“Let us hope you may live to enjoy the fruits of your long anxiety, General,” said Roger; and he took his leave.
As the door closed upon him Colonel Howe turned to Wolfe, saying, “He’ll do it. There’s not such another fellow in the army; and now my advice is to break up the camp here and embark a great portion of the troops. The French will imagine we are preparing to sail for England.”
This plan was carried out, General Wolfe going on board the Sutherland.
Admiral Holmes’ fleet, with three thousand six hundred men on board, sailed up and down the river, The French were thus kept night and day on the watch to oppose their landing; and Montcalm, though he fully believed the English were on the eve of their departure, never for one moment relaxed his vigilance, feeling sure Wolfe would not be satisfied to withdraw without striking one decisive blow. So by night and by day he was on foot, trusting no one’s supervision save his own. He had sent three thousand men to Bougainville, above Quebec. Captain de Vergor, with a hundred Canadians, was posted on the heights near the town; this spot was looked upon as perfectly safe, being inaccessible, and was therefore considered sufficiently protected.
The town of Quebec was suffering greatly from the effects of the English fire. The handsome houses which adorned the quay were in ruins, literally shelled out. Many of the churches were destroyed, the cathedral dome was laid open, and the convent and garden of the Ursulines were torn up by the falling bombs.
The nuns had dispersed, some taking refuge at the General Hospital, going sadly from their cloistered schoolrooms and little ones to the sad hospital wards, now filled with the wounded and dying, and where their services were needed by night and by day. Mercèdes with Marthe had found refuge in their old rooms, and had taken with them Charles Langlade’s boy. They had managed to inform the father of this, and he had sent back word entreating them to guard the child, as Nadjii’s father Ominipeg—the “Black Eagle,” as he was surnamed—was seeking for him, fearful lest he should fall a prisoner into the hands of the English.
Charles himself had to feign ignorance of the child’s whereabouts, so as not to rouse the chief’s anger at a moment when his services were so requisite; therefore he commended the boy to their care until such time as he could send for or fetch him, and they accepted the charge, and from henceforth kept him concealed, never leaving him.
When Roger quitted General Wolfe’s presence, he was determined at any risk to discover something, let it be what it might, which would enable the English to reach the French. He was heartily sick of the war; the ruined homesteads, the misery he saw at home and abroad, and the many hardships he himself had endured, made him long for peace, almost at any price.
If Wolfe set sail for England it would all have to be begun over again. The Indians, encouraged by the French Government, would once more commit depredations on the frontier settlements, and rapine and ruin would ensue; and then with the spring the war would be renewed. No, much as he might regret the alternative, he felt that either the English must conquer, or they must be so beaten as to allow of no return. It was France or England.
There was very little difference between the Rangers’ dress and that of the Canadian scouts. The militia had a sort of uniform, but it was never very strictly adhered to; especially as time went on, and the difficulty of procuring materials of any sort increased.