"They will not fail me," he said, in tones of the utmost confidence. "Though they are but a few more than four thousand, they will beat these French. But I must remember that there are enemies in front and behind."
Wolfe was, in fact, in a precarious position, had the French but known it, for by placing his army on the Plains of Abraham, within little more than half a mile of the city, he had wedged his force in between Montcalm's city garrison and the soldiers holding the Beauport lines, and the force, now amounting to over two thousand, which held Cap Rouge under command of Bougainville. These separate bodies of troops might march to attack him at the same moment, and he would find himself assailed in front and rear, a very serious position for so small a force as he possessed. However, to the brave many things are possible, and it happened that Wolfe's daring tactics on this occasion threw the enemy into hopeless confusion. The guards along that ridge where the Anse du Foulon had been ascended rushed with their information to Quebec, shouted the alarm, and caused Montcalm hastily to gather troops from the city and the Beauport lines, where he had imagined the attack would be delivered. In the flurry of the moment no one thought of Bougainville and his men, and while the fate of Canada lay in the balance, this officer remained within six miles of Wolfe's position, ignorant of what had happened, and expecting hourly an attack in force on his own entrenchments. Not till the cannon roared and the volume of musketry fire reached his ear did he gather what was happening, and then it was too late. Even then it is doubtful whether Bougainville would have been right in leaving the post entrusted to him, for cannon were for ever booming in the neighbourhood of Quebec.
"Gentlemen, at such a time I can say little to show my appreciation of your conduct," said General Wolfe as Steve and his comrades ranged up before him and were closely surrounded by the officers. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart, for you have given me and these fine fellows of ours our opportunity. You shall see that we will take the fullest advantage of it."
He shook them each warmly by the hand, and then turned to watch the enemy. As for our hero, he went back to the ranks with burning cheeks, feeling that there was nothing he would not do for his commander.
"There's goin' to be some of the old work to-day," said Jim, as he munched at a hunch of bread which he had brought in his pocket. "Cap'n, set an eye over thar to our left. Do yer see?"
"There are Indians and Canadian irregulars filing off into the bush," came the answer. "They will creep closer, and open fire from the cover. Jim, we will collect a few of the rangers, and do our best to hold those men in check."
A number of scouts and trappers attached to the regulars had returned to camp two days before, and these had only now put in an appearance, having crossed the river with the seven hundred troops left just above Point Lévis. Steve at once went to their leader, pointed out that the enemy were massing their irregulars in the bush to the left of our troops, and asked if he would obtain orders to operate against them.
"Certainly," was the answer. "It is just the work for us."
The stalwart leader of backwoodsmen went off at a run to the general, and very soon the trappers, with Steve, his father, Jim, and Mac, were creeping into the bush. By now Montcalm had gathered some troops together, and had massed them just outside the western wall of the city. At ten o'clock he was ready, and advanced with some three thousand five hundred men, to which some fifteen hundred irregulars must be added, these hanging on to his right flank and making for the thickets and bush and cornfields which lay on Wolfe's left flank.