and that the intervening course of events, however disappointing in itself, certainly helped to make his plan suit the occasion far better late than soon. Moreover, in a note to Saunders in August, he had spoken about a desperate plan which he could not trust his brigadiers to carry out, and which he was then too sick to carry out himself. Now that he was patched up enough for a few days, and that the chance seemed to be within his grasp, he made up his mind to strike at once. He knew that the little French post above the Ansta-Foulon was commanded by one of Bigot's black guards, Virger, whose Canadian militiamen were a slack as their commander. He knew that the same old battery, a little further from Quebec, had too small a garrison, with only five guns and no means of firing them on the landward side, so that any of his men, once up the heights, could rush it from the rear. He knew the French had only a few weak posts the whole way down from Cap Rouge, and that these posts often let convoys of provision boats pass quietly at night into the Ansta-Foulon. He knew that some of Montcom's best regulars had gone to Montreal with Levy, the excellent French second in command, to strengthen the defence against Amherst's slow advance from Lake Champlain. He knew that Montcom still had a total of ten thousand men between Montmorency and Quebec, as against his own attacking force of five thousand, yet he also knew that the odds of two to one were reversed in his favour so far as European regulars were concerned, for Montcom could not now bring three thousand French regulars into immediate action at any one spot. Finally, he knew that all the French were only half-fed, and that those with Bougainville were getting worn out by having to march across the country in a fruitless effort to keep pace with the ships of Holmes's squadron and convoy, which floated up and down with the tide. Wolf's plan was to keep the French alarmed more than ever at the two extreme ends of their line, Beauport below Quebec, and Pointeau-Tremble above, and then to strike home at their undefended centre by a surprise landing at the Inceau-Foulon. Once landed, well before daylight, he could rush for Gours' post and the Samos' battery, march across the plains, and form his line of battle a mile from Quebec before Montcom could come up in force from Beauport. Probably he could also defeat him before Bougainville could march down from some point well above Cap Rouge. There were chances to reckon within this plan, but so there are in all plans, and to say Wolf took Quebec by mere luck as utter nonsense. He was one of the deepest thinkers on war who ever lived, especially on the British kind of war, by land and sea together, and he had had the preparation of a lifetime to help him in using a fleet and army that worked together like the two arms of one body. He simply made a plan which took proper account of all the facts and all the chances. Fools make lucky hits now and then by the mirror's chance, but no one except a genius can make and carry out a plan like Wolf's, which meant at least a hundred hits running all in the self-same spot. No sooner had Wolf made his admirable plan that Monday morning, September 10th, than he set all the principal officers to work out the different parts of it, but he kept the whole a secret. Nobody except himself knew more than one part, and how that one part was to be worked in at the proper time and place. Even the fact that the Anne-Sophoulon was to be the landing-place was kept secret till the last moment, from everybody except Admiral Holmes, who made all the arrangements, and Captain Chads, the naval officer who was to lead the first boats down. The great plot thickened fast, the siege that had been in a fair of weeks, and the Brigadiers' plan that had been in a fair of days, both gave way to a plan in which every hour was made to tell. Wolf's seventy hours of consummate maneuvers by land and water over a front of thirty miles were followed by a battle in which the fighting of only a few minutes settled the fate of Canada for centuries. During the whole of these momentous three days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, September 10th, 11th, and 12th, 1759, Wolf, Saunders, and Holmes kept the French in constant alarm about the thirteen miles above Cap Rouge and the six miles below Quebec, but gave no sign by which any immediate danger could be suspected along the nine miles between Cap Rouge and Quebec. Saunders stayed below Quebec. On the 12th, he never gave the French a minutes rest all day and night. He sent Cook and others close in towards Bowport to lay boys as if to mark out a landing place for another attack like the one on July 31st. It is a singular coincidence that while Cook, the great British circumnavigator of the globe, was trying to get Wolf into Quebec, Bougainville, the great French circumnavigator, was trying to keep him out. Towards evening Saunders formed up his boats and filled them with Marines, whose own red coats, seen at a distance, made them look like soldiers. He moved his fleet in at high tide and fired furiously at the entrenchments. All night long his boatloads of men rode up and down and kept the French on the alert. This faint against Bowport was much helped by the men of Wolf's Third Brigade, who remained at the island of Orleans and the point of Levy till after dark, by a whole battalion of Marines guarding the Levy batteries, and by these batteries themselves, which meanwhile were bombarding Quebec, again like the 31st of July. The bombardment was kept up all night and became most intense just before dawn, when Wolf was landing two miles above. At the other end of the French line, above Cap Rouge, Holmes had kept threatening Bougainville more and more towards Porto-Trauma, 20 miles above the Foulon. Wolf soldiers had kept landing on the south shore day after day, then drifting up with the tide on board the transports past Porto-Trauma, then drifting down towards Cap Rouge, and then coming back the next day to do the same thing over again. This had been going on more or less, even before Wolf made his plan, and it proved very useful to him. He knew that Bougainville's men were getting quite worn out by scrambling across country day after day to keep up with Holmes' restless squadron and transports. He also knew that men who threw themselves down tired out late at night could not be collected from different places all over their 13-mile beat, and brought down in the morning fit to fight on a battlefield eight miles from the nearest of them and twenty-one from the farthest. Montcom was greatly troubled. He saw redcoats with Saunders opposite Beauport, redcoats at the island, redcoats at the point of Levy, and redcoats guarding the Levy batteries. He had no means of finding out at once that the redcoats with Saunders and at the batteries were Marines, and that the redcoats who really did belong to Wolf were under orders to march off after dark that very night and join the other two brigades which were coming down the river from the squadron above Cap Rouge. He had no boats that could get through the perfect screen of the British fleet. But all that the skill of mortal man could do against these odds he did on that fatal eve of battle, as he had done for three years past, with foes in front and false friends behind. He ordered the battalion which he had sent to the plains on the fifth, and which Vaudrye had brought back on the seventh, now to go and camp at the Foulon, that is at the top of the road coming up from Wolf's landing-place at the Aniseau-Foulon. But Vaudrye immediately gave a counter-order and said, We'll see about that tomorrow. Vaudrye's tomorrow never came. CHAPTER VII. PART II. That afternoon of the twelfth, well-moncton and Vaudrye were at cross-purposes near the mouth of the St. Charles. Wolf was only four miles away on the other side of the plains, in a boat on the St. Lawrence, where he was taking his last look at what he then called the Foulon, and what the world now calls Wolf's Cove. His boat was just turning to drift up in mid-stream, off Ciliary Point, which is only half a mile above the Foulon. He wanted to examine the Cove well through his telescope at Dead Low Tide, as he intended to land his army there at the next flow tide. Close beside him sat young Robeson, who was not an officer in either the army or the navy, but who had come out to Canada as tutor to an admiral's son, and who had been found so good at maps that he was employed with Wolf's engineers in making surveys and sketches of the ground about Quebec. Shutting up his telescope, Wolf sat silent a while. Then, as afterwards recorded by Robeson, he turned towards his officers and repeated several stanzas of Grey's elegy. Gentlemen, he said as he ended, I would sooner have written that poem than beat the French to-morrow. He did not know then that his own fame would far surpass the poets, and that he should win it in the very way described in one of the lines he had just been quoting. The paths of glory lead but to the grave. At half-past eight in the evening he was sitting in his cabin on board Holmes's flagship, the Sutherland, above Cap Rouge, with Jackie Jervis, the future Earl St. Vincent, but now the youngest captain in the fleet, only twenty-four. Wolf and Jervis had both been at the same school at Greenwich, Swindons, though at different times, and they were great friends. Wolf had made up a sealed parcel of his notebook, his will, and the portrait of Catherine Louther, and he now handed it over to Jervis for safekeeping. But he had no chance of talking about old times at home, for just then the letter from the three Brigadiers was handed in. It asked him if he would not give them distinct orders about the place or places we are to attack. He wrote back to the senior, Moncton, telling him what he had arranged for the first and second brigades, and then separately to Townsend about the third, which was not with Holmes but on the south shore. After dark the men from the island and the point of Levy had marched up to join this brigade at Etchamon, the very place where Wolf had made his plan on the tenth, as he stood and looked at the Foulon opposite. His last general orders to his army had been read out some hours before, but of course the Foulon was not mentioned. These orders show that he well understood the great issues he was fighting for, and what men he had to count upon. Here are only three sentences, but how much they mean. The enemy's force is now divided. A vigorous blow struck by the army at this juncture may determine the fate of Canada. The officers and men will remember what their country expects of them. The watchword was Coventry, which, being probably suggested by the saying, sent to Coventry, that is, condemned to silence, was as apt a word for this expectant night as Gibraltar, the symbol of strength, was for the one on which Quebec surrendered. Just before dark, Holmes sent every vessel he could spare to make a show of force opposite Poignotrauma, in order to hold Bougainville there overnight. But after dark, the main body of Holmes's squadron, and all the boats and small transports came together opposite Cap Rouge. Just before ten, a single lantern appeared in the Sutherland's main topmost shrouds. On seeing this, Chads formed up the boats between the ships and the south shore, side away from the French. In three hours every man was in his place. Not a sound was to be heard except the murmur of the strong ebb tide setting down towards Quebec, and a gentle southwest breeze blowing the same direction. Already, sir, and Wolfe took his own place in the first boat with his friend Captain de Lone, the leader of the 24 men of the Forlorn Hope, who were to be the first to scale the cliff. Then a second lantern appeared above the first, and the whole brigade of boats began to move off in succession. They had about eight miles to go, but the current ran the distance in two hours. As they advanced they could see the flashes from the levee batteries growing brighter and more frequent, for both the land gunners there and the seamen gunners with saunders further down were increasing their fire as the hour for Wolfe's landing drew near. A couple of miles above the Forlorn the hunter was anchored in midstream. As arranged, Chad's left the south shore and steered straight for her. To his surprise he saw her crew training their guns on him, but they held their fire. Then Wolfe came alongside and found that she had two French deserters on board who had mistaken his boats for the French provision convoy that was expected to creep down the north shore that very night and land at the Forlorn. He had already planned to pass his boats off as this convoy, for he knew that the furthest up point of Holmes's men of war had stopped it above Pointe-au-Tremble, but he was glad to know that the French posts below Cap Rouge had not yet heard of the stoppage. From the hunter his boat led the way to Silerie Point, half a mile above the Forlorn. Halt! Who comes there? A French sentry's voice rang out in the silence of the night. France, answered young Fraser, who had been taken into Wolfe's boat because he spoke French like a native. What's your regiment? asked the sentry. The Queen's, answered Fraser, who knew that this was the one supplying the escort for the provision boats the British had held up. But why don't you speak out? asked the sentry again. Hush! said Fraser. The British will hear us if you make a noise. And there, sure enough, was the hunter, drifting down as arranged, not far outside the column of boats. Then the sentry let them all pass, and in ten minutes more, exactly at four o'clock. The leading boat grounded in the Anseau-Foulins, and Wolfe jumped ashore. He at once took the Forlorn Hope and two hundred light infantry to the side of the Cove towards Quebec, saying as he went, I don't know if we shall all get up, but we must make the attempt. Then, while these men were scrambling up, he went back to the middle of the Cove, where Howe had already formed the remaining five hundred light infantry. Captain Macdonald, a very active climber, passed the Forlorn Hope and was the first man to reach the top and feel his way through the trees to the left, towards Vorgor's tents. Presently he almost ran into the sleepy French-Canadian sentry, who heard only a voice speaking perfect French and telling him it was all right, nothing but the reinforcements from the Beaufort camp. For Wolfe knew that Montcombe had been trying to get a French regular officer to replace Vorgor, who was as good a thief as Bigo and as bad a soldier as Vaudry. While this little parlay was going on, the Forlorn Hope came up. When Macdonald promptly hit the sentry between the eyes with the hilt of his claymore and knocked him flat, the light infantry pressed on close behind. The dumbfounded French colonial troops coming out of their tents found themselves face to face with a whole wood full of fixed bayonets. They fired a few shots. The British charged with a loud cheer. The Canadians scurried away through the trees, and Vorgor ran for dear life in his night shirt. The ringing cheer with which D'Alone charged home told Wolfe at the foot of the road that the actual top was clear. Then Howe went up. In fifteen minutes all the light infantry had joined their comrades above. Another battalion quickly followed, and Wolfe himself followed them. By this time it was five o'clock and quite light. The boats that had landed the first brigade had already rode through the gaps between the small transports, which were landing the second brigade, and had reached the south shore a mile and a half away. Where the third brigade was waiting for them. Meanwhile the suddenly roused gunners of the Samos battery were firing wildly at the British vessels, but the men of war fired back with better aim, and Howe's light infantry, coming up at a run from behind, dashed in among the astonished gunners with the bayonet, cleared them all out, and spiked every gun. Howe left three companies there to hold the battery against Bougainville later in the day, and returned with the other seven to Wolfe. It was now six o'clock. The third brigade had landed. The whole of the ground at the top was clear, and Wolfe set off with one thousand men to see what Montcom was doing. Quebec stands on the eastern end of a sort of promontory, or narrow, table-land between the St. Lawrence and the Valley of the St. Charles. This table-land is less than a mile wide, and narrow still more as it approaches Quebec. Its top is tilted over toward the St. Charles and Bowport, the cliffs being only 100 feet high there, instead of 300 as they are beside the St. Lawrence. So Wolfe, as he turned in towards Quebec, after marching straight across the table-land, could look out over the French camp. Everything seemed quiet, so he made his left secure, and sent for his main body to follow him at once. It was now seven. In another hour his line of battle was formed. His reserves had taken post in his rear, and a brigade of seamen from Saunders' fleet were landing guns, stores, blankets, tents, and trenching tools, and whatever else he would need for besieging the city after defeating Montcom. The 3,000 soldiers on the beach were anything but pleased with the tame work of waiting there while the soldiers were fighting up above. One of their officers in a letter home said they could hardly stand still, and were perpetually swearing because they were not allowed to get into the heat of the action. The whole of the complicated maneuvers, in face of an active enemy, for three days and three nights by land and water over a front of thirty miles, had now been crowned by complete success. The army of five thousand men had been put ashore at the right time and in the right way, and it was now ready to fight one of the great immortal battles of the world. The thin red line. The phrase was invented long after Wolf's day, but Wolf invented the fact. The six battalions which formed his front, that thirteenth morning of September, 1759, were drawn up in the first two deep line that ever stood on any field of battle in the world since war began, and it was Wolf alone who made this thin red line, as surely as it was Wolf alone who made the plan that conquered Canada. Meanwhile Montcalme had not been idle, though he was perplexed to the last because one of the stupid rules in the French camp was that all news was to be told first of Odry, who, as Governor-General, could pass it on or not, and interfere with the army as much as he liked. When it was light enough to see Saunders fleet, the island of Orline and the point of Levy, Montcalme at once noticed that Wolf's men had gone. He galloped down to the bridge of boats, where he found that Odry had already heard of Wolf's landing. At first the French thought the firing round the Foulon was caused by an exchange of shots between the Samos Battery and some British men of war that were trying to stop the French provision boats from getting in there. But Vurgor's fugitives, and the French patrols near Quebec, soon told the real story. And then, just before seven, Montcalme himself caught sight of Wolf's first red coats marching in along the St. Foy road. Well-mighty exclaim after all he had done and Vaudry had undone. There they are, where they have no right to be. He at once sent orders all along his six miles of entrenchments to bring up every French regular and all the rest except two thousand militia. But Vaudry again interfered, and Montcalme got only the French and Canadian regulars twenty-five hundred, and the same number of Canadian militia with a few Indians. The French and British totals, actually present on the field of battle, were therefore almost exactly equal, five thousand each. Vaudry also forgot to order out the field guns, the horses for which the vial in corrupt Bigo had been using for himself. At nine Montcalme had formed up his French and colonial regulars between Quebec and the crest of rising ground across the plains, beyond which lay Wolfe. Riding forward till he could see the red coats, he noticed how thin their line was on its left and in its centre, and that its right, near the St. Lawrence, had apparently not formed at all. But his eye deceived him about the British right, as the men were lying down there out of sight, behind a swell of ground. He galloped back and asked if anyone had further news. Several officers declared that they had heard that Wolfe was entrenching, but that his right brigade had not yet had time to march on to the field. There was no possible way of finding out anything else at once. The chance seemed favourable. Montcalme knew that he had to fight or starve, as he was completely cut off by land and water, except for one bad swampy road in the valley of the St. Charles, and he ordered his line to advance. At half-past nine the French reached the crest and halted. The two armies were now in full view of each other on the plains, and only a quarter of a mile apart. The French line of battle had eight small battalions, about 2,500 men formed six deep. The colonial regulars in three battalions were on the flanks. The five battalions of French regulars were in the centre. Montcalme, wearing a green and gold uniform with the brilliant cross of St. Louis over her securese, and mounted on a splendid black charger, rode the whole length of his line to see if all were ready to attack. The French regulars, half-fed, sorely harassed, and interfered with by Vaudry, were still the victors of Ticonderoga, against the British odds of four to one. Perhaps they might snatch one last desperate victory from the fortunes of war? Certainly all would follow wherever they were led by their beloved Montcalme, the greatest Frenchman of the whole new world. He said a few stirring words to each of his well-known regiments as he rode by, and when he laughingly asked the best of all, the Royal Roussillon, if they were not tired enough to take a little rest before the battle, they shouted back that they were never too tired to fight. Forward, forward! And their steady blue ranks, and those of the four white regiments beside them, with bayonets fixed and colours flying, did indeed look fit and ready for the fray. Wolf had also gone along his line of battle, the first of all two deep, thin red lines, to make sure that every officer understood the order that there was to be no firing, until the French came close up to within only forty paces. As soon as he saw Montcalme's line on the crest, he had moved his own a hundred paces forward, according to previous arrangement, so that the two enemies were now only a long musket shot apart. The Canadians and Indians were pressing round the British flanks, under cover of the bushes, and firing hard, but they were easily held in check by the light infantry on the left rear of the line, and by the thirty-fifth on the right rear. The few French and British skirmishers in the centre now ran back to their own lines, and before ten the field was quite clear between the two opposing fronts. Wolf had been wounded twice when going along his line, first in the wrist, and then in the groin, yet he stood up so straight and looked so cool that when he came back to take post on the right, the men there did not know he had been hit at all. His spirit already soared in triumph over the weakness of the flesh. Here he was, a sick and doubly wounded man, but a soldier, a hero, and a conqueror, with the key to half a continent almost within his eager grasp. At a signal from Montcalme in the centre, the French line advanced about a hundred yards in perfect formation. Then the Canadian regulars suddenly began firing without orders, and threw themselves flat on the ground to reload. By the time they had got up, the French regulars had halted some distance in front of them, fired a volley, and began advancing again. This was too much for the Canadians, though they were regulars they were not used to fighting any open, not trained for it, and not armed for it with bayonets. In a couple of minutes they had all slunk off to the flanks, joined by the Indians and militia, who were attacking the British from under cover. This left the French regulars face to face with Wolf's front, five French battalions, against the British six. These two fronts were now to decide the fate of Canada between them. The French still came bravely on, but their six deep line was much shorter than the British two deep line, and they saw that both their flanks were about to be overlapped by fire and steel. They inclined outwards to save themselves from this fatal overlap on both right and left, but that made just as fatal a gap in their centre. The whole line wavered, halted oftener to fire, and fired more wildly at each halt. In the meantime Wolf's front stood firm as a rock and silent as the grave, one long, straight, living wall of red, with the double line of deadly keen bayonets glittering above it. Nothing stirred along its whole length, except the Union Jacks waving defiance at the Fleur-de-Lis, and those patient men who fell before a fire to which they could not yet reply. Bayonet after bayonet would suddenly flash out of line and fall forward, as the stricken redcoat, standing there with shouldered arms, quivered and sank to the ground. Captain York had brought up a single gun in time for the battle, the sailors having dragged it up the cliff and run it the whole way across the plains. He had been handling it most gallantly during the French advance, firing showers of grapeshot into their ranks, from a position right out in the open in front of Wolf's line. But now that the French were closing he had to retire. The sailors then picked up the drag-ropes and romped in with this most effective six-pounder at full speed, as if they were having the greatest fun of their lives. Wolf was standing next to the Louisburg Grenadiers, who this time were determined not to begin before they were told. He was to give their Colonel the signal to fire the first volley, which then was itself to be the signal for a volley from each of the other five battalions, one after another, all down the line. Each musket was loaded with two bullets, and the moment a battalion had fired it was to advance twenty paces, loading as it went, and then fire a general, that is, each man for himself, as hard as he could, till the bugles sounded the charge. Wolf now watched every step the French line made. Nearer and nearer it came, a hundred paces, seventy-five, fifty, forty, fire! Crash came the volley from the Grenadiers. Five more volleys rang out in quick succession, all so perfectly delivered that they sounded more like six great guns than six battalions with hundreds of muskets in each. Under cover of the smoke, Wolf's men advanced their twenty paces and halted to fire the general. The dense, six deep lines of Frenchmen reeled, staggered, and seemed to melt away under this awful deluge of lead. In five minutes their right was shaken out of all formation. All that remained of it turned and fled, a wild, mad mob of panic-stricken fugitives. The centre followed at once, but the Royal Roussillon stood fast a little longer, and when it also turned it had only three unwounded officers left, and they were trying to rally it. Montcom, who had led the centre and had been wounded in the advance, galloped over to the Royal Roussillon as it was making this last stand, but even he could not stem the rush that followed and that carried him along with it. Over the crest and down to the valley of St. Charles's army fled, the Canadians and Indians scurrying away through the bushes as hard as they could run. While making one more effort to rally enough men to cover the retreat, he was struck again, this time by a dozen grapeshot from York's gun. He reeled in the saddle, but two of his grenadiers caught him and held him up while he rode into Quebec. As he passed through St. Louis Gate, a terrified woman called out, Oh, look at the Marquis! He's killed! He's killed! But Montcom, by a supreme effort, sat up straight for a moment and said, It is nothing at all, my kind friend. You must not be so much alarmed. And saying this, passed on to die, a hero to the very last. In the thick of the short fierce firefight the bagpipes began to scurril, the Highlanders dashed down their muskets, drew their claymores, and gave a yell that might have been heard across the river. In a moment every British bugle was sounding the charge, and the whole red living wall was rushing forward with a roaring cheer. But it charged without Wolf. He had been mortally wounded just after giving the signal for those famous bollies. Two officers sprang to his side. Hold me up, he implored them. Don't let my gallant fellows see me fall. With the help of a couple of men he was carried back to the far side of a little knoll, and was seated on a grenadier's folded coat, while the grenadier who had taken it off ran over to a spring to get some water. Wolf knew at once that he was dying, but he did not yet know how the battle had gone. His head had sunk on his breast, and his eyes were already glazing. When an officer on the knoll called out, they run, they run! E'gad, they give way everywhere! Rousing himself as if from sleep, Wolf asked, Who run? The French sir! Then I die content, and almost as he said it, he breathed his last. He was not buried on the field he won, nor even in the country that he conquered. All that was mortal of him, his poor, sick, wounded body, was born back across the sea, and carried in mourning triumph through his native land. And there in the family vault at Greenwich, near the school he had left for his first war, half his short life ago, he was laid to rest on November 20th. At the very time when his own great victory before Quebec was being confirmed by Hawke's magnificently daring attack on the French fleet, amid all the dangers of that wild night in Kiberon Bay. Canada has none of his mortality. But could she have anything more sacred than the spot from which his soaring spirit took flight into immortal fame? And could this sacred spot be marked by any words more winged than these? Here died Wolf, victorious. 8. Epilogue. The Last Stand Wolf's victory on the plains of Abraham proved decisive in the end, but it was not the last of the great struggle for the key of Canada. After Wolf had died on the field of battle, and Moncton had been disabled by his wounds, Townsend took command, received the surrender of Quebec on the 18th, and waited till the French field army had retired towards Montreal. Then he sailed home with Saunders, leaving Murray to hold what Wolf had won. Saunders left Lord Colville in charge of the strong squadron, with orders to wait at Halifax till the spring. Both French and British spent a terrible winter. The French had better shelter in Montreal than the British had among the ruins of Quebec, and being more accustomed to the rigors of the climate, they would have suffered less from cold in any case. But their lot was, on the whole, the harder of the two, for food was particularly bad and scarce in Montreal, where even horse flesh was thought a luxury. Both armies were ravaged to disease to a most alarming extent. Of the 8,000 men with whom Murray began that deadly winter, not one half were able to bear arms in the spring, and not one half of those who did bear arms then were really fit for duty. Montcom's successor, La Vie, now made a skillful, bold, and gallant attempt to retake Quebec before navigation opened. Calling the whole remaining strength of New France to his aid, he took his army down in April, mostly by way of Saint Lawrence. The weather was stormy. The banks of the river were lined with rotting ice. The roads were almost impassable. Yet after a journey of less than 10 days, the whole French army appeared before Quebec. Murray was at once confronted by a dire dilemma. The landward defenses had never been strong, and he had not been able to do more than patch them up. If he remained behind them, La Vie would close in, batter them down, and probably carry them by assault against a sickly garrison depressed by being kept within the walls. If, on the other hand, he marched out, he would have to meet more than double numbers at the least, for some men would have to be left to cover a retreat, and he knew the French grand total was nearly thrice his own. But he chose this bolder course, and at the chill dawn of April 28th, he paraded his little attacking force of a bare 3,000 men on the freezing snow and mud of the Espalade, and then marched out. The two armies met at St. Foy, a violent half beyond the walls, in a desperate battle ensued. The French had twice as many men in action, but only half of these were regulars. The others had no bayonets, and there was no effective artillery to keep down the fire of Murray's commanding guns. The terrific fight went on for hours, while victory inclined neither to one side nor the other. It was a far more stubborn and much bloodier contest than wolves of the year before. At last, a British battalion was fairly caught in flank by overwhelming numbers and driven across the front of Murray's guns, whose protecting fire had thus completely massed at a most critical time. Murray thereupon ordered up his last reserve. But even so, he could no longer stand his ground. Slowly and sullenly, his exhausted men fell back before the French, who put the very last ounce of their own failing strength into a charge that took the guns. Then the beaten British staggered in behind their walls, while the victorious French stood fast, worn out by the hardships of their march and fought to a standstill in the battle. Levy rallied his army for one more effort and pressed the siege to the uttermost of his power. Murray had lost a thousand men and could not muster less than three thousand. Each side prepared to fight the other to the death. But both knew that the result would depend on the fleets. There had been no news from Europe since navigation closed, in hopes ran high among the besiegers that perhaps some friendly men of war might still be first, when of course Quebec would have to surrender at discretion, and Canada would certainly be saved for France if the half-expected peace would only follow soon. Day after day all eyes, both French and British, looked seaward from the heights and walls, though fleets had never yet been known to come up the St. Lawrence so early in the season. At last on May 9th, the tops of a man of war were sited just beyond the point of Levy. Either she or Quebec, or both, might have false colors flying. So neither besiegers nor besieged knew to which side she belonged. Nor did she know herself whether Quebec was French or British. Slowly she rounded into the harbor, her crew at quarters, her decks all cleared for action. She saluted with twenty-one guns and swung out her captain's barge. Then for the first time everyone watching knew what she was, for the barge was heading straight in towards the town and red coats and blue jackets could see each other plainly. In a moment every British soldier who could stand had climbed the nearest wall and was cheering her to the echo, while the gunners showed their delight by loading and firing as fast as possible and making all the noise they could. But one ship was not enough to turn the scale, and Levy redoubled his efforts. On the 9th of the 15th, French hopes suddenly flared up all through the camp when the word flew round that three strange men of war just reported down off Bowport where the vanguard of a great French fleet. But daylight showed them to be British and British bent on immediate and vigorous attack. Two of these frigates made straight for the French flotilla, which fled in wild confusion, covered by the undaunted vaquillin and the elanti, which fought a gallant rearguard action all the 20 miles to Porta Trembles, where she was driven ashore and forced to strike her colors, after another and still more desperate resistance of over two hours. That night Levy raised the siege and despair and retired on Montreal. Next morning Lord Colville arrived with the main body of the fleet, having made the earliest ascent of the St. Lawrence ever known to naval history, before that time or since. Then came the final scene of all this moving drama. Step by step, overpowering British forces closed in on the doomed and dwindling army of New France. They closed in from east and west and south, each one of their covering columns more than a match for all that was left of the French. Whichever way he looked, Levy could see no loophole of escape. There was nothing but certain defeat in front and on both flanks and starvation in the rear. So when the advancing British met, all together, at the island of Montreal, he and his faithful reciters laid down their arms without dishonor, in the fully justifiable belief that no further use of them could possibly retrieve the great loss cause of France in Canada. End of Chapter 8. End of A Chronicle of Wolf by William Wood. This recording has been read by T. Wellington and is in the public domain.