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diff --git a/old/44381.txt b/old/44381.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ada56d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44381.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2361 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Dialogue in Hades, by James Johnstone, +chevalier de Johnstone + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Dialogue in Hades + + +Author: James Johnstone, chevalier de Johnstone + + + +Release Date: December 7, 2013 [eBook #44381] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DIALOGUE IN HADES*** + + +E-text prepared by Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by +Internet Archive (https://archive.org) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + https://archive.org/details/dialogueinhades00john + + + + + +A DIALOGUE IN HADES. + +A Parallel of Military Errors, of Which the French +and English Armies Were Guilty, During the +Campaign of 1759, in Canada. + +ATTRIBUTED TO CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE. + + + + + + + +Published under the Auspices of the +Literary and Historical Society of Quebec + +[Reprinted.] + +Quebec: +Printed at the "Morning Chronicle" Office. +1887. + + + + +[The original of this manuscript is deposited in the French war +archives, in Paris; a copy was, with the permission of the French +Government, taken in 1855, and deposited in the Library of the +Legislative Assembly of Canada. The Literary and Historical Society +of Quebec, through the kindness of Mr. Todd, the Librarian, was +permitted to have communication thereof. This document is supposed to +have been written about the year 1765, that is five years after the +return to France from Canada of the writer, the Chevalier Johnstone, +a Scottish Jacobite, who had fled to France after the defeat at +Culloden, and obtained from the French monarch, with several other +Scotchmen, commissions in the French armies. In 1748, says _Francisque +Michel_,[A] "he sailed from Rochefort as an Ensign with troops going +to Cape Breton; he continued to serve in America until he returned to +France, in December, 1760, having acted during the campaign of 1759, in +Canada, as aide-de-camp to Chevalier de Levis. On Levis being ordered +to Montreal, Johnstone was detached and retained by General Montcalm +on his staff, on account of his thorough knowledge of the environs +of Quebec, and particularly of Beauport, where the principal works +of defence stood, and where the whole army, some 11,000 men, were +entrenched, leaving in Quebec merely a garrison of 1500. The journal +is written in English, and is not remarkable for orthography or purity +of diction; either Johnstone had forgotten or had never thoroughly +known the language. The style is prolix, sententious, abounding in +quotations from old writers. This document had first attracted the +attention of one of the late historians of Canada, the Abbe Ferland, +who attached much importance to it, as calculated to supply matters of +detail and incidents unrecorded elsewhere. Colonel Margry, in charge of +the French records, had permitted the venerable writer, then on a visit +to Paris, to make extracts from it; some of which extracts, the abbe +published at the time of the laying of the St. Foy Monument, in 1862. +The Chevalier Johnstone differs _in toto_ from the opinions expressed +by several French officers of regulars, respecting the conduct of the +Canadian Militia, in 1759, ascribing to their valour, on the 13th +September, the salvation of a large portion of the French army. He has +chosen the singular, though not unprecedented mode of the Dialogue, +to recapitulate the events of a campaign in which he played a not +inconsiderable part."--J. M. LEMOINE.] + + + + + [Published under the auspices of the Literary and Historical Society + of Quebec.] + + A DIALOGUE IN HADES. + + A PARALLEL OF MILITARY ERRORS, OF WHICH THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH ARMIES + WERE GUILTY, DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF 1759, IN CANADA. + + +THE MARQUIS DE MONTCALM:--Having ardently desired a conversation with +you, sir, upon the operations of a campaign which proved to both of us +so fatal, I have sought you continually amongst the shades ever since I +descended here, where I soon followed you. + +GENERAL WOLFE:--I can assure you, sir, I was equally impatient to meet +with you. Some of my countrymen, arrived here since the battle of the +13th September, informed me that there was only an interval of a few +hours in our sharing the same hard fate. They gave me some accounts +of that event which joined Canada to the British dominions; but as +they had a very imperfect knowledge of the circumstances, and entirely +ignorant of your plan of operations, I have little information from +them, and I am heartily glad that chance at last has procured me the +pleasure of seeing you. + +MONTCALM:--Will you permit me, sir, before our conversation becomes +serious, to offer some reflections upon the difference in our destiny. +Your nation rendered you the greatest honours; your body was conveyed +to London, and buried there magnificently in Westminster Abbey, +amongst your kings. Generous Britons erected to your memory a superb +monument over your grave, at public expense; and your name, most +dear to your countrymen, is ever in their mouths, accompanied with +praise and regret. But in my country what a strange indifference? +What sensation did my death make upon my compatriots? My conduct +denounced and censured without measure, is the continual subject of +conversation for gossiping fools and knaves, who form the majority in +all communities, and prevail against the infinitely small number to be +found of honest, judicious, impartial men, capable of reflection. The +Canadians and savages who knew the uprightness of my soul, ever devoted +to the interests of my beloved king and country, they alone rendered +me justice, with a few sincere friends, who, not daring to oppose +themselves openly to the torrent of my enemies, bewailed in secret my +unhappy fate, and shed on my tomb their friendly tears. + +WOLFE:--In this blessed abode, inaccessible to prejudice, I vow to you, +sir, I envy your condition, notwithstanding the horrible injustice +and ingratitude of your countrymen. What can give more pleasure and +self-satisfaction than the esteem and approbation of honest men? You +were severely regretted and lamented by all those who were capable of +discerning and appreciating your superior merit, talents, and eminent +qualities. Disinterested persons of probity must respect your virtue. +All officers versed in the art of war will justify your military +tactics, and your operations can be blamed only by the ignorant. Were +my army consulted, they would be as many witnesses in your favour. Your +humanity towards prisoners won you the heart of all my soldiers. They +saw with gratitude and veneration your continual care and vigilance to +snatch them from out of the hands of the Indians, when those barbarians +were ready to cut their throats, and prepared to make of human flesh +their horrible banquets; refusing me even tears at my death, they +weeped and bewailed your hard fate; I see in my mausoleum the proof +only of human weakness! What does that block of marble avail to me in +my present state? The monument remains, but the conqueror has perished. +The affection, approbation and regret of the worthiest part of mankind +is greatly preferable and much above the vain honours conferred by a +blind people, who judge according to the event, and are incapable to +analyse the operations. I was unknown to them before the expedition +which I commanded in Canada; and if fortune, to whom I entirely owe my +success, had less favoured me, perhaps, like Byng, I would have been +the victim of a furious and unruly populace. The multitude has and can +have success only for the rule of their judgment. + +MONTCALM:--I am much obliged to you, sir, for your favourable opinion +of me. Let us leave weak mortals to crawl from error to error, and +deify to-day what they will condemn to-morrow. It is at present, when +the darkness is dispelled from before our eyes, that we can contemplate +at leisure the passions of men, who move as the waves of the sea, push +on each other and often break upon the rocks; and in our present state, +when all prejudices are at an end, let us examine impartially the +operations of 1759, which was the epocha of the loss to France of her +northern colonies in America. + +WOLFE:--Most willingly, sir, and to show my frankness, I own to you +I was greatly surprised on arriving with the English fleet at Quebec +without meeting with any opposition by the French in the river St. +Lawrence. + +MONTCALM:--You had reason to be so. It was not my fault that you did +not meet with many obstacles in your way. I proposed to have a redoubt +and battery erected upon Cape Tourmente, which is a rock above fifty +feet high, facing the Traverse at the east[B] end of the Island of +Orleans, where all the vessels cross from the north to the south side +of the St. Lawrence river. They are obliged to approach very near the +Cape before they enter into the Traverse, and its height above the +men-of-war would have secured it against the effect of the artillery. +Besides, this rock, almost perpendicular, commanding all round it, +the fort would have been impregnable, and not susceptible of being +besieged. Thus the first of your ships which approached to pass the +Traverse would have been raked by the plunging fire of the battery from +stern to bowsprit, and must have been sunk. I had likewise the project +of placing a battery and a redoubt upon the upper point of the bay +which is opposite to the west end of _Isle aux Coudres_. The current +between this island and the main land being incredibly rapid at low +water, all the vessels coming up the river must have cast anchor there +to wait until the next tide; and my artillery upon the point of that +bay would have battered your ships at anchor from fore to aft; have +put in a most terrible confusion your ships, who could not have taken +up their anchors without being instantly dashed to pieces against the +rocks by the violence of the current, forced, as they would have been +by it, to have their bowsprits always pointed to the battery, without +being able to fire at it. Your fleet would have had no knowledge of the +battery until they were at anchor, so you may easily judge how it would +have distressed them. I proposed this, but I did not command in chief; +it was the Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor General of Canada, who should +have ordered it to be put into execution. + +WOLFE:--If they had executed your project, it would have puzzled us, +and retarded for some time our operations. + +MONTCALM:--That was all I could wish for, as I was always sensible of +the great advantage, in certain situations, of gaining time from the +enemy, especially in such a climate as Canada, where the summer is +so short that it is impossible to keep the field longer than from the +month of May till the beginning of October, and your fleet arrived at +_Isle aux Coudres_ at the end of June. + +WOLFE:--There is no doubt that you are in the right. Our fleet arrived +in the river St. Lawrence six weeks too late, which is commonly the +fate of all great naval expeditions. Fleets are seldom ready to sail at +the time appointed; and this often renders fruitless the best concocted +enterprise by sea, from the uncertainty of the arrival of the army at +its destination. The smallest delay is often dangerous, as it gives +the enemy the time to prepare themselves for defence, without hurry or +confusion. + +MONTCALM:--I will not conceal from you, sir, that I always looked +upon the distribution you made of your army upon your landing near +Quebec, as diametrically opposed to the established principles in +castrametation. It is a known axiom in the art of war, that an +army ought to be encamped in such a manner as to have a free and +easy communication with all its parts; that they may unite quickly +without any obstruction, and be able to defend and sustain each other +reciprocally over the whole extent of the camp, in case any part of it +is attacked. You divided your army in three different camps; one of +them upon the Pointe Levis, another upon the Island of Orleans, and +the third at the Sault de Montmorency. The two branches of the St. +Lawrence river, which forms the Island of Orleans, each of them about +half a mile broad, separated your three camps, without a possibility +of establishing a communication between them; and your camp upon the +Pointe Levis was at a distance of six miles from your camp at the Sault +de Montmorency. Your position was such that had we fallen with our army +on any of your three camps, we would have cut them to pieces, before +those of your other two camps could have come to their assistance. The +knowledge for choosing an advantageous ground for encamping an army, +always appears to me to be one of the most essential talents requisite +in a general. How could you remain quietly in such a dangerous position +during two months, without trembling. + +WOLFE:--What hindered you then, sir, from executing that which appeared +to you so easy? + +MONTCALM:--We attempted it, but with very bad success. Seven days +after your landing at the Pointe Levis, Mr. Dumas, Major of the Colony +troops, was sent to attack your camp at the Pointe Levis, with a body +of fifteen hundred men, who, in the night, crossed the river St. +Lawrence at Quebec, without being discovered by your advanced guards. +But they were no sooner landed and marching, than, struck with a panic, +the utmost disorder suddenly ensued; their heads turned, and, losing +their senses entirely, they fired at each other, believing themselves +attacked by your army. In short, they immediately fled back to their +boats with the greatest precipitation and confusion. Discouraged by +this bad beginning, M. de Vaudreuil would never listen to any proposals +of further attempts upon your camps; and it was decided to keep +ourselves for the future upon the defensive. + +WOLFE:--It appears to me, however, that you were not encamped in a +proper manner to be upon the defensive. Your army did not amount to ten +thousand men, and your camp extended seven or eight miles. + +MONTCALM:--I agree with you, and am sensible that the longer the line, +the weaker it is in its several parts. I am convinced that it is +impossible to prevent a line from being forced; and I believed likewise +that, landing on a coast where there are several leagues of it to be +defended, equally susceptible of descent, is the same case as lines. +He who attacks has all his force concentrated at a single point, which +he may choose as he pleases; anywhere in the extent of his lines; on +the contrary, he who is attacked in his entrenchments has his force +divided over the whole extent of his lines, and does not know on what +part of them the enemy has the intention to make his real attack, so +that he must be everywhere equally strong and guarded over all the +ground occupied by his army. Thus the head of a column of a great depth +of ranks must infallibly pierce through lines who have only at most two +or three men deep; and by feint attacks all over the front of a line, +you cannot weaken one part of it by drawing troops from it to fortify +another part of it, unless the point of the enemy's principal attack +is manifestly known. It is certainly the same with regard to landings, +where all the extent of the sea coast may be threatened at the same +time, although it is a common opinion that a coast may be defended, and +that an enemy may be repulsed in his attempt to make a descent by open +force. + +I know not a better method to oppose a descent than to have bodies of +troops in battle, ready to rush upon the enemy, with their bayonets +upon their muskets, attacking the moment the enemy land, whilst they +are yet few and in confusion from the disorder which must necessarily +happen at their coming out of their boats, and before they can present +a considerable front in battle. + +My project of defence was to encamp on rising ground at Quebec, called +by the French, _Les Hauteurs d'Abraham_, and make Quebec serve as the +centre and pivot to all my operations, since it was evident that the +fate of Canada depended entirely on its being preserved to us or taken +by you, which decided whether that colony should remain to its ancient +possessors or become your prize. + +With this in view, I intrenched the borders of the St. Charles river, +and remained encamped at Quebec until, receiving tidings of your fleet +having arrived in the St. Lawrence river, M. de Levis, an officer of +great merit and distinction, proposed to change the position of our +camp, by carrying our left wing to the Sault de Montmorency, and our +right to the St. Charles river: this, as you say, made it six miles +long on the north side of Quebec, and gave us greater appearance of +being on the offensive than on the defensive. + +He pretended that the presenting a great front to the enemy would +give us a bold look, and inspire respect. As there can be no positive +certainty in any military operation, from unforeseen accidents which +often overturn the best combined project, I readily sacrificed to him +my opinion, without insisting upon it. In this new position M. de +Vaudreuil commanded the right of our camp, near Quebec; M. de Levis +the left, at the Sault de Montmorency; and I commanded the centre, at +Beauport. + +WOLFE:--Had you continued on the heights of Abraham you would have +saved Quebec, but you would have abandoned to me all the country where +I might have destroyed, burnt and ruined all the settlements at some +leagues round it. + +MONTCALM:--That may be, but Canada would not have been taken, and +certainly you durst not penetrate far into the country, leaving Quebec +behind you. Had you attacked me, I would have had the advantage of the +rising ground, which I would have fortified with intrenchments, and +with a chain of redoubts from Quebec to Cap Rouge, where these heights +terminate in a deep ravine, with a small river at the bottom of it, +overhung with rocks, at three leagues from Quebec. This advantageous +position, not to be successfully attacked by any number of men, would +have been my advanced post. + +My right would have been applied to Quebec, and sustained by it. I +never could guess, sir, your idea in reducing that town to ashes as +you did, by throwing upon it continually, from your batteries on the +opposite side of the river, that immense number of carcases and shells. + +It seems to me that when an army besieges a town, it is with the +intention, on its surrendering, to keep possession of it, and have +houses in it to lodge the troops, instead of heaps of ruins. This +conduct was still more essentially necessary from the season being +advanced, and from the impossibility of carrying-on any kind of +house building during the winter. Moreover, the utter destruction of +that town reduced to ashes could not hasten its being taken a moment +sooner. You could do no harm to our batteries, which were much higher +than yours; it is not by destroying houses that towns are taken. You +always battered houses, without reflecting that it is only by ruining +the fortifications--the defences--and by a breach in the walls, that +success may be hoped for in sieges; and it is certain that you lavished +a prodigious quantity of warlike stores very uselessly. + +What advantages could you expect by ruining and distressing the +inhabitants of Quebec, whose houses you burnt? + +It was destroying alone for the pleasure of doing injury, without any +advantage accruing to you from it. + +WOLFE:--My inaction during the whole summer should have made you +perceive what little hopes I had of succeeding in my expedition; should +it turn out fruitless after the sum it had cost England, the news of +Quebec being reduced to ashes might blind the extravagant English +populace, and blunt their fanatical fury. + +MONTCALM:--The day that you landed at the Sault de Montmorency, where +you encamped immediately with a body of four thousand men, in all +appearance you did not know that the river Montmorency was fordable in +the wood about a mile to the north of your camp, where fifty men in +front might pass the ford with water only up to their knees. Had you +passed it immediately, you might have fallen upon the left of our army, +cut them to pieces, and pursued them two miles, as far as the ravine +of Beauport, before they could assemble a sufficient number of men to +be able to resist you. You might have even encamped upon the north +side of that ravine, which, having it before you, would have been a +very advantageous post, and brought you several miles nearer to Quebec. +In this case it is highly probable that we would have been obliged to +abandon to you all the ground between the St. Charles river and the +ravine. + +To return to my first project of encamping upon the heights of Abraham, +our left was in the greatest security, not knowing that there was a +ford in that river until some hours after your landing at the Sault. + +WOLFE:--Is it then surprising that I should be ignorant of that ford, +since you did not know it yourself? besides, it is only the inhabitants +in the neighbourhood of rivers, swamps and lakes, who can give positive +and sure information about them. And supposing I had found some of your +Canadians at their houses there, they are so inviolably attached to +their religion, king and country, that they would sooner have led me +into a snare than instruct me in anything that could be prejudicial to +their army. + +Those whom a general sends to examine the _locale_ of a country must do +it very superficially upon their own observations, without consulting +or interrogating the peasants in the neighbourhood. + +MONTCALM:--Whilst your soldiers were employed in making their camp, and +pitching their tents, M. de Levis and his aide-de-camp Johnstone, were +looking at you from the opposite side of the Sault. His aide-de-camp +having asked him if he was positively certain that there was no ford +in the Montmorency river, M. de Levis answering that there was not, +and that he had been himself to examine it to its source, at a lake in +the woods, about ten or twelve miles from the Sault. An inhabitant who +overheard this conversation, told the aide-de-camp: "The General is +mistaken; there is a ford which the inhabitants thereabouts pass every +day in carrying their corn to a mill;" and he added that he had crossed +it lately, with water not above his knees. + +The aide-de-camp related to M. de Levis immediately his conversation +with the Canadian, who would not believe there was a ford, and, +examining him roughly, the Canadian was seized with awe, and respect +for the General; his tongue faltered in his mouth, and he durst +not boldly assert the truth. The aide-de-camp, in a whisper to the +Canadian, ordered him to find out a person who had crossed the ford +lately, and bring him immediately to M. de Levis' lodgings. The Canadian +came to him in a moment, with a man who had crossed it the night +before, with a sack of wheat upon his back, where he had found only +eight inches deep of water. + +The aide-de-camp being thus assured of the fact, ordered, in M. de +Levis' name, a detachment to be sent instantly, with the necessary tools +to intrench itself. + +WOLFE:--Had I been so lucky as you, sir, to discover that ford, there +is no doubt I would not have let slip so favourable an opportunity +of distinguishing myself, and would have fallen like lightning upon +that part of your camp. There can be nothing more dangerous than the +neighbourhood of rivers and swamps, that have not been sounded and +examined with the greatest care and attention. Negligence, ignorance +and headstrong obstinacy are equally fatal in military affairs; and +the misfortune of a Lieutenant-General, in Scotland, against the +Highlanders at the battle of Prestonpans, made so deep an impression +upon me that I am always on my guard when near such places. + +MONTCALM:--How can you, sir, justify your imprudence in running +headlong into the woods opposite to our intrenchments, with two +thousand men, who naturally ought to have been cut to pieces, and +neither you nor any man of your detachment escape? Nine hundred +Indians had invested you all round at a pistol shot from you, and had +already cut off your retreat, without your perceiving it. So soon as +the Indians had surrounded you in the wood, they sent their officer +Langlade to acquaint M. de Levis that they had got you in their net, +but that your detachment, appearing to be about two thousand men, +greatly superior to them in number, they begged earnestly of M. de +Levis to order M. de Repentigny to pass the ford with eleven hundred +men, which he commanded in these intrenchments, and join them; that +they would be answerable upon their heads if a single man of your +detachment should get back to your camp; and they did not think +themselves strong enough to strike upon you without this reinforcement +of Canadians. There were a great many officers at M. de Levis' lodgings +when Langlade came to him on behalf of the Indians, and this General +having consulted them, after giving his own opinion on the affair: +"that it was dangerous to attack an army in the wood, as they could not +know the number of men there; that it might be all the English army, +which consequently might bring on a general engagement without being +prepared for it; and that if he happened to be repulsed, he would be +blamed for engaging in an affair, without holding previously an order +from his superiors, M. de Vaudreuil and M. de Montcalm." The officers +respected too much the General not to be of his way of thinking, and +it must ever be so from flattery. His aide-de-camp alone maintained +a different opinion, out of a real friendship for M. de Levis. He +told them that there was not the smallest probability it could be all +the English army, since the Indians, who never fail to magnify the +number, computed them at only two thousand men. That even supposing it +to be the whole English army, it would be the most lucky thing that +could happen to us to have a general engagement in the woods, where +a Canadian is worth three disciplined soldiers, as a soldier in a +plain is worth three Canadians; and that nothing was more essential +than to select the propitious moment and the way of fighting for +those who composed the two-thirds of the army, which was the case with +the Canadians. On the contrary, the English army was almost entirely +composed of regulars with very few militia. + +That M. de Levis could not do better than in ordering M. de Repentigny +to cross the river immediately with his detachment _en echelon_, and +join the Indians, without losing moments very precious; that at the +same time he should send instantly to inform me of his adventure, in +order to make all the army advance towards the ford, each regiment +taking the place of the other marched off; so that the Regiment Royal +Roussillon, the nearest to the ford, should go off directly to take the +post that Repentigny would quit in crossing the river, and observing +the same for the rest of the army; that by this means the engaging a +general affair was much to be wished for, supposing all the English +army to be in the woods opposite the ford; in short, that if there +was a possibility of our being defeated and repulsed in the woods, +which could scarce happen, according to all human probability, we had +our retreat assured in the depth of these woods, well known to the +Canadians, where the English troops could not pursue them, so that in +no shape could M. de Levis run the least risk. + +His aide-de-camp added, that when fortune offers her favours, "they +ought to be snatched with avidity." These reasons made no impressions +on M. de Levis, and Langlade was sent back to the Indians with a +negative reply. + +There was two miles from M. de Levis' quarters to the place where the +Indians were in ambush. Langlade came back with new entreaties and +earnest solicitations to induce M. de Levis to make Repentigny cross +the ford with his detachment, but the General could not be prevailed +upon to give a positive order to Repentigny to join the Indians. + +He wrote a letter to Repentigny by Langlade, wherein he told him +"having the greatest confidence in his prudence and good conduct, he +might pass the river with his detachment, if he saw a certainty of +success." His aide-de-camp told him, whilst he was sealing the letter, +that Repentigny had too much judgment and good sense to take upon +himself an affair of that importance; and his opinion of Repentigny was +immediately justified by his answer; he asked M. de Levis to give him +a clear and positive order. After thus loitering about an hour and a +half, M. de Levis resolved at last to go himself to the ford, and give +there his orders verbally; but he had scarce got half way to it when +he heard a brisk fire. The Indians, losing all patience, after having +remained so long hid at a pistol shot from you, like setter dogs upon +wild fowl, at last gave you a volley, killed about a hundred and fifty +of your soldiers, and then retired without losing a man. It is evident +that had Repentigny passed the river with his detachment of eleven +hundred Canadians, you must have been cut to pieces, and that affair +would have terminated your expedition. Your army could have no more +hopes of succeeding after such a loss; their spirits would have been +damped, and Canada would have been secure from any further invasion +from Great Britain. + +Fortune was always as favourable to you, as she constantly frowned +upon us. M. de Levis is not to be blamed; an officer who serves under +the orders of others can only be reproached when he does not execute +punctually the orders he receives from his superiors; and he has always +reason to be cautious and diffident in such cases where his honour +and reputation may be engaged, as none can be positively certain of +the issue of any military enterprise, and if success does not crown +the venture, of which you have voluntarily burthened yourself, though +undertaken from the best of motives and apparently for the good of the +service, thousands of mouths will open to spit venom against you. + +But of all others, the ignorant amongst the military, and the knaves, +to screen themselves, will surely be violent: this is so much the more +astonishing, in the profession of arms, where sentiments of honour and +honesty ought to be the foundation. + +WOLFE:--My intention in approaching so near your post at the ford was +to examine it carefully, as I then had formed the design to attack it, +little imagining that such a considerable detachment as I had with +me would have been exposed to be set on by your Indians. Accustomed +to European warfare, I could never have thought that a body of men +should have been so long, so close to me without discovering them. Your +intrenchments there appeared to be very trifling, but the sight of +earth thrown up is respectable, and not to be despised. + +MONTCALM:--Your attack of the 31st of July, at the only place of our +camp which was inaccessible, appeared to me unaccountable. From Quebec +to Beauport, which was about four miles, it is a marshy ground, very +little higher than the surface of the St. Lawrence at full tide. +The heights begin at the ravine at Beauport, and rise gradually all +along the border of the river, until at Johnstone's redoubt and +battery--where you made your descent and attack--they become a steep +high hill, which ends in a deep precipice at the Sault de Montmorency. +Opposite to Johnstone's redoubt it is so steep that your soldiers could +scarce be able to climb it, even without the encumbrance of their arms. + +Besides this natural fortification, we had a continued intrenchment +all along the edge of the hill, from Beauport to the Sault, so traced +and conducted by M. Johnstone that it was everywhere flanked, and the +sloping of it served as a glacis; thus the fire from the front and +flanks would have destroyed the three-fourths of your army before they +could reach the top of the hill. + +But supposing that some of your troops had reached the top of the hill, +up to our trenches, after surmounting these difficulties, my grenadiers +were drawn up in battle behind them, ready to charge upon them, with +their bayonets upon their muskets, the instant any of your soldiers +should appear at the trenches. + +The swampy, sinking ground, from the redoubt to the foot of the hill, +was not one of the smallest difficulties you had in your way to come at +us. + +It is true the Scotch Highlanders, who were your forlorn hope, had got +over it and had reached the foot of the hill, though certainly very few +returned; but these turfy swamps, when a certain number of men have +passed them, become at last impassible, and your soldiers must have +sunk down in it above the head, multitudes of them perishing there in +the most useless and disagreeable manner. Thus, sir, I hope you see +clearly the folly and rashness of that attack, and that your army must +have been totally destroyed, without hope, had not heaven wrought a +miracle in your favor, after a long cessation of them, which alone +could save you. + +You were no sooner hotly engaged in the attack, without a possibility +of withdrawing yourself out of the scrape, when from a clear sunshine +there fell in that most critical juncture, of a sudden, the most +violent even, down pour of rain from a cloud, which, as the cloud that +saved Eneas from the fury of Diomed, placed you immediately out of our +sight, so that in an instant we could not see half way down the hill. +You profited, as a wise man, of this event to make good your retreat. +When the shower was over and we could see you, we found, to our sorrow, +that you had escaped us, and that you were then out of the reach of +our fire, marching, in a well-formed column, back to your camp at the +Sault, well satisfied to have got out of that adventure with the loss +only of between five and six hundred men. + +It was a long time before I could be persuaded that you were in +earnest. I had always expected your descent and attack would have been +betwixt the St. Charles river and the ravine of Beauport. All that +tract of ground, about four miles extent, was everywhere favourable to +you, if you had made your real descent in the middle of it, opposite to +M. Vaudreuil's lodging, with feint attacks at Johnstone's redoubt, and +at the Canardiere near the river St. Charles, forcing our intrenchments +there, which could not resist an instant a well-formed column. The head +of it, composed of the Scotch Highlanders, might have easily penetrated +into the plain, separating our army into two parts by the centre, +having lodged yourself in the south side of the ravine of Beauport, +and have taken the hornwork upon the St. Charles river, sword in hand, +without much difficulty or loss of men. In short, all this might have +been effected in an hour's time, without meeting with any considerable +resistance from our army, thus divided and opened by the centre; and a +complete victory, which would have crushed us to pieces without hope, +would have crowned you with justly merited laurels. + +WOLFE:--I own to you, sir, I was greatly deceived with regard to the +height and steepness of the hill, which did not appear considerable, +even with a telescope, from the river St. Lawrence; it was only when +I got to the redoubt that I saw it such as it really is. I began at +seven in the morning to fire at your camp from my battery at the Sault +(of forty cannons) mostly four-and-twenty pounders. The _Centurion_, a +man-of-war of sixty guns, did the same, as also the _Two Cats_, which +had on board all the tools necessary for the workmen. They gave you +continually their broadsides, firing upon your camp, as I did from my +battery, like platoons of infantry. + +I dare say you never saw artillery better served and kept up until six +in the evening when I began my landing at low water. I imagined that +this terrible cannonade all that day, without a moment's intermission, +would have intimidated your Canadians and make them quit the trenches; +my battery at the Sault being thirty or forty feet higher than your +camp, we saw them down at the shore. Certainly you must have lost a +great number of men. + +MONTCALM:--That brave militia deserves justly the greatest praise. Not +a man of them stirred from his post, and they showed as much ardour, +courage and resolution as my regular troops. I had no more than fifty +men killed and wounded by your furious cannonade, which proves how +little cannons are hurtful in comparison to the dread and respect +they inspire. Permit me, sir, to tell you that your countrymen, the +English, appear to me, from their conduct in Canada, to be as rash, +inconsiderate and hot-headed as the French, who have ever enjoyed +that character, notwithstanding your countrymen's reputation for +coolness and phlegmatic bravery, since I have seen several examples +of their attacking us before they had examined the _locale_, or known +our position; and if the two nations are compared impartially, I am +persuaded that you will do us the justice to own that in our operations +in Canada we have shown much more circumspection and coolness than your +English generals. Your attack of the 31st July, without having procured +beforehand an exact knowledge of the hill and of the places adjacent, +is not the first example of great temerity and impatience on their part. + +The proximity of your camp to this hill might have furnished you the +means to have a thorough knowledge of our position, by sending proper +persons to cross over the ford of the river Montmorency where it falls +into the river St. Lawrence, and where it is fordable at low water. + +They might, in a dark night and bad weather, have not only examined the +steepness of the height, but have even gone over all our camp without +being discovered; I always imagined you did so until the day of your +attack, which soon convinced me of the contrary. Your brother in arms, +Abercrombie, your predecessor in the command of the army, committed +the same fault at Ticonderoga as you did the 31st of July; but it cost +him much dearer, the clouds which saved you not having come to his +assistance. + +I set out from Montreal on the 5th of May, 1758, to go to Ticonderoga, +with all my regular troops--the regiments of La Sarre, La Reine, Royal +Rousillon, Berne, Guienne, Languedoc, Berry of two battalions, and the +independent companies of the marine detached in Canada; the regiments +from France not being recruited, the whole amounted to only about four +thousand men. + +I had no positive information that the English army had formed the +design to come by the lake St. Sacrament in order to attack Ticonderoga +(Carillon), and from thence to go to Montreal--but I suspected it, from +the proximity of this ford to your settlement upon lake St. Sacrament; +nor did I cease beseeching continually M. Vaudreuil, who was then at +Quebec, to send me with all possible diligence the Canadian militia, +which was the principal force for the defence of the colony. + +M. Vaudreuil, who has neither common sense, nor judgment, could not +find out that my military conjectures were grounded; and instead +of sending me the Canadians, he gave them permission to remain +at Montreal, sixty leagues from Ticonderoga, to attend to their +agricultural pursuits. + +I dare not allege that he was informed, by the Indians of the Iroquois +nation, that the object of the English was to invade Canada; that their +army was on their way to lake St. Sacrament; that it was with the view +of sacrificing me, and making me the victim of a cabal, who led him and +governed him blindly, that he kept from me the Canadians. + +The 7th of July my conjectures were verified by the arrival of the +English army at the Chute, where lake St. Sacrament terminates, about +four miles from Ticonderoga, consisting of six thousand three hundred +men, commanded by General Abercrombie, who had succeeded to General +Braddock, killed the year before at the river Ohio. + +The return of a detachment which I had placed at the Chute, as an +advanced post, who had lost an hundred and fifty men, killed by the +English on their arrival there, was a sad confirmation of the bad +news. It is scarce possible to imagine a more dangerous and critical +situation than mine--without the aid of Canadians, whose way of +fighting was so essential to me in the woods--more useful in those +countries than regular troops. Fort Carillon, or Ticonderoga, was a +square, regularly fortified, each face of it about seventy fathoms in +length. + +It had four bastions--the walls of masonry, doubled with a rampart, +as likewise a ditch, covered way, and glacis. M. de Bourlamarque, an +officer of great merit and intelligence, had added a half moon to it. + +To retire with my four thousand troops would have been abandoning the +colony to General Abercrombie, as the fort could not hold out long +against so considerable an army; and being on that side the key of +Canada, with the possession of it in the hands of the English, they +might go directly to Montreal, and be there in fifteen days, without +finding on their way the least obstruction; on the other hand, the +match was very unequal in opposing four thousand men to thirteen +thousand. There was, however, no room for hesitating, in the choice, +and I was soon resolved to save the colony by a bold and desperate +stroke or die, gloriously, sword in hand. I made everybody work hard +all the night between the 7th and 8th July, cutting down trees to make +an intrenchment (CCCC), which, when finished, was very weak, trifling, +and could scarce serve as a breast-work to cover the troops. + +The engineers, having cut off the branches, laid the trees upon a line +on the heights, three or four of them placed horizontally one upon the +other, which scarce made it above three feet high--so low that your +soldiers might easily have jumped over it;--they made a line of the +branches, at two paces distance, on the outside of the trenches (HH). +It is certain that if the engineers had only thrown the trees with +their heads outwards, and their branches sharpened in pricking points +at their ends, it would have made a much stronger intrenchment, more +difficult to be forced, and built much sooner.[C] I had not the time +to continue the trenches down to the hollow (DD), at the foot of the +height, and I placed there two companies of grenadiers. + +The hollow upon the right of the height, where the intrenchment was +the worst of all my lines, was the post of the companies of marines +(C); the regiments lined the rest of the trenches. Next day, the 8th +of July, the English army appeared on the borders of the woods, about +three hundred fathoms from the front of our intrenchment on the height, +and instantly advanced to the attack, formed in three columns (EE), +without halting a moment to examine the _locale_. Two of the columns +attacked the height with the utmost impetuosity, but being very soon +entangled among the branches, on the outside of the trenches, and +impeded by them, they lost there a great many men; some few got through +and, jumping into our trenches, were killed by our soldiers with their +bayonets. + +The American riflemen were posted on two heights (GG), which commanded +our trenches, from whence they saw sideways in some parts of them, and +in others the rear of the soldiers (K). + +The regiment of Berry was, above all others, worried and tormented +by their fire--one of these heights being scarce above eighty paces +from the intrenchments. The third column attacked the hollow upon our +right; but receiving a brisk fire at its front from the colony troops, +and at the same time upon its right flank from the regiments on the +height, the column soon wavered, wheeled to the right, and, presenting +its front to the height, got out of the reach of the fire from the +right of the colony troops; upon which M. Raymond, who commanded them, +went out of the trenches with the right wing of these troops, and +attacked the left flank of the column, whilst its head and right flank +were fired at from the height and from the left of the colony troops in +the trenches. + +The column, distressed by this firing, yet, nevertheless, keeping firm +at the foot of the height, put in disorder the regiment of Berry, who +abandoned that part of the intrenchment (II) above it. + +The moment I perceived the disorder, I ran there, encouraged the +soldiers of the regiment, made them return to their post, and supported +them by the grenadiers, whom I had kept in order of battle, at a small +distance from the trenches, as a reserve, to be employed wherever the +line might be forced by your troops, to charge upon them headlong, +their bayonets upon their muskets, without firing: having neglected +nothing that the short time allowed me to do, in order to make a +vigorous defence--without aught to reproach myself with--had I been +overpowered by your army; and having always preserved coolness and +presence of mind so as to be able to remedy immediately any disorders +during this long and well disputed attack. + +General Abercrombie was at last obliged to retire, after having +continued for some hours, with the greatest obstinacy, his attempt to +force our intrenchments,--with the loss of two thousand men.[D] + +I acquitted myself of my duty: this always affords a sweet satisfaction +in all the events of life; and, even to the vanquished and +unfortunate, it must yield great comfort and consolation. I had only +twelve hours to prepare to defend myself with five thousand men against +thirteen thousand. + +How can General Abercrombie's rash and blind conduct be accounted for, +for attacking us without examining or knowing our position? It is +astonishing. + +During twelve hours that he remained at the Chute after landing there, +he had time to send and examine the ground round the fort Ticonderoga; +and they might have had a perfect knowledge of our position from a +hill, covered with big trees, on the opposite side of the river of +the Chute (P);[E] this hill was much higher than any part of our +intrenchments, and not a musket shot from them; he might have gone +there himself with safety, having that river between us. + +Had he halted only a short time after his arrival on the borders +of the wood, about six hundred paces from our trenches, he might, +even from thence, have examined the _locale_ at his leisure. But, +seized with impatience, he hurried to the attack without stopping +there a moment--and it is not when an action is engaged that one can +then examine the enemy's position; or, if he had advanced upon us +the moment of his landing at the Chute, the 7th instant, instead of +loitering there twelve hours, he would not have found even those shabby +intrenchments; and having so few (regular) troops, irrespective of the +Canadians, I would have been obliged, on his appearing, to abandon to +him all that part of the country, and retire to Montreal, leaving only +a garrison at Fort Carillon. It was certainly through his ignorance +of the _locale_ that I repulsed him, instead of being myself cut to +pieces; nor had I any means of retreat, and my troops must have been +all killed or taken prisoners, if his third column had marched along +the borders of the wood upon their left; this would have put them out +of the reach of the fire from the height, they could fall upon the +right flank of the trenches of the colony troops, who could not have +resisted a moment the impulse of the column; instead of wheeling and +changing its plan of attack by presenting its head to the height, had +he always advanced forward to attack the centre of the intrenchments +of the marine, he would have easily pierced through it; then, wheeling +to the right, go up the height, which is there of an easy ascent, and +fire upon the rear of the troops, who opposed your other two columns, +they must have been put to flight, the trenches abandoned, and, even +upon the sight of your third column coming up the height, I must, of +necessity, have instantly retreated to the fort the best way I could; +there to embark my army in my boats and carry it down Lake Champlain, +without being able to make a resistance at Fort Frederic, as it is +commanded by hills behind it, about the distance of two hundred paces +from its walls, which makes it a very advantageous post. What would +have been still worse for me, if my trenches had been forced, there +is a space of five leagues between Fort Frederic and Ticonderoga, by +the river St. Frederic, which, about half way, is scarce above fifty +or sixty fathoms broad, and is a most advantageous post, where not a +boat would pass by, and must cut off entirely the communication with +Lake Champlain, as it is an equal distance from the Chute or from +Ticonderoga. + +General Abercrombie might have sent a body of troops to establish there +a post, in which case we must have laid down our arms and surrendered +ourselves prisoners to him, for want of subsistence, and from the +impossibility of retreating by land. + +General Abercrombie might have likewise penetrated easily at the +hollow, which I had not the time to intrench, where I had placed +two companies of volunteers; and this would have had equally fatal +consequences for me, as the third column might have been on the other +side of the height, the ascent there not being steep or of difficult +access. + +But his attacks were always obstinately directed at the most difficult +places of the height, as if there had been a cloud before his eyes to +hinder him from seeing to his right and left what was visible to the +most ignorant officer. + +WOLFE:--That was a most glorious day for you, sir,--worthy of the +ambition of a great man. Our columns were only at ten steps distance +from your intrenchments, and all our army saw you perfectly well, +constantly at work encouraging and exciting the ardour of your +soldiers, hurrying over your lines perpetually some paces from your +trenches; exposing your person too rashly compared to the custom of +our army, your eye glancing over the whole, with the attitude of a +lion. General Abercrombie perceived, clearly, the disorder upon your +right when the regiment of Berry was about to retire, and redoubled his +efforts to profit by it. But you were everywhere, travelling from place +to place with the swiftness of the eagle; never at a loss; reforming +the smallest disorder so soon as it was visible, and preventing it from +spreading, as it generally does, like a flash of lightning. This affair +won you so great a reputation in England for capacity and talent, that +I own to you, sir, the idea of having an antagonist of your knowledge +and merit, made me during the campaign always irresolute, vacillating +in my opinions and undecided in my projects. I cannot condemn my +predecessors who had the command of the English armies in Canada. +The way of fighting of the Canadians and Indians in the woods is so +different from that practised in Europe, that I readily believe the +most able General, with an army of the best disciplined troops, in +following exactly the rules of the art of war,--whose principles are +sure, fixed and demonstrable in European warfare,--may be easily cut +to pieces in those vast forests by a very few Indians. There was an +outcry in England against General Braddock, for allowing his army of +four thousand men to be cut to pieces at the river Ohio,[F] in the year +1755, by six hundred and fifty Canadians and Indians only, much more +than they blame General Abercrombie. + +The reason of it is clear. Abercrombie lived to return to England: +the living always find means to justify themselves. But Braddock was +killed: the dead are always in the wrong, and never find disinterested +advocates to plead their cause. Braddock's order of march--criticised +by your French Generals--may, at first sight, appear singular; and may +pretend that he must of necessity have been beat, in consequence of the +bad disposition of it. But analize it, and you will find nothing else +than the common rule practised through all Europe in passing through +a wood: an army formed in three columns--the artillery, baggage, +waggons and cavalry being the column of the centre, between the other +two columns of infantry; half of the Grenadiers at their head to +support the Pioneers employed in opening a road through the wood for +the passage of the carts and artillery, and the rest in the rear, to +close of march. Braddock was invested on all sides by the Canadians, +and dispersed in the wood, each of them behind a tree, marking out his +victim; so that every musket-shot brought down a soldier, and at every +discharge they flew from tree to tree. What can regular troops do in +such a case? Close their ranks and files each moment, as did Braddock, +direct a continual fire at the woods, without perceiving a man, and be +cut to pieces without seeing an enemy. There is no other method for +troops to defend themselves against the Indians than what I practised, +with success, when I was surprised by them at the ford of the River +Montmorency: the soldiers, with fixed bayonets, dispersed themselves, +rushed on in disorder towards the places where they perceived the smoke +of the Indians' discharge; and by these means my detachment in the woods +chased away your nine hundred Indians, who in a moment disappeared +entirely, and suffered me to retire at my leisure to my camp. + +MONTCALM:--I verily believe, sir, that your idea is just. The Indians +told me, on their return, that it was now no more possible to fight you +as formerly, since the English had learned their (the Indians') way +of fighting. There cannot be a greater advantage for a General than +the entire knowledge of the country--the seat of war: without this, +he must always grope in the dark--be foiled in his operations--rest +often inactive, uncertain in his projects; and be only inactive and +on the defensive, as you were all the summer as much as me. You were +absolutely master of the River St. Lawrence by your men-of-war, who +had ascended it, passing by Quebec with incredible boldness, and +scorning the most murderous fire from the batteries of the town so +near them. You had an infinite number of boats at your disposal, +with all the sailors of your fleet for rowers. What, then, could +hinder you from sending a body of twelve or fifteen hundred men in +different detachments, with engineers and able officers, in order to +be continually landing, to get a thorough knowledge of the country, +draw plans of all the advantageous positions which abound there; +and this detachment, if well led, might have gone even to Montreal +without finding any opposition in their course. Their descriptions +and plans of the country would have enlightened you, and furnished +the means of destroying and crushing our army without fighting: +this is the touchstone to prove superior talents and capacity in a +General. The gaining of a battle is very often the effect of mere +chance. But reducing an enemy without fighting must be the result of +well-combined operations,--is the essence of military science, and +was always the most radient and distinctive _trait_ in the conduct +and character of the great men whom history has handed down to us. +Grounded upon the instructions received from the engineers and officers +of their detachments, you might have verified their observations by +your prisoners, who say always more than they intend, when examined +with kindness, coolness, and with a seeming indifference. The only +achievement which you performed during two months that you lay +constantly loitering in your camps, looking at us, was your attack +of the 31st of July; and your expedition to Deschambault, where you +sent a body of two thousand men, fourteen leagues up the river from +Quebec, to burn and pillage a poor, miserable peasant's house, in which +was the baggage of some French regiments! But the detachment had no +intention of examining the _locale_ of the country. Had they gone to +Jacques Cartier, only three leagues from Deschambault, they would have +discovered there a post strong by nature, which certainly cannot be +inferior to the Thermopylae so celebrated by the Greeks, and capable of +being defended--you being the masters of the River St. Lawrence--by as +few men as Leonidas had with him against the most numerous army. But +your detachment at Deschambault, upon the appearance of my cavalry, +composed merely of two hundred undisciplined Canadians on horseback, +commanded by the Chevalier de LaRochebeaucourt, ran to their boats and +embarked with great disorder and confusion, as if our army had been at +their heels, without having remained there above two hours. Jacques +Cartier--which takes its name from he who first discovered the River +St. Lawrence, and who, having lost his ship, passed there the winter +amongst the Indians--in an immense ravine, with a rapid, shaggy river +full of large rocks, that runs between the two heights, whose tops are +about two hundred fathoms distant from each other; their sides are +as glacis, with a view from their tops to the bottom--four or five +hundred feet deep--which strikes the eyes with horror on looking down +that vast precipice. Its side, facing the River St. Lawrence, is a +steep perpendicular rock; and the ground to the north is impracticable +from the lakes, swamps, and sinking turf, where at each step a person +must plunge over the head and perish. It must be impossible to turn +round it and leave it behind, since the Canadians and the Indians +never discovered a passage through the woods. Thus the only means +of approaching this fort must have been by landing at Deschambault. +From thence to Jacques Cartier, it is an easy and gradually rising +ascent. Had you seized this extraordinary fort, you would have cut off +my communication with Montreal, from whence I drew daily my supplies +for the army: in this event, I had no other alternative than allowing +my army to perish of famine, or surrender the colony. But as we had +been sent from Europe, not to destroy the inhabitants, but, on the +contrary, to save and defend them, I must have immediately concluded by +capitulating for Canada upon the best terms I could obtain from you. I +hope I have demonstrated clearly to you that, had you been acquainted +with the _locale_, you could have made the glorious conquest of Canada +without shedding a drop of blood. + +WOLFE:--You argue, sir, at your ease! How was it possible to examine +and know the _locale_ of that country, your bloodhounds--the Indians +and Canadians--being constantly at our heels: one cannot send out +scouts in Canada, as is done in Europe. + +MONTCALM:--Why not? Men cannot be in two places at the same time; and +you managed to find everywhere Indians and Canadians in your way! There +are many kinds of irregular troops in Europe as bad to deal with as +the Indians in woods and in wooded countries. But your army was always +so struck with terror and dread, that, constantly blinded with fear, +the shadow of an Indian set them a trembling. Nevertheless, the New +England independent companies, formed by Roger, who afterwards beat the +Indians with equal numbers in their own way of fighting behind trees, +should have removed the formidable impression they have always made +upon the English. Self-preservation is natural to all mankind, and the +hour of death must strike with horror the bravest man. But fear is +pardonable amongst soldiers only when there exists a real cause for +fear; and is not to be tolerated when groundless: this is so much the +case of your soldiers with regard to the Indians, that, demoralized +by fear, they suffer themselves to be butchered by a vastly inferior +number of Indians, without ever thinking of defending themselves, even +when they know they will have no quarter. In any danger, soldiers ought +to be accustomed to look coolly death in the face,--they, whose duty is +to die when the Sovereign demands it: such is the contract they sign +with the latter on their entering into his service. + +These sentiments may be often the means of one's preserving life +instead of losing it. Nothing is more incomprehensible to me, in all +your conduct in Canada, than your landing at _Anse des Meres_ on the +13th September (the fatal day which deprived us both of our existence, +but freed us from mortal folly), at the foot of a steep hill, where +a few men at the top of it, with sticks and stones only, must have +easily beaten you back on your attempt to climb it, and where we had +three posts of one hundred men each: one of them commanded by Douglas, +captain in the regiment of Languedoc; another by Rimini, captain in the +regiment La Sarre; and the third by De Vergor, captain in the Colony +troops, at whose post[G] you made your descent. These three hundred +men, had they done their duty, should have been more than sufficient to +have repulsed you ignominiously at this steep hill; and you never would +have got to the top had you met with the smallest resistance. I own +that your daring surpasses my conception. + +WOLFE:--I do not pretend to justify my project by its success, but +by my combinations, which answered exactly as I had foreseen, and +which demonstrate my scheme to have been well concerted. In giving +you this account of it, I am persuaded that you will not blame me +for undertaking an attempt so absurd in appearance, and yet most +reasonable when examined impartially. In all expeditions composed +of sea and land forces, it seldom fails that disputes, animosities, +jealousies and quarrels arise between the different commanders equal +in authority; and it is a miracle if you see the Admiral and the +General unanimously of the same opinion with regard to operations. The +sea and the land service are sciences whose principles are entirely +different; as certainly there can be no analogy between the working of +a ship and the drill of a regiment. Nevertheless, the Admiral meddles +continually with the land operations, and the General will have the +fleets do things that are impossible--both of them equally ignorant +of each other's service; from whence results a clashing discord in +their operations, when sent out with equal power. If each of them +would confine himself to that part of the art of war which he has +studied, and have only in his soul the good and welfare of his King and +Country, these mixed expeditions of land and sea would succeed much +better than they generally do. The naval officers tormented me a great +deal, and were still more troublesome as the season advanced. They +held a council of war on board the flagship on the 10th September, +when it was determined to set sail immediately for Europe, seeing the +imminent dangers to which His Majesty's fleet would be exposed in +those tempestuous seas by remaining any longer before Quebec; and, in +consequence of this decision, orders were given to some men-of-war to +take up their anchors and fall down the river, while orders were issued +at the same time to begin the general preparations for the immediate +departure of all the fleet. The 12th, there came two deserters to me +from one of your three posts you just now mentioned, who belonged to +the French regiments, and were well informed. Upon examining them, +I discovered that your posts were guarded very negligently; that de +Bougainville, who was at Cap Rouge, proposed to send down, the night +following, some boats loaded with provisions, and that your three posts +had their orders to let these boats pass unmolested. The idea instantly +occurred to me to profit by this discovery; and I ran to the Admiral, +communicated to him what I had learned from the French deserters, +begged him most earnestly to suffer me to make a last attempt before +the embarkation of my army. I promised him that if there were twenty +muskets fired from your posts, I would then desist immediately without +further thought than to embark speedily in order to return to England. +The council consented to my demand, and I began my landing at eleven at +night. When my boats approached the two posts of Douglas and Rimini, +upon their sentinels calling "_Qui vive!_" my soldiers answered them +in French, "_Bateaux des vivres_," upon which they suffered them to go +on without stopping them, as they might have done, in order to receive +the password. Not finding a sentry at your third post, commanded by +De Vergor, I landed there with diligence, and all my army was ashore +before this post perceived our men, without firing but one musket, +which wounded De Vergor in the heel, who was immediately taken +prisoner without finding any man of his detachment with him.[H] I began +my operation by landing there a Sergeant with ten Grenadiers, ordering +him to advance always straight before him briskly, with long steps, +and not to halt unless he was discovered by the enemy. A Lieutenant, +with a detachment of Grenadiers, followed him, having the same orders, +to halt instantly if they fired at him. The silence continuing, I then +landed all my Grenadiers, who followed the Sergeant and the Lieutenant; +and by degrees all my army landed without the least noise, disorder or +confusion. The silence soon convinced me that they were not discovered; +dissipated my fears, and assured me of the success of my enterprise. +The head of the column, which was the guide to the rest of the army, +got up the hill with difficulty, the others following them at their +heels. If your guards had been vigilant and done their duty, all I +risked was the Sergeant and Lieutenant, with a few Grenadiers. I would +have stopped at the first discharge, as it would have been madness and +unpardonable to attack by main force a hill so inaccessible that, even +without an enemy at the top to repel them, my men had much difficulty +to climb it. Moreover, I was assured by your deserters you had no +troops on the heights of Abraham. You see now, sir, that it was not +a heedless, ill-concerted project,--but a sure operation, without +risking much. An invariable principle with me has ever been to make +an attack where it appears the most difficult; and it generally meets +with success, as the point is commonly ill-guarded, frequently entirely +neglected, and scarcely comprehended in the plan of defence. I am not +alone of this opinion. Cardinal Ximenes says, that "Ferdinand, King of +Arragon, fitted out two armies against the Moors, under the conduct +of Count D'Aguilar, and ordered them to enter into the mountains of +Grenada at the same time, by the places the most difficult," and +consequently the least guarded. He gained a most complete victory over +the Moors. The most difficult gorges of mountains, when not guarded +where only a single man can pass, a hundred thousand may do the +same. It is then an easy operation, by forming your men in battle as +soon as they get through the passage, and provided that they are not +immediately discovered by the enemy. When once you have a front capable +to oppose and stand firm, it increases every instant, as you may be +convinced that the soldiers go through the dangerous passage with great +quickness. Besides, the enemy is always disconcerted by a surprise; +demoralized by an unforeseen incident, he becomes timid and alarmed, +and may be looked upon as already vanquished before the action begins. +The landing at Cap Breton was executed according to my system. The +enemy does not expect you at a place of difficult access; it is where +he does not expect me that I would make my principal attack. Commonly, +men suffer most where they are most seen.[I] But if they are entirely +neglected--as it happened at Louisbourg--it is a fault of the General, +who should be answerable for it. But the General having placed upon +them a sufficient number of troops in proportion to their difficulties, +can he be blamed if the officers of these posts do not do their duty? + +MONTCALM:--Can there be any divine or human law to punish a man for +the faults of others? Should they not answer personally? It has +often happened that the safety of a whole army has depended upon a +subaltern's guard! You see that the deserters caused you to make a +last attempt--prevented your embarking your army for England--your +giving up your enterprise--and, in short, ended in adding Canada to the +British dominions; and perhaps a vigilant officer at that post (Wolfe's +Cove) might have hindered the soldiers from deserting, which would at +once have removed a first cause which produced so many extraordinary +effects. Your system may be good, if executed with great prudence and +precaution. But should the enemy be informed of your design, which he +may be by a deserter acquainted with your great preparations, as you +were with the negligence of our posts, it is an excellent opportunity +to have your army cut to pieces and catch a tartar; as it must have +been your case at the Sault de Montmorency (on the 31st July), had it +not been for that sudden shower of rain, which came to your rescue in +the critical moment, when your destruction was otherwise inevitable. +At least, sir, confess the injustice of mankind. They reproach me with +being the cause of your success! They accuse me of having sacrificed +the welfare of my army through jealousy and ill-feeling! My king and +country--for whom I would have shed, with pleasure, every drop of my +blood--and those who view my case the most favourably, look on me as +a giddy, ignorant officer! All these scandalous, atrocious lies and +calumnies were spread everywhere by a set[J] of men who, from their +immoderate thirst of riches, would, to serve their interest, have +betrayed their king and country. Those vile, mercenary souls knew that +I detested them as much as I constantly cherished honest men, whose +noble sentiments endeared them to me. My death was happy for them. Had +I lived to return to Europe, I would have had no difficulty to justify +all my conduct, and crush these wretches like vermin. Covetousness and +avarice carried them to Canada; they left their honour and honesty +in France on embarking, easily forgetting what it is to be just and +patriotic. I would have soon confounded them. Truth supports oppressed +innocence, and, sooner or later, dispels the clouds which too often +overshadow it. I shall give you a faithful and exact account of my +conduct with regard to the operations of the 13th September, following +scrupulously truth, which has always been the rule of my actions and +is held in great veneration by me; and I hope to demonstrate to you +that if the end of that campaign covered you with glory, Fortune +was the chief agent, who reunited in your power a great number of +circumstances, the absence of any one of which sufficed to render your +expedition fruitless. + +Some days after the action of the 31st of July, M. de Levis was sent +by M. Vaudreuil to command at Montreal, upon a false report that a +body of English was coming to attack Canada by Lake Champlain--a story +trumped up by my enemies to deprive me of M. de Levis, in whom I had +the greatest confidence, on account of his talents: I cannot say he +made me a just acknowledgment of my sentiments towards him. I went +to his lodgings a few hours before his departure, which was kept a +secret from the army; and as I was little acquainted with his plan of +defence for the left of our camp, at the Sault de Montmorency, I begged +of him, as a favour, to leave me his aide-de-camp, M. Johnstone, who +had a perfect knowledge of the _locale_ of that part of the country. +Your boats having caused us an alarm in the night between the 10th +and 11th of September, by their appearance opposite to the ravine of +Beauport, I remained at M. Vaudreuil's until one in the morning, when +I left him in order that I might return to my lodging--having with +me M. Montreuil, Major-General of the army, and M. Johnstone. On my +sending away M. de Vaudreuil, after giving him my orders, I related +immediately to M. Johnstone all the measures I had concerted with M. +de Vaudreuil, in case you (Gen. Wolfe) made a descent at daybreak. He +answered me, that your army being now assembled at Point Levi, and part +of it gone above Quebec, on the south side of the River St. Lawrence, +it appeared very doubtful where you might attempt a descent--whether +above the town, or below it towards the _Canardiere_; he added, that +he believed a body of troops might be advantageously placed upon the +heights of Abraham, where they could with certainty confront you +whenever you landed. I approved greatly of his idea. I called back +Montreuil--who was as yet not far from us--and I ordered him to send +the Regiment of Guienne--which was encamped near the hornwork at the +River St. Charles--to pass the night upon the heights of Abraham. +Next morning--the 11th--I wrote to Montreuil, ordering him to make +this regiment encamp upon the heights of Abraham, and remain there +until further orders. Thus, in consequence of my repeated orders, I +had all the reason possible to believe that this regiment constitued +a permanent post there; so that the declaration of the deserters from +the three posts, who could not know this, might have led you into a +dangerous snare, worse than that of the 31st July. Why this regiment +continued the 12th in this camp at the hornwork, in spite of my express +orders to encamp upon the heights, I know not; and can only attribute +Montreuil's disobedience of my orders to the weakness of his judgment +and understanding. It is nevertheless evident that, if you had found +the Regiment of Guienne upon the top of the hill--where it ought to +have been, had my orders been obeyed--you would have been repulsed +shamefully with a much greater loss than you met with on the 31st +July at the Sault; the height where you made your descent, the 13th +of September, being infinitely steeper than that there which obliged +you to make a speedy retreat, favoured by the _providential shower_. +Or, perhaps you would have embarked immediately your army, without +any further attempt, to return to England, after a most ruinous and +fruitless expedition--the campaign ending with an incredible expense to +your nation--fruitless; and, by this means, the colony of Canada would +have been for ever delivered from such formidable armies. + +As soon as your army was reunited in a single camp at Pointe Levi, +after having been so long separated, upon you sending a body of troops +up the River St. Lawrence, I detached M. de Bougainville, with fifteen +hundred of my best troops--composed of all my Grenadiers, of the +Volunteers from the French Regiments, of my best Canadians and Indians; +and I likewise gave him some small guns. I ordered him strictly to +follow all your movements, by ascending the river when you went up, and +descending as you did the same: in short, to be an army of observation, +with only the river between you--never to lose sight of you--ever +ready to oppose your passage up the river, and to fall on you with the +swiftness of the eagle the moment you attempted to land on our side of +it. He sent to inform me, the 13th of September, that all your army +had descended to your camp at Pointe Levi. But he remained loitering +with his detachment at Cap Rouge--three leagues from Quebec! Why did +he not follow you to the heights of Abraham, according to his orders? +Why did he not send me back my Grenadiers and Volunteers--the very +flower of their Regiments? informing me, as also the posts of Douglas +and Rimini, that he would send down that night. I cannot conceive the +reasons for such conduct: it is beyond all conception! He was informed, +between seven and eight in the morning, by the fugitives from the +three posts, that your army was landed and drawn up in battle upon the +heights of Abraham; upon which he left Cap Rouge with his detachment, +no doubt with the intention to join me. But, instead of taking the +road to Lorette, or to the General Hospital along the borders of the +River St. Charles, which led both of them to our camp, he followed the +heights of Abraham, where he was evidently certain by his information +to find there your army to intercept him; and it could never be his +design to fight you with fifteen hundred men! He found a house on his +way, with three or four hundred of your troops barricading it, and +was very desirous to take them prisoners. M. le Noir, Captain in the +Regiment La Sarre--having more bravery than prudence and knowledge of +the art of war--attacked the house with the most astonishing boldness, +and had more than half of his company of Volunteers killed: he received +himself two wounds--one of them by a ball through the body, and the +other in his hand. De Bougainville, intent on taking the house, waited +there the arrival of the cannon, to force it; but when the cannon +arrived, it unluckily happened that the balls had been forgotten at +Cap Rouge, which obliged him to return there, abandoning the house +without a moment's reflection. How much more important it would have +been to direct his march towards the General Hospital, in order to join +my army! Thus were precious moments wasted ridiculously in the most +trifling manner. De Bougainville--who has a great deal of wit, good +sense, many good qualities--was protected by a very great person at +Court; he is personally brave, has but little knowledge in the military +science, having never studied it. + +The night between the 12th and 13th of September, when you made your +descent, M. Poularies, Commander of the Regiment Royal Roussillon, +who encamped behind my lodgings at Beauport, came to me, at midnight, +to inform me that they saw boats opposite to his regiment. Upon which +I immediately ordered all the army to line the trenches; and I sent +Marcel--who served me as Secretary and aid-de-camp--to pass the night +at M. de Vaudreuil's, giving him one of my Cavaliers of Ordnance, +ordering Marcel, if there was anything extraordinary in that quarter, +to inform me of it speedily by the Cavalier. I was out and walked with +Poularies and Johnstone, between my house and the ravine of Beauport, +until one in the morning, when I sent Poularies to his regiment, and +I continued there with Johnstone. All night my mind was in the most +violent agitation, which I believe proceeded from my uneasiness for +the boats and provisions that de Bougainville had acquainted me, would +be sent down the river that night; and I repeated often to Johnstone, +that I trembled lest they should be taken, "that loss would ruin us +without resource, having provisions only for two days' subsistence to +our army." It appears to me that my extraordinary sufferings that night +were a presage of my cruel fate some hours afterwards. At daybreak they +fired some cannon from our battery at Samos, near Sillery. I then had +no more doubts of our boats being taken by you. Alas! I would never +have imagined that my provisions were in safety at Cap Rouge with de +Bougainville, and that you were upon the heights of Abraham since +midnight, without my being informed of an event of so great importance, +and which was known through all the right of our camp. + +The day clearing up, having news from Marcel at M. de Vaudreuil's, who +had always my Cavalier of Ordnance with him, and perceiving no changes +in your camp at Point Levis, my mind was more composed on reflecting +that, if anything extraordinary had happened, I would certainly have +been informed of it. I then sent Johnstone to order all the army to +their tents, having passed the night in the trenches, and retired to my +lodgings after drinking some dishes of tea with Johnstone. I desired +him to order the servants to saddle the horses, in order to go to M. +de Vaudreuil's and be informed of the cause of the firing from our +battery at Samos. Not a soul having come to me from the right of our +camp since midnight when I sent there Marcel, I set out with Johnstone +between six and seven in the morning. Heavens, what was my surprise! +when opposite to M. de Vaudreuil's lodgings, the first news of what +had passed during the night was the sight of your army upon the heights +of Abraham, firing at the Canadians scattered amongst the bushes. I +met at the same time M. de Vaudreuil coming out of his lodgings, and +having spoke to him an instant, I turned away to Johnstone, and told +him: "the affair is serious! run with the greatest speed to Beauport; +order Poularies to remain there at the Ravine with two hundred men, and +to send me all the rest of the left to the heights of Abraham with the +utmost diligence." + +Johnstone having delivered my orders to Poularies, he quitted him +an instant to give some instructions to my servants at my lodgings; +returning to rejoin me, he found Poularies in the Ravine with M. de +Sennezergue, Brigadier-General and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Regiment +of La Sarre, and de Lotbiniere, Captain of the Colony troops and +aide-de-camp to M. de Vaudreuil. Poularies stopped Johnstone to make +him repeat to them my orders, which he did; and at the same time +advised Poularies, as a friend, to disobey them, by coming himself +to the heights of Abraham with every man of the left, since it was +evident that the English army--already landed near Quebec--could +never think of making a second descent at Beauport; and that it was +manifest there would be in a few hours an engagement upon the heights +which would immediately decide the fate of the Colony. Poularies then +showed Johnstone a written order--signed "Montreuil"--which Lotbiniere +had brought to him from M. de Vaudreuil, "That not a man of the left +should stir from the camp!" Johnstone declared to them, upon his +honour, that it was word for word my orders and my intentions; and he +entreated Poularies, in the most pressing manner, to have no regard +for that order signed "Montreuil," as the want of two thousand men, +which formed the left of our camp, must be of the greatest consequence +in the battle. M. de Sennezergue--an officer of the greatest worth +and honour, who fell a few hours afterwards--told Johnstone: "That +he (Johnstone) should take it upon him to make all the left march of +immediately." Johnstone answered: "That, being only the bearer of +my orders, he could take nothing upon him. But if he was in M. de +Sennezergue's place, Brigadier-General, and, by M. de Levis' absence, +the next in command of the army, he would not hesitate a moment to make +the left march, without any regard whatsoever to any order that might +be hurtful to the King's service, in that critical juncture." Johnstone +left them irresolute and doubtful how to act, clapped spurs to his +horse, and rejoined me immediately upon the heights. + +I don't know, any more than a thousand others, the particulars relative +to the action of the 13th of September. I am ignorant of who it was +that made our army take their abominable and senseless position, +by thrusting it betwixt your army and Quebec, where there were no +provisions, and the best of our troops absent with de Bougainville; it +certainly must have been dictated by an ignorant and stupid blockhead! +I certainly had no hand in it: the piquets and part of the troops were +already marched up the heights before I came to the Canardiere, or ever +knew that you were landed; and all the right of our army was marching +after them when I arrived at their encampment. The only proper course +to be taken in our position, and which would have been apparent to any +man of common sense who had the least knowledge of the art of war, +was to quit our camp coolly--calmly--without disorder or confusion, +and march to Lorette; from thence cross over to St. Foix--which is two +leagues from Quebec and a league from Cap Rouge--and when joined there +by M. de Bougainville's detachment, to advance then and attack you as +soon as possible. By these means you would have found yourself between +two fires, by a sally from the town the moment that I attacked you on +the other side. I was no sooner upon the heights than I perceived our +horrible position,--pressed against the town-walls, without provisions +for four-and-twenty hours, and a moral impossibility for us to retire, +being drawn up in battle at the distance of a musket-shot from your +army. Had I made an attempt to go down the heights, in order to repass +the River St. Charles and return to my camp, I would have exposed my +left flank to you, and my rear would have been cut to pieces without +being able to protect and support it. Had I entered into the town, in +an instant you would have invested us in it, without provisions, by +carrying down your left wing to the River St. Charles--an easy movement +of a few minutes. I saw no remedy other for us than to worry your +army by a cannonade, having the advantage over you of a rising ground +suitable for batteries of cannon, hoping, by thus harassing you, that +you might retire in the night, as certainly you could never be so rash +as to think of attacking us under the guns of the town; at least I +would have made my retreat, taking advantage of the darkness of the +night, to get myself out of the scrape where the ignorance of others +had thrown me. I sent several persons with orders to M. de Ramsay, +King's Lieutenant (Deputy Governor), who was in command at Quebec, +to send me, with all possible haste, the five-and-twenty brass field +pieces that were in position on the palace battery, near our army; and +precisely at the same instant when Johnstone came to me on the heights, +with the news of the order which prevented the left of our army to join +me, a sergeant arrived from M. de Ramsay--the fourth person I had sent +to him with my orders--with a categorical answer from him: "That he +had already sent me three pieces of artillery; and that he could not +send me any more, having his town to defend!" What could be de Ramsay's +reasons for such a monstrous conduct, or who it was who inspired him +with such a daring disobedience, I know not? + +1. "His town"--as he called it--was defended by our army which covered +it, being drawn up in battle about two hundred fathoms from it; and its +safety depended entirely upon the event of a battle. + +2. There were in Quebec about two hundred pieces of cannon, most of +them twenty-four and thirty-six pounders. + +3. Small field-pieces, two or three pounders--such as the palace +battery--could they be of the least service for the defence of a town? + +4. A commander of Quebec, as King's Lieutenant or sub-Lieutenant, such +as de Ramsay was--not Governor,--or even M. de Vaudreuil himself, +Governor General of Canada, at that moment in the town,--could they +have any authority to refuse me all the assistance I could desire from +Quebec, by my particular commission of Commander-in-Chief of the troops +in Canada, when my army was at the gates of the town, and your army +deployed ready to fight? A thousand other queries suggest themselves; +but of what avail? + +I assembled immediately a council of war, composed of all the +commanding officers of the several regiments, to hear their opinion +as to what was to be done in our critical situation. Some of them +maintained you were busy throwing up breastworks. Others, that you +appeared bent on descending in the valley, in order to seize the bridge +of boats on the St. Charles river with the hornwork, with the object +of cutting off our communication with the left wing of our army, which +remained at Beauport pursuant to the order signed by Montreuil. In +effect, a movement your army made in that moment towards the windmill +and Borgia's house, upon the edge of the height, seemed to favour this +conjecture. But an instant afterwards, the Canadians having set fire +to that house and chased you from it, you retook your former position. +Others alleged, that the more we delayed attacking you, the more your +army would be strong--imagining that your troops had not yet all +landed. In short, there was not a single member of the war council who +was not of opinion to charge upon you immediately. Can it be credited +that these officers--to the dishonour of mankind--who were the most +violent to attack you, denied it afterwards, and became the most ardent +censors of my conduct in not deferring the battle! What could I do in +my desperate situation? Even a Marshal Turenne would have been much +puzzled to get out of such a dilemma, in which they had entangled me +either through design or ignorance. I listened with attention to their +opinion, without opening my lips, and at last answered them:--"It +appears to me, gentlemen, that you are unanimous for giving battle; and +that the only question now is, how to charge the enemy?" Montreuil said +it would be better to attack in columns. I answered him: "That we would +be beat before our columns could be formed so near to the enemy; and, +besides, that our columns must be very weak, not having Grenadiers to +place at their heads." I added, that "since it is decided to attack, it +must be in Front Baudiere(?)" I sent all the officers to their posts, +and ordered the drummers to beat the charge. + +Our onset was neither brisk nor long. We went on in confusion--were +repulsed in an instant; and it could not naturally be otherwise from +the absence of our Volunteers and Grenadiers, and de Bougainville at +Cap Rouge with the best of our Canadians; the Montreal regiments with +Poularies at Beauport, a league and a half from the battle-field. The +example of the bravest soldiers in a regiment--the Grenadiers and +Volunteers--suffices to infuse courage in the most timid, who can +follow the road shown to them, but cannot lead the way. The brave +Canadian Militia saw us with heavy hearts, grief and despair, from the +other side of the St. Charles river, cut to pieces upon the heights, +stopped, as they were, in the hornwork, and prevented by superior +orders from rushing to our assistance. About two hundred brave and +resolute Canadians rallied in the hollow at the bakehouse, and +returned upon the heights. They fell instantly upon your left wing +with incredible rage; stopped your army for some minutes from pursuing +our soldiers in their flight, by attracting your attention to them; +resisted, undaunted, the shock of your left; and, when repulsed, they +disputed the ground inch by inch from the top to the bottom of the +height, pursued by your troops down to the valley at the bakehouse, +opposite to the hornwork. These unfortunate heroes--who were most of +them cut to pieces--saved your army the loss of a great many men, by +not being hotly pursued; and if your left, who followed these two +hundred Canadians down to the plain, had crossed it from the bakehouse +to the River St. Charles, only three or four hundred paces, they would +have cut off the retreat of our army, invested the three-fourths of +them in Quebec, without provisions, and M. de Vaudreuil, next day, +must have surrendered the town and asked to capitulate for the colony. +But your conduct cannot be blamed, as it is always wise and prudent in +giving--as Pyrrhus advises--a golden bridge to one's enemy in flight. + +You see, sir, by this true and faithful account of the battle of +the 13th September, and of what preceded it, how many different and +unforeseen events, fortune was obliged to unite in your favour to +render you successful in your expedition against Canada; the failure +of any one of which would have sufficed to frustrate your enterprise. +It would appear that heaven had decreed that France should lose this +colony. Let us now conclude, sir, that I have as little deserved +the blame, scorn, contempt and injustice which my country heaped on +my memory, as you do the excessive honours they lavished on your's +in England; and that the ablest General in Europe, placed in my +circumstances, could not have acted otherwise than I did. Moreover, +I was under M. de Vaudreuil--the weakest man alive, although a most +obstinate automaton--and could not freely follow my ideas as if I had +been Commander-in-Chief. In my country the law is equal: we neither +punish, nor recompense. + +The Marquis of Montcalm, endeavouring to rally the troops in their +disorderly flight, was wounded in the lower part of the belly.[K] He +was conveyed immediately to Quebec, and lodged in the house of M. +Arnoux, the King's surgeon, who was absent with M. de Bourlamarque: +his brother--the younger Arnoux--having viewed the wound, declared +it mortal. This truly great and worthy man heard Arnoux[L] pronounce +his sentence of death with a firm and undaunted soul: his mind calm +and serene; his countenance soft and pleasing; and with a look of +indifference whether he lived or died. He begged of Arnoux to be so +kind and outspoken as to tell him how many hours he thought he might +yet live? Arnoux answered him, that he might hold out until three in +the morning. He spent that short period of life in conversing with a +few officers upon indifferent subjects with great coolness and presence +of mind, and ended his days about the hour Arnoux had foretold him. +His last words were:--"I die[M] content, since I leave the affairs of +the King, my dear master, in good hands: I always had a high opinion +of the talents of M. de Levis." I will not undertake the panegyric +of this great man: a true patriot and lover of his king and country, +possessing many rare and good qualities. Had he by chance been born in +England, his memory would have been celebrated, and transmitted with +honour to posterity. Illustrious by his virtue and genius, he deserves +to live in history; he was an unfortunate victim to the insatiable +avarice of some men, and a prey to the immoderate ambition of others. +His ashes, mingled with those of Indians, repose neglected far from his +native country, without a magnificent tomb or altars; General Wolfe +has statues in England in commemoration of the many faults he committed +during his expedition in Canada. "How many obscure dead," says a +modern author, "have received the greatest honours by titles yet more +vain? O injustice of mankind! The mausolea adorn the temples to repeat +continually false praise; and history, which ought to be the sacred +asylum of truth, shows that statues and panegyrics are almost always +the monuments of prejudice, and that flattery seeks to immortalise +unjust reputations." + +When I was informed of M. de Montcalm's misfortune, I sent him +immediately his servant Joseph, begging him to acquaint me if I could +be of any service to him, and in that case I would be with him at +Quebec immediately. Joseph came back in a moment to the hornwork, and +grieved me to the inmost of my soul by M. de Montcalm's answer: "that +it was needless to come to him, as he had only a few hours to live, +and he advised me to keep with Poularies until the arrival of M. de +Levis at the army." Thus perished a great man, generally unknown and +unregretted by his countrymen--a man who would have become the idol and +ornament of any other country in Europe. + +The French army in flight, scattered and entirely dispersed, rushed +towards the town. Few of them entered Quebec; they went down the +heights of Abraham, opposite to the Intendant's Palace (past St. +John's gate) directing their course to the hornwork, and following the +borders of the River St. Charles. Seeing the impossibility of rallying +our troops, I determined myself to go down the hill at the windmill, +near the bakehouse,[P] and from thence across over the meadows to the +hornwork, resolved not to approach Quebec, from my apprehension of +being shut up there with a part of our army, which might have been the +case if the victors had drawn all the advantage they could have reaped +from our defeat. It is true the death of the general-in-chief--an event +which never fails to create the greatest disorder and confusion in an +army--may plead as an excuse for the English neglecting so easy an +operation as to take all our army prisoners. + +But, instead of following immediately my ideas, I was carried off +by the flow of the fugitives, without being able to stop them or +myself until I got to a hollow swampy ground, where some gunners were +endeavouring to save a field-piece which stuck there, and I stayed an +instant with them to encourage them to draw it to the town. Returning +back upon the rising ground, I was astonished to find myself in the +centre of the English army, who had advanced whilst I was in the +hollow with the gunners, and taking me for a general, on account of +my fine black horse, they treated me as such by saluting me with a +thousand musket shots from half of the front of their army, which had +formed a crescent. I was, nevertheless, bent on reaching the windmill, +and I escaped their terrible fire without any other harm than four +balls through my clothes, which shattered them; a ball lodged in the +pommel of my saddle, and four balls in my horse's body, who lived, +notwithstanding his wounds, until he had carried me to the hornwork. + +It is impossible to imagine the disorder and confusion that I found +in the hornwork.[Q] The dread and consternation was general. M. de +Vaudreuil listened to everybody, and was always of the advice of he +who spoke last. No order was given with reflection and with coolness, +none knowing what to order or what to do. When the English had repulsed +the two hundred Canadians that had gone up the height at the same time +that I came down from it, pursuing them down to the bakehouse, our +men lost their heads entirely; they became demoralized, imagining that +the English troops, then at the bakehouse, would in an instant cross +the plain and fly over the St. Charles river into the hornwork as with +wings. It is certain that when fear once seizes hold of men it not only +deprives them totally of their judgment and reflection, but also of +the use of their eyes and their ears, and they become a thousand times +worse than the brute creation, guided by instinct only, or by that +small portion of reason which the author of nature has assigned it, +since it preserves the use of it on all occasions. How much inferior +to them do the greater portion of mankind appear, with their boasted +reason, when reduced to madness and automata, on occasions when they +require the more the use of their reason. + +The hornwork had the River St. Charles before it, about seventy paces +broad, which served it better than an artificial ditch; its front, +facing the river and the heights, was composed of strong, thick, and +high palisades, planted perpendicularly, with gunholes pierced for +several pieces of large cannon in it; the river is deep and only +fordable at low water, at a musket shot before the fort. This made it +more difficult to be forced on that side than on its other side of +earthworks facing Beauport, which had a more formidable appearance; +and the hornwork certainly on that side was not in the least danger +of being taken by the English, by an assault from the other side of +the river. On the appearance of the English troops on the plain of the +bakehouse, Montguet and La Motte, two old captains in the Regiment of +Bearn, cried out with vehemence to M. de Vaudreuil, "that the hornwork +would be taken in an instant, by an assault, sword in hand; that we +would be all cut to pieces without quarter, and that nothing else would +save us but an immediate and general capitulation of Canada, giving it +up to the English." + +Montreuil told them that "a fortification such as the hornwork was not +to be taken so easily." In short, there arose a general cry in the +hornwork to cut the bridge of boats.[R] It is worthy of remark, that +not a fourth of our army had yet arrived at it, and the remainder, by +cutting the bridge, would have been left on the other side of the river +as victims to the victors. The regiment 'Royal Roussillon' was at that +moment at the distance of a musket shot from the hornwork, approaching +to pass the bridge. As I had already been in such adventures, I did +not lose my presence of mind, and having still a shadow remaining +of that regard, which the army accorded me on account of the esteem +and confidence which M. de Levis and M. de Montcalm had always shown +me publicly, I called to M. Hugon, who commanded, for a pass in the +hornwork, and begged of him to accompany me to the bridge. We ran +there, and without asking who had given the order to cut it, we chased +away the soldiers with their uplifted axes ready to execute that +extravagant and wicked operation. + +M. de Vaudreuil was closeted in a house in the inside of the hornwork +with the Intendant and with some other persons. I suspected they were +busy drafting the articles for a general capitulation, and I entered +the house, where I had only time to see the Intendant with a pen in +his hand writing upon a sheet of paper, when M. de Vaudreuil told me +I had no business there. Having answered him that what he said was +true, I retired immediately, in wrath, to see them intent on giving +up so scandalously a dependency for the preservation of which so much +blood and treasure had been expended. On leaving the house, I met +M. Dalquier, an old, brave, downright honest man, commander of the +regiment of Bearn, with the true character of a good officer--the marks +of Mars all over his body. I told him it was being debated within +the house, to give up Canada to the English by a capitulation, and +I hurried him in to stand up for the King's cause, and advocate the +welfare of his country. I then quitted the hornwork to join Poularies +at the Ravine[S] of Beauport; but having met him about three or four +hundred paces from the hornwork, on his way to it, I told him what was +being discussed there. He answered me, that sooner than consent to a +capitulation, he would shed the last drop of his blood. He told me to +look on his table and house as my own, advised me to go there directly +to repose myself, and clapping spurs to his horse, he flew like +lightning to the hornwork. + +As Poularies was an officer of great bravery, full of honour and +of rare merit, I was then certain that he and Dalquier would break +up the measures of designing men. Many motives induced me to act +strenuously for the good of the service; amongst others, my gratitude +for the Sovereign who had given me bread; also, my affection and +inviolable friendship for M. de Levis in his absence, who was now +Commander-in-Chief of the French armies in Canada by the death of M. de +Montcalm. I continued sorrowfully jogging on to Beauport, with a very +heavy heart for the loss of my dear friend, M. de Montcalm, sinking +with weariness and lost in reflection upon the changes which Providence +had brought about in the space of three or four hours. + +Poularies came back to his lodgings at Beauport about two in the +afternoon, and he brought me the agreeable news of having converted +the project of a capitulation into a retreat to Jacques-Cartier, +there to wait the arrival of M. de Levis; and they despatched a +courier immediately to Montreal to inform him of our misfortune at +Quebec, which, to all appearance, would not have happened to us if M. +de Vaudreuil had not sent him away, through some political reason, +to command there, without troops except those who were with M. de +Bourlamarque at L'Isle aux Noix--an officer of great knowledge. The +departure of the army was agreed upon to be at night, and all the +regiments were ordered to their respective encampments until further +orders. The decision for a retreat was to be kept a great secret, and +not even communicated to the officers. I passed the afternoon with +Poularies, hoping each moment to receive from Montreuil--Major-General +of the army--the order of the retreat for the regiment Royal +Roussillon; but having no word of it at eight o'clock in the evening, +and it being a dark night, Poularies sent his Adjutant to M. de +Vaudreuil to receive his orders for the left. Poularies instantly +returned to inform him that the right of our army was gone away with +M. de Vaudreuil without his having given any orders concerning the +retreat, and that they followed the highway to the hornwork. Castaigne, +his Adjutant, could give no further account of this famous retreat, +only that all the troops on our right were marched off. It can be +easily imagined how much we were confounded by this ignorant and stupid +conduct, which can scarce appear credible to the most ignorant military +man. + +Poularies sent immediately to inform the post next to his regiment of +the retreat, with orders to acquaint all the left of it, from post to +post, between Beauport and the Sault de Montmorency. + +I then set out with him and his regiment, following those before us +as the other posts to our left followed us, without any other guides, +orders or instructions with regard to the roads we should take, or +where we should go to; this was left to chance, or at least was a +secret which M. de Vaudreuil kept to himself _in petto_. It was a +march entirely in the Indian manner; not a retreat, but a horrid, +abominable flight, a thousand times worse than that in the morning +upon the heights of Abraham, with such disorder and confusion that, +had the English known it, three hundred men sent after us would have +been sufficient to destroy and cut all our army to pieces. Except the +regiment Royal Roussillon, which Poularies, always a rigid and severe +disciplinarian, kept together in order, there were not to be seen +thirty soldiers together of any other regiment. They were all mixed, +scattered, dispersed, and running as hard as they could, as if the +English army was at their heels. There never was a more favourable +position to make a beautiful, well-combined retreat, in bright day, +and in sight of the English Army looking at us, without having the +smallest reason to fear anything within their power to oppose it, as I +had obtained a perfect knowledge of the _locale_ from Beauport to the +Sault de Montmorency during some months that I was there constantly +with M. de Levis and M. de Montcalm. I thought myself in a position +to foretell to Poularies the probable order of retreat, and the route +which would be assigned to each regiment for their march to the Lorette +village. I was greatly deceived, and indeed could never have foreseen +the route which our entire army followed to reach Lorette, and which +prolonged our march prodigiously for the centre of our army, and still +more for our left at the Sault de Montmorency. There is a highway in a +straight line from the Sault de Montmorency to Lorette, which makes a +side of a triangle formed by another highway from the Sault to Quebec, +and by another road from Lorette to the hornwork, which formed the +base. In the highway from the Sault to the hornwork there are eight +or nine cross roads of communication from it to the road from the +Sault to Lorette, which are shorter as they approach to the point of +the angle at the Sault. Thus it was natural to believe that our army, +being encamped all along the road from the Sault to the hornwork, each +regiment would have taken one of these cross roads, the nearest to +his encampment, in order to take the straight road from the Sault to +Lorette, instead of coming to the hornwork to take there the road from +Quebec to Lorette, by which the left had double the distance to march, +besides being more liable by approaching the hornwork so near to the +English, to make them discover the retreat. + +The army, by this operation, would have arrived all at the same time +in the road from the Sault to Lorette by the difference in the length +of these cross roads, and would have naturally formed a column all +along that road; and as it was not a forced retreat, they had the time +from twelve at noon until eight at night to send off all the baggage +by cross roads to Lorette, without the English perceiving it; but +supposing them even fully aware of our design, which might have been +executed in open day, they no way could disturb our operations without +attacking the hornwork, and attempting the passage of the river St. +Charles--a very difficult and dangerous affair--where they might be +easily repulsed, exposing themselves in a moment to lose the fruits +of their victory, without enjoying it; and consequently they would +have been insane had they ventured on such a rash enterprise. Instead +of these wise measures, which common sense alone might have dictated, +tents, artillery, the military stores, baggage, and all other effects, +were left as a present to the English; the officers saved only a few +shirts, or what they could carry in their pockets: the rest was lost. +In fact, it would appear, by this strange conduct, that a class of +men there, from interested views, were furiously bent on giving up +the colony to the English, so soon as they could have a plausible +pretext to colour their designs,--by lopping off gradually all the +means possible to defend it any longer. M. de Vaudreuil had still +other kind offices in reserve for the English. He wrote to de Ramsay, +King's Lieutenant and Commander in Quebec,[T] as soon as the retreat +was decided:--"That he might propose a capitulation for the town +eight-and-forty hours after the departure of our army from our camp at +Beauport, upon the best conditions he could obtain from the English." +We ran along in flight all night; and at daybreak M. de Bougainville, +with his detachment, joined us near Cap Rouge. In the evening, our army +arrived at Pointe-aux-Trembles--five leagues from Quebec--where it +passed the night, and next day came to Jacques-Cartier. The English had +so little suspicion of our retreat, seeing our tents standing without +any change at our camp, that Belcour--an officer of La Rochebaucourt's +cavalry--having returned to it with a detachment, two days after our +flight, he found everything the same as when we left it. He went into +the hornwork with his detachment, and fired the guns (pointed) at the +heights of Abraham towards the English camp, which greatly alarmed them. + + + FINIS. + +[The remainder of the manuscript alludes more particularly to the +campaign conducted by Chevalier de Levis, which ended, in 1760, by the +capitulation of Montreal.] + + + ADDENDA. + + _Extract of the Register of Marriages, Baptisms and Deaths of the + French Cathedral at Quebec, for 1759_:-- + + "L'an mil sept cens cinquante-neuf, le quatorzieme du mois de + Septembre, a ete inhume dans l'Eglise des Religieuses Ursulines + de Quebec, haut et puissant Seigneur Louis Joseph Marquis de + Montcalm, Lieutenant General des armees du Roy, Commandeur de + l'ordre Royal et militaire de St. Louis, Commandant en chef des + troupes de terre en l'Amerique Septentrionale, decede le meme + jour de ses blessures au combat de la veille, muni des sacrements + qu'il a recus avec beaucoup de piete et de Religion. Etoient + presents a son inhumation MM. Resche, Cugnet et Collet, chanoines + de la Cathedrale, M. de Ramezay, Commandant de la Place, et tout + le corps des officiers. + + (Signe,) + "RESCHE, Ptre. Chan. + "COLLET, Chne." + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[A] Les Ecossais en France, Vol. II., P. 449. + +[B] Formerly, inward bound ships, instead of taking the south channel +lower down than Goose Island, struck over from Cape Tourmente, and took +the south channel between Madame Island and Pointe Argentenay. + +[C] General Abercrombie's army consisted of 6,000 regular troops and +7,000 provincials, according to the English; but the French gave them +out to be 6,300 troops, and 13,000 provincials--in all 19,300 men. + +[D] The French say the English lost between four and five thousand men. + +[E] Unfortunately, the plans here alluded to do not accompany the +manuscript. + +[F] This contest is generally denominated the Battle of the +Monongahela. Capt. Daniel Lienard de Beaujeu commanded the Canadians, +and achieved a most brilliant victory over General Braddock and George +Washington; the English losing their provisions, baggage, fifteen +cannon, many small arms, the military chest, Braddock's papers. +Washington, after the battle, wrote: "We have been beaten, shamefully +beaten, by a handful of French."--(J. M. L.) + +[G] De Vergor's post apparently stood about a 100 yards to the east of +the spot on which Wolfe's Field-cottage has since been built. The ruins +still exist.--(J. M. L.) + +[H] De Vergor's guard was composed chiefly of Militiamen from +Lorette, who on that day had obtained leave to go and work on +their farms, provided they also worked on a farm Captain De Vergor +owned.--"_Memoires sur les Affaires de la Colonie de 1749-60._" Some +historians have intimated that De Vergor--a _protege_ of Bigot's--was a +traitor to his King.--(J. M. L.) + +[I] I incline more to General Wolfe's opinion than what Voltaire +reports in the war of 1781, to have been the King of Prussia's +maxim:--"That we ought always to do what the enemy is afraid of." Where +the enemy is afraid of anything in particular, he has there his largest +force, and is there more on his guard than anywhere else.--(MANUSCRIPT +NOTE.) + +[J] Bigot's coterie.--(J. M. L.) + +[K] It was reported in Canada, that the ball which killed that great, +good and honest man, was not fired by an English musket. But I never +credited this. + +[L] Arnoux gave me this account of his last moments.--MANUSCRIPT NOTES. + +[M] The place where Montcalm died appears yet shrouded in doubt. It +is stated, in Knox's Journal, that, on being wounded, Montcalm was +conveyed to the General Hospital, towards which the French squadrons +in retreat had to pass to regain, over the bridge of boats, their camp +at Beauport. The General Hospital was also the head-quarters of the +wounded--both English and French. It has been supposed that Arnoux's +house, where Montcalm was conveyed, stood in St. Louis street. No where +does it appear that Montcalm was conveyed to his own residence on the +ramparts (on which now stands the residence of R. H. Wurtele, Esquire). +As the city surrendered five days after the great battle, it was likely +to be bombarded--and, moreover, one-third of the houses in it had been +burnt and destroyed--we do not see why the wounded General should have +been conveyed from the battle-field to the Chateau St. Louis--certainly +an exposed situation in the event of a new bombardment; and, moreover, +the city itself, after and during the battle, was considered so +insecure that the French army, instead of retreating to it for shelter, +hurried past the General Hospital, over the bridge, to their camp at +Beauport. There is a passage in Lieutenant-Colonel Beatson's Notes +on the Plains of Abraham, which we give:--"The valiant Frenchman +(Montcalm), regardless of pain, relaxed not his efforts to rally his +broken battalions in their hurried retreat towards the city until he +was shot through the loins, when within a few hundred yards of St. +Louis Gate.[N] And so invincible was his fortitude that not even the +severity of this mortal stroke could abate his gallant spirit or alter +his intrepid bearing. Supported by two grenadiers--one at each side of +his horse--he re-entered the city; and in reply to some women who, on +seeing blood flow from his wounds as he rode down St. Louis street, on +his way to the Chateau, exclaimed: _Oh, mon Dieu! mon Dieu! le Marquis +est tue!!!_ he courteously assured them that he was not seriously hurt, +and begged of them not to distress themselves on his account.--_Ce +n'est rien! ce n'est rien! Ne vous affligez pas pour moi, mes bonnes +amies._"[O] + +[N] M. GARNEAU, in his _Histoire du Canada_, says:--"The two +Brigadier-Generals, M. de Semezergues and the Baron de St. Ours, fell +mortally wounded; and MONTCALM (who had already received two wounds), +while exerting himself to the utmost to rally his troops and preserve +order in the retreat, was also mortally wounded in the loins by a +musket-ball. He was at that moment between _Les Buttes-a-Neveu_ and St. +Louis Gate." From the city, on the one side, and from the battle-field, +on the other, the ground rises until the two slopes meet and form +a ridge; the summit of which was formerly occupied by a windmill +belonging to a man named _Neveu_ or _Nepveu_. About midway between this +ridge and St. Louis Gate, and to the southward of the St. Louis Road, +are some slight eminences, still known by the older French residents as +_Les Buttes-a-Nepveu_ or _Neveu's hillocks_, and about three-quarters +of a mile distant from the spot where the British line charged.--R. S. +BEATSON. + +[O] For these particulars I am indebted to my friend Mr. G. B. +Faribault--a gentleman well known in Canada for his researches into +the history of the Colony; whose information on this subject was +derived from his much respected fellow-citizen the Hon. John Malcolm +Frazer--grandson of one of WOLFE'S officers, and now (1854) one of the +oldest inhabitants of Quebec; where, in his childhood and youth, he +had the facts, as above narrated, often described to him by an elderly +woman who, when about eighteen years of age, was an eye-witness of the +scene.--R. S. BEATSON. + +[P] This bakehouse appears to have been some where at the foot of +Abraham's hill. + +[Q] The excavations of these French works are very visible to this +day behind Mr. G. H. Parke's residence, Ringfield, Charlesbourg road. +The hornwork appears to have covered about twelve acres of ground, +surrounded by a ditch. + +[R] It crossed the St. Charles a little higher up than the Marine +Hospital, at the foot of Crown street.--(J. M. L.) + +[S] A small bridge supported on masonry has since been built at this +spot, exactly across the main road at Brown's mills.--(J. M. L.) + +[T] The deliberations of the council of war, called at M. Daine's, +Mayor of Quebec, on the 15th September, 1759, published in de Ramsay's +Memoires, in 1861, by the Literary and Historical Society, have done an +effective, though a tardy, justice to de Ramsay's memory.--(J. M. L.) + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Simple typographical errors were corrected. + +Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant +preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. + +Text contains apparent parenthesized references to a map, but this book +contained no maps, diagrams, or illustrations. + +Page 3: "heartily" was misprinted as "heartly". + +Page 3: "buried there magnificently" was misprinted as "their". + +Page 8: "without trembling." should be punctuated with a question mark. + +Page 28: "analize" was printed that way. + +Page 30: "radient" was printed that way. + +Page 30: "LaRochebeaucourt" is printed as "La Rochebaucourt" on page 59. + +Page 50: Footnote M has two footnotes of its own (N and O). In this +eBook, they've been resequenced as normal footnotes. + +Page 59: "La Rochebaucourt" is printed as "La Rochebeaucourt" on page +30. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DIALOGUE IN HADES*** + + +******* This file should be named 44381.txt or 44381.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/3/8/44381 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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