Montcalm and Wolfe . plauded. It has penetrated every heart;and each man says aloud: Canada, our native land,shall bury us under its ruins before we surrender tothe English! This is decidedly my own determina-tion, and I shall hold to it inviolably. He launchesinto high praise of the contractor Cadet, whose zealfor the service of the King and the defence of thecolony he declares to be tiiumphant over every diffi-culty. It is necessary, he adds, that ample suppliesof all kinds should be sent out in the autumn, withthe distribution of which Cadet offers to charge him-self, and to account for the
Montcalm and Wolfe . plauded. It has penetrated every heart;and each man says aloud: Canada, our native land,shall bury us under its ruins before we surrender tothe English! This is decidedly my own determina-tion, and I shall hold to it inviolably. He launchesinto high praise of the contractor Cadet, whose zealfor the service of the King and the defence of thecolony he declares to be tiiumphant over every diffi-culty. It is necessary, he adds, that ample suppliesof all kinds should be sent out in the autumn, withthe distribution of which Cadet offers to charge him-self, and to account for them at their first cost; buthe does not say what prices his disinterested friendwill compel the destitute Canadians to pay for them.^Five battalions from France, nearly all the colonytroops, and the militia from every part of Canadapoured into Quebec, along with a thousand or moreIndians, who, at the call of Vaudreuil, came to lendtheir scalping-knives to the defence. Such was the 1 Vaudreuil an Ministre, 28 Mai, 1759.] MEASURES OF DEFENCE. 41 ardor of the people that boys of fifteen and men ofeighty were to be seen in the camp. Isle-aux-Coudresand Isle dOrleans were ordered to be evacuated, andan excited crowd on the rock of Quebec watchedhourly for the approaching fleet. Days passed andweeks passed, yet it did not appear. MeanwhileVaudreuil held council after council to settle a planof defence. They were strange scenes: a crowd ofofficers of every rank, mixed pell-mell in a smallroom, pushing, shouting, elbowing each other, inter-rupting each other; till Montcalm, in despair, tookeach aside after the meeting was over, and made himgive his opinion in writing.^ He himself had at first proposed to encamp thearmy on the plains of Abraham and the meadows ofthe St. Charles, making that river his line of defence; ^but he changed his plan, and, with the concurrenceof Vaudreuil, resolved to post his whole force on theSt. Lawrence below the city, with his right restingon the St. C
Size: 1176px × 2126px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorparkmanfrancis1823189, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
