MEMOIRS
OF THE
CHEVALIER DE JOHNSTONE.
IN THEEE VOLUMES.
TRANSLATED. FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
MS. OF THE CHEVALIER.
BY
CHAELES WINCHESTER,
ADVOCATE, ABERDEEN.
YOLUME THIRD.
^ / a
f)> 7 u
ABERDEEN: D. WYLLIE & SON,
to fyt
AND H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES.
1871
14-
5"
G. CORNWALL AND SONS, PRINTERS AND LITHOGRAPHERS, ABERDEEN.
MEMOIRS
OF
THE CHEVALIER DE JOHNSTONE.
THE WAR IN CANADA
(Campaign of 1759 );
DIALOGUE OF THE DEAD BETWEEN M. THE MARQUIS OP
MONTCALM, WHO COMMANDED THE ARMY IN CANADA,
UNDER THE ORDERS OF M. THE MARQUIS OF VAUDREUIL,
AND M. WOLFE, GENERAL OF THE ENGLISH ARMY, BOTH
KILLED THE 13TH 'SEPTEMBER, 1759, IN THE BATTLE
BEFORE QUEBEC ; OR AN IMPARTIAL AND MILITARY
EXAMINATION OF THAT CAMPAIGN, TO SERVE AS A. JUS-
TIFICATION OF M. THE MARQUIS OF MONTCALM.
jONTCALM. "It is singular, Sir, that my
shade has not again met yours since the time
that I descended into this region, where I
have followed you so closely. It is no fault
to have searched for you from a desire on my
part to enter with you upon discussion of the
operations of a campaign which has proved so fatal to both
of us."
Wolfe. "I have no less desire than you, Sir. One of my
compatriots, who died two days after the affair of the 13th,
apprized me that there had not been more than some hours
of interval between your destiny and mine. He added some
details regarding this event; but as he was but very imperfectly
informed, and as I myself was very ignorant of things rela-
tive to the operations preceding that day, I desired much to
have a conversation with you upon these subjects ; so much
the more, that the details that different persons have commu-
nicated to me of both nations, which have come, whether from
Europe or America, have always been very imperfect : and
I am enchanted that, after having made so many useless
efforts to meet you, chance at last produces this happy
result."
Montcalm. " Will you permit me, Sir, before our conver-
sation becomes more serious, to make one reflection upon the
difference of lot which we have experienced, comparing the
one with the other. They have rendered to you the greatest
honours. Your body has been transported to London with
magnificence, and deposited in "Westminster Abbey, among
those of kings. The English nation has erected to you a
superb mausoleum ; and your name, dear to Englishmen, and
continually in their mouths, is pronounced with the greatest
praises. But as for me, what sensation has my death made !
The Canadians and savages, who knew the uprightness of my
soul, and my devotedness for my king and country, are the
only ones who have done me justice, if you except a small
number of friends who, not daring to oppose the torrent, were
forced in secret to shed some tears upon my tomb."
Wolfe. "In this region, where there exists no longer
prejudice, I confess with frankness, that I have found your
lot preferable to mine, notwithstanding the injustice you have
experienced, for the most part, from your countrymen ; you
have been regretted, and your memory has been exculpated
by all those who are capable of appreciating your talents and
your eminent qualifications, and who have sufficient probity
and disinterestedness to render their homage. Why not take
the testimony of my army to your account ? Your virtues,
jand, above all, your humanity for prisoners, have gained you
the hearts of all my soldiers. They have not seen, but with
gratitude and veneration, the care you took to stay the hands
of the savages, when these barbarians prepared to slaughter
them, in order to make of them a horrible banquet ; and I
have known, that whereas they have refrained tears at my
death, they have shed bitter ones on being informed of yours.
I do not see in this mausoleum but a proof of a foolish weak-
ness in men ; what avails this block of marble to my actual
state? The monument remains, the conqueror has disap-
peared. This testimony in your favour, joined to that of
true judges in the art of war, and that of gentlemen in your
own country, is far above the empty honours which are
bestowed by the populace, who judge of things by the events,
and, besides, are incapable of annalyzing operations. The
greater part did not know me before the attack on this
colony ; and if fortune, to which I owe almost all my success,
had favoured me less, perhaps I should have been the victim
of this blind and impassioned people. The multitude have
not, and cannot have, but success to regulate their opinions."
Montcalm. "I am very much flattered, Sir, by your
manner of thinking with regard to me. Let us leave human
weakness to produce errors upon errors, and to praise to the
skies to-day what they will condemn to-morrow. It is now
that we can contemplate at leisure the errors and the passions
of men, which rush like the waves of the sea to dash and
often break themselves in pieces upon the rocks ; and since
the mist, which hitherto had concealed from our eyes part of
the truth, is cleared away, and as you have very justly
remarked, we are located in a region where they are divested
of all prejudice, would you be quite willing that we should
examine without partiality the operations of that campaign of
1759, equally fatal to the conqueror and the vanquished, and
what was the epoch of the loss of Canada to France."
Wolfe. " I agree to it, Sir, and to testify to you all my
willingness, I confess to you frankly, that I have been greatly
surprised at having been able to arrive with the English fleet
quite opposite to the town of Quebec, without having had to
encounter the slightest opposition in the river St. Lawrence."
Montcalm. "You have reason, Sir; it is not my fault
that you did not meet with obstacles in your way; I proposed
to make a redoubt and battery on Cape Tourmento, opposite
the passage at the end of the Isle of Orleans. The ships are
obliged to approach the Cape at the distance of a hundred
toises, to enter into the bay. It is a rock of about fifty feet
in height, by consequence a shelter to the guns of our vessels ;
and, besides, it is a position so advantageous that your troops
should have never been able to approach from any side to
form the siege, this rock being steep all around, and almost
perpendicular ; thus it is very likely that the first four ships
which should have presented themselves to enter the passage
would have been sunk to the bottom by the fire plunging from
this redoubt. I had also the idea of making a battery upon
the highest point of the peak which is opposite to the Isle at
Condre, which would have raked your vessels in their advance
from the rear, while they approached the anchorage, being
obliged to cast anchor to wait the return of the ebb tide, or
to be carried along and dashed upon the shallow coast by the
excessive violence of the currents at low water. I had even
sent the engineers to examine these positions. I proposed
this project for the part of the river below Quebec, but I did
not command a chief who was capable of executing it."
Wolfe. " It is true, Sir, that this would have occasioned
us a great embarrassment, and in a small degree retarded our
operations for some time."
Montcalm. " It was fully my intention, because I was
always sensible how fortunate it is to gain time in certain
positions ; above all in a climate such as Canada, where the
fine season is so short, that one cannot there maintain the
campaign, owing to the excessive cold which prevails at
Quebec from the month- of May even to the commencement
I of October; and your fleet did not arrive at the Isle at
Condre till the end of June."
Wolfe. " Certainly, Sir, we arrived in the river St.
Lawrence by far too late by six weeks. This is the ordinary
fate of all grave naval armaments and expeditions. The fleets
are almost never in a state to depart on the day named ; and
this is the cause which makes enterprises by sea so often
miscarry, the least delay being dangerous and of the last
consequence, by giving the enemy time to reconnoitre and
make the necessary preparations for defence."
Montcalm. " I will not conceal from you, Sir, that I
have always regarded the disposition which you made of your
army, after your landing before Quebec, as diametrically op-
posed to the first principle of the military art ! It appears to
me that this is an axiom recognized that an army ought to
be disposed in such a manner as to be able promptly to re-
unite, and to sustain itself reciprocally in all its parts. You
had divided your army into three camps one of which on
Point Levis, another upon the Isle of Orleans, and the third
at the Fall of Montmorency in such a manner that the
communications of one camp with the other were cut off by
two arms of the river St. Lawrence, formed by the Isle of
Orleans, and every one of which was six hundred toises in
breadth. Your position was like that of the French at the
siege of Turin when the Duke of Orleans proposed to leave
the lines to fight the enemy ; and it would not have been
difficult to attack your separated camps to triumph without
difficulty, as Prince Eugene did at Turin ; your two most
considerable camps that at Point Levis, and that at the
Fall of Montmorency being at the distance of two leagues
from each other, and separated by two arms of the river.
Your position was such that if we had fallen with our army
upon any one of your three camps, at our option, you would
have been destroyed and overwhelmed before it would have
been possible for your other camps to arrive to your succour.
How could you be able to rest tranquilly and without trouble
in a position so perilous during more than two months ? " *
Wolfe. " And you, Sir, what hindered you to execute
that which appeared to you so easy ? "
Montealm. "We attempted it, but with bad success.
Some days after our landing at Point Levis, we sent JM.
Dumas, major of the troops of the colony, with a detachment
of five hundred men, who in the night crossed the river oppo-
site Quebec, without having been discovered by your ad-
vanced posts, in order to fall upon your camp at Point Levis ;
but scarcely were they disembarked and in march to attack
you, than a panic terror so overcame them, that disorder then
ensued, they fired the one upon the other, and betook them-
selves immediately to flight in the greatest possible confusion,
to rejoin their boats. Discouraged by this bad beginning,
they never spoke again of attacking your camps, and it was
decided that they should stand solely upon the defensive."
Wolfe. " It appeared to me, however, that you were not
encamped in a manner to remain on the defensive, since your
army did not amount but to ten thousand men, and that your
camp occupied a space of from two to three leagues."
Montealm. " I am convinced of it, and I feel with you
that a line too much extended is too weak in all its parts ; I
am very much convinced by proof of this principle, and even
that it is a recognized maxim when they are not able to pre-
* To know how to choose advantageous positions for encamping is one
of the talents the most essential for a general of an army. " He who has
the conduct of an army," says a Chinese general, " ought not to trust to
others a choice of that importance. He ought to do something more still.
If he is truly able, he ought to be able to dispose of even the encampment
and all the marches of his enemy. A great general does not wait till he
make him go : he knows how to make him come. If you find in sallying that
the enemy seeks to render himself precisely to the places where you just
wish him to be, make in sallying also smooth for him all the difficulties, and
deliver him from all the obstacles which he could encounter. The great
science is to make him do all you wish him to do, and to supply to him,
without his perceiving it, all the means of aiding you."
vent a line from being forced, and I believe it equally impos-
sible to prevent the defeat of an enemy when they have many
leagues of coast to guard : he who attacks with all his force
united and concentrated on a single point ; on the contrary,
he who relies upon his force separated through the whole
length of his lines ; and one cannot know where the enemy
may make his real attack, since he is master of choosing the
place which he inclines. Thus it is evident that when one
makes feint attacks to threaten at once the whole extent of
the line, it is necessary that a column, forty or fifty men deep,
should penetrate an intrenchment, where it would scarcely be
possible to have two ranks of soldiers. It is the same as to
landings, notwithstanding the common opinion that it is pos-
sible to prevent them, and I do not know a better course to
adopt than to have a flying body of troops to fall upon the
enemy with the bayonet at the end of the musket before there
are a great many on the land, and before they could have
formed after the confusion which necessarily occurs in getting
out of their boats. My plan of defence was to occupy the
heights of Abraham, to encamp there, and to make the city of
Quebec serve as a pivot to all my movements, seeing the fate
of Canada depended on the capture of that city ; in this view,
I would have made intrenchments along the banks of the
river St. Charles, I would have remained encamped on these
heights fully two days before your arrival. The person in
my army in whom I always placed the greatest confidence,
on account of his merit and knowledge, proposed to change
our position by supporting our left by the fall of Montmor-
ency, and our right by the river St. Charles, making, as you
have remarked regarding it, a camp of an extent of two
leagues. He pretended, that on showing a large front, this
apparent boldness would impose upon the enemy. As there
is not a point of moral certainty in any operation of war, the
least unforeseen incident being capable of overturning the
best concerted plan, I sacrificed my own opinion to his, with-
10
out being satisfied. In that new position, M. Levis com-
manded the left and fall of Montmorency, I had the centre at
Beauport, and M. the Marquis of Vaudreuil the right, oppo-
site Canardiere, which was the head-quarters."
Wolfe. " If you had remained upon the heights of Abra-
ham, it is most likely that you would have prevented the
capture of Quebec, but you would have left me at liberty to
ruin and devastate the country."
Montcalm. " That may be so, but the Colony would not
have been taken, and you would not have dared to penetrate
into the interior of the country, leaving Quebec behind you.
If you had attempted to attack me, I had for my advantage
the heights, which I would have fortified by intrenchments,
and by a chain of redoubts, even to Cape Rouge, which is
about two leagues in a straight line from Quebec, and which
would have been an advanced post for me, difficult to force
by its advantageous position ; and I would have had for my
doorway the succour of the town, by which my army would
have been supported. I never could have imagined that it
could have been your idea to reduce Quebec to ashes, the
greater part of that city having been destroyed entirely by
the fireworks and bombs which you had thrown from your
batteries on the other side of the river. It appears to me that
when you intend to take a city with the intention of keeping
it, you ought to turn it to its proper use, in order to have in
place of a mass of ruins, houses to lodge your army in.
Besides, the destruction of that city would not have accele-
rated the capture in any manner. In the first place, you
could not have dismounted our batteries, which were much
more elevated than yours ; and, in short, the river which was
between you and the city, and which was six hundred toises
broad, would not have permitted you to approach it. What
advantage could you then expect from that manoeuvre ? "
Wolfe. "My inaction during the whole course of the
summer ought to have made you sufficiently acquainted with
my embarrassment, and the little hope I had of success in nay
enterprise ; and the destruction of Quebec in a mass to the
foundation, as it would have been in effect, would have
appeared, in the eyes of the English people, a considerable
advantage gained over your army, whom it behoved necessarily
to blind, to allay their passions."
Montcalm. "The day, Sir, that you landed at the fall of
Montmorency, and when you encamped there with a corps of
four thousand men, you were apparently ignorant that the
river Montmorency was fordable in the wood, at half a league
from your camp, where fifty men could have passed in front.
In passing, all at once, this ford, you would have been able to
fall unperceived upon the left of our camp, and to have cut us
in pieces before it could have been possible for us to assemble
a sufficient force to be able to present you a front capable of
arresting you, for we were in full security, ignorant ourselves
that there was a ford of this river, and we were not informed
of it till some hours after your landing."
Wolfe. "It is, then, not extraordinary that I should have
been ignorant of it. Besides, it is only the inhabitants of the
vicinity of rivers, morasses, and ponds who can give informa-
tion as to that, and all those of that quarter had fled and
retired into your camp. On my arrival I did not find a single
person ; and when I had found one, your Canadians were too
much attached and too much devoted to their King and their
country to have given me the least light on the subject.
Those whom we sent to reconnoitre could not do it but very
superficially, if they confined themselves to their own proper
observations, without interrogating the people of the sur-
rounding country."
Montcalm. " During the time your soldiers were occupied
in laying out your camp, and putting up their tents, M. Levis
found himself before the fall, with M. Johnstone, his aide-de-
camp, who investigated your manoeuvre. The aide-de-camp
having asked at M. Levis if he was certain that there was not
12
a ford in the river Montmorency, upon the positive reply of
M. Levis ' that he was assured that there was not one, since
he had himself reconnoitered this river up to a lake and
morass at two or three leagues in front of the woods, out of
which it arose, without ever finding one,' an inhabitant, who
heard them, immediately whispered into the ear of the aide-
de-camp, ' That the General deceived himself, that there was
a ford, and that the inhabitants daily passed this river on foot
to carry corn to the mill.' M. Johnstone imparted it imme-
diately to M. Levis, but the inhabitant having been interro-
gated somewhat roughly by M. Levis, expressed himself in a
voice so timid and trembling that M. Levis could not persuade
himself that he was deceived in his observations. On leaving
the fall to return to the lodging of M. Levis, M. Johnstone
gave orders to the countryman to find immediately some one
who had passed the ford within twenty-four hours, and to
bring him with diligence with him to the house of M. Levis.
The Canadian returned in a moment to find M. Johnstone,
followed by a man who had passed the night before with a
sack of corn on his back, and who declared that^he had found
the water not above his mid-leg. We sent, immediately, a
detachment to occupy this post, with tools to make intrench-
ments on the spot."
Wolfe. "If I had been as fortunate as you, Sir, to dis-
cover the ford, I would have fallen upon your army at the
instant ; for certainly I should not have let escape so fine an
occasion to distinguish myself. There is nothing so perilous
as the proximity of rivers or morasses, when they are not
sounded and examined with the greatest attention. A mishap
which occurred to one of my brother officers, Lieutenant-
General Cope, proves sufficiently the necessity of sounding,
with all the care and all the circumspection possible, the
rivers and the morasses which are found in the neighbourhood
of a camp. M. Cope, who passed for one of the best officers
of England, was sent to Scotland in 1745 to command an
13
army against Prince Edward. He chose a position the most
advantageous to wait for the rebels. He had on his right two
enclosures, with" stone walls seven or eight feet in height,
between which there was a road from fifteen to eighteen feet
broad, which led to the village of Prestonpans. Before his
front was another enclosure, surrounded by a ditch full of
water, twelve feet broad and very deep. At his left there
was a pond and a morass which he believed to be imprac-
ticable ; and behind him the'sea, which shut him up in the
best fortified camp. The proprietor j of the morass informed
Prince Edward that there was a place which he had often
crossed whenever he chose, but that there could not pass
more than a single man abreast. Prince Edward, sending at
once to reconnoitre this morass, found that it was unguarded,
crossed it during the night with his army, making them defile,
the one after the other ; and at the break of day M. Cope
saw the Highlanders a hundred feet before him, sword in
hand, who fell unexpectedly upon his army, without leaving
them time to put themselves in battle-array. All his troops
were in an instant shamefully cut in pieces or made prisoners,
and it was the strength of his camp that proved his ruin.
With difficulty could he save himself, with a score of horse-
men to carry into England the news of his own disgrace,
covered with dishonour, shame, and confusion. His misad-
venture has always made such a great impression upon me
that I have been continually upon my guard against a like
surprise ; and at the same time I have always sought to profit
by the negligence of the enemy in that respect. Thus, it is
greatly to be presumed that I should have discovered the
ford during the march, and then I should not have been
found wanting to take advantage of it."
Montcalm. " But, Sir, how do you justify yourself for
the imprudence with which you ensconced yourself in the
wood, with two thousand men quite opposite to our intrench-
ments at the ford; not a single man of your detachment would
14
have been able to escape ; nine hundred savages in ambus-
cade, within pistol shot of you, without your having perceived
it, would have invested and cut off your retreat. The savages
had sent at the instant their officer, M. Langlade, to inform M.
Levis of their position, and to beg him with clasped hands to
give orders to M. Repentigny, who commanded a corps of
eleven hundred men in the intrenchments at the ford, to cross
the river with his detachment ; and that they would answer
with their heads for the success of the attack ; adding that
you appeared to be about two thousand men, and that they
were not strong enough to attack you without reinforcements,
which they asked from the Canadians. There were a great
many officers in the house of M. Levis when Langlade arrived,
among others, commanders of battalions. M. Levis consulted
them, but no one officer gave it as his opinion for the detach-
ment of Repentigny to pass the river ; they pretended that it
was dangerous to attack an enemy in woods, of which it was
impossible to know the number, that perhaps this was the
whole English army ; and that it would be impossible to
engage in a general action without being prepared ; that if we
had the misfortune to be repulsed, M. Levis would be blamed
for taking this affair upon himself without waiting for orders ;
they alleged, besides, many other reasons equally less solid.
Never did any one see such a blindness ! M. Johnstone was
the only one who gave an opposite advice, and maintained
with spiritedness that there was not the least appearance
that this was the whole English army, since the savages,
who never failed to exaggerate the number of the enemy,
supposed them only two thousand men ; that although this
should be the whole English army, and that we should en-
gage in a general action in the woods, that was all that we
could desire as most fortunate, since one Canadian in the
wood was worth much more than three soldiers of regular
troops, and that one soldier on the plain was worth more than
three Canadians, of whom the greater part of our army was
15
composed ; and that it was necessary to suit and make the
different kinds of troops, of which our army was composed,
available ; that, without losing time, it was necessary to send
to Beauport to inform M. Montcalm to cause the army to
advance at once in echelons, replacing the post of M.
Repentigny at the ford by the Royal Eegiment Roissillon,
which was encamped close to that, and thus to stop the army,
always advancing in proportion as they passed the ford ; that
even supposing that the worst should happen, that we should
be repulsed, the English could not reap any advantage from
it, since we should have a secure retreat in the thickness
of the woods, where the enemy never durst pursue us, at the
risk of being cut to pieces by the savages and the Canadians ;
and he added that in war when fortune presented to us pro-
pitious moments, it was necessary to profit by them on the
instant. These reasonings made no impression, and Langlade
was sent back without having obtained anything. The am-
buscade of the savages was a little more than half a league
from the house of M. Levis ; in the meantime, Langlade
returned once more to give us instant news on the part of the
savages. M. Levis did not wish ever to give a positive
order to M. Repentigny to pass the river with his detach-
ment, but he charged Langlade with a letter on his part to
Repentigny, in which he notified to him the confidence he had
in his prudence, and that he could pass the ford with his
detachment, to join himself to the savages, if he saw a like-
lihood to succeed. M. Johnstone foreseeing the answer M.
Repentigny would make, he said to M. Levis, in sealing his
letter, that Repentigny had too much good sense and judge-
ment to take upon himself so delicate an affair. Accordingly,
he sent at once to demand from M. Levis an order more
positive and more clear. M. Levis in the end determined on
it, and mounted his horse to proceed to the ford, in order to
give his orders viva voce ; but scarcely was he on half the
road than he heard a fire of musketry. The time having
16
slipped away in indecision ; the savages impatient at having
remained more than an hour in a position so perilous, let go
their shot, killing five hundred men, and retiring immediately
without having lost a single man. It is evident that had M.
Repentigny passed the ford with his detachment, you would
have been cut in pieces, and accordingly, to all appearance,
this action would have determined for ever the war in Canada,
your army not having anything further to expect after such a
loss. Never did fortune seem to decide so favourably for
you, and it seems that the ruin of Canada was also decided
in the decrees of Providence. As to the rest we cannot
blame M. Levis. Every subordinate officer, is in rule when
he executes the orders he receives, much more when he sees
daily officers who are victims in having even followed orders
badly expressed and convertible into a double sense. One is
not wrong in being mistrustful in similar cases, where the
honour and reputation of an officer is engaged. The human
mind is too limited to foresee the result of an affair, and
when the success does not respond to an enterprise, even well
conceived and with all appearances of succeeding, one finds
but too many people who cover themselves under the shelter
of censure, which they have merited by their ignorance and
want of capacity, profiting thereby to destroy and sacrifice
innocent victims, while they themselves, who are really in-
capable, escape the punishment they deserve."
Wolfe. "My intention, of advancing so closely to your
intrenchments at the ford, was to see if there was any means
of forcing them, and in effect they appeared to me to be of
little consequence ; but the sole view of the stirring ground
imposed respect. Besides, accustomed to war in Europe,
could I imagine the bravery of your savages ambuscaded so
.close to me, unless I had discovered them ? "
Montcalm. "Your attack, Sir, on the 31st July, at a
place the most inaccessible of our camp, has always to me
appeared inconceivable. From Quebec to Beauport is a flat
17
and uniform country, and close to the source of the river,
From Beauport to the Fall of Montmorency, the country in-
sensibly rises ; and at the redoubt and battery which M.
Johnstone had erected, which was your landing and point of
attack, it formed, as you know, a mountain very steep and
sharp, which your soldiers would have had great difficulty in
scaling, even without the encumbrance of their accoutre-
ments. But supposing that they had been able to mount,
which they would not have been able to do, but at the
loss of three-fourths of your force, before arriving at the
summit, the height serving us as a very steep glacis, you
would have still found, upon the crest of the height, a very
solid intrenchment and well flanked, which M. Johnstone had
traced and conducted, the fire of which from the front and
the flanks would have made a butchery of your soldiers, as
soon as ever you had been engaged in the ascent. Besides
these difficulties, the ground between the redoubt of Johnstone
and the foot of the acclivity, was marshy, where one sunk
considerably. Your Scotch Highlanders would have broke
through this barrier, and would have advanced even to the
foot of the ascent, but they could not have escaped out of it.
I was a long time before I was able to persuade myself that
this was your real attack. I always feared for the loop-hole,
and if you had found it there, opposite the house of M. Vau-
dreuil, and a feint attack where you had made your real one,
you would have easily penetrated into the country by entering
it on plain ground ; and you would have cut our army in two
through the centre, unless the different corps could have been
easily able to join themselves : you would have compassed
the ruin of Beauport, which you would have taken all at
once, under shelter of being attacked by the left of our camp ;
and by your prolonging your line on the side of Quebec, and
forcing our horn work, which upon that side it would have
been possible to scale by a coup de main, you would have
been in an instant masters of the Heights of Abraham, even
B
18
to have turned against us the intrenchments which I had
made on the banks of the river St. Charles, which would not
have been available by changing our position ; and our com-
munication being cut off from the city by that manreuvre, you
would have been able to form the siege without fear of being
annoyed. Behold, Sir, what I continually apprehended ; and
if you had taken this course, I do not know indeed, how we
would have been able to extricate ourselves. M. Levis seeing
your attack determined against M. Johnstone's redoubt, caused
his troops prudently to retire, which were there inside, which
would not have been able to resist a shock of your army. It
was then, Sir, that miracles came to our aid, and greatly
apropos. As soon as you were at the redoubt, at the point of
seeing the difficulty of the ascent, but engaged in a bad mode
of proceeding, so as not to be able to extricate yourselves
but by the loss of half your army ; at this critical moment a
tempest arose, so great as to screen you all at once from our
view, we not being able to see more than two paces from our
intrenchments. When the tempest ceased, it was then that
we saw again your army which deployed in column towards
your camp at the Fall of Montmorency, for the purpose of
passing the ford of that river, close to the bank of the river,
which they did at low water. You profited, Sir, like an
able man, by this event to secure your retreat ; and certainly
you must have been content to escape, though with the loss of
five or six hundred men."
Wolfe. " I confess I was deceived with regard to that
height. In the distance it appeared inconsiderable ; and it was
only at the redoubt that the escarpment developed itself, and
appeared truly such as it is. I commenced at seven o'clock
in the morning, to open my battery of forty pieces of cannon,
of twenty-four pounders, at the Fall of Montmorency, as well
as my mortars and howitzers. The " Centurion" ship of war,
of sixty guns, and two small frigates, brought their broad-
sides to bear, at the same tune, against your intrenchments,
19
which kept up a continual fire like platoons of musketry ;
which I continued so from my batteries up to six o'clock in
the evening, when I commenced my landing at low water.
I daresay no one ever saw artillery better served. I imagine
that this terrible cannonade, which continued without inter-
mission throughout the whole day, intimidated the Canadian
militia, of which your army was principally composed, and
caused them abandon their intrenchments. My batteries, at
the Fall, being from twenty-five to thirty feet more ele-
vated than your camp, we saw your force in the intrench-
ments, even to the buckles of their shoes ; so it is not
possible but that you must have lost an infinite number of
men."
Montcalm. " This is what ought to form the eulogy of
that brave militia. Not a single man gave way ; all con-
ducted themselves with as much courage and ardour as my
regular troops. In reality, I had not but fifty men killed or
wounded by your furious cannonade. That is a proof that
these cannons do much less execution, in comparison to the
fear and respect which they ordinarily inspire. This occasion
made me remark, Sir, that your English countrymen, not-
withstanding their reputation for phlegmatic bravery, which
has been attributed to them, are more foolhardy and less fore-
seeing than the French, who have always passed for being
lively, fiery and impetuous, that scarcely have they patience
to examine a position of the enemy before attacking him.
Such is the idea you have in England of our nation ; but if
you judge of the two nations impartially, by the different
actions which have occured in Canada, I am persuaded that
you will render us justice ; and that you will confess that we
have shown more sang froid, circumspection, and presence
of mind than you. Your attack on the 31st of July, made
without ever having taken an exact reconnoissance of that
height, of which you had been deceived in the distance, is
not the first attack of that kind which your countrymen have
20
made in Canada. In the meantime, nevertheless, it appears
to me that, viewing the proximity of your camp to the Fall,
you would have been able to make a perfect reconnoissance of
that acclivity, whether with telescopes, or by landing a force
across the ford of the river of Montmorency in the night at
low water, to visit that height ; or by landing a force be-
tween our two hindmost redoubts, to climb up there during
the obscurity of the night. General Abercrombie, your pre-
decessor in the command of the English army, made the
same mistake in the year 1758, at Carillon, and his loss was
still more considerable than yours. I left Montreal in the
month of May, 1758, to proceed to Fort Carillon, which the
English called Tinonderoga, with all my regular troops, the
regiments of the Queen, the Sarre, the Royal Rousillon,
Languedoc, Beaux, G-uyenne, and Berry which was of two
battalions, and the unattached French companies of the
marine of Canada ; the whole composing a corps of about
four thousand men, the regiments not being complete, with-
out having had any certain advice that the English army
would come by the Lake of St. Sacrement to attack Carillon
and penetrate thereby into Canada. I foresaw it, neverthe-
less, on account of the proximity of that fort to your estab-
lishments upon the Lake of St. Sacrement ; and I never
ceased to press M. Vaudreuil to send to me, with all possible
despatch the Canadian Militia, which formed the principal
strength of my army ; but M. Vaudreuil not imagining that
my conjectures were well founded, in place of sending them,
gave them leave to remain at Montreal to work in fields
and at other country labour. On the 7th of July, my con-
jectures were realized, being informed that the English army,
of six thousand three hundred regular troops and thirteen
thousand militia of the colonies, had landed at the fall, an
advanced post a league from Carillon, where the Lake of St.
Sacrement terminates, and where there were about twenty
thousand men commanded by M. Abercrombie, a general of
-iy^ .
flgjfp*
fv*m
21
reputation in your country, who had succeeded General
Braddock, killed the year before at the Beautiful River : the
arrival of the debris of a detachment of four hundred men
which I had placed at the fall, of which there had been five
hundred killed there, did but confirm me too surely of the
truth of that news. One can hardly imagine a situation
more embarrassing and more annoying than that in which I
then found myself, above all, not having the Canadians,
which formed the most essential part of my army, by their
manner of fighting in the woods. The Fort of Carillon (a)
is a square of about seventy toises of length on every side,
regularly fortified with walls of masonry and terraces, ditches,
with a court-way and glacis. M. Bourlamarque, a very skil-
ful officer, and of great merit, added to it in 1759 a half
moon. For me to retire with my four thousand men was to
give up the colony to M. Abercrombie, the Fort Carillon not
being able to sustain for a long time a siege against an army
so considerable. Besides, this fort was the key of Canada on
that side of it, and M. Abercrombie having rendered himself
master of it, would have found nothing that would have been
able to prevent him from going straight to Montreal, which
was not susceptible of defence. On the other hand, to oppose
four thousand men against twenty thousand, the game was by
no means equal; nevertheless there was nothing to decide
the chance, and I determined either to save the country, or to
die gloriously with arms in hands. During the night I made
the whole force work to cut down trees to make an intrench-
ment (&, &, &, &,) which was very small ; the engineers having
stripped the trees of their branches, piled at length the one
above the other, forming a kind of parapet, but not sufficiently
high to place my soldiers under cover ; and which the enemy
could without difficulty have been able to overleap. A heap
of tree-tops outside, with points of their branches well shar-
pened, would have made an intrenchment, which would have
required less time to construct, and would have been more
22
impenetrable. At two paces outside the intrenchment, I
caused place all around the height a line of branches (h, h, 7i,)
points outside. Not having time to make an intrenchment
in the bottom at the left of the height, which could have been
done, about forty or fifty paces broad, between the foot of the
height and the river at the Fall, I placed there two companies
of grenadiers (d), and I caused the hollow at the right of the
height to be occupied by the unattached marine troops, where
the intrenchment (c, c,) was still worse than upon the height,
supporting their right in front of the wood. The next day,
the 8th of July, your army appeared at the border of the
wood, about three hundred toises in front of our intrench-
ments upon the height, and bore down in an instant (e) upon
three columns, without waiting to reconnoitre our position.
Two columns attacked at once the height, with all the fury
and impetuosity possible, but immediately they found them-
selves embarrassed by the branches, and being engaged inside,
without being able to advance, they lost there an immense
number of men. Some even having cleared them, were killed
by our soldiers at the point of the bayonet, when jumping into
our intrenchments. The chasseurs and militia of M. Aber-
crombie, who were under two engineers (g, <?,) which com-
manded our intrenchments, pierced through part of them, and
took another of them behind (&), where was the regiment of
Berry, which was harrassed by their fire, one of these
columns not being more than about forty toises from our in-
trenchments. The third column came forward, to attack the
intrenchments in the hollow, which the French unattached
companies of marines occupied, but the very brisk fire which
poured on the head of these troops of the colony, and at the
same time in flank of those who were on the height, turned
the tables there presenting its head at the height (&) which
it attacked vigorously. The troops of the colony, commanded
by M. Raimond, then proceeded out of their intrenchments to
approach nearer the column, and having poured a very brisk fire
23
upon the left flank of the column, at the side of the border of
the wood, it appeared to us as if it wavered, but it continued
always with obstinacy its attack against the height, and threw
into disorder the regiment of Berry, which began to fall back
and abandon the intrenchments. I was there quickly, and
having encouraged the soldiers, order was re-established in a
moment. I had placed my Grenadiers in rear of my in-
trenchments, in order as soon as we perceived that any por-
tion of them should be forced, they might be able to run to
their assistance on the spot, and throw themselves with head
low upon the enemy, the bayonet at the musket's end. Hav-
ing done all that the shortness of the time permitted me to
do for a good defence, and preserved during the whole length
of this attack the utmost coolness and presence of mind, to
remedy the disorder which must naturally arise in an action
so long and so determined, M Abercrombie, after struggling
desperately with the intention of forcing our intrenchments,
was obliged in the end to make his retreat with the loss of
from four to five thousand men, and to abandon his enterprise.
In the space of a night it was impossible to throw up works
so considerable, as to oppose an army so superior as mine.
I did everything that it was possible to do to acquit myself
with honour, and if I had been beaten, I would have had no-
thing to reproach myself with. To have done one's duty is a
sweet satisfaction in all events, and most flattering and con-
soling, in fortune the most adverse. M. Abercrombie had
made his attack with an inconceivable blindness and audacity,
without having previously reconnoitred the place. This is
what he would have had time to do from his landing, during
two hours that he remained at the Fall, which is not a league
from our intrenchments. Having neglected to examine our
position at night, at least it would have been possible to do it,
by remaining some time on the borders of the wood before
debouching, but immediately on arriving, he proceeded forth-
with in advance to make the attack. If he had advanced on
24
the 7th, at the moment of his landing, in place of passing
the night at the Fall, I would have never dared to make head
against him, on equal ground with so small a force ; and he
would have allowed me to take the course of retiring on the
spot, leaving at Carillon as many troops as the fort could con-
tain, in order to protract the siege of it longer. If the co-
lumns of the left ( 3 ) had followed the border of the wood to
fall upon the right flank of the intrenchments of the colony
to hold the middle of the space between the wood and the
height, which might be three hundred toises in length, it
would have found itself beyond the reach of the fire of the
height, and would have overthrown in an instant the troops
of the colony, who not being able to resist the shock of the
columns, would have been all at once put to flight. Carrying
themselves up, in fine, with rapidity to the side of the height,
in a place where it diminished much and is of easy access,
they would have taken our intrenchments behind. At the
single view of this manoeuvre, I would have been under the
necessity of abandoning my intrenchments with precipitation,
not to have allowed my retreat to have been cut off from the
fort, that which would have destroyed me without resource.
The enemy would have been able to penetrate equally at the
place where were my two companies of grenadiers (d\ and
which I had not time to cut off and mount upon the height,
where the ascent (Z) is gentle, to take equally the reverse of
the intrenchments on the height. But he always persisted
with determination and obstinacy in his attack upon the most
difficult places, without ever regarding his right or his left, to
see if he had the means of penetrating otherwise than by the
height. It must have been that he had a bandage about his
eyes, not to perceive that, during many hours that his attack
lasted."
Wolfe. " It was there, Sir, a day most glorious for you,
and worthy the ambition of the greatest of men. Our
columns not being distant but about ten paces from your in-
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25
trenchments, all our army recognized you, and distinguished
you perfectly well, engaged incessantly cheering up, encourag-
ing, and exciting the ardour of your soldiers ; running con-
tinually along your lines with the fierceness of a lion, at a few
paces in rear of your intrenchments, and exposing yourself
too much for a general of an army. It appeared very clearly
the disorder of your right, and M. Abercrombie redoubled his
eif orts to take advantage of it ; but you were always through-
out never disconcerted, and remedying immediately the least
derangement that one could perceive in your troops, before
it was possible to communicate itself to the other corps,
which happens commonly with the quickness of lightning.
This affair made you acquire so great a reputation in England,
for talents, capacity, and great genius, that I confess to you.
Sir, that the idea of having to fight against a general of your
merit, made me act with trembling during the campaign of
1759, and my movements were always undecided. I would
not be inclined to condemn the conduct of my countrymen
who were before me in the command of the armies in Canada.
The war of woods, which the savages and Canadians carry
on, is so different from that of Europe, that the most able
General, with the best disciplined troops, will never fail to be
cut in pieces by the scalping knife of savages in these vast
woods, by conducting themselves according to the rules of the
military art, the principles of which throughout Europe are
sure, fixed, and clear. They cried out in England against M.
Braddock, who was cut in pieces at Belle Riviere in 1755, with
four thousand men, by six hundred and fifty savages and
Canadians, more than against M. Abercrombie. The reason
is clear. M. Abercrombie returned to England ; and the
living find out a thousand ways of justifying themselves.
But M. Braddock was dead. The dead are always in the
wrong, and find few advocates sufficiently disinterested to
plead their cause. The order of march and disposition of M.
Braddock appears at the first sight altogether singular. In
26
analyzing it, it is no other thing than the rule of march prac-
tised throughout all Europe in crossing woods. An army of
three columns ; artillery carriages and baggage forming the
column in the centre ; the half of the grenadiers at the head
to sustain the pioneers, having been obliged to form a road,
in proportion as it should advance in the wood, to be able to
pass its artillery and carriages ; and the rest of the grenadiers
closed up its march. It was invested all at once on all sides
by savages dispersed in the woods, and every savage behind a
tree, who looked out for a man, in a manner that all their
aims took effect ; and at every discharge they vaulted from
tree to tree. What could regular troops do in such a case ?
To press close their ranks and files in proportion as they were
exposed, as did General Braddock. They fired continually
without seeing a man ; and they were all cut to pieces with-
out seeing an enemy. I do not know any other way of
defending one's self against savages than that which I did at
the Ford of Montmorency, by causing my soldiers cut with
the bayonet at the but end of their muskets, slashing on all
sides, wherever they saw a fire proceeding, without preserving
any order, and dispersing themselves as they did. I had not
two thousand men with me, and there were against me nine
hundred savages, who were repulsed all at once, and were
immediately dispersed."
Montcalm. " I believe, Sir, that your idea is just. The
savages, by repassing the Ford, said that there was no other
means of fighting against the English, since they had learned
to fight like them. It is singular that you had remained two
months in inaction with your army divided, when, being
master of the river St. Lawrence, by your ships of war, which
had passed in front of Quebec, you would have been able to
send a detachment below the city to effect a landing all around
where you could have pleased, without finding the least opposi-
tion. You limited yourself to make one single landing at the
village of Chambeux, about thirteen leagues from Quebec,
27
with a detachment of two thousand men ; but you were no
sooner on the land, than the sight of our cavalry, which con-
sisted of only two hundred Canadians, to whom I had given
horses, and which the Chevalier Rochebeaucourt had a little
drilled to form ranks and march together, you re-embarked
all at once with precipitation, and with all the disorder
possible, not having remained scarcely two hours on the land.
All this brilliant exploit terminated in burning a house at
Chambeaux, wherein were the equipments of some regiments.
If this detachment, on being landed, had occupied James
Cartier a place which retained the name of him by whom
the river St. Lawrence had been discovered, and who passed
the winter there amongst the savages, having lost his vessel
about ten leagues from Quebec, and had occupied it, you
would have cut off our communication with Montreal, where
we kept our provisions, and we would have been lost without
resource. James Cartier is so fortified by nature, that an
army of a hundred thousand men could not have forced
that post against three hundred men, who chose to defend
it. It is situated in the bottom of a ravine of immense
depth, and lost to view. The sides of the mountain are steep,
but glistening in such a manner that you can see even to the
bottom of the ravine. It is not possible to take it on the side
of the wood, on account of the impracticable lakes and quag-
mires which are there found ; and it is equally beyond
assault on the side of the river by its sharp elevation. The
only way of attacking it would be to make a landing at the
Chambeaux, as you had done, which is not distant more
than three leagues, and to take it in rear ; and we never
could have dislodged you therefrom, seeing you were absolute
masters of the river by your marine. It is a most unique
position."
Wolfe. " That is well said, but we did not know the
locale of these places then ; and we cannot send to reconnoitre
as in Europe."
28
Montcalm. " Your landing on the 13th of September,
the day of our fatal epoch, to come to an anchorage at the
foot of a mountain immensely high and steep, appeared to me
a rashness beyond imagination. A handful of men upon the
crest of this mountain would have been sufficient to repulse
you with sticks in hand, or by throwing down stones upon you.
I was very much surprised that this idea had never occurred
to your mind, when we had three posts, the one close to
the other, to defend that part, each of a hundred men ; the
one commanded by M. Douglas, captain of the Regiment of
Languedoc ; another by M. Rimini, captain of the Regiment
of Sarre ; and the third by M. Vergor, captain of the troops
of the Colony. These three hundred men would have been
more than sufficient to have placed us under shelter from
every assault from that side, viewing the difficulty of the
ground, which you could have never surmounted, if you had
there met with the slightest resistance."
Wolfe. " I do not justify my project of landing by the
success of it, but by my combinations, which turned out to be
good, and which succeeded according to what I had foreseen.
It is by analyzing a plan that one is able to demonstrate, if it
is well or ill concerted. In giving you the detail, I am per-
suaded, Sir, you would not blame me for having undertaken
an attack so ridiculous in appearances, but reasonable on
examination, if you do it impartially. In all expeditions
composed of naval and land forces, there never fails to be
between the two corps altercations, jealousies, and quarrels.
The admiral and the general not being subordinate the one
to the other, each commanding in chief his corps independent
of the other, it is almost a miracle if you see them united in
the same plan of operations, and that they yield reciprocally
for the good of the service. The service of the marine and
that of the land service are two studies, the principles of
which are altogether different there being no resemblance
between the manoeuvre of a ship and that of a battalion of
29
infantry ; nevertheless the admiral wishes to mix himself up
with questions of land forces, of which he knows nothing ;
and the general wishes to give his advice about the manoeuvre
of ships, of which he is equally ignorant. It is that which
occasions these discords which reign perpetually between the
two forces when they are detached together with a separate
authority. If every one wished to confine himself within the
knowledge of the part he has made his study, and had no-
thing solely at heart but the good of the service of his king
and country, three-fourths of the expeditions of land troops
mixed with the marine, would succeed better than they
ordinarily do. They annoyed me much, especially towards
the end of the campaign. On the 10th of September they
held a council of war on board the " Admiral," when it was
decided on to depart for Europe, viewing the danger to which
ships of war were exposed in the end of the season in these
outrageous seas, and that they could not remain longer. In
consequence, orders were given to some vessels to sail, which
immediately weighed anchor to descend the river St. Law-
rence, and they commenced at once their preparations for the
approaching departure of the whole fleet. On the 12th, two
deserters came to me from one of your three posts, who were
of your French regiments, and sufficiently drilled. On exa-
mining them, I discovered that your three posts, of which
you have been speaking, were negligently guarded ; and,
moreover, that M. Bougainville, who was with a detachment
at Cape Rouge, about three leagues from Quebec, behoved to
bring down, during the following night, some ships laden
with provisions. It occurred to me at once to avail myself
of this discovery, and I proceeded immediately to the admiral
to communicate to him the particulars, praying him, at the
same time, with clasped hands, to be pleased to concur in
allowing me again to make another attempt ; and I promised
him, if they fired on us twenty musket shots from your posts, I
should desist at the moment, and that I should not think of
30
anything farther than to embark to return for England. The
council agreed, and I commenced my landing at eleven
o'clock at night. When my boats approached your two posts
commanded by M. Douglas and M. Rimini, to the " "Who
goes there ? " of your sentinels, my soldiers replied in French
" Ships with provisions," as I had ordered them, and they let
them pass without stopping them, as it would have been right
to do, in order to recognize them and receive the password.
Not finding any sentinel at your third post, where M. Vergor
commanded, I made my disembarkation upon the spot, and
all my army was on the ground before you perceived it. I
commenced my landing by making a sergeant put his foot on
ground, with ten grenadiers, ordering him to move himself
always right in front, so that he might not be discovered, and
I caused him to be followed by a lieutenant with a detach-
ment of grenadiers, who had also orders to advance always
at quick tune, but to stop in an instant when he found the
enemy. Not intending to fire, I made all my corps of grena-
diers who followed the sergeant and lieutenant to debouch at
once, and also, successively, the rest of my army, conceiving
then good hopes of my enterprise by the silence of your posts.
As soon as the head of my column arrived at the foot of
the mountain, the soldiers climbed it, not without difficulty ;
and they served as guides to the others who were behind
them. In short, they all passed to a marvel, and there was
only one shot of a gun fired, which wounded M. Vergor in
the heel, and they made him prisoner immediately ; but we
did not see a single soldier of his detachment. If your posts
had been alert and upon ' their guard, all that I would have
risked by their discharge would have been the loss of the
sergeant and the lieutenant, with some forty grenadiers, and
I would have stopped my career in the moment ; for to at-
tempt an attack on a strong force at a place so impracticable
would have been a folly and extravagance unpardonable ;
but finding no opposition I continued to disembark my troops
31
with diligence, and as soon as I had some hundreds of men
landed I feared nothing more, having known by your deser-
ters that you had no troops upon the Heights of Abraham.
You see then, Sir, that I risked nothing. It is my principle
to seek out difficult places, which are generally ill guarded
and neglected ; and looking out where it might be possible to
pass not more than one man abreast, it is there that a landing
is sure to be made ; for where one man is able to pass, a
hundred thousand may do it, if they meet with no resistance.
In forming them in proportion as they cleared the defile, the
enemy being late in perceiving them, they would have imme-
diately a sufficient force landed to make head, which at every
moment increased ; and the soldiers in those kinds of enter-
prises do not amuse themselves by the road, and they pass on
with speed. Besides, in every surprise, the enemy is struck
with terror, dismayed and disconcerted ; and it requires more
or less time for reflection to come to his aid : stupified by a
circumstance which he had not foreseen, he is about half
beaten in advance, before coming to the fight. It is true that
if the enemy is beforehand aware of your design, you run the
risk of his allowing part of your force to pass to entrap them
in the end. But in these kind of enterprises, you proceed by
groping your way in proportion as you advance. The land-
ing at Louisbourg was executed in the same manner, and was
very successful. We did not despise a small creek, of diffi-
cult approach, in which we disembarked, because it was not
possible but for one boat to enter in front, all their forces
being distributed in the great anchorages ; and when they
perceived our manoeuvre, we had already landed from three
to four hundred men, in battle array, who covered the land-
ing. Scarcely ever do surprises, well planned and well exe-
cuted, fail to be successful. The enemy do not meet you in
a place difficult of access. Ordinarily, they do not even seem
to give them the least attention ; and it is when the enemy
32
does not wait for me that I always wish to make my principal
attack."*
Montcalm. " Confess at least, Sir, that men are unjust.
They reproach me for having been the cause of your success.
They accuse me of having sacrificed the interests of my king
and country, for which I would have shed all my blood,
drop after drop, with pleasure, and that through pique and
jealousy ; and those who treated me a little more humanely,
made me pass for a giddy goose and ignoramus. All these
injurioxis stories, all these atrocious calumnies which were
spread abroad, had their source from a class of men, who for
their interest, and by their immoderate desire of riches, would
have betrayed their God, as they have betrayed their king
and country. These vile mercenary souls knew quite well
that I detested them, as I nourished continually those in
whom I found probity, integrity, and greatness of soul. My
death has been their prosperity. If I had survived that fatal
day to return to Europe, I would not have had any difficulty
in justifying myself, and one only look would have made
them tremble and shrink into nothingness. Truth, supported
by innocence, overcomes and dissipates, sooner or later, the
obscurity of the mist which covers it. They were not
ignorant that I was acquainted with all their infamies and
jobberies, and my death was not able even to glut their ven-
geance. Coming into Canada to enrich themselves, they left
in Europe their honour and probity on embarking, and easily
forgot to be patriotic and to be just. I will give you, Sir, a
relation of our manoeuvres on the action of the 13th of Sep-
tember, adhering scrupulously to the pure and simple truth,
which has always been the rule of my conduct ; and I will
* Ferdinand, king of Arragon, made two armies take the field against
the Moors, under the conduct of Count Aguilar, and gave them orders to
enter at the same time the mountains of Grenada by the most difficult
passes, and consequently the least guarded, and he gained a victory the
most complete over the Moors. Life of Ximines.
33
demonstrate to you at the same time how_you ..w_ere. indebted,
to fortune for your success, and that there happened a con-
centration of a thousand circumstances, which were all
against you, to ensure your success, upon a false rumour at
the beginning of August, that a body of English troops in-
tended to penetrate into Canada by the highland districts.
M. Levis was sent by M. Vaudrueil to command at Montreal.
I felt all the regret possible at the departure of M. Levis,
having always had a very great opinion of his intelligence and
capacity, to which he had acquired a just title. Having pro-
ceeded to his house two hours before his departure, I be-
seeched him to leave with me his aide-de-camp, M. Johnstone,
as an officer who would be useful to me by the knowledge \j, h [^
which he had of our posts at the Fall of Montmorency, and
the plans of defence of M. Levis in that quarter. He con-
sented to it, and M. Johnstone remained with me, performing
the functions of my aide-de-camp. In the night of the 10th
or llth of September, your boats had got the start of us, by
appearing opposite the ravine of Beauport. I remained in
the house of M. Vaudrueil till one o'clock in the morning
that I left his house with M. Montrueil, major-general of the
army, and with M. Johnstone. On again seeing M. Mon-
trueil, after having given him my orders, I recounted to M.
Johnstone all the arrangements I had taken with M. Vaudrueil
in case you should have effected your landing at break of day.
He answered me that the enemy having actually concentrated
their forces to that at the point Levis, and their army having
ascended below Quebec, coasting along the other bank of the
river on the side towards the south, they were not able to
know at the moment, the place where you would attempt your
landing, whether it would be above the city, or below on the
side of Canardiere, being menaced equally by both. He
added that he believed a body of troops would be advantage-
ously placed on the Heights of Abraham, as in a central
point, to be able to throw itself with celerity, wherever the
C
34
enemy should attempt his landing. I approved greatly of
these ideas. I recalled M. Montrueil, who was not as yet far
from us, and I ordered him immediately to cause mount at
once the regiment of Guyenne, on the Heights of Abraham,
there to pass the night. This regiment being encamped
before the horn-work, found itself the readier for the height.
The next day, the llth of September, I wrote to M. Montrueil,
ordering him to cause the regiment of Guyenne to encamp
upon the Heights of Abraham, to remain there in a fixed post
till a new order, and I always believed, that that regiment
was there, in consequence of my orders to M. Montrueil ; for
what reason he had landed and occupied his old camp in
front of the horn-work, I am ignorant ; but it is certain that
if that regiment had remained there conformably to my
orders, you would have been cut up in an instant, the height
where you had made your landing being ten times more steep
and elevated than that where you made your attack on the
31st of July. Moreover, you would have never attempted
your landing, and you would have embarked your army to
return to Europe. Thus Canada would have been saved and
delivered for ever from your enterprises, in the view of the
incredible expense your expedition cost England, Avhich they
suppose a million a day, French money ; and then the cam-
paign would have been ended.
"As soon as you had united your whole army in one single
camp at the point Levis, after having remained nearly two
months separated in a position, in which it was not possible
to establish communication, between the one end and the
other, your army ascended the river to within seven or eight
leagues below Quebec. I then sent M. Bougainville with a
detachment of five hundred, the elite of my army, composed
of all the grenadiers, the companies of volunteers drafted
from different regiments, my best Canadians and savages ;
and I gave him, at the same time, some pieces of cannon. I
had ordered M. Bongainville to follow with precision all your
35
movements, and never to lose sight of you ; to ascend the
river when you ascended it, and descend it in the same
manner. In short, to be a corps of observation, always
ready to be at hand to oppose your landing, in case you
attempted to cross the river, to fall upon you with the swift-
ness of an eagle, the moment that you should attempt to set
your foot on ground. On the 12th of September, M. Bou-
gainville sent to inform me that your army was landed quite
opposite to Quebec. Why he had not followed his instruc-
tions, instead of remaining with his detachment at Cape
Rouge, which is about three miles from Quebec ? Why were
you not followed to the Heights of Abraham ? Why did he
not send back my grenadiers and volunteers, who were the
soul of my corps, as I have well proved by their absence from
the battle the next day ? Why, after having informed me
also that the posts of Douglas and Rimini, where he ought
to have landed his boats that night laden with provisions,
did he not send, at the instant, a counter order to let them
know his change of plan, and that his boats would not sail
till the following night ? I knew nothing of all this. I
learnt between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, by
deserters from these posts, that you were on ground upon the
Heights of Abraham, and he put himself in march, but un-
fortunately by taking the road along the coast which con-
ducted straight to your army, in place of the other road
which led to my camp. He would have even been able to
quit the Heights of Abraham, after having come in sight of
your army, convinced clearly that it shut up the road, and to
have joined me again, some time before the battle, which did
not take place till about one o'clock in the morning, in pro-
ceeding by the side of the general hospital, and from thence
to the bridge at the horn-work, traversing the river St.
Charles. It was still more in effecting my misfortune that he
found on this road a house full of from three to four hundred
men of your troops. He attempted to take there M. Noir,
36
captain of the regiment of Sarre, in that house with his com-
pany of volunteers, having much more intrepidity and bravery
than prudence and knowledge of the strength of a fort secured
by barricades and well fortified. He was immediately re-
pulsed with the loss of more than the half of his com-
pany ; and he received at the same time two wounds, one
ball through the body, and the other in the hand. M.
Bougainville had stood firm and stopped before that fort to
wait the arrival of his cannon in order to force it. The can-
nons arrived, but they found they had forgot the balls ; thus
they lost the most precious moments ; and in the end he re-
traced his steps to Cape Rouge with his detachment. The night
of the 12th and 13th of September, M. Poularies, comman-
dant of a battalion of the royal regiment of Roussillon, who
was encamped behind my house at Beauport, entered my
house, at midnight to inform me that he saw boats opposite
my camp. I ordered the whole force immediately to proceed
to the border of the intrenchments, and I sent without delay
M. Marcel to the house of M. Vaudreuil, an officer in the
train of the regiment of the queen, who served me as aide-
de-camp, ordering him to pass the night there ; and if he
learned there anything new, to despatch one of my ordnance
troopers, which I gave him to remain with him, in order to
acquaint me with it forthwith. I promenaded in front of my
house with M. Poularies and M. Johnstone. At one o'clock
in the morning I sent back M. Poularies to his regiment, and
I passed the rest of that night promenading with Johnstone
between my house and the ravine. I was throughout the
whole night in a state of extreme dejection and inconceivable
agitation of mind. I believed, that my anxieties arose from
the boats of provisions which M. Bougainville ought to have
sent ' an ^ ^ re P eate d often to Johnstone that I trembled lest
they should be captured, the loss of which would ruin us
without resource, not having two day's provisions of subsis-
tence for the army. It appears to me that my extraordinary
37
sufferings that night were a presage of the fatal lot that be-
fell me some hours after. At break of day they fired some
cannon shots from our battery of Samos opposite Sillery, and
I never more doubted but that our boats had not been taken.
Alas ! I never could have imagined that our provisions were
in safety at Cape Rouge with M. Bougainville, and that you
were landed on the Heights of Abraham since midnight,
without my having had advice of a circumstance so important,
and which was known throughout all the right of our army.
Broad daylight beginning to appear without receiving any
news, and M. Marcel not having sent back my ordnance
trooper, I had my mind more tranquil by the reflection that if
anything had happened they would, without doubt, have given
me advice ; and I sent M. Johnstone to cause the whole force
re-enter their tents, the whole having passed the night bivou-
acking in the intrenchments. Having retired myself to my
house, and after having drunk some cups of tea with M.
Johnstone, I said to him ' to saddle the horses, and that we
would make a tour to the house of M. Vaudreuil in order to
learn why the battery at Samos had fired.' No person having
come from the right since midnight that I had sent M. Mar-
cel, we departed between six and seven o'clock in the morning.
Having arrived in front of M. Vaudreuil's house, great God,
what a surprise ! For the first news of what had occurred
during the night was that we saw your army on the Heights
of Abraham, who were keeping up a discharge of musketry
with the Canadians scattered among the brushwood. At the
same time I met M. Vaudreuil on horseback, who was just
coming from his house. I spoke to him on the instant, and
turning towards M. Johnstone, I said to him, ' the affair is
serious : run to Beauport at the gallop, ordering M. Poularies
on my part to remain at the ravine of Beauport with two
hundred men, and that he should cause the whole left ad-
vance in order to take possession of the height in front of
Quebec with all possible despatch.' M. Johnstone having
.
"7
communicated my orders to M. Poularies, left him an instant
to give some instructions to the people of my house, which
was close by ; and being returned from the ravine in the road
to rejoin me on the height, he there found M. Poularies with
M. Senezergue, lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of "Saste,
and M. Lotbiniere, aide-de-camp to M. Vaudreuil, who
stopped him to reiterate my orders to him. M. Johnstone
having done this, added that he strongly advised M. Poularies
not to confine himself to this order, but to repair himself
before Quebec with the whole left, not leaving one behind ;
since the English having landed on the Heights of Abraham,
it was evident that they would never seek to make a second
landing at Beauport to divide their forces ; and that there
would be certainly a general and decisive action on the
Heights immediately. M. Poularies then showed to M.
Johnstone a signed order by M. Montreuil, which M. Lotbi-
niere had come to bring him, which said ' that no person of
H the left should budge from the camp.' M. Johnstone de-
clared to them upon his honour, and taking God to witness
that what he had said to them was word for word my orders
and my intentions, and he advised strongly M. Poularies not
to have the least regard to the order signed by M. Montreuil,
the affair being very serious and of the last consequence,
since it would occasion the absence of about two thousand
men from the battle, which might take place in an instant,
and was inevitable from the position which they had taken
up on the Heights. M. Senezergue, a very worthy man, who
was killed an hour afterwards, said to Johnstone that he
should take upon him to cause them march ; but he replied,
that not being but the simple bearer of my orders, he could
take nothing upon him : that if he was a brigadier of the
army, as he was, and second after me in commanding the
army by the absence of M. Levis, he would not hesitate an
instant in causing the march : that all that he could do was
to run with the utmost speed to give me an account of this
r
39
counter-order. Johnstone then took his leave at once, leaving
them together in a state of indecision. / / *
"I do not know, among a thousand other things of which
I am ignorant, what it was that made us take up a position
between your army and Quebec, which was of all those which
it was possible for us to choose the very worst, because there
were no provisions in the city, and the best j)f our ^r6dps L^lW^
were absent with M. Bougainville at Cape Rouge. It was not fy/ff*
I that did this, for all the picquets of the right had already
marched to the heights before my arrival at the house of M.
Vaudreuil, and even before I knew that you had landed, and K*
I found the different corps without arms ready to follow them
when I arrived at their encampments. Our true manoeuvre
ought to have been to have proceeded by the village of Lor-
rette, to have straightway gained the heights of the village of
St. Foix, about three leagues from Quebec and a league from
Cape Rouge, in order to facilitate our junction with the de-
tachment of Bougainville, and to have come upon you at St.
Foix the next day before you would have been able to en-
trench yourselves, hemming you in against the city, where
you would have been engaged between two fires, by a sally
from the garrison at the same time with an attack. I was
not sooner upon these heights than I perceived well our un-
fortunate position, cooped up as we were against the city, and
having no provisions there inside to subsist our army twenty-
four hours. But the evil was without remedy, and being in
battle array at a gun-shot from your line, it was morally im- !
possible that you would have been able to dislodge us from
thence. To descend the heights to return to the bridge of
St. Charles at the horn-work, we would have laid open our
left flank to the enemy, and been exposed in an instant to be
entirely cut in pieces with disgrace, not having the power of
defending ourselves ; to have entered into the city you would
have been able in a moment to shut us up without provisions
by lengthening your left by the suburbs at the side of the
40
palace, even to the bank of the river St. Charles. I did not
think more than to overwhelm you with a cannonade, and
the ground upon which my army found itself in battle array
was favourable for that, having several small eminences in the
the extent of our line which commanded you. I imagined that
on your finding yourself greatly incommoded by my artillery,
perhaps you would take the course of retiring in the night.
Then I sent at once to the town to demand of M. Ramsay,
the king's lieutenant at Quebec, to bring me with all the
diligence possible the twenty-four field pieces which were
upon the palace battery. Precisely at the instant that M.
Johnstone rejoined me upon the Heights of Abraham, and
that he had communicated to me the counter order that had
been sent from M. Poularies, the sergeant whom I had sent to
M. Ramsay for the fourth time, that I had ordered him to
send me the field pieces, came to tell me on his part ' that he
had sent me three pieces of cannon, and that he could not
give me more, having the town to defend.' What could have
been the idea of M. Ramsay ? I know nothing of it. In the
I/ first place, the town was defended by our army, which
covered it, being in battle array at the distance of a gun-shot
from the gates, and its safety depended upon the issue of a
combat.
" Secondly, There were in the town more than two hun-
dred pieces of cannon for its defence, of which the greater
part were twenty-four and thirty-six pounders.
" Thirdly, Of the field pieces of two pounders, of which
the battery of the palace was composed, they could never be
regarded as of any utility in defence of a place.
" I assembled at once a council of war, composed of all
the chiefs of corps. Some_pretended that you were occupied
in entrenching yourselves ; others that you would attempt to
descend from the height to proceed to the bridge over the
river St. Charles, in order to cut off our retreat, and even
communication with the left of our army, which remained at
v
41
the ravine of Beauport, in consequence of the counter order
from M. Poularies ; in fact, a movement which your army
then made in carrying you to the side of the house of Borgios,
that which you had occupied at first from which the Cana-
dians chased you, in there keeping up a fire, seemed to
favour this opinion, that movement having been made at the
moment of holding the council. Others said that the more
they delayed the more they would have of the enemy to com-
bat, in the belief that your whole army was not yet landed,
and brought on the heights ; in short, there was not a single
officer of the council of war who was not of opinion that we
should attack you the moment. What to do in this dis-
tressing and desolate situation, from which I could see no
resource ! I believe that a Marshal Turenne would have
found himself very much embarrassed to be able to extricate
himself from a situation so unfortunate as that in which they
had placed me. Having heard all their advices, I replied, ' It
appears to me, gentlemen, that you are all unanimously of
opinion to give battle and charge the enemy forthwith, and
that it does not signify at present, but to know in what man-
ner we ought to attack.' M. Montreuil said, ' that we should
charge in columns.' I answered him, ' that that was not
possible, and that it was necessary to charge in front of ban-
ner.' Thus some columns would be able to form themselves
with undisciplined men, and at a distance of a gun-shot from
the enemy. We would have been cut off before being formed
into columns. Besides, we had not our grenadiers, who were
at Cape Rouge with M. Bougainville, to guard the head of
our columns. I yielded to their advice. I sent back at once
every one to his post, and I caused make the charge. Our
attack was not forcible. We were repulsed in an instant.
And this could not have been otherwise, from the absence of
our volunteers with M. Bougainville, and our best Canadians,
the Montreal regiment, with M. Poularies, at the ravine of
Beauport. This brave militia, the Canadians, to the num-
J-A
42
ber of from twelve to fifteen hundred, saw us, with grief, cut
to pieces on the heights, suffering violently at being spectators
of our misfortunes, without their being permitted to cross the
river of St. Charles to come to our assistance, having been
all stopped at the horn-work. We did not lose many men.
About two hundred resolute and determined Canadians
rallied themselves at the foot of the height, in front of
Boulangerie, and remounted the ascent with inconceivable
bravery and intrepidity. They threw themselves upon your
left with incredible fury, like desperate men, and kept your
army in check during some minutes, which gave time to
our army in rear to save themselves with less loss, by stopping
the pursuit of your victorious army to turn against them.
These brave Canadians disputed foot to foot of ground, and
in retreating they continued always firm, mid-way up the
ascent, firing above upon your troops. When they were en-
tirely repulsed, obliged in the end to yield to numbers, and
your troops pursuing them were descending after them into
the plain before Boulangerie, if you had advanced three or
four hundred paces farther to the banks of the river St.
Charles, you would have shut up the debris of our army in
the town of Quebec, without provisions, and there must have
then been next day a general capitulation of the colony ; but
as to that, it was wise and prudent for you in your position
to make a bridge of boats to your enemy in rout, and not to
run the risk of letting the victory escape out of your hands.
You see, Sir, by the true and sincere detail which I have
given you, how all the events combined in your favour to en-
able you to succeed in your enterprise, of the great number
of which one alone would have sufficed to make your expedi-
tion in Canada successful. It seemed that Heaven had or-
dained the loss of this colony to France. Let us conclude
presently that I have little merited the blame and injustice
which they have heaped upon me in public, than you the ex-
cessive honours which they have lavished on you in your
43
country, and that the ablest general in my situation would
not have been able to conduct himself otherwise than I have
done. Besides, being subordinate to M. Vaudreuil, I could
not act and follow my ideas so freely as if I had commanded
in chief. It is only the ignorant who judge by events."
Wolfe. "I confess, Sir, that I have been guilty of errors.
I was then young and rash, but age and experience would
have corrected me. Marshal Turenne had in view Mariend-
hal, which he never forgot. The human mind is limited. I
shall finish our discussion by what was said by the Duke of
Buckingham, one of the greatest geniuses of England, whose
ashes repose beside mine, in an epitaph which he composed
himself for his tomb ' Humanum est errore et nescire ' (' To
err is human and not to know.') "
The death, of Wolfe was like that of Epaminondas when mortally
wounded he asked if the British were victorious, and being told they were,
he said " I die content," and expired without a groan. ED.
END OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1759.
MONTCALM, in endeavouring to rally our
troops in their rout, received the shot of a
gun, which pierced through his abdomen.
He was- carried to Quebec, and lodged in the
house of M. Arnoux, surgeon to the king.
The wound having been examined by M.
Arnoux, the younger, the elder brother being absent with M.
Bourlaraarque at Carillon, was pronounced mortal. This
worthy and great man learned his melancholy news with a
tranquillity and serenity of soul and with a heroism worthy
of the ancient Romans. He begged M. Arnoux, with sang
froid, and an air of indifference to the choice of living or
dying, to tell him frankly till what hour he would be able to
preserve his existence. The surgeon answered him that he
could not be able to pass three o'clock in the morning ; and
he ended his days a little before the hour that M. Arnoux
had foretold him, pronouncing for his last words, " I die con-
tent, since I leave the affairs of the king, my dear master, in
good hands : I have always highly valued the talents and
capacity of M. Levis." I shall not undertake to pronounce
the eulogy of this great, truly patriotic man, whose reputation,
if he had chanced to be born in England, would have been
transmitted to posterity : celebrated and illustrious by his
virtues, by his great genius, by every sort of eminent quali-
ties which deserved the best chapjet ; but an unfortunate
. ...-'i, <ju^4+v tU-i.
45
victim to the insatiable avarice of some, and a prey to the
ambition of others.*
As soon as I learned his misfortune, I charged Joseph,
his valet-de-chambre, who went the instant to rejoin his
master at Quebec, to say to him that if I could be useful to
him, that I would come immediately to be with him ; but
Joseph returned without delay, to find me at the horn-work,
with a reply on his part " that it would be useless to come
thither, not having but a few hours to live, advising me to
remain with M. Poularies to wait the arrival of M. Levis."
Our army in rout, totally dispersed, threw itself on the
side of Quebec, the great part of which, without entering into
that town, descended the Heights of Abraham opposite the
palace in the suburbs, and followed the banks of the river St.
Charles to proceed to the horn-work, where there was a
bridge of boats across that river. From the time I saw our
overthrow without remedy, I formed the resolution of de-
scending from the heights to the side of the windmill to
throw myself into the horn-work, fearing the risk of being
shut up in the town by the enemy going there, which he would
have been able to do by easy movements from the position of
the English army, by cutting off the communication of the city
with the horn-work. Carried along at first towards Quebec
in the middle of the fugitives, in descending into a marshy
puddle, I there found one of our cannons embedded, with
some gunners who were making ineffectual exertions to drag
it out. I stopped for a little with them to encourage them ;
* The ashes of this man, mixed with those of savages, repose coldly on
the other side of the seas. They do not require a mausoleum or altars.
Wolfe had statues in England for the blunders which he had continually
committed during the course of this campaign. How do deaths veil the
remains of the greatest men to titles still more vain ! 0, injustice of men !
Mausoleums decorate our temples and repeat incessantly false eulogiums ;
and history, which ought to be the asylum of truth, and to prove that sta-
tues and panegyrics are almost always monuments of prejudice or adulation,
denies this unjust reputation.
46
but the gunners having in the end abandoned it, on re-as-
cending the eminence to go to the windmill, I found myself
presently in the midst of a crescent which the English army
had formed in advancing. I persisted in going to the mill,
and in spite of the thousand musket shots from all parts that
were aimed at me, I was sufficiently fortunate to escape that
terrible fusillade, without any other hurt than to have my
clothes shattered and pierced through by four different balls,
another ball lodged in the front stuffing of my saddle, and
four balls in my horse's body, which carried me, nevertheless,
to the horn-work, in spite of his wounds. On arriving there
I found an incredible confusion and disorder ; a general panic
and consternation ; M. Yaudreuil listening to every one, and
always to the advice of him who spoke to him last ; not an
order given with reflection or coolness ; in short, not knowing
in fact, neither what they said nor what they wished to do.
When the enemy had defeated the Canadians, who had re-
ascended the heights, that necessarily happened, as two hun-
dred men could not long keep in check an army of ten
thousand men ; the English descending in the plain close to
the baking establishment in pursuit of these Canadians, it
was then that the disorder in the horn-work became to an
inconceivable degree, and that every one's head was turned.
M. Montgay and M. Motte, two captains in the Berne regi-
ment, cried out with vehemence to M. Vaudreuil, " that the
horn-work would be carried in an instant, sword in hand ;
that we would all be passed at the point of the sword ; and
that there was only a general capitulation for the colony at
once that would be able to save us." M. Vaudreuil an-
swered them, "that as to a capitulation there must be articles,
and time and consideration for making them." M. Montreuil
said to them, " that they could not sweep away these works as
briskly as the former." It must be observed that we had
the river St. Charles between us and the enemy, of about
forty toises broad, which served as a ditch to the horn-work ;
47
and the part of that work which skirted the river was made
very solidly with thick piles of wood, but very high and
very difficult to be taken by assault. Others cried with a
COT"*^
loud voice, that it was necessary to ]pai3s down the bridge,
while as yet a fourth part of our army had not passed, as one
might be able to see from the banks of St. Charles ; the whole
force, which came in flocks, covered the ground from the
town to the bridge, and the royal regiment of Roussillon,
which we could discover on the other side of the river ready
to cross it. Having formerly met in with defeats, my head
was not turned ; and although I had already learned the dis-
mal fate of the unfortunate M. Montcalm, which penetrated
me with grief to the bottom of my soul, 1 presumed as yet
upon a kind of authority and respect, which I had acquired
in the army, and which were lent me from the goodness and
confidence which he and M. Levis had always testified to me
publicly. I called on M. Hugen, an officer of the colony, who
had commanded at the horn-work for some time with a de-
tachment, and begged him to accompany me. We ran to the
Abridge, and without demanding who it was that had given
orders to break it down, we drove away from it the soldiers,
who had already hatchets lifted up to accomplish this fine
manosuvre. M. Vaudreuil having entered into a house which
he had within the walls of the horn-work, immediately after
his reply on the subject of the general capitulation, he there
held a council with M. Bigot, the commissary, and with some
inconsiderable officers. Doubting greatly of what they
treated, the bridge being safe, I entered also ; but I had only
time to see M. Bigot seated, with a table before him, and a
pen in his hand, when M. Vaudreuil said to me at once to
leave the house, adding that I had no business there. The
Governor-general had reason along with him, for the infamy
of wishing to surrender to the English, so lightly, a colony
which had cost France such immense sums of money, as well
as blood, to preserve it, and which could be so advantageous
48
to that nation ought naturally to revolt and check a man
who had a soul and who thought with honour and sensibility.
On leaving the house I found M. Dalquier, commandant of
the battalion of Berne, and having laid open to him what had
been transacting, I caused him to enter there to take his place
at the council. He was one of those true military men, cap-
able of shedding all his blood, drop and drop, for his king,
brave as a hero, a well-bred man, and full of honour. I then
left the horn-work to join M. Poularies at the ravine of
Beauport ; but I met him not far from that work, and having
informed him of all that had taken place there, he replied to
me that he would rather be hacked in a thousand pieces than
submit to a general capitulation set spurs to his horse, and
parted like a flash of lightning, flying at full speed. As this
Avas a determined officer, of a phlegmatic bravery, I was re-as-
sured that he and M. Dalquier would overturn every project
which they could have for a general capitulation of the
colony. M. Poularies, on quitting me, offered me his horse,
which I accepted ; and I continued my road to proceed to
Beauport, with a very broken heart, greatly fatigued, low-
spirited, and overwhelmed with chagrin with the horrid ad-
venture of the morning, a few hours having produced a
terrible revolution in my situation by the death of M. Mont-
calm, which even time would not be able to repair, losing in
him a true and sincere friend, who loved me tenderly, and
with whom in appearance I should have passed the rest of
my days, as he often said to me, if cruel and perfidious For-
tune had not snatched him from me.
It was decided at the council of war, in the horn work,
that we should retreat to James Cartier, an advantageous
position, about ten leagues from Quebec, and there wait the
arrival of M. Levis, to whom^we despatched a courier to in-
form him of our disaster. Our departure, in the meantime,
was fixed to be at night-fall ; and all the corps were ordered
to betake themselves to their different camps till a new order.
49
-A resolution taken for the purpose of retreat, ought, to be
a secret, without being communicated to any person, not even
to the officers. I passed the whole day with M. Poularies, in
continual expectation till he should receive his orders on the
subject of the arrangements, and necessary disposition to con-
duct a retreat without disorder and confusion ; but at eight
o'clock at night, the night closing in, and not having had any
news, M. Poularies, not knowing further to what hand to turn
him, sent his sub-aide, Major M. Castaigne, to the house of M.
Vaudreuil to receive his orders in that respect. M. Castaigne
returned with speed to apprize M. Poularies that M. Vaud-
reuil and the whole right of our army Avere already gone ;
that there had not been any o'rder given on the subject,
but that the army had left the horn-work. One may judge
of our surprise ! M. Poularies sent at once to the post which
was nearest to his regiment at Beauport, with orders to
give notice thereof from post to post, till the Fall of Mont-
morency ; and I departed instantly with him and his regi-
ment, every one having for guide the regiment which had left
before him, but Avithout knowing othenvise the route which
they ought to take, a march exactly a la sauvage, (like
savages.) This Avas not a retreat, but a flight the most
abominable ; a rout even a thousand times Avorse than that of
the morning on the Heights of Abraham, and with so much
confusion and disorder that, if the English had known it, it
would not have required more of them than three hundred
men to have cut in pieces our whole army. Except the Royal
Regiment of Roussillon, which M. Poularies kept in and pre-
served in order, I did not see thirty men of any one regiment
together. All the corps mixed and dispersed, and every one
running as fast as his legs could carry him, as if the enemy
Avere pursuing them close at their heels.
As I had a perfect knowledge of the local position of the
left of our camp, during several Aveeks that I had remained
there Avith M. Levis and M. Montcalm, I believed it possible
D
50
to point out to M. Poularies the arrangement which they ought
to make for our retreat, and the road which every regiment
should take to arrive at Lorrette. But I deceived myself
grievously ; and I could have never imagined such a disposi-
tion of march for regular troops, equally foolishly concerted as
ill executed, and which lengthened considerably the road
which the troops of the centre had to make, and of the left of
our camp to reach Lorrette. There is a great road which
goes in a direct line direct from the Fall of Montmorency to
the village of Lorrette, and which makes the side of a tri-
angle formed by another great road from the Fall to Quebec,
and by a road which ascends from the horn-work straight to
Lorrette. In the extent of the road to Quebec from the horn-
work to the Montmorency Fall, there are about seven or eight
different cross-roads to get into the great road from the Fall
to Lorrette ; thus it was natural to believe that every regi-
ment would have been ordered to take the cross road which
would be the nearest to the place where they were encamped.
This would have shortened the road a league to the troops
who were encamped at the Fall, who might arrive at the
horn-work to seek the road from thence to Lorrette. Above
all, the whole corps would have been able in a short time to
reunite in the road to Lorrette ; and that would have pre-
vented them from coming near the enemy, as they did ; but
they fled with such precipitation that they were under the
necessity of abandoning everything which was in our camp,
tents, cannons, munitions of war, the royal magazines, the
baggage, in a word, any thing that they were not able to
carry along with them, which they would have been able
easily to avoid, having had time from mid-day, when the
retreat was decided on, till night, to clear everything away ;
but they never thought of putting the horses and carriages
into requisition. The enemy was ignorant of our retreat
for forty-eight hours ; and always seeing our tents standing,
believed us still in our camp, without ever daring to send to
51
clear up the matter. M. Bellecour, a cavalry officer of Roche-
beaucourt's, returned to our camp two days after our retreat,
where he found everything in the same state in which we had
left them ; having entered the horn-work with his detachment,
he pointed some of our cannon at the enemy's camp upon the
Heights, and fired off some shots which alarmed them greatly.
"We marched all the night, and at the break of day, M. Bou-
gainville rejoined us with his detachment. We arrived at
night at the point of Trembles, where we passed the night ;
and next day at James Carrier.
In short, M. Levis having made great speed, arrived at
James C artier to take the command of the army, very oppor-
tunely to revive the exhausted spirits, and re-animate the
courage of the soldiers, who are brave or dastardly, according
to the manner in which they are commanded, and the disposi-
tion of their commanders. This general, brave, intrepid, and
of distinguished merit, determined to give battle for the pur-
pose of trying to save Quebec, the capture of which would
naturally involve the loss of Canada ; and for that purpose,
oui' army returned to Cape Rouge the next day, after his
arrival, every one appearing very much disposed and ardent to
repair the misfortune of the 13th.
M. Vaudreuil, upon our retreat, had written without re-
flection to M. Ramsay, king's lieutenant and commandant of
the city of Quebec, that he should make a capitulation of
that city within forty-eight hours after our departure from
Beauport, upon the best conditions that he could obtain from
the enemy. As soon as we arrived at Cape Rouge, M.
Levis and M. Vaudreuil wrote to M. Ramsay, not to have
any regard to the letter that M. Vaudreuil had written to him
the day of our retreat ; that the French army would be the next
day in the morning upon the Heights of Abraham, in sight of
the city, and that it was the issue of a battle that ought to
decide the surrender of Quebec. M. Rochebeaucourt was
charged to transmit these letters to M. Ramsay, and this
52
officer acquitted himself of that commission with all the
promptitude and prudence possible. He crossed the river of
St. Charles, and entered the city without having met with
any one post of the enemy in his way. It was not even in-
vested by the enemy on the side of the suburbs of the palace.
Having delivered his despatches, M. Ramsay answered him
that he had already entered into a capitulation with the
English, and that it was at present too far advanced for him
to be able to retract, as there were no provisions in the
city, and above all, that he knew for what he hehj it. M.
Rochebeaucourt said to him that there were certainly provi-
sions in the private cellars, and that if he would force open
the doors, he would find them there. But M. Ramsay always
repeated to him, that he had entered into a capitulation,
and that he knew how to hold it. This officer having re-
turned to Cape Rouge with the answer of M. Ramsay, was
sent back at once with a peremptory order in writing to M.
Ramsay, to suspend every capitulation with the enemy till
a new order, and he was escorted by fifty of his horsemen,
each horseman carrying behind him a sack of biscuits. The
Chevalier Rochebeaucourt entered the city with his horsemen
as before, but the reply of M. Ramsay was always the same,
that the capitulation was too far advanced for him to be able
to suspend it, and that he knew for what to hold it. It was
thus that M. Ramsay, who did not wish to send to M. Mont-
calm the twenty-five pieces of cannon from the palace battery,
having his place to defend, surrendered his place without
trenches being opened, without batteries being established by
/" the enemy, and without there being a cannon-shot fired either
| upon the one side or the other : an inconsistency and extra-
( ordinary folly, of which one can comprehend nothing.
Seeing the determination of M. Ramsay to surrender the
city of Quebec, our army returned to James Cartier, M.
Levis not wishing then to expose them to the hazard of a
battle, where there was little to gain and much to lose, the
53
enemy being in possession of the city. Otherwise by making
a sortie from the city by our garrison during the attack of
our army, the enemy would have found themselves between
two fires, and would have felt themselves much embarassed in
returning it ; and I do not doubt but the colony would have
yet been able to have been saved, if it had not been for this
irregular conduct of M. Ramsay. "We remained at James
Cartier till towards the end of October, that M. Levis sent
the whole force into their winter quarters, with the excep-
tion of two thousand men, which he left there under the
orders of M. Dumas, major of the colonial troops, to pass the
winter ; this detachment under M. Dumas being intended to
continually harass the enemy, and attack the detachments
which might sally out of Quebec, to seek for forage in the
woods, and other things of which they might stand in need
from the country. In the meantime the winter passed on
without hostilities ; on the contrary, there was established an
intercourse between the English at Quebec and the French at
James Cartier, as if it had been a time of peace, which to
appearance the two commanders turned to account.
The English having intercepted by their fleet all our mer-
chant vessels, coming out of France, the merchandizes of
Europe were at an incredible price at Montreal, where they
were in want of everything, while at Quebec everything was
in abundance and at a low price, owing to the prizes which
the English had made of the French shipping. The house
merchant sold at Montreal four barrels of wine at a thousand
livres the barrel, which was sold in retail at forty- eight per
pint ; the bushel of salt sold for eight hundred livres ; a pound
of sugar at ten crowns ; a pair of woollen socks at sixty
livres ; a yard of coarse cloth at eight livres, such as they sell
in France at forty sous per ell ; a pound of shaggy tobacco,
sixty-two livres; a pair of shoes, ten crowns; an ell of
drab at twenty-four livres; an ell of velvet at a hundred
crowns ; and all other things in proportion. This necessarily
54
enhanced the price of food, which the country people brought
in on the march : they sold a sheep at forty and fifty crowns ;
a calf at a hundred crowns ; a hen at twelve livres ; a turkey
at twenty-four livres ; the pound of meat was sold at the
butcher's shop at forty and fifty sous, which was established
in name of the king, with an exclusive permission to slaughter
cattle, and thus to charge the meat, and with power to seize
and carry off on the part of the king, all the cattle which
they might find with the inhabitants, paying twenty-four
livres per ox, the price at which they had taxed them, in
name of the king, while these brave and unfortunate
Canadians, who shed daily their blood in the king's service in
defending that colony, were able to sell their oxen to private
individuals at a hundred pistoles, and at twelve hundred livres
a head. These brave people devoured by rapacious vultures,
suffered without a murmur these oppressions, always saying
at every rise, " that the king took all care that the colony
should be saved." What subjects has the king lost in Canada
and in Acadia ! We shall not find their equal in any part of
Europe.
The scandalous traffic which was practised throughout the
whole winter between the English and the French, whom one
would have taken for merchants rather than for military (in
place of an exchange which they ought to have made con-
tinually of musket shots), greatly enriched private individuals,
and procured to the rich delicacies and refreshments, while
these honest people of the colony, who with difficulty could
obtain from the royal butcher's stand a pound of bad meat, for
which they paid so dear, groaned under an accumulation of
misery the most dreadful : badly nourished, and dragging out
their lives by an exhaustion of their strength, and in a
languor inexpressible; but this was not the least of our
sufferings ! Having lost all our artillery and munitions of
war in the town of Quebec, we were no longer in a condition
to hope for any favourable change in our state of affairs, and
55
we had not then any other prospect in view for the termina-
tion of our misery but by the capture of the colony in the
approaching campaign, a situation frightful for those who
entertained sentiments of honour, probity, and attachment to
their country, and the good of the king's service.
CAMPAIGN OF 1760.
CAMPAIGN OF 1760, TO THE GENERAL CAPITULATION OF CANADA,
WHICH TOOK PLACE AT MONTREAL, THE 7TH SEPTEMBER,
1760.
. OPE is a blessing of heaven, and a favour of Provi-
dence mingled with its afflictions, to soften the
bitterness of its chastisements, and to prevent the
unfortunate from falling under the weight of their
misfortunes.* It is natural for man, overwhelmed
with adversity, to hope for a favourable change in
his lot, however small may be the appearances on which his
hopes may be founded, or of the mitigation of his pains
and sufferings ; and the mode of thinking of all individuals
united and forming society ought to be analagous to that of
every one in particular. The Canadians, without any foun-
dation and without knowing why, still flattered themselves to
be able to save their country, and never lost hope of it,
* She does not abandon even the dying. He agonises he still
feels life he is not detached from it by thought. Death has knocked,
before his heart has believed it possible to cease living. She penetrates
into dungeons, where cheering hope dwells, near to the unfortunate who
next day goes to receive his sentence ; every time that the bolts begin to
creak he believes his deliverance will enter with the gaoler. Entire years
of slavery cannot eradicate this feeling of consolation. The contradictions,
the diversities of views, these stormy returns, the flux, and the reflux, are as
many effects of that hope which rejoices us and are never obliterated. "We
never believe dangers," says Machiavelli, " till they fall on our head, but
entertain hope however far removed it may be."
57
although in their then position without cannon, without muni-
tions of war, and the enemy in possession of Quebec, it would
require a miracle for that purpose. They occupied them-
selves during the winter only to form projects for retaking
that city, altogether chimerical, and nowise susceptible of exe-
cution. Never did country give birth to more of them, nor
more ridiculous and extravagant. Every body intermeddled
therein, even from my lord the bishop and his priests, who
gave theirs, but which were like the others, without common
sense. Among the thousands of imaginary phantasies, that of
taking the enemy by surprise, during the winter, by a forced
march, and scaling the walls of Quebec, was the only one
which had the least possibility of being successful. The plan
of escalade was treated so seriously, during some time, that
they had employed the work people to make ladders of wood ;
but having always regarded it as an extravagant reverie, and
jvvorthy_ofjbeing the production of priests, I never ceased to
combat it at all times, when they spoke of it, and it was
always in the mouth of every one.
The lofty city of Quebec is situated upon the summit of a
rock, which is more than two hundred feet in height, almost
perpendicular, very steep and inaccessible throughout, except
on the side of the Heights of Abraham, which are a continua-
tion of the same mountain, almost to the level of the same high
city, and terminating at Quebec by this steep rock. I was
even charged, during some weeks, in conducting miners and
other labourers in finishing the escarpment, and rendering the
footpaths impracticable, by which one man could mount
thereby to the low town ; and I had only finished this work
some days before the arrival of the English fleet. The
low^town of Quebec occupies a narrow space at the foot
of the rock on the border of the river, and it has a communi-
cation with the upper town by a large street, but without
any continuation to the houses on the slope of the hill.
A city of a great circumference, which has few troops,
58
and where you can approach the walls, in different places,
by giving a general alarm, in all quarters at the same time, in
order to divide the force of the garrison, escalade could be
attempted to be made in a situation as greatly dispersed as
was ours, by risking all for all. A surprise in the obscurity
of the night, would necessarily carry with it terror and dis-
order among those, whom it was intended to surprise. A
terror communicates itself like lightning, the soldiers losing
their presence of mind, not knowing the places of the
town where they were making the escalade, nor where they
were the most in danger. The thing is very different in a
besieged town, where you are assured that the assault cannot
be made but by breaches ; and the place there is pointed out
where the besiegers have established their batteries without
its being possible to be thereby deceived. But Quebec is
not accessible, but on the side of the Heights of Abraham,
and having nothing otherwise to fear, because from the steep-
ness of the rock upon which it is built, the enemy upon the
first alarm would naturally throw all his forces upon that
part of the city, as the only place capable of being escaladed.
Thus the enemy having then had about seven thousand troops
in the city, almost as many of the force of our army as esca-
laded, it is strongly to be presumed that we would have lost
more than one half, and that after having sustained a hor-
rible carnage of our force, we would have been obliged in the
end to let go our prize, and retrace ingloriously our steps.
Supposing even that we could have mounted to the lower
town by escalade, we would not have been thereby any fur-
ther advanced, not being able to rest there for a quarter of an
hour, without being there interred under the ruin of houses,
by the fire plying from the higher town. The enemy would
be able equally to dislodge us from thence, by their throwing
down fire by fire pots, and other combustible materials from
the height upon the tops of the houses. This extravagant
project of escalade, after having been treated seriously, was
59
in the end sent by M. Levis to the list of others, the pro-
ductions of women, priests, and ignoramuses ; substituting in
its place a project truly reasonable, combined with justice,
and which did honour to his talents and capacity.
M. Levis, in reporting to the Court the loss which we had
sustained by the capture of Quebec, of all our artillery and
munitions of war, gave at the same time his assurances that
he would re-take that city in the spring, provided they would
send from Europe, in the month of February, a vessel laden
with cannon and munitions, in order to be in the river St.
Lawrence before the English, and before Quebec in the course
of the month of April.
M. Levis re-assembled our army as soon as the season
permitted ; collected together a dozen pieces of miserable can-
non, which had remained a long time out of use ; and departed
from Montreal with his army about the commencement of
April, to sit down before Quebec, snow being still upon the
ground. He conducted so well his march that our army
arrived at Cape Rouge without the English having been in
any way apprized of it. It was impossible to capture Quebec
with such a wretched artillery. His design was to invest the
city, to open trenches, to advance his approaches with vigour
and speed, in order not to have anything to do when the ship
which he had asked of the Court should arrive, but to dis-
embark the cannon, and mount them at once upon the bat-
teries, which would be found immediately in a condition to
batter in a breach. Every one seconded these views ; and if
the ship which he expected had arrived, the city would not
have been able to resist for twenty-four hours, and the colony
would have still been saved.
The English learned that we were at Cape Rouge by the
most whimsical and singular accident that it was possible to
imagine : a manifest proof that the ablest general that has
ever been in the world will not be able to guard himself
against events which the mind of man could not foresee, and
60
which often frustrate the best combined plans.* A boat with
artillery having been sunk to the bottom, opposite Cape
Rouge, by the ice, of which the river still swept down a
great deal, a gunner saved himself upon a piece of ice, and
the current carried down the piece of ice, with the gunner,
without its being possible for him to extricate himself from it.
The piece of ice having been carried down opposite to Quebec
by the current, the English perceiving from the town the
unfortunate gunner in the midst of the river, had compassion
on him, and sent immediately boats to his succour, which they
got there with great difficulty. He was then without con-
sciousness or sign of life; but having revived with cordials
which they gave him, he came, by little and little, to himself.
As soon as he was in a condition to speak, they asked of him
from whence he came. The gunner answered, with naivete
and innocence, that he had come from the French army at
Cape Rouge ! At first, they believed him to be in a delirium;
but having examined him more fully, they came to the con-
clusion that he spoke without guile ; and one may be able to
judge their astonishment. Had it not been for this extra-
ordinary adventure, M. Levis would have been able to make
himself master of the city of Quebec ; at least he would have
been able to force the advanced posts, which they had at the
village of St. Foix, which is about two leagues from the town
of Quebec, and about a league from Cape Rouge, which M.
Murray, the English general, took possession of at once ; and
they set fire to a magazine of powder which they had in the
church of St. Foix, not having time to carry it off. It is very
certain that fortune takes, more or less, a part in all the
events of life, which is seen and evident in all the operations
of war. These chances ought to be in favour of an enter-
prising general, as much as against him ; and the Cardinal
* We would, to all appearance, have taken Quebec by surprise, but for
one of these caprices of fortune which often has as much part in influencing
events in war as the genius of the greatest generals.
61
Mazariii seemed to be well founded, when he asked, if he,
whom some one recommended to him, was fortunate. The
English themselves have acknowledged a great superiority of
genius and talents in Prince Eugene over their famous gene-
ral, the Duke of Marlborough ; but Marlborough was fortu-
nate in all his enterprises by unforeseen events always in his
favour, as much as Prince Eugene was unfortunate, and
frustrated continually in the execution of his projects the
best concerted and where he did not appear to want any-
thing in his plans, by cross accidents. The Greeks have
painted Timotheus sleeping, while Fortune, in another part of
the picture, takes for him towns with threads.* The strength
of an army does not depend upon the personal luck of the
general. Does Fortune conduct herself at the head of armies
as she does at a gaming table in the midst of gamblers ? It
is a grand science of a general to know to correct bad fortune
by prudence and circumspection, and to profit by run of suc-
cess with rapidity.f The very smallest event which we
might neglect at first as despicable, might produce an incon-
ceivable chain of great effects. The boat, sunk at the battery
at Cape Rouge, was the cause that the gunner found himself
upon a piece of ice, in the middle of the river St. Lawrence,
which inspired compassion in the English to save his life.
The personal good fortune of the gunner, on the point of
perishing, saved Quebec to the English, which but for him,
M. Levis would have taken by surprisej/which would have
prevented the English from again attempting the conquest of
* Timotheus, the Athenian general, was the most fortunate of men
even to taking cities while sleeping. Whether he wished to attribute his
good fortune to his own merit, he became, at last, an unfortunate person.
Erasmus's Eulogy on FoUy.
"t It is also by small attentions that we arrive at accomplishing the
greatest things. The general and his officers who neglect them, often fail
in their enterprises, although very well concerted otherwise, and although
they have had in appearance every thing which was necessary to see them
crowned with the most fortunate success.
62
Canada, and, in appearance, would have been taken immedi-
ately. This town in the possession of the English will insure
them the speedy possession of the whole colony of Canada.
The conquest of Canada, after so much bloodshed, and money
expended by the English in their different expeditions, in-
flamed their cupidity too greatly for them to consent to a
peace, on reasonable terms, and engaged them to put far
from them their enterprises upon colonies.
The possession of so many colonies conquered by the
English, brought along with it the most unfortunate peace
which France has been constrained to see made. Thus the
boat sunk to the bottom by the ice at Cape Rouge, has been
the proximate cause of the unfortunate situation to which
this kingdom is at this day reduced ; and has an influence by
a counter stroke on all the affairs of Europe. Our army
occupied the village of St. Foix, as soon as the English
retired from it, and there passed the night of the 27th and
28th of April. The next day in the morning, M. Levis
learned that the English army had left Quebec, and that it
occupied the same ground as that of the battle of the 13th of
September of the preceding year. M. Levis on this news,
caused beat the "general" immediately, put his army in battle
array, and marched forward at once to encounter M. Murray,
the English general, in the meantime, without being con-
vinced that he would have had the imprudence and rashness
to wait him with determined resolution outside Quebec ; a
fault which the English general had made, of which the
chastisement followed closely. The English had the advan-
tage of ground, being in battle array upon a small eminence,
with their front provided with twenty-two field pieces. The
battle began by an attack upon a fort, which lay upon their
right flank and our left, which was maintained for a long time
with fierceness and obstinacy, by five companies of grenadiers,
against as many Scotch Highlanders, both armies vying with
each other to seize upon it. The grenadiers and Highlanders,
63
alternately in possession of this fort, were, notwithstanding,
forced to evacuate it several times, each in their turn, before
they had time to barricade it. ^These two antagonists, wor-
thy the one of the other, were no sooner out by the windows,
than they returned to the charge, and broke open the doors.
In this murderous conflict, they were not provided with other
arms, than the Highlanders with their dirks, and the grena-
diers with their bayonets, using them with might and main.
The grenadiers were reduced to forty men per company,
and there would not have remained either Highlander or
grenadier of the two armies if they had not, as by tacit and
reciprocal agreement, abandoned the desire of occupying
the fort. Our left, which was in a hollow, and distant from
the English about thirty paces, was swept by their artillery,
which they fired with grape shot. M. Levis perceiving their
bad position, and wishing to remedy it, by making our army
fall back to occupy an eminence parallel to that where the
English were, sent M. Pause, an officer of the regiment of
Guyenne, who acted as his aide-de-camp, to inform all the
commanders of corps to make this movement in rear with
their regiments ; but whether it was that Pause had miscon-
ceived the intentions of M. Levis, or whether it was that he
had badly delivered his orders, he ran along our line, order-
ing, on the part of M. Levis, every regiment to face about to
retreat, without further explaining himself. It is hardly pos-
sible that the best troops that ever were in the world could be
able to retreat at twenty paces from the enemy, without being
thrown into disorder. Our army appeared to the English
general to be in rout, and he quitted his position on the rising
ground, to pounce upon us completely, and to pursue us. M.
Dalquier, commandant of the battalion of the Berne regi-
ment, who was at the left of our army, beside the troops of
the colony a brave, old officer, fierce and intrepid as soon
as Pause gave him the order to retreat, at the instant he
turned to his soldiers and said to them, " At twenty paces
64
from the enemy, my boys, there is no time to retreat ;
bayonets to the mouth of your muskets ; strike upon the
enemy : that is best." He charged the enemy with impetu-
osity, seized their artillery immediately, and received, at the
same time, a volley of musketry across the body, already
quite covered with scars, but which did not hinder him from
continuing to give his orders. M. Poularies, who was at the
right of our army, with his Roussillon Royal Regiment and
Canadians, the whole interval between the two wings of our
army being already thrown back in disorder, seeing M. Dal-
quier advancing against the enemy, in place of retreating like
the other regiments, he made, on the instant the wheel of a
quarter circle, to the left, to fall upon the left flank of the
English, which he outflanked with his regiment and the
Canadians. The enemy, as soon as he perceived this
movement on the part of M. Poularies, was struck with a
frightful panic, broke loose ; and the English soldiers all fled
Avith such precipitation, that their officers were not able to
restrain a single man. Our army pursued them hotly ; and
if the cry had not been raised among our force to stop, it
would have possibly happened that we should have entered
the city of Quebec pell-mell with them, not being at any
distance from the gates. M. Poularies and M. Dalquier
arrived in France in 1760, and were both made commandants
of battalions ; M. Bellecomb, brevet-major of the Royal
Roussillon Regiment, and M. Montgay, captain in the regi-
ment of Berne, both very fine men, whose figures attracted
the attention of the Court, were made colonels. Bad fortune!
the power of which shews itself cruelly in military life. Jus-
tice and deserved punishments appositely applied form the
basis of the military art. Men do not conduct themselves save
by honour or by interest ; and there is no longer true emula-
tion in a place where mediocrity, intrigue, favour, and influ-
ence annihilate the rights of merit, which produces elevation,
boldness, and greatness of soul. Great talents are ignorant
65
of the art of sycophancy. They displease, in consequence,
the clerks of the cabinet, who would wish them to fall down
before them. They are humbugs, those vain, useless, medi-
ocre men, who alone are the dispensers of favours. It is in
the nature of things that men of that stamp detest officers of
merit and sentiment, and prefer to them, cheats, flatterers,
sycophants, and intriguers, disposed to everything.*
"We had about two thousand men killed, as well as
wounded, in this battle, which was fought on the 28th of
April, of which ten officers of the regular troops were of the
number, besides many officers of the militia. M. Levis, at
the beginning of the night, caused open trenches before the
town, and they were pushed on, with such diligence and acti-
vity, that in a short time our batteries were ready to batter
* "If such is the military condition of the state," says an author, "of
which the sovereign (King of Prussia) is the greatest of his age, -who
instructs and commands his armies himself, forming, so to speak, the pomp
of the Court, what ought to be that of those States where the sovereign is
not a military man ; where he does not see his troops ; where he seems to
disdain or ignore all that belongs to them ; where the court, which always
follows the impressions of the sovereign, is of consequence not military,
where almost all the great rewards are obtained by intrigue ; where the
greater part of them become hereditary monopolies ; where merit languishes
without support ; where credit can advance itself without talents, or make
fortune, not regarding further to acquire reputation, but to amass riches ;
where they are able in one hour to be lavished with dignities and infamy,
with decorations and ignorance, to serve badly the State, and to possess
themselves of the best situations ; to be defiled with public blame, and to
enjoy the favour of the sovereign : If, while all other sciences are brought
to perfection, that of war remains in infancy, 'that is the fault of govern-
ments which do not attach sufficient importance to it, who do not make it
an object of public education, who do not direct towards this profession
men of genius ; who leave them to reap mere glory and advantages in frivol-
ous or less useful sciences ; who render the career of arms an ungracious
career, in which talents are outwitted by intrigue, and prizes distributed by
fortune." Discourse upon the actual state of Politics and Military Science in
Europe (printed at Geneva) pages 121 and 130. It is morally impossible for
merit to conduct to fortune in a country corrupt, tyrannical, and venial.
Merit there becomes a cause of exclusion. Virtue elevates the soul : it does
not know to cringe, under mere patronage, nor to flatter vice and incapacity.
66
in a breach, if we had had cannon fit for the purpose ; but
the greatest number of rubbish of cannons which M. Levis
had been able to collect, were not more than a dozen not-
withstanding, this general mounted them upon our batteries
for want of better, and fired them off from time to time, to
keep up a good countenance ; but always husbanding our
ammunition, of which we had but a small stock, with great
economy. It only wanted the arrival of the vessel from
Europe, charged with cannons and munitions of war, to have
covered M. Levis with glory in saving the colony. M. Mur-
ray, the English general, often used to say that the first flag
that should appear in the river St. Lawrence would decide
the dispute, whether Quebec should remain with the English,
or return to France, and that he only waited for that to
deliver it up.
In short, the fate of this colony was verily decided by the
arrival of three English frigates on the 7th of June. They
ascended at once the river St. Lawrence, below Quebec, with-
out stopping there, and destroyed from head to foot our
frigates, which had wintered in Canada, with all the rest of
our shipping, of which they burned some, and captured others.
Their unexpected arrival, having always been hoped for from
hour to hour, the arrival of the vessel which M. Levis had
demanded from the Court, made us raise the siege, with much
precipitation, without knowing for what, as we had left once
before, to the enemy, after the affair of the 13th of Septem-
ber, all our tents and all our baggage, our army having been
struck, as it were like a clap of thunder.
M. Yauclin, who commanded one of our frigates at Cape
Rouge, the greatest force of which was not more than sixteen
guns, fought like a lion against two English frigates of forty
guns. He made such a beautiful defence that he commanded
respect even from the English, having maintained the conflict
as long as he had ammunition ; and when he had not another
shot to fire, he landed such of his crew as were fit to serve,
67
remaining himself on board the frigate, with his wounded,
and the French flag always flying 011 high at the top-mast.
The English having cannonaded him for some time, and
seeing that he no longer answered, they went alongside in the
end in their boats, and cried to him to lower his flag. But
Yauclin replied fiercely, that if they had a mind to take his
ship, they could pull it down themselves. In fact, the English
going on board, themselves cut the halyards of his flag, and
treated M. Vauclin with all the regard which his intrepidity
and heroic bravery deserved. This was not his first acquaint-
ance with the English. He had formerly commanded a
frigate of twenty-four guns at Louisbourg, during the siege,
where he performed prodigies of valour. The English pressed
upon him to make him offers of service ; but he replied that
he had no other favour to ask of them than to be sent at once
to France ; and the English made so great a point of his merit
that they immediately dispatched a ship, express for him,
ordering the English captain to be under the directions of
M. Vauclin, and to land him in whatever part of France he
might judge proper, granting him moreover the liberty of
naming the passengers, whom he would allow to embark with
him in the ship. I have always regarded this proceeding as
truly great and noble on the one part as on the other. The
generosity of the English is a fine eulogium on the bravery of
Vauclin.
Our misfortune w^s then without remedy and without
resource ; and one can only compare Canada in this violent
crisis to a sick man in the agonies of death, for whom the ordi-
nary medicine of cordials is administered to ameliorate and
soften the violence of his sufferings, without producing any
effect for the cure of his malady. All our hopes ^\ere to
obtain an honourable capitulation, at the general surrender of
the colony, which could not be very far distant. M. Levis
made our army take the road to Montreal, in order to wait
there that dismal moment, and to make, if he had the means,
68
a last effort under the walls of that city ; and he left at
James Cartier two thousand men, under the command of M.
* * * , with orders to retreat slowly, in proportion as
the English advanced, but never to lose sight of them. On
the arrival of our army at Montreal, not being able to have
a store of provisions there on account of an extreme dearth,
which would overwhelm us, M. Levis, to keep our army col-
lected together, was obliged to send back all the regiments
into their different quarters, where they had passed the winter,
every inhabitant being obliged to maintain a soldier, iu con-
sideration of a fixed price, which was paid him by the com-
missary-general of the king.
M. Vaudreuil gave me an order to go to serve under the
command of M. Bougainville, at the Isle of Nuts, where he com-
manded with a hundred men, of the regiments of Guyenne
and Berry, which formed part of its garrison. It is situated
on the river Chambly, about eight leagues south of Montreal,
and at three-quarters of a league from the commencement of
Lake Champlain. M. Bourlamarque, an officer of very great
merit, who was master in general of all the different parts of
the military art, had chosen this isle for our retiring there, at
the time of the evacuation of Carillon the preceding year,
when we were obliged to abandon the whole of Lake Champ-
lain. He had it fortified as well as its situation was suscep-
tible of, to serve as a frontier on that side ; and this isle was
very essential for preventing the English from descending the
river of Champlain, a route which would have shortened
greatly their road in getting to Montreal ; besides that, by
the Lake Ontario the road is much longer, and there are
several dangerous rapids* in the river St. Lawrence which it
* That which they call in Canada "rapids," is when a river meets in
its course a mountain, which, in place of falling as a cascade, descends the
peak of the height with the swiftness of the flight of a bird the cane
there descending, what they call leaping a rapid, by holding themseh
always in the stream of the water ; for fear lest they should dash the
selves, are in an instant broke in pieces, without its being possible
69
is necessary to avoid. The Isle of Nuts is about two hundred
toises long, and about one hundred and fifty to two hundred
toises broad. M. Bourlamarque had intrenched it, and he
formed regular works on the ground. He had barricaded at
the same time the two arms of the river, formed by the island,
by two stockades (d,dj made by thick trees, attached end to end
with hoops and crampets of iron. These stockades prevented
the enemy from descending the river Chambly with vessels,
which they had on Lake Champlain, and stopped there their
shipping, which would have otherwise been able to pass that
island in the darkness of the night ; and Montreal would have
then been immediately taken. Thus, as long as we were
able to keep the Isle of Nuts, the English would not have
been able to penetrate by Lake Champlain.
We learned at Montreal by some savages of the Five
Nations that the bulk of the English army had come by the
Rapids of the river St. Lawrence below Montreal, under the
orders of General Amherst ; and that M. Murray, with the
English troops who had wintered at Quebec, behoved to
ascend the river St. Lawrence, to form a junction with
General Amherst in the island of Montreal ; but we had no
news of a third corps of troops of about four thousand men,
who had gone in the month of July by Lake Champlaiu to
besiege us in the Isle of Nuts, and which had preceded the
other corps of English troops, by about five weeks.
The enemy having a good number of cannon, mortars, and
howitzers, they established at once different batteries on the
other side of the river, which took us in flank, rear, and on
any person to be able to save himself from being dashed against the
rocks. Able as the savages and Canadians may be in leaping these rapids,
the art of which is to keep in the stream of the water, the canoe, guided
by two small oars, one at the front and the other behind, they often
perform leaps the most wonderful. Having no other way in Canada for
crossing these vast woods than some footpaths on the banks of the rivers, to
communicate from one habitation to another, these journeys and transports
are always made by water.
70
every side, in so much, that no part of the island afforded a
shelter from their artillery ; they had, besides that, many mor-
tars. Having sustained six days' siege, enduring a continual
brisk cannonade, without a moment's relaxation, one of their
batteries being so near us on the side of the stockade, on
the south, that they killed a great many of our soldiers at
musket shot, and without having any casements to repose our
force, M. Noquaire, an officer of the Royal Regiment of
Roussillon, came up to us ; he had come from Montreal
across the woods, under the conduct of some savages, charged
with two letters for M. Bougainville, one of which was from
M. Vaudreuil, and the other from M. Levis. This was at a
most critical moment, M. Bougainville being then greatly
embarrassed in the choice of the courses he ought to take,
not having more than two days' provisions in his garrison,
the seven or eight oxen, which he had, having been killed at
the commencement of the siege by cannon shots ; and he had
no reserve of fish, which almost furnished subsistence to the
whole garrison, previous to the arrival of the English, this
river being very full of fish, and abundant in all sorts of fish.
The letter of, M. Vaudreuil to M. Bougainville contained
permission to make a capitulation, or to retreat from the Isle
of Nuts, if that was practicable that of M. Levis contained
an order to hold the Isle of Nuts even to the last extremity.
It seemed to me that it was already at the last extremity, not
having provisions but for forty hours, and without any hope
of succours. How is it possible to reconcile this contradic-
tion between the two letters ? M. Bougainville showed them
to me, and asked my advice. I did not see any other course
to take than to attempt a retreat, since it would necessarily
follow that we must surrender at discretion in two days, in
which our provisions would be consumed ; and the reinforce-
ment of a thousand men, which our garrison would afford at
Montreal, appeared to me an essential object, if we still had
the means of making head against the enemy, and of making
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71
a last effort under the walls of Montreal. Above all, M.
Bougainville could risk nothing by conforming to the orders
of M. Vaudreuil, who commanded in chief. The retreat was
then decided on, concerted with accuracy and executed with
all the good conduct possible, the success answering entirely
to the arrangements which M. Bougainville had adopted.
The banks on the other side of the branch, on the north
side of the river Chambly, being wet and marshy, there were
no posts of the enemy nearer therefrom than that of the mea-
dow of Boileau, (h) so the choice for our passage of the river
naturally presented itself close ( d) to the stockade on the
north. Above all, it is thereby our route to get straight for-
ward to Montreal in crossing the woods. M. Bougainville
took all the prudent precautions possible. He ordered all the
boats to be prepared and to be put in a state to be available
in the passage. He caused all the boats of bark of trees,
and boats of savages, to be assembled in order to prevent the
possibility of any soldier having it in his power to desert and
give notice to the enemy of the project of retreat. He gave
out in orders that all the garrison should be under arms at
ten o'clock at night, ready to march, observing a profound
silence, without the least noise, by the clanking of their arms
or otherwise. And he ordered M. Bergue, an officer of the
colonial troops, to remain in the Isle of Nuts with a detach-
ment of forty men, and to keep up the briskest fire from our
batteries, which consisted of seven or eight pieces of cannon,
during the whole time that would be occupied in passing
the river, in order to prevent the enemy from learning our
manoeuvre, and to continue firing as long as he had ammuni-
tion, to conceal our retreat, for as long a time as it was pos-
sible.
We commenced our embarkation towards ten o'clock at
night in two coasting vessels, with some long boats, which
went and came continually, without the enemy ever appearing
or suspecting our manoeuvre, although they were as near to us
72
as to be able to hear them speak. At midnight the entire
force had passed ; and the whole was executed without the
least noise, disorder, or confusion, a thing very rare on such
occasions. M. Bergue acquitted himself perfectly of his
orders, and managed so well his ammunition that he had
wherewith to fire at intervals, even an hour after mid-day
the next day, that he hoisted a white flag to capitulate ;
we believing then that we were nearly arriving at Montreal ;
and the English still ignorant of our retreat, accorded him a
capitulation the most honorable. As soon as the whole force
had passed, we put ourselves in march, in crossing the wood
to proceed straight forward, going at double pace, and in file
one after the other. We did not lose, in the course of the
siege, but about twenty-four men, a very inconsiderable loss
for so terrible a cannonade, to which we had been exposed
during sixteen days, without an instant's relaxation, besides
the bombs and shells which they threw upon us continually.
Happily for us the ground of the island was sandy, for if
there had been stones or pebbles we would have lost an infinite
number of men.
After having marched from midnight to mid-day, always
in quick time, running through the frightful swamps, where
we often sunk even to the navel, and without resting an
instant to repose ourselves, in place of being close to the mea-
dow opposite Montreal, as we believed, we were only about
half a league from the Isle of Nuts, near to the meadow of
Boileau, not having done anything but turned about continu-
ally nearly in the same place, without perceiving it, owing to
the fault of our guides, who did not know the roads, and we
had none of the savages along with us. Of all the thirty
persons, who presented themselves as guides to us, there was
not a single one of them capable of conducting us to Mon-
treal across the wood. We were so close to the meadow of
Boileau, where the enemy were encamped, that a grenadier
of the regiment of Berry approached so near as to carry
73
over a horse to the English, to give to his commandant, M.
Cormier, reduced by fatigue, and not able to march further,
but who saved himself by means of this gift of his grenadier.
Having lost all hopes of being able to reach Montreal by
crossing the wood, we then took the route to Fort St. John,
which is situated upon the river Chambly, about four leagues
further below the Isle of Nuts, and about five leagues by
land from Montreal. I was so overcome with fatigue, and so
totally exhausted, not being able but with the greatest pain
to trail my legs, that I thought a thousand times of lying
down to finish my days, but the fear of falling into the hands
of savages connected with the English, and the idea of the
cruelties and torments which they exercised over their pri-
soners, making them die under the cruellest sufferings, at a
small fire, after having exhausted their invention of horrors
which disgrace human nature the terror of that gave me
from time to time new strength, when ready to succumb, and
spurred me on. At length, arriving towards four o'clock in
the afternoon, at a cultivated place about a league and a half
from Fort St. John, where M. Bougainville caused his detach-
ment to halt, to rest themselves, and to wait for the laggers
behind, I observed a boat which was going to depart for Fort
St. John, and there remained for me only strength sufficient
to throw myself inside of it. We lost in this march about
twenty-four men. Those who had remained behind, not
being vigorous enough to support this rough march, were left
as victims of it to the savages of the enemy. I have very
often found myself in these painful and fatiguing positions,
but never in any, where I experienced so much suffering as in
this cruel journey.
On arriving at Fort St. John, I saw M. Poularies on the
bank of the river, who told me that they had learnt the news
of our retreat from the Isle of Nuts, and that he had been
sent there with his regiment to support us in case of our being
attacked. I was so much done up that I was with difficulty
74
able to speak. It had been fine weather, and very hot. I
left the boat, and threw myself immediately into the water,
in full dress, not having sufficient strength to take off my
clothes, which were soaked with mud, where I remained,
lying with my head only out of the water, during more than
an hour, M. Poularies having had the complacency to seat
himself on the bank of the river to keep me company. On
coming out of the water, I felt myself very much refreshed,
and M. Poularies having regaled me with a very good supper,
with a bed there to pass the night, the next day in the morn-
ing, not feeling almost anything more of my fatigues, and
finding myself in a state to march, I started to proceed on my
way to Montreal, performing on foot five miles of wretched
road, by a track, which there is from Fort St. John to Mon-
treal.
"We began to be hemmed in on the island of Montreal on
all sides. The enemy having made himself master of the river
of Chambly, by the capture of the Isle of Nuts, M. Amherst
approached it with his army on the other side by the rapids
in the river St. Lawrence ; and M. Murray ascended the river
with troops who had wintered at Quebec, accompanied by
ships of which there was one of fifty guns, which incited the
admiration of the city of Montreal ; for till then they had
never seen a ship of more than twenty-four tons, which had
ventured to come from Quebec to Montreal, having always
singularly neglected to sound the river. M. Murray con-
ducted himself as an able man and an officer of capacity.
He had taken five weeks to the sixty leagues which there are
from Quebec to Montreal ; and he put us more at fault by
his political conduct than by his arms. He stopped in the
villages, caressed the Canadians whom he found in their
houses ; hunted our army with hunger and misery, and he
gave provisions to these poor unfortunate people ready to
perish for want of subsistence ; he burned some houses of
those who Avere at Montreal in our army, publishing through-
75
out all an amnesty, and offering good treatment to the
Canadians who should return to their habitations there to
live peaceably : in short, flattering the one, and inspiring
the other with terror, he succeeded so well that it was with
much difficiilty that in the end that we were able to keep
the inhabitants at Montreal, and prevent them from returning
to their houses. Verily, we had need of nothing but to put on
a good countenance, for the three united armies of the enemy
made up a corps of twenty thousand men, thus there was no
possibility of being able to make head against them.
The enemy had so well combined their operations this
year, that on the 7th of September, towards two o'clock in
the afternoon, the advanced posts of the army of General
Amherst came in sight of Montreal on the side of the China
gate ; and two hours after, M. Murray appeared with his
ai-my on the side of the gate of Quebec.
The town of Montreal was not any wise susceptible of the
least defence. It is surrounded with walls without being
fortified, and which sufficed only to afford the inhabitants a
shelter from the incursions of savages in the early period of
that settlement ; not foreseeing, that in the end, there would
be in that country, armies of regular troops, who would make
war in Canada methodically the same as in Europe. We
were in the meantime completely shut up in this dismal place,
which was a thousand times worse than a simple intrench-
ment in a bare country, and which could not resist a can-
nonade two hours. It required merely the time to get under
these walls from the cannon shots, which were not a whit
better than the garden walls, to enter there in full speed and
take us at discretion ; and this with the greater certainty that
there were not provisions in the city sufficient for nourishing
the three thousand men of our army which remained to us,
for three days, the greater part of the inhabitants having
been obliged to return to their houses, in default of having
provisions to give them to subsist on, and not improper un-
76
willingness to fight ; for these Canadians are brave as well
as docile, submissive and easy to manage ; besides, they are
patient under their sufferings, active as savages, of a strong
temperament, and indefatigable in campaigns. They are
better militia than any in the world.
The night of the 7th and 8th September was passed in
preliminaries, and in the discussion of the articles of general
capitulation for the colony ; but in the morning M. Amherst
granted it to us a thousand times more favourable than we
had any right to expect in a position so very unfortunate.
\T
r
CAPITULATION.
Articles of Capitulation, concluded between His Excellency
General Amherst, Commander -in- Chief of the forces of
His Britannic Majesty in North America, and His
Excellency the Marquis of Vaudreuil, Grand Cross of
the Royal and Military Order of St. Louis, Governor
and Lieutenant-General of His Most Christian Majesty
in Canada.
ARTICLE 1. Twenty-four hours after the signature of the
present capitulation the English general, Amherst, shall take
possession of the gates of the city of Montreal by the troops
of His Britannic Majesty, and the English garrison shall not
enter the place till the French troops shall have evacuated it.
Answer. All the garrison of Montreal shall lay down
their arms, and shall not serve during the present
war. Immediately after the signature of the present
capitulation, the king's troops shall take possession of
the gates, and place the necessary guards for preser-
ving good order in the city.
ARTICLE 2. The troops and militia which are in garrison
in the city of Montreal shall depart by the gate of * * *,
with all the honours of war, six pieces of cannon, and a
mortar, which shall be put on board the vessel in which the
Marquis of Vaudreuil shall embark, and ten charges for every
piece. The same honours shall be granted to the garrison of
Three Rivers.
78
ARTICLE 3. The troops and the militia in garrison in the
fort of James Cartier, in the island of St. Helen, and in the
other forts, shall be treated in the same manner, and shall
have the same honours. The troops stationed at Montreal,
or at Three Rivers, or at Quebec, to be there embarked
and conducted forthwith to the first port in France by the
shortest route. Those which are in our posts upon our
frontiers, on the side of Acadia at Detroit, at Michelima-
kinak, and at other places, shall enjoy the same honours, and
be treated in the same manner.
Answer, All the troops not to serve during the present
war, and shall equally lay down their arms, till the
rest is granted them.
ARTICLE 4. The militia, after leaving the towns, forts,
and posts above-mentioned, shall return home without being
molested upon any pretext whatever, on account of having
borne arms.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 5. The troops which occupy the country shall
raise their camps, and march drums beating with their
arms, baggage, and artillery, to join the garrison of Montreal ;
and shall be treated as it, in all respects.
Answer. These troops must, the same as the others,
lay down their arms.
ARTICLE 6. On the one side and the other, pardon shall
be granted to the subjects of His Britannic, and His Most
Christian, Majesty the soldiers, militiamen, and seamen,
who have deserted or quitted the service of their sovereigns,
and carried arms in North America. They shall return to
their respective countries, except such of them as shall remain
where they are, without being sought after or molested.
Refused.
ARTICLE 7. The magazines, the artillery, arquebuses,
swords, munitions of war, and generally, all that pertains to
His Most Christian Majesty, as well in the towns of Montreal
79
and Three Rivers, as in the forts and posts mentioned in
Article 3, shall be delivered up, upon exact inventories, to
commissaries, who shall be named to receive them in name of
His Britannic Majesty. Copies of said inventories shall be
delivered to the Marquis of Vaudreuil.
Ansicer. This is all that can be demanded under this
article.
ARTICLE 8. Officers, soldiers, militiamen, seamen, and
even Indians, detained on account of their wounds or mala-
dies, Avhether in hospitals or in private houses, shall enjoy the
privileges of cartel, and shall be treated accordingly.
Ansicer. The sick and wounded shall be treated as our
own people.
ARTICLE 9. The English general engages himself to send
back to their homes the Indians and Americans who are
belonging to his army, immediately after the signature of the
present capitulation. And in the meantime, in order to pre-
vent all disorder on the part of those who may wish not to
depart, the said general shall grant safe guards to all persons
who may wish to leave it, whether in town or in the open
country.
Ansicer. The first part of this article is refused. The
Indians of our army have never committed cruelties.
Besides, we will take care to maintain good order.
ARTICLE 10. The general of His Britannic Majesty shall
be responsible for all disorders on the part of his troops, and
obliges himself to pay the damages which they may do in the
towns and open country.
Answered by the preceding Article.
ARTICLE 11. The English general shall not oblige the
Marquis of Vaudreuil to leave the city of Montreal before the
* * * and no person shall be lodged in his house till he
has left it. The Chevalier de Levis, commandant of the land
forces, the principal officers and majors of the land forces,
and those of the Colony, engineers, officers of artillery and
80
commissaries of war, shall remain also at Montreal, till the
said day, and shall keep possession of their lodgings. The
same thing shall be observed with regard to M. Bigot, the
resident, the commissaries of marine, and the secretaries of
which the said M. Bigot may stand in need ; and no person
shall be lodged at the residency till he shall have left it.
Answer. The Marquis of Vaudreuil, and all his gentle-
men, shall be masters of their houses ; and shall
embark when the ships of His Majesty shall be ready
to sail for Europe. "We will provide for them, be-
sides, all the accommodation possible.
ARTICLE 12. The most commodious vessel shall be found
to avail for conducting M. Vaudreuil to the nearest port
of France, by the most direct route. They shall furnish the
necessary commodities for the said M. Vaudreuil ; for M.
Rigaud, the governor of Montreal ; and for the suite of the
general. The vessel ought to be equipped in a convenient
manner, at the expense of His Britannic Majesty ; and
the Marquis of Vaudreuil shall carry with him his papers
without their being examined, his equipages, his plate, uten-
sils, his baggages, and those of his suite.
Granted, under reserve of the Archives, which shall be
necessary for the government of the country.
ARTICLE. 13. If before or after the embarkation of the
Marquis of Vaudreuil, news of peace shall arrive, and that by
the treaty Canada remains with His Most Christian Majesty,
the Marquis of Vaudreuil in that case shall restore to Quebec
or to Montreal all things in their original state, under the
dominion of His Most Christian Majesty ; and the present
capitulation shall be null and of no effect.
Answer. Everything which the King may be able to
perform in regard to this matter shall be observed.
ARTICLE 14. Two vessels shall be furnished to convey to
France the Chevalier de Levis, the principal officers, and the
staff major of the land forces, the engineers, officers of artil-
81
lery and their suites. These vessels shall be equipped and
provided with all necessary commodities. The said officers
shall take with them their papers without being examined, as
well as their equipages and baggages. Those among them
who are married shall have liberty to take with them their
wives and children, to whom also provisions shall be fur-
nished.
Granted, on condition that the Marquis of Vaudreuil and
all the officers, of whatever rank they may be, shall
deliver to us all the charts and plans of the country.
ARTICLE 15. There shall also be furnished for the pas-
sage of M. Bigot, Resident, and his suite, a vessel in which
there shall be all convenient commodities for him and the
persons he shall take with him. He shall equally carry along
with him his papers without their being examined, his equi-
pages, his plate, his baggage, and those of his suite. This
vessel shall also be equipped as is mentioned above.
Granted, under the same reserves as in the preceding
Article.
ARTICLE 16. The English General shall also order to be
furnished the vessels necessary and most commodious for con-
veying to France M. Longveuil, Governor of Three Rivers ;
the Staff Major of the Colony, and the Commissaries of the
Marine. They shall therein embark, their families, domestics,
baggage, and equipages ; and there shall be provided at the
expense of His Britannic Majesty, all things necessary for
their transit.
Granted.
ARTICLE 17. Officersjxnd soldiers, as well troops of the
line as of the Colony, and officers of Marine, which shall
happen to be in the Colony, shall in like manner embark for
France ; and there shall be given to them vessels sufficient
and commodious. The officers of the land and marine who
are married, shall take with them their families, and they
shall all be at liberty to embark their servants and baggage.
F
82
Their vessels shall be victualled in a manner convenient and
sufficient, at the expense of His Britannic Majesty.
Granted.
ARTICLE 18. Officers, soldiers, and all those who follow
the troops, shall be allowed to send to enquire, before their
departure, for the baggages which they may have in the
country without any impediment.
Granted.
ARTICLE 19. The English General shall furnish an
hospital ship for the sick and wounded officers, soldiers, and
seamen, who shall be found to be in a state to be conveyed
to France ; and the vessel shall in like manner be victualled at
the expense of His Britannic Majesty. The same thing shall
be done in regard to the other sick and wounded officers,
soldiers, or seamen, until their health shall be re-established.
They shall be at liberty to take with them their wives,
children, domestics, and baggage. And the land soldiers and
seamen shall not be enticed or forced to enter the service of
His Britannic Majesty.
Granted.
ARTICLE 20. There shall be left a Commissary and
King's Secretary to take care of the hospitals, and all that
belongs to the service of His Most Christian Majesty.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 21. The English General shall also provide a
ship for conveying to France with their families, domestics,
and equipages, the officers of the Supreme Court of Justice,
Police, and Admiralty, the same as those who hold commis-
sions or brevets of His Most Christian Majesty ; and all other
officers. They shall be in like manner furnished with all
necessary provisions at the expense of His Britannic Majesty.
They shall, notwithstanding, be at liberty to remain in the
Colony, if they shall judge proper to regulate their affairs, or
to retire into France when they please.
Agreed to ; but if they have any papers relating to the
83
government of the country, they shall deliver them
up to us.
ARTICLE 22. If there are any military officers whose
affairs demand their presence in the Colony till the ensuing
year, they shall be at liberty to remain there after having
obtained permission from the Marquis of Vaudreuil, and with-
out being accounted prisoners of war.
Answer. All those whose affairs particularly require
that they should be in the country, and who shall
have for that purpose permission from the Marquis
of Vaudreuil, shall be allowed to remain till their
affairs shall be regulated.
ARTICLE 23. The Commissary of provisions shall have
liberty to remain in Canada till the ensuing year, in order to
be able to discharge the debts which he has contracted in
the Colony on account of what has been furnished to him ; but
if he prefers going into France this year, he shall be obliged
to leave, till the next year a person to do his work ; and this
person shall be at liberty to carry with him his papers with-
out being inspected. His clerks also shall be allowed to
remain in the Colony, or to go to France, and in this latter
case they shall be provided with a passage and subsistence on
board of vessels of His Britannic Majesty, for them, their
families, and their baggage.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 24. The provisions and ammunition which
shall be found in the stores of the Commissary, as well in
the towns of Montreal and Three Rivers, and in the country,
shall be preserved to him ; the said provisions belonging to
him and not to the King, and he shall be at liberty to sell
them to the French or to the English,
Answer. Everything which is actually in the stores
intended for the use of the troops, ought to be
delivered to the English commissaries for the King's
troops.
84
ARTICLE 25. A passage to France shall also be granted
on board ships of His Britannic Majesty, and likewise neces-
sary provisions, to the officers of the East India Company
who wish to go thither ; and they shall take with them their
families, domestics, and baggage. The principal agent of the
Company, in case he shall wish to go to France, shall have it
in his power to leave, till the ensuing year, such person as he
shall judge proper to regulate the affairs of the said Company,
and to recover the sums which are due to it. The principal
agent shall take possession of all papers belonging to the said
Company, and they shall not be subject to examination.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 26. The said Company 'shall retain in property
the silks and beavers which they may have in the city of Mon-
treal. They shall not be touched there upon any pretext
whatever ; and all necessary facilities shall be provided to the
principal agent for conveying to France, this year, these
beavers, on board vessels of His Britannic Majesty, on pay-
ment of freight at the same rate as the English would have
to pay.
Agreed for what shall pertain to the Company or indi-
viduals ; but if His Most Christian Majesty has any
part there, it shall be delivered to the king.
ARTICLE 27. The free exercise of the Catholic- Apostolic
Roman religion shall subsist in its entirety, in such manner
that all the states, and people of towns and countries, places
and distant posts, shall continue to assemble in the churches,
and frequent sacraments, as heretofore, without being molested
in any manner, directly or indirectly. The English govern-
ment shall oblige these peoples to pay to the priests the tithes
and all the taxes which they were accustomed to pay under
the government of His Most Christian Majesty.
Granted as to the free exercise of their religion ; the obli-
gation to pay the tithes to the priests shall depend
upon the king's pleasure.
85
ARTICLE 28. The Chapters, Priests, Curates, and Mis-
sionaries, shall continue with the utmost liberty their exercises
and their functions in the parishes, in the towns, and open
countries.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 29. The Grand Vicars nominated by the Chap-
ter to administer the Diocese during the vacancy of an Epis-
copal See, shall have liberty to make their residence in the
parishes of the towns or open country as they shall judge it
proper. They shall have liberty on all occasions to visit the
different parishes of the Diocese with the ordinary ceremonies,
and to exercise all jurisdiction which they exercised under the
dominion of the French. They shall enjoy the same rights in
case of death or future Bishop, which will be made mention
of in the following Article.
Agreed to, unless in so far as regards the following
Article.
ARTICLE 30. If by the Treaty of Peace Canada shall
remain in the power of His Britannic Majesty, His Most
Christian Majesty shall continue to nominate the Bishop of
the colony, which shall always be of the Roman Communion,
and under the authority of which the peoples shall exercise
the Romish religion.
Refused.
ARTICLE 31. The Bishop, in case of need, shall establish
new parishes to provide for the construction of a Cathedral
and his Episcopal Palace, and shall be entitled in the mean-
time to make his residence in the towns or parishes, as he
shall judge proper. He shall be at liberty to visit his Diocese
with his ordinary ceremonies, and to exercise all the jurisdic-
tion which his predecessor exercised under the French do-
minion, except that they shall exact from him an oath of
allegiance or a promise that he shall do nothing contrary to
the service of His Britannic Majesty.
Answer. This Article is comprehended in the preceding.
86
ARTICLE 32. The religious corporations shall maintain
their constitutions and privileges. They shall continue to
observe their rules. They shall be exempt from lodging
military men, and they shall be defended from trouble in their
religious exercises, or their monasteries being entered into.
Safe passports shall be given to those demanding them.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 33. The preceding Article shall in like manner
be executed in regard to Corporations of Jesuits, and Recol-
lets, and Priests of the House of St. Sulplice, at Montreal.
These last and the Jesuits shall preserve their right to nomi-
nate certain Curates and Missionaries as heretofore.
Refused until the pleasure of the king is known.
ARTICLE 34. All the Corporations and all the Priests
shall preserve their moveable effects, the properties and re-
venues of their lordships, and other endowments which they
possess in the colony, of whatsoever kind they may be ; and
these same endowments shall preserve their privileges, rights,
honours, and exemptions.
Granted.
ARTICLE 35. If the Canons, Priests, Missionaries, and
Priests of Seminaries, Stranger Missions of St. Sulplice,
Jesuits, and Recollets, should wish to go to France, they shall
be afforded a passage on board ships of His Britannic Ma-
jesty ; and they shall have liberty to sell, in whole or in part,
the goods, moveable and immoveable, which they possess in
the colony, either to the French or to the English, without
the least obstacle or hindrance on the part of His Britannic
Majesty. They shall have it in their power to take with
them or to send into France the profits, of whatever kind they
may be, of said effects sold, on paying freight as is set forth
in Article 26 ; and such of the said Priests as may wish to
depart this year shall have their provisions during the passage
at the expense of His Britannic Majesty, and may carry with
them their baggage.
87
Answer. They shall be entitled to dispose of their effects,
and to send into France the product of them, also to
proceed thither in the same manner with all that be-
longed to them.
ARTICLE 36. If by the Treaty of Peace, Canada shall
remain with His Britannic Majesty, all the French Canadians,
Acadians, merchants, and other persons who wish to retire
into France, shall have permission to do so from the English
general, who shall procure them a passage. Nevertheless, if
at present, till this decision be given, any French or Canadian
merchants, or other persons, should desire to proceed to
France, they shall equally have the permission of the English
general. And both the one and the other may take with
them their families, servants, and baggage.
Granted.
ARTICLE 37. The Lordships, Land Owners, Officers,
Civil and Military, the Canadians, both of the towns and
open countries, the French established in trading throughout
the whole extent of the colony of Canada, and all other per-
sons whomsoever, shall preserve peaceably the entire property
and possessions of their effects, coins, and means, moveable
and immoveable, their merchandises, furniture, and other
effects, as well as their ships. They shall not be touched,
nor the least damage done to them, under any pretext that it
is possible to conceive They shall be permitted to keep, rent,
or to sell them, either to the French or to the English, and to
carry the proceeds in bills of exchange, furs, species, blank line,
or other produce, when they shall judge it proper to proceed
to France, on payment of freight as it is provided in Article
26. They shall also have the furs which pertain to them in
the high up posts, and which may be on the road to Montreal.
In consequence, it shall be permitted to them to send this
year, or the ensuing year, proper barges to go to collect these
said furs, which shall remain in these posts.
Agreed to, as in Article 26.
. 88
ARTICLE 38. All the people who have left Acadia, and
who shall be found in Canada, comprising therein the frontiers
of Canada on the side of Acadia, shall be treated the same as
the Canadians, and enjoy the same privileges.
Answer. It belongs to the king to dispose of these ancient
subjects ; in the meantime they shall enjoy the same
privileges as the Canadians.
ARTICLE 39. Any of the Canadians, Acadians, or French,
who are actually in Canada, and on the frontiers of the
colony, on the side of Acadia at the Strait, at Michelimakinak,
and other places and posts of the higher territories, any
soldiers, married or unmarried, remaining in Canada, shall
not be conducted or transported to English colonies, or to Old
England, nor shall they be molested on account of having
carried arms.
Agreed to, except in regard to Canadians.
ARTICLE 40. The Savages or Indians, allies of His Most
Christian Majesty, shall be maintained in their habitations ; if
they choose to remain there, they shall not be molested on any
pretext whatever for having carried arms, or for having served
His Most Christian Majesty. They shall also have the same as
the French, toleration of religion and keep their Missionaries.
The actual Vicars' general, and the Bishop, when the Epis-
copal See shall be full, shall have liberty to send them new
Missionaries, when they shall judge it necessary.
Accorded, except the last Article, which has been already
refused.
ARTICLE 41. The French, Canadians, and Acadians, of
whatever rank they may be, who shall remain in the colony,
shall not be forced to take up arms against His Most Christian
Majesty or his allies, directly or indirectly, on any occasion
that this might be. The British government exact only from
them a strict neutrality.
Answer. They shall become subjects of the king.
ARTICLE 42. The French Canadians and Acadians shall
89
continue to be governed according to the custom of Paris, and
following the usages established for this country. They shall
not be subject to any other imposts than those which were
established under the French dominion.
Answered by the preceding Articles, and particularly by
the last.
ARTICLE 43. The papers of the government shall remain,
without exception, in the power of the Marquis of Vaudreuil,
and go to France with him. These papers shall not be
examined under any pretext whatever.
Agreed to, under the reservation already made.
ARTICLE 44. The papers of the residency, of the cabinets,
of the comptroller of the marine, of the old and new trea-
suries, the king's magazines, of the cabinet of revenues, and
ordnances of St. Maurice, shall remain under the power of
M. Bigot, the intendent, and shall be embarked along with
him in the same vessel which is appointed to convey him to
France. These papers shall not be examined.
The same thing for this Article.
ARTICLE 45. The registers and other papers of the su-
preme council of Quebec, of the provost and admiralty of the
said city, those of the supreme jurisdiction of the Colony, the
minutes and notarial acts of the cities and the open country,
and generally the acts and other documents which serve to
prove the goods and fortunes of citizens remaining in the
Colony, with the presses of the jurisdictions to which these
papers belong.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 46. The inhabitants and merchants shall enjoy
all the privileges of commerce, with the same favours and
with the same conditions granted to the subjects of His Bri-
tannic Majesty, as well in the higher territories, as in the
interior of the colony.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 47. The negroes and peasants of both sexes
90
shall remain in their condition of slavery, in the power of the
French and Canadians to whom they belong. Their masters
shall have liberty to keep them in their service in the colony,
or to sell them ; and shall also have it in their power to
instruct them in the Romish religion.
Agreed to, under reserve of those who have been made
prisoners.
ARTICLE -48. The Marquis of Yaudreuil, the general and
the staff officers of the land forces, the governors and the
staff officers of the different places of the colony, the civil
and military officers, and all other persons who shall quit the
colony, or who are already absent, shall have liberty to
nominate and appoint attornies, who shall act for them and
in their name in the administration of their effects, moveable
and immoveable, until the peace ; and if by the treaty be-
tween the two Crowns, Canada shall not return under the
French dominion, these officers and other persons, or their
attornies, shall have permission to sell their feifs, houses, or
other estates, and their moveables, goods, and to carry or send
to France the proceeds, in bills of exchange, specie, furs, or
other produce, as it is provided for in Article 37.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 49. The inhabitants and other persons who
have suffered any damage in their effects, moveable or im-
moveable, who remained at Quebec under the faith of the
capitulation of that city, shall have it in their power to make
representation to the British Government, who shall render
just judgment against those whom it may concern.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 50. The present capitulation shall be inviolably
executed in all these respects, and in good faith, on the one
part and the other, notwithstanding any infraction and other
pretexts in regard to preceding capitulations, and without
using reprisals.
Agreed to.
91
ARTICLE 51. The English general obliges himself, that
in case there shall remain any Indians, after the surrender of
this city, to prevent their entry into the towns, and prevent
them from insulting in any manner the subjects of His Most
Christian Majesty.
Answer. Care shall be taken that the Indians shall not
be guilty of any insult to the subjects of His Most
Christian Majesty.
ARTICLE 52. The troops and other subjects of His Most
Christian Majesty, who ought to proceed to France, shall be
embarked, at the latest, in five days after the signature of the
present capitulation.
Answered as in Article 11.
ARTICLE 53. The troops and other subjects of His Most
Christian Majesty who are destined to proceed to France,
shall remain lodged and encamped in the city of Montreal,
and other posts which they actually occupy, until they shall
embark to depart. In the meantime, passports shall be
granted to those who require them, for the different places of
the colony, in order to take care of their effects.
Granted.
ARTICLE 54. All officers and soldiers of the troops in the
service of France who are prisoners in New England, and
those who have been taken in Canada, shall be sent back as
soon as possible to France, either to treat there for their ran-
som or their exchange, conformable to cartel ; and if any of
these officers have business in Canada, they shall have liberty
to go there.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 55. In regard to the officers of militia, or
militiamen and Acadians who are prisoners in New Eng-
land, they shall be sent back to their own countries respec-
tively.
Done at Montreal, the 8th of September, 1760.
(Signed) VAUDREUIL.
Agreed to, except in regard to the Acadians.
Done at the camp before Montreal, the 8th of Sep-
tember, 1760.
(Signed) JEFF. AMHERST.
These articles are a fine specimen of terms of capitulation, and equally
honourable to both parties. ED.
CAPITULATION OF QUEBEC BY M. EAMSAT,
The 18 th of September, 1760.
ARTICLE 1. M. Ramsay demands that the honors of war
shall be granted to his garrison, and that they shall be con-
ducted in safety to the army of the king by the shortest road,
with arms, baggage, six field pieces of cannon, two mortars,
or a twelve-pounder shot shell.
Answer. The garrison composed of land troops, marine,
and seamen shall leave the place with arms and
baggage ; drums beating, colours flying, and two
pieces to fire. They shall be embarked the most
conveniently possible for being transported to the
first port of the realm of France.
ARTICLE 2. The inhabitants shall be maintained in pos-
session of their houses, estates, effects, and privileges.
Agreed to : provided they lay down their arms.
ARTICLE 3. They shall not be exposed to any bad treat-
ment on account of having carried arms in defence of the
place, having been forced to serve as militia, following the
usual custom of the respective colonies of the two Crowns.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 4. None of the effects shall be touched which
appertain either to the officers or inhabitants absent from the
place.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 5. No persons settled in the city shall be
obliged to quit their dwellings before there shall be arranged
a definite treaty between their Most Christian and British
Majesties.
Very well.
94
ARTICLE 6. The public exercise of the Catholic Apos-
tolic and Romish religion shall be maintained. They shall
grant the same safeguards to the houses of the clergy and to
the monasteries : above all, to the palace of the Bishop of the
Diocese, which is animated with zeal for religion, and full of
charity for his flocks, desirous of residing constantly in the
city of Quebec, in order there to exercise freely and with
decency, and where he may judge proper, his Episcopal ati-
thority in whatever regards the duties attached to his charac-
ter, and the functions requisite to the sacred mysteries of
the Catholic Apostolic and Romish religion, till the possession
of Canada shall be decided by a treaty between the Most
Christian King and the King of Great Britain.
The Romish religion shall be exercised freely. All reli-
gious persons and the Bishop shall have passports,
with liberty to pass and repass where their functions
call them, and that till the arrangement spoken of is
made.
ARTICLE 7. The garrison shall deliver up, in good faith,
the artillery and munitions of war, of which they shall pre-
pare a list.
Undecided.
ARTICLE 8. The sick and wounded, commissaries, chap-
lains, physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, and other employes
in the hospitals, shall be treated conformably to the cartel
established between the Courts of Versailles and London, the
6th day of February of the present year.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 9. Before the gates shall be given up to the
English troops to enter the city, their general shall send there
some soldiers, who shall be placed as safeguards to the
churches, convents, and hotels.
Granted.
ARTICLE 10. The Commandant of the city of Quebec
shall have permission to despatch an express to the Marquis
95
of Vaudreuil, governor-general, to inform him of the sur-
render of the place. He shall be equally permitted to give
advice thereof by letters to the minister at Versailles.
Agreed to.
ARTICLE 11. The present capitulation shall be observed
in all its force and tenor, without any pretext or motive of
reprisals, or reason of non-execution of every prior capitula-
tion, being able to serve as the foundation for support of its
infringement.
Copies of this Convention, stipulated between us, have
been signed in the camp before Quebec to-day, the 18th Sep-
tember, 1759.
(Signed) CHAELES SAUNDERS.
GEORGE TOWNSHEND of Ramsay.
APPENDIX,
Conjectures b>j M. the Chevalier on the Manoeuvres of the
Disposition of March of M. Braddock.
THE disposition of M. Braddock was found at the Belle
River among the papers of that English general, and sent to
Louisbourg, where I saw it, without any explanation of the
manner of manoeuvreing in that order of march, so as to get
into battle array. Finding it at the first glance of the eye
very singular, I sent a copy of it to M. the Marshal of
Thomond, with whom I had always kept up a correspondence
by letters ; but my Lord Thomond confined himself to thank-
ing me, without communicating to me what he thought of it ;
and I sent another copy of it to M. Surlaville, our old troop
major at Louisbourg, who answered me that that order of
march was very defective, and that with that disposition the
English general would not have been able to avoid letting him-
self be beaten. On examining it, it appeared to me to be the
practice followed throughout all Europe for crossing a wood,
an army under three columns, the provisions, the munitions
of war, artillery and baggage forming that of the centre ; and
I hazarded my ideas upon the manreuvre of these columns.
Every company appears, according to the plan, into three
platoons, of which I suppose the greatest part of the three is
commanded by the captain, the second by the lieutenant,
and the third, the one most distant from the carriages, by a
sergeant, not having an appearance but of two files of four
or six men deep ; the platoon of the sergeant should be able
kj
Og
1
:L: ::::i:
I
97
to be destined to fight on the high road, and hold in check the
light troops, who might vault through the skirt of the wood.
If the enemy should appear in sufficiently great numbers to
fear being attacked, we should form (fig. 2J into platoons of
column from the right one to the right ; and to the platoons
of the column of the left one to the left, making them march
immediately in advance, in a straight line of the platoon of the
sergeant. That which should be done in an instant, a long
square, fronting every way and firing from the head to the
foot by the companies of grenadiers. If the attack of the
enemy is decided on the side of the column of the right, the
column of the left should then be a half circle to the right, it
becoming the second line, and the carriages re-entering at the
same time to the centre through the intervals ; this would
immediately restore the army again into three columns. If we
wished to make a retreat in place of one at the left, it should
be made at the right. According to the column which will
form the first line we should place the cannon in the the inter-
vals, and cause form the grenadiers into four squares to guard
the flanks. Supposing (Jig. Z) that the enemy should be
arranged in battle order on a plain, having many natural
meadows on the side of Illinois of an immense greatness and
that it was his design to attack you at the moment that the
army debouched from the wood, in forming a square at the left
to the platoons of the column to the right, and a quarter of a
square at the right to the platoons of the column of the left,
the two columns are at once formed in divisions by two com-
panies in each division ; and in debouching they will be able
to form themselves in battle array by division.
* NOTES ON THE OEDER OF MARCH.
This disposition of M. Braddock was found among his
papers at Belle river, but without any explanation of the
98
manoeuvres which it behoved him to make of the columns,
and containing only the names of the companies which were
attached to every brigade of baggage ; the column of the
centre being composed of carriages of provisions, of his artil-
lery and his munitions and other baggage, was divided into
two brigades, which were distributed throughout his whole
army, as they had need of them. Thus I will hazard my
conjectures in regard to the different manoeuvres which M.
Braddock would have had it in his power to form the idea of
making by his order of march. Every company, by the plan,
appears to be divided into three platoons, of which I imagine
the greatest of the three was commanded by the captain, the
second by the lieutenant, the third, the most distant of car-
riages, by a sergeant, the third not being in appearance but
like two files of four or six deep. This sergeant's platoon
might be designed to skirt the wood, break down the stockade
and hold in check the light troops who leap upon the skirts
of the wood. If the enemy appear in any great numbers, for
fear of being attacked, they ought to form (fig. \) platoons
of column from the right one to the right ; and from those of
the column of the left one at the left ; causing them to march
immediately in advance from the line of the sergeant's pla-
toon, which should make a long square, facing every way,
and form at the head and rear by companies of grenadiers.
If the attack of the enemy is decided from the side of the
column of the right, the column of the left ought then to
make a half circle to the right, which would then become the
second line ; and the carriages would pass at once through
the intervals between the companies to place themselves in
the rear of the column to the left, in order to leave free space
between the two lines ; thus, vice versa, if it is at the column
of the left where the enemy makes his attack, if they wish
to continue their march in advance, they ought to make to
the whole force, one at the left, the carriages at the same time
returning back through the intervals, which would imme-
99
diately replace the army into three columns. If they should
wish to effect a retreat, in place of effecting it at the left, it
ought to be made at the right. Immediately when it is ascer-
tained that it is from the column of the right that the enemy
would present himself to do battle, you ought then to intro-
duce the artillery into the openings of that column, and you
will make a quarter circle from the right to the grenadiers to
protect the flanks of the first line. If it is the column of the
left that is attacked, you will place the artillery there in the
intervals, and the grenadiers will form a quarter circle to the
left ; the carriages passing at once becoming the column of
the right, which will then be the second line. Supposing
(fig. 2} that the enemy should be ranged in battle array in a
plain, as there is often natural meadows on the side of Illi-
nois, of an immense magnitude, and that it is his design to
attack you at the moment when the army debouches from the
wood, in making a quarter circle from the left to the platoons
of the column of the right, and a quarter circle from the
right to the platoons of the column of the left, the two
columns are at once formed in divisions by companies ; and
in debouching from the wood you would be able to form at
once in battle array through the centre, the companies of the
column of the right placing it from the right to their first
company, successively, in proportion as they debouched ; and
from the same companies of the column of the left, to their
first company ; a manoeuvre which is in use at the passage of
a bridge the two companies at the head of the columns
forming the centre of the line.
* These conjectures, although in part repetitious, being in the original,
we did not feel ourselves justified in abridging or omitting either of them.
ED.
O. CORNWALL AND SONS, PRINTERS AND LITHOGRAPHEBS, ABERDEEK.
*
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