by G. A. Henty
Chapter 18: Quebec.
In the following spring, the French prepared to resist the seriousattack which they expected would be made by way of Lake Champlain andOntario. But a greater danger was threatening them, for, in the midstof their preparations, the news arrived from France that a great fleetwas on its way, from England, to attack Quebec. The town was filledwith consternation and surprise, for the Canadians had believed thatthe navigation of the Saint Lawrence was too difficult and dangerousfor any hostile fleet to attempt. Their spirits rose however when, afew days later, a fleet of twenty-three ships, ladened with suppliesfrom France, sailed up the river.
A day or two later, the British fleet was at the mouth of the SaintLawrence, and the whole forces of the colony, except three battalionsposted at Ticonderoga, and a strong detachment placed so as to resistany hostile movement from Lake Ontario, were mustered at Quebec. Herewere gathered five French battalions, the whole of the Canadian troopsand militia, and upwards of a thousand Indians, in all amounting tomore than sixteen thousand.
The position was an extremely strong one. The main force was encampedon the high ground below Quebec, with their right resting on the SaintCharles River, and the left on the Montmorenci, a distance of betweenseven and eight miles. The front was covered by steep ground, whichrose nearly from the edge of the Saint Lawrence, and the right wascovered by the guns of the citadel of Quebec. A boom of logs, chainedtogether, was laid across the mouth of the Saint Charles, which wasfurther guarded by two hulks mounted with cannon. A bridge of boats,crossing the river a mile higher up, connected the city with the camp.
All the gates of Quebec, except that of Saint Charles, which faced thebridge, were closed and barricaded. A hundred and six cannon weremounted on the walls, while a floating battery of twelve heavy pieces,a number of gunboats, and eight fire ships formed the river defences.
The frigates, which had convoyed the merchant fleet, were taken higherup the river, and a thousand of their seamen came down, from Quebec, toman the batteries and gunboats.
Against this force of sixteen thousand men, posted behind defensiveworks, on a position almost impregnable by nature, General Wolfe wasbringing less than nine thousand troops. The steep and lofty heights,that lined the river, rendered the cannon of the ships useless to him,and the exigencies of the fleet, in such narrow and difficultnavigation, prevented the sailors being landed to assist the troops.
A large portion of Montcalm's army, indeed, consisted of Canadians, whowere of little use in the open field, but could be trusted to fightwell behind intrenchments.
Wolfe was, unfortunately, in extremely bad health when he was selected,by Pitt, to command the expedition against Quebec; but under him wereBrigadier Generals Monckton, Townshend, and Murray, all good officers.
The fleet consisted of twenty-two ships of war, with frigates andsloops, and a great number of transports. It was, at first, dividedinto three squadrons. That under Admiral Durell sailed direct for theSaint Lawrence, to intercept the ships from France, but arrived at itsdestination a few days too late. That of Admiral Holmes sailed for NewYork, to take on board a portion of the army of Amherst and Abercromby.That of Admiral Saunders sailed to Louisbourg, but, finding theentrance blocked with ice, went on to Halifax, where it was joined bythe squadron with the troops from New York. They then sailed again toLouisbourg, where they remained until the 6th of June, 1759, and thenjoined Durell at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence.
Wolfe's force had been intended to be larger, and should have amountedto fourteen thousand men; but some regiments which were to have joinedhim from the West Indies were, at the last moment, countermanded, andAmherst, who no doubt felt some jealousy, at the command of thisimportant expedition being given to an officer who had served under hisorders at the taking of Louisbourg, sent a smaller contingent of troopsthan had been expected.
Among the regiments which sailed was that of James Walsham. After thefight at Ticonderoga, in which upwards of half of his force had fallen,the little corps had been broken up, and the men had returned to dutywith their regiments. Owing to the number of officers who had fallen,James now stood high on the list of lieutenants. He had had enough ofscouting, and was glad to return to the regiment, his principal regretbeing that he had to part from his two trusty scouts.
There was great joy, in the regiment, when the news was received thatthey were to go with the expedition against Quebec. They had formedpart of Wolf''s division at Louisbourg, and, like all who had servedwith him, regarded with enthusiasm and confidence the leader whosefrail body seemed wholly incapable of sustaining fatigue or hardship,but whose indomitable spirit and courage placed him ever in the front,and set an example which the bravest of his followers were proud toimitate.
From time to time, James had received letters from home. Communicationwas irregular; but his mother and Mr. Wilks wrote frequently, andsometimes he received half a dozen letters at once. He had now beenabsent from home for four years, and his mother told him that he wouldscarcely recognize Aggie, who was now as tall as herself. Mrs. Walshamsaid that the girl was almost as interested as she was in his letters,and in the despatches from the war, in which his name had several timesbeen mentioned, in connection with the services rendered by his scouts.
Richard Horton had twice, during James's absence, returned home. Thesquire, Mrs. Walsham said, had received him very coolly, in consequenceof the letter he had written when James was pressed as a seaman, andshe said that Aggie seemed to have taken a great objection to him. Shewondered, indeed, that he could stay an hour in the house after hisreception there; but he seemed as if he didn't notice it, and tookespecial pains to try and overcome Aggie's feeling against him.
While waiting at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, Admiral Durell hadsucceeded in obtaining pilots to take the fleet up the river. He hadsailed up the river to the point where the difficult navigation began,and where vessels generally took on board river pilots. Here he hoistedthe French flag at the masthead, and the pilots, believing the ships tobe a French squadron, which had eluded the watch of the English, cameoff in their boats, and were all taken prisoners, and forced, underpain of death, to take the English vessels safely up.
The first difficulty of the passage was at Cape Tourmente, where thechannel describes a complete zigzag. Had the French planted some gunson a plateau, high up on the side of the mountains, they could havedone great damage by a plunging fire; but Vaudreuil had neglected totake this measure, and the fleet passed up in safety, the manner inwhich they were handled and navigated astonishing the Canadians, whohad believed it to be impossible that large ships could be taken up.
On the 26th, the whole fleet were anchored off the Island of Orleans, afew miles below Quebec. The same night, a small party landed on theisland. They were opposed by the armed inhabitants, but beat them off,and, during the night, the Canadians crossed to the north shore. Thewhole army then landed.
From the end of the island, Wolfe could see the full strength of theposition which he had come to attack. Three or four miles in front ofhim, the town of Quebec stood upon its elevated rock. Beyond rose theloftier height of Cape Diamond, with its redoubts and parapets. Threegreat batteries looked threateningly from the upper rock of Quebec,while three others were placed, near the edge of the water, in thelower town. On the right was the great camp of Montcalm, stretchingfrom the Saint Charles, at the foot of the city walls, to the gorge ofthe Montmorenci. From the latter point to the village of Beauport, inthe centre of the camp, the front was covered with earthworks, alongthe brink of a lofty height; and from Beauport to the Saint Charleswere broad flats of mud, swept by the fire of redoubts andintrenchments, by the guns of a floating battery, and by those of thecity itself.
Wolfe could not see beyond Quebec, but, above the city, the positionwas even stronger than below. The river was walled by a range ofsteeps, often inaccessible, and always so difficult that a few mencould hold an army in check.
Montcalm was perfectly confident of his ability to resist any at
tackwhich the British might make. Bougainville had long before examined theposition, in view of the possibility of an English expedition againstit, and reported that, with a few intrenchments, the city would be safeif defended by three or four thousand men. Sixteen thousand were nowgathered there, and Montcalm might well believe the position to beimpregnable.
He was determined to run no risk, by advancing to give battle, but toremain upon the defensive till the resources of the English wereexhausted, or till the approach of winter forced them to retire. Hisonly source of uneasiness lay in the south, for he feared that Amherst,with his army, might capture Ticonderoga and advance into the colony,in which case he must weaken his army, by sending a force to opposehim.
On the day after the army landed on the island, a sudden and veryviolent squall drove several of the ships ashore, and destroyed many ofthe flatboats. On the following night, the sentries at the end of theisland saw some vessels coming down the river. Suddenly these burstinto flames. They were the fire ships, which Vaudreuil had sent down todestroy the fleet. They were filled with pitch, tar, and all sorts ofcombustibles, with shell and grenades mixed up with them, while ontheir decks were a number of cannon, crammed to the mouth withgrapeshot and musketballs.
Fortunately for the English, the French naval officer in command losthis nerve, and set fire to his ship half an hour too soon; the othercaptains following his example. This gave the English time to recoverfrom the first feeling of consternation at seeing the fire ships, eacha pillar of flame, advancing with tremendous explosion and noiseagainst them. The troops at once got under arms, lest the French shouldattack them, while the vessels lowered their boats, and the sailorsrowed up to meet the fire ships. When they neared them, they threwgrapnels on board, and towed them towards land until they werestranded, and then left them to burn out undisturbed.
Finding that it would be impossible to effect a landing, under the fireof the French guns, Wolfe determined, as a first step, to seize theheight of Point Levi opposite Quebec. From this point he could fire onthe town across the Saint Lawrence, which is, here, less than a milewide.
On the afternoon of the 29th, Monckton's brigade crossed, in the boats,to Beaumont on the south shore. His advanced guard had a skirmish witha party of Canadians, but these soon fell back, and no furtheropposition was offered to the landing.
In the morning a proclamation, issued by Wolfe, was posted on the doorsof the parish churches. It called upon the Canadians to stand neutralin the contest, promising them, if they did so, full protection totheir property and religion; but threatening that, if they resisted,their houses, goods, and harvest should be destroyed, and theirchurches sacked.
The brigade marched along the river to Point Levi, and drove off a bodyof French and Indians posted there, and, the next morning, began tothrow up intrenchments and to form batteries. Wolfe did not expect thathis guns here could do any serious damage to the fortifications ofQuebec. His object was partly to discourage the inhabitants of the cityexposed to his fire, partly to keep up the spirits of his own troops bysetting them to work.
The guns of Quebec kept up a continual fire against the workingparties, but the batteries continued to rise, and the citizens, alarmedat the destruction which threatened their houses, asked the governor toallow them to cross the river, and dislodge the English. Although hehad no belief that they would succeed, he thought it better to allowthem to try. Accordingly, some fifteen hundred armed citizens, andCanadians from the camp, with a few Indians, and a hundred volunteersfrom the regulars, marched up the river, and crossed on the night ofthe 12th of July.
The courage of the citizens evaporated very quickly, now they were onthe same side of the river as the English, although still three milesfrom them. In a short time a wild panic seized them. They rushed backin extreme disorder to their boats, crossed the river, and returned toQuebec.
The English guns soon opened, and carried destruction into the city. Inone day eighteen houses, and the cathedral, were burned by explodingshells; and the citizens soon abandoned their homes, and fled into thecountry.
The destruction of the city, however, even if complete, would haveadvanced Wolfe's plans but little. It was a moral blow at the enemy,but nothing more.
On the 8th of July, several frigates took their station before the campof General Levis, who, with his division of Canadian militia, occupiedthe heights along the Saint Lawrence next to the gorge of Montmorenci.Here they opened fire with shell, and continued it till nightfall.Owing to the height of the plateau on which the camp was situated, theydid but little damage, but the intention of Wolfe was simply to keepthe enemy occupied and under arms.
Towards evening, the troops on the island broke up their camp, and,leaving a detachment of marines to hold the post, the brigades ofTownshend and Murray, three thousand strong, embarked after nightfallin the boats of the fleet, and landed a little below the Montmorenci,At daybreak, they climbed the heights, and, routing a body of Canadiansand Indians who opposed them, gained the plateau and began to intrenchthemselves there.
A company of rangers, supported by the regulars, was sent into theneighbouring forests; to prevent the parties from cutting bushes forthe fascines, to explore the bank of the Montmorenci, and, if possible,to discover a ford across the river.
Levis, with his aide-de-camp, a Jacobite Scotchman named Johnston, waswatching the movements of Wolfe from the heights above the gorge. Levisbelieved that no ford existed, but Johnston found a man who had, onlythat morning, crossed. A detachment was at once sent to the place, withorders to intrench themselves, and Levis posted eleven hundredCanadians, under Repentigny, close by in support.
Four hundred Indians passed the ford, and discovered the Englishdetachment in the forest, and Langlade, their commander, recrossed theriver, and told Repentigny that there was a body of English, in theforest, who might be destroyed if he would cross at once with hisCanadians. Repentigny sent to Levis, and Levis to Vaudreuil, then threeor four miles distant.
Before Vaudreuil arrived on the spot, the Indians became impatient andattacked the rangers; and drove them back, with loss, upon theregulars, who stood their ground, and repulsed the assailants. TheIndians, however, carried thirty-six scalps across the ford.
If Repentigny had advanced when first called upon, and had beenfollowed by Levis with his whole command, the English might havesuffered a very severe check, for the Canadians were as much superiorto the regulars, in the forest, as the regulars to the Canadians in theopen.
Vaudreuil called a council of war, but he and Montcalm agreed not toattack the English, who were, on their part, powerless to injure them.Wolfe's position on the heights was indeed a dangerous one. A third ofhis force was six miles away, on the other side of the Saint Lawrence,and the detachment on the island was separated from each by a wide armof the river. Any of the three were liable to be attacked andoverpowered, before the others could come to its assistance.
Wolfe, indeed, was soon well intrenched, but, although safe againstattack, he was powerless to take the offensive. The fact, however, thathe had taken up his position so near their camp, had discomfited theCanadians, and his battery played, with considerable effect, on theleft of their camp.
The time passed slowly. The deep and impassable gulf of the Montmorenciseparated the two enemies, but the crests of the opposite cliffs werewithin easy gunshot of each other, and men who showed themselves nearthe edge ran a strong chance of being hit. Along the river, from theMontmorenci to Point Levi, continued fighting went on between the gunsof the frigates, and the gunboats and batteries on shore. The Indiansswarmed in the forest, near the English camp, and constant skirmishingwent on between them and the rangers.
The steady work of destruction going on in the city of Quebec, by thefire from Point Levi, and the ceaseless cannonade kept up by the shipsand Wolfe's batteries; added to the inactivity to which they werecondemned, began to dispirit the Canadian militia, and many desertionstook place, the men being anxious to return to their villages and lookafter th
e crops; and many more would have deserted, had it not been forthe persuasion of the priests, and the fear of being maltreated by theIndians, whom the governor threatened to let loose upon any who shouldwaver in their resistance.
On the 18th of July a fresh move was made by the English. The Frenchhad believed it impossible for any hostile ships to pass the batteriesof Quebec; but, covered by a furious cannonade from Point Levi, the manof war Sutherland, with a frigate and several small vessels, aided by afavouring wind, ran up the river at night and passed above the town.Montcalm at once despatched six hundred men, under Dumas, to defend theaccessible points in the line of precipices above Quebec, and on thefollowing day, when it became known that the English had dragged afleet of boats over Point Levi, and had launched them above the town, areinforcement of several hundreds more was sent to Dumas.
On the night of the 20th Colonel Carleton, with six hundred men, rowedeighteen miles up the river, and landed at Pointe aux Trembles on thenorth shore. Here, many of the fugitives from Quebec had taken refuge,and a hundred women, children and old men were taken prisoners byCarleton, and brought down the next day with the retiring force. Wolfeentertained the prisoners kindly, and sent them, on the following day,with a flag of truce into Quebec.
On the night of the 28th, the French made another attempt to burn theEnglish fleet, sending down a large number of schooners, shallops, andrafts, chained together, and filled, as before, with combustibles.
This time, the fire was not applied too soon, and the English fleet wasfor some time in great danger, but was again saved by the sailors, who,in spite of the storm of missiles, vomited out by cannon, swivels,grenades, shell, and gun and pistol barrels loaded up to the muzzle,grappled with the burning mass, and towed it on shore.
It was now the end of July, and Wolfe was no nearer taking Quebec thanupon the day when he first landed there. In vain he had temptedMontcalm to attack him. The French general, confident in the strengthof his position, refused to leave it.
Wolfe therefore determined to attack the camp in front. The plan was adesperate one, for, after leaving troops enough to hold his two camps,he had less than five thousand men to attack a position of commandingstrength, where Montcalm could, at an hour's notice, collect twice asmany to oppose him.
At a spot about a mile above the gorge of the Montmorenci a flat stripof ground, some two hundred yards wide, lay between the river and thefoot of the precipices, and, at low tide, the river left a flat of mud,nearly half a mile wide, beyond the dry ground.
Along the edge of the high-water mark, the French had built severalredoubts. From the river, Wolfe could not see that these redoubts werecommanded by the musketry of the intrenchments along the edge of theheights above, which also swept with their fire the whole face of thedeclivity, which was covered with grass, and was extremely steep. Wolfehoped that, if he attacked one of the redoubts, the French would comedown to defend it, and that a battle might be so brought on; or that,if they did not do so, he might find a spot where the heights could bestormed with some chance of success. At low tide, it was possible toford the mouth of the Montmorenci, and Wolfe intended that the troopsfrom his camp, on the heights above that river, should cross here, andadvance along the strand to cooperate with Monckton's brigade, who wereto cross from Point Levi.
On the morning of the 31st of July, the Centurion, of 64 guns; and twoarmed transports, each with 14 guns, stood close in to one of theredoubts, and opened fire upon it; while the English batteries, fromthe heights of the Montmorenci, opened fire across the chasm upon theFrench lines.
At eleven o'clock, the troops from Point Levi put off in their boats,and moved across the river, as if they intended to make a landingbetween Beauport and the city. For some hours, Montcalm remainedignorant as to the point on which the English attack was to be made,but became presently convinced that it would be delivered near theMontmorenci, and he massed the whole of his army on that flank of hisposition.
At half-past five o'clock the tide was low, and the English boatsdashed forward, and the troops sprang ashore on to the broad tract ofmud, left bare by the tide; while, at the same moment, a column 2000strong moved down from the height towards the ford at the mouth of theMontmorenci. The first to land were thirteen companies of Grenadiers,and a detachment of Royal Americans, who, without waiting for the tworegiments of Monckton's brigade, dashed forward against the redoubt atthe foot of the hill. The French at once abandoned it, but theGrenadiers had no sooner poured into it, than a storm of bullets raineddown upon them, from the troops who lined the heights above.
Without a moment's hesitation, the Grenadiers and Americans dashedforward, and strove to climb the steep ascent, swept as it was by aterrific hail of bullets and buckshot from the French and Canadians.Numbers rolled, dead or wounded, to the bottom of the hill, but theothers struggled on.
But at this moment, the cloud, which had been threatening all day,suddenly opened, and the rain poured down in a torrent. The grassyslopes instantly became so slippery that it was absolutely impossibleto climb them, and the fire from above died away, as the wet renderedthe firelocks unserviceable.
The Grenadiers fell back into the redoubt. Wolfe, who had now arrivedupon the spot, saw that it was absolutely impossible to carry theheights under the present conditions, and ordered the troops toretreat. Carrying off many of the wounded with them, they fell back ingood order. Those of the Grenadiers and Americans who survivedrecrossed, in their boats, to the island; the 15th Regiment rowed backto Point Levi; and the 78th Highlanders, who belonged to Monckton'sbrigade, joined the column from below the Montmorenci, and slowlyretired along the flats and across the ford.
The loss fell entirely upon the Grenadiers and Americans, and was, inproportion to their number, enormous--four hundred and forty-three,including one colonel, eight captains, twenty-one lieutenants, andthree ensigns, being killed, wounded, or missing. The blow to theEnglish was a severe one, and even Wolfe began to despair, andmeditated leaving a portion of his troops on Isle aux Coudres andfortifying them there, and sailing home, with the rest, to prepareanother expedition in the following year.
In the middle of August, he issued a third proclamation to theCanadians, declaring, as they had refused his offers of protection, andhad practised the most unchristian barbarity against his troops on alloccasions, he could no longer refrain, in justice to himself and hisarmy, in chastising them as they deserved. The barbarities consisted inthe frequent scalping and mutilating of sentinels, and men on outpostduty, which were perpetrated alike by the Canadians and Indians.
Wolfe's object was twofold: first, to cause the militia to desert, andsecondly, to exhaust the colony. Accordingly the rangers, lightinfantry and Highlanders were sent out, in all directions, to waste thesettlements wherever resistance was offered. Farm houses and villageswere laid in ashes, although the churches were generally spared.Wolfe's orders were strict that women and children were to be treatedwith honour.
"If any violence is offered to a woman, the offender shall be punishedwith death."
These orders were obeyed, and, except in one instance, none but armedmen, in the act of resistance, were killed.
Vaudreuil, in his despatches home, loudly denounced these barbarities;but he himself was answerable for atrocities incomparably worse, and ona far larger scale, for he had, for years, sent his savages, red andwhite, along a frontier of 600 miles, to waste, burn, and murder atwill, and these, as he was perfectly aware, spared neither age nor sex.
Montcalm was not to be moved from his position by the sight of thesmoke of the burning villages. He would not risk the loss of allCanada, for the sake of a few hundred farm houses.
Seeing the impossibility of a successful attack below the town, Wolfedetermined to attempt operations on a large scale above it.Accordingly, with every fair wind and tide, ships and transports ranthe gauntlet of the batteries of Quebec, and, covered by a hot firefrom Point Levi, generally succeeded, with more or less damage, ingetting above the town. A fleet of flatboats w
as also sent up, and 1200troops marched overland, under Brigadier Murray, to embark in them.
To meet this danger above the town, Bougainville was sent from the campat Beaufort with 1500 men. Murray made another descent atPointe-aux-Trembles, but was repulsed with loss. He tried a second timeat another place, but a body of ambushed Canadians poured so heavy afire into the boats, that he was forced to fall back again withconsiderable loss. His third attempt was more successful, for he landedat Deschambault, and burned a large building filled with stores, andwith all the spare baggage of the officers of the French regulartroops.
Vaudreuil now regretted having sent the French frigates up the river,and withdrawing their crews to work in the batteries. Had they beenkept just above the town, they could have overpowered the Englishvessels as they passed up. The sailors were now sent up to man theirships again; but Admiral Holmes, who had taken command of the ships ofwar above Quebec, was already too strong for them, and the sailors wererecalled to Quebec.
Both armies were suffering. Dysentery and fever had broken out in theEnglish camp, and the number of effective men was greatly reduced. Uponthe other hand, the French were suffering from shortness of supplies.The English frigates above the town prevented food being brought downfrom Montreal in boats, and the difficulties of land carriage were verygreat.
The Canadians deserted in great numbers, and Montcalm's force had beenweakened by the despatch of Levis, to assist in checking the advance ofAmherst. The latter had captured Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Niagarahad also been taken by the English. Amherst, however, fell back again,and Levis was able to rejoin Montcalm.
But the greatest misfortune which befell the English was the dangerousillness of Wolfe, who, always suffering from disease, was for a timeutterly prostrate. At the end of August, however, he partiallyrecovered, and dictated a letter to his three brigadier generals,asking them to fix upon one of three plans, which he laid before them,for attacking the enemy. The first was that the army should march eightor ten miles up the Montmorenci, ford the river, and fall upon the rearof the enemy. The second was to cross the ford at the mouth of theMontmorenci, and march along the shore, until a spot was found wherethe heights could be climbed. The third was to make a general attackfrom the boats upon Beauport.
Monckton, Townshend, and Murray met in consultation, and considered allthe plans to be hopeless; but they proposed that an attempt should bemade to land above the town, and so to place the army between Quebecand its base of supplies, thereby forcing Montcalm to fight or tosurrender.
The attempt seemed a desperate one, but Wolfe determined to adopt it.He had not much hope of its succeeding, but should it not do so, therewas nothing for him but to sail, with his weakened army, back toEngland. He therefore determined at last to make the attempt, andimplored his physician to patch him up, so that he could, in person,take the command.
"I know perfectly well that you cannot cure me," he wrote; "but praymake me up, so that I may be without pain for a few days, and able todo my duty. That is all I want."
On the 3rd of September, Wolfe took the first steps towards thecarrying out of his plans, by evacuating the camp at Montmorenci.Montcalm sent a strong force to attack him, as he was moving; butMonckton at Point Levi saw the movement, and, embarking two battalionsin boats, made a feint of landing at Beauport. Montcalm recalled histroops to repulse the threatened attack, and the English were able todraw off from Montmorenci without molestation.
On the night of the 4th, a fleet of flatboats passed above the town,with the baggage and stores. On the 5th the infantry marched up byland, and the united force, of some 3600 men, embarked on board theships of Admiral Holmes.
The French thought that the abandonment of Montmorenci, and theembarkation of the troops, was a sign that the English were about toabandon their enterprise, and sail for England. Nevertheless, Montcalmdid not relax his vigilance, being ever on the watch, riding from postto post, to see that all was in readiness to repel an attack. In one ofhis letters at this time, he mentioned that he had not taken off hisclothes since the 23d of June.
He now reinforced the troops under Bougainville, above Quebec, to 3000men. He had little fear for the heights near the town, believing themto be inaccessible, and that a hundred men could stop a whole army.This he said, especially, in reference to the one spot which presentedat least a possibility of being scaled. Here Captain de Vergor, with ahundred Canadian troops, were posted. The battalion of Guienne had beenordered to encamp close at hand, and the post, which was called Anse duFoulon, was but a mile and a half distant from Quebec. Thus, althoughhoping that the English would soon depart, the French, knowing thecharacter of Wolfe, made every preparation against a last attack beforehe started.
From the 7th to the 12th, Holmes' fleet sailed up and down the river,threatening a landing, now at one point and now at another, wearing outthe French, who were kept night and day on the qui vive, and wereexhausted by following the ships up and down, so as to be ready tooppose a landing wherever it might be made.
James Walsham's regiment formed part of Monckton's brigade, and hiscolonel had frequently selected him to command parties who went out tothe Canadian villages, as, from the knowledge he had acquired ofirregular warfare, he could be trusted not to suffer himself to besurprised by the parties of Canadians or Indians, who were always onthe watch to cut off detachments sent out from the British camp. Therewere still ten men in the regiment who had formed part of his band onthe lakes. These were drafted into his company, and, whatever forcewent out, they always accompanied him.
Although James had seen much, and heard more, of the terriblebarbarities perpetrated by the Canadians and their Indian allies on thefrontier, he lamented much the necessity which compelled Wolfe to orderthe destruction of Canadian villages; and when engaged on this service,whether in command of the detachment, or as a subaltern if more thanone company went out, he himself never superintended the painful work;but, with his ten men, scouted beyond the village, and kept a vigilantlookout against surprise. In this way, he had several skirmishes withthe Canadians, but the latter never succeeded in surprising any forceto which he was attached. Walsham and his scouts were often sent outwith parties from other regiments, and General Monckton was so pleasedwith his vigilance and activity, that he specially mentioned him toGeneral Wolfe, at the same time telling him of the services he hadperformed on the lakes, and the very favourable reports which had beenmade by Johnson, Monro, Lord Howe, and Abercromby, of the work done bythe corps which he had organized and commanded.
"I wish we had a few more officers trained to this sort of warfare,"General Wolfe said. "Send him on board the Sutherland tomorrow. I havesome service which he is well fitted to carry out."
James accordingly repaired on board the Sutherland, and was conductedto the general's cabin.
"General Monckton has spoken to me in high terms of you, LieutenantWalsham, and he tells me that you have been several times mentioned indespatches, by the generals under whom you served; and you were withBraddock as well as with Johnson, Howe, and Abercromby, and with Monroat the siege of Fort William Henry. How is it that so young an officershould have seen so much service?"
James informed him how, having been pressed on board a man of war, hehad been discharged, in accordance with orders from home, and, hearingthat his friends were going to obtain a commission for him, in aregiment under orders for America, he had thought it best to utilizehis time by accompanying General Braddock as a volunteer, in order tolearn something of forest warfare; that, after that disastrous affair,he had served with Johnson in a similar capacity, until, on hisregiment arriving, he had been selected to drill a company of scouts,and had served with them on the lakes, until the corps was broken upwhen the regiment sailed for Canada.
"In fact, you have seen more of this kind of warfare than any officerin the army," General Wolfe said. "Your special services ought to havebeen recognized before. I shall have you put in orders, tomorrow, aspromoted to the rank of captain. And now, I am about
to employ you upona service which, if you are successful, will give you your brevetmajority.
"There must be some points at which those precipices can be climbed. Iwant you to find out where they are. It is a service of great danger.You will go in uniform, otherwise, if caught, you would meet with thefate of a spy; but at the same time, even in uniform you would probablymeet with but little mercy, if you fell into the hands of the Canadiansor Indians. Would you be willing to undertake such a duty?"
"I will try, sir," James said. "Do you wish me to start tonight?"
"No," the general replied. "You had better think the matter over, andlet me know tomorrow how you had best proceed. It is not an enterpriseto be undertaken without thinking it over in every light. You will haveto decide whether you will go alone, or take anyone with you; when andhow you will land; how you will regain the ships. You will, of course,have carte blanche in all respects."
After James had returned on shore, he thought the matter over in everylight. He knew that the French had many sentries along the edge of theriver, for boats which, at night, went over towards that side of theriver, were always challenged and fired upon. The chance of landingundetected, therefore, seemed but slight; nor, even did he land, wouldhe be likely, at night, to discover the paths, which could be littlemore than tracks up the heights.
Had he been able to speak Canadian French, the matter would have beeneasy enough, as he could have landed higher up the river and, dressedas a Canadian farmer, have made his way through the French lineswithout suspicion. But he knew nothing of French, and, even had hespoken the language fluently, there was sufficient difference betweenthe Canadian French and the language of the old country, for the firstCanadian who spoke to him to have detected the difference.
Nor could he pass as an Indian; for, although he had picked up enoughof the language to converse with the redskin allies of the English onthe lakes, the first Indian who spoke to him would detect thedifference; and, indeed, it needed a far more intimate acquaintancewith the various tribes, than he possessed, for him to be able to paintand adorn himself so as to deceive the vigilant eyes of the FrenchIndians.
Had his two followers, Nat and Jonathan, been with him, they could havepainted and dressed him so that he could have passed muster, but, intheir absence, he abandoned the idea as out of the question. Theprospect certainly did not seem hopeful.
After long thought, it seemed to him that the only way which promisedeven a chance of success would be for him to be taken prisoner by theFrench soldiers. Once fairly within their lines, half the difficultywas over. He had learned to crawl as noiselessly as an Indian, and hedoubted not that he should be able to succeed in getting away from anyplace of confinement in which they might place him. Then he couldfollow the top of the heights, and the position of the sentries or ofany body of men encamped there would, in itself, be a guide to him asto the existence of paths to the strand below.
The first step was the most difficult. How should he manage to gethimself taken prisoner? And this was the more difficult, as it wasabsolutely necessary that he should fall into the hands of Frenchregulars, and not of the Canadians, who would finish the matter at onceby killing and scalping him.
The next morning, he again went off to the Sutherland. He was in highspirits, for his name had appeared in orders as captain, and asappointed assistant quartermaster general on the headquarter staff. Onentering the general's cabin, he thanked him for the promotion.
"You have earned it over and over again," the general said. "There areno thanks due to me. Now, have you thought out a plan?"
James briefly stated the difficulties which he perceived in the way ofany other scheme than that of getting himself taken prisoner by theFrench, and showed that that was the only plan that seemed to offereven a chance of success.
"But you may not be able to escape," Wolfe said.
"I may not," James replied, "and in that case, sir, I must of courseremain a prisoner until you take Quebec, or I am exchanged. Even thenyou would be no worse off than you are at present, for I must, ofcourse, be taken prisoner at some point where the French are in force,and where you do not mean to land. My presence there would give them noclue whatever to your real intentions, whereas, were I taken prisoneranywhere along the shore, they would naturally redouble theirvigilance, as they would guess that I was looking for some way ofascending the heights."
"How do you propose being taken?" Wolfe asked.
"My idea was," James replied, "that I should land with a party near CapRouge, as if to reconnoitre the French position there. We should, ofcourse, be speedily discovered, and would then retreat to the boats. Ishould naturally be the last to go, and might well manage to be cutoff."
"Yes," Wolfe replied, "but you might also, and that far more easily,manage to get shot. I don't think that would do, Captain Walsham. Therisks would be twenty to one against your escaping being shot. Can youthink of no other plan?"
"The only other plan that I can think of," James said, "might involveothers being taken prisoners. I might row in towards Cap Rouge in broaddaylight, as if to examine the landing place, and should, of course,draw their fire upon the boat. Before starting, I should fire two orthree shots into the boat close to the water line, and afterwards plugthem up with rags. Then, when their fire became heavy, I should takethe plugs out and let the boat fill. As she did so, I could shout thatI surrendered, and then we could drift till we neared the shore in thewater-logged boat, or swim ashore. I can swim well myself, and should,of course, want four men, who could swim well also, picked out as thecrew."
"The plan is a dangerous one," Wolfe said, "but less so than theother."
"One cannot win a battle without risking life, sir," James saidquietly. "Some of us might, of course, be hit, but as we risk our liveswhenever we get within range of the enemy, I do not see that that needbe considered; at any rate, sir, I am ready to make the attempt, if theplan has your approval."
"I tell you frankly, Captain Walsham, that I think your chances ofsuccess are absolutely nil. At the same time, there is just a faintpossibility that you may get ashore alive, escape from the French,discover a pathway, and bring me the news; and, as the only chance ofthe expedition being successful now depends upon our discovering such apath, I am not justified in refusing even this faint chance."
The general touched a bell which stood on the table before him.
"Will you ask the captain to come here," he said to the officer whoanswered the summons.
"Captain Peters," he said when the captain appeared, "I want you topick out for me four men, upon whom you can thoroughly rely. In thefirst place they must be good swimmers, in the second place they mustbe able to hold their tongues, and lastly they must be prepared to passsome months in a French prison. A midshipman, with the samequalifications, will be required to go with them."
The captain naturally looked surprised at so unusual a request.
"Captain Walsham is going to be taken prisoner by the French," GeneralWolfe explained, "and the only way it can be done is for a whole boat'screw to be taken with him," and he then detailed the plan which hadbeen arranged. "Of course, you can offer the men any reward you maythink fit, and can promise the midshipman early promotion," heconcluded.
"Very well, general. I have no doubt I can find four men and amidshipman willing to volunteer for the affair, especially as, if yousucceed, their imprisonment will be a short one. When will the attemptbe made?"
"If you can drift up the river as far as Cap Rouge before daylight,"James said, in answer to an inquiring look from the general, "we willattempt it tomorrow morning. I should say that the best plan would befor me to appear opposite their camp when day breaks, as if I wastrying to obtain a close view of it in the early morning."
"The sooner the better," General Wolfe said. "Every day is ofimportance. But how do you propose to get back again, that is,supposing that everything goes well?"
"I propose, general, that I should conceal myself somewhere on the faceof the heights. I will sp
read a handkerchief against a rock or tree, sothat it will not be seen either from above or below, but will bevisible from the ships in the river. I cannot say, of course, whetherit will be near Cap Rouge or Quebec; but, if you will have a sharplookout kept through a glass, as the ships drift up and down, you aresure to see it, and can let me know that you do so by dipping theensign. At night I will make my way down to the shore, and if, atmidnight exactly, you will send a boat for me, I shall be ready to swimoff to her, when they show a lantern as they approach the shore. Ofcourse, I cannot say on what day I may be in a position to show thesignal, but at, any rate, if a week passes without your seeing it, youwill know that I have failed to make my escape, or that I have beenkilled after getting out."