The King of Prussia remained alone opposing the allies. Every day his force diminished, affected by desertion as much as by death. The Russian army had invaded the Prussian provinces and beaten General Schouvaloff near Memel; twenty-five thousand Swedes had just landed in Pomerania. For a moment Frederick II. thought of killing himself, but the indomitable strength of his soul, a strange mingling of corruption and heroism, constantly drew him back to battle with fresh efforts of ability and resolve. The favor of Madame de Pompadour had reserved for the Prince Soubise the honor of crushing the King of Prussia. The two armies met on the 5th of November, 1757, on the banks of the Saale, near Rosbach. That evening the French army, utterly defeated, fled to Erfurt. It left on the field of battle eight thousand prisoners and three thousand dead. A month later the Austrians were in turn vanquished at Lissa. The glory of the great Frederick, obscure for a time, shone forth anew in all its splendor; he became the national hero of Germany. The Protestant powers, lately engaged against him, made approaches to the conqueror. In England enthusiasm was at its height; Pitt concluded a new agreement with Prussia. Parliament, without difficulty, voted a subsidy of sixty-seven thousand pounds sterling. King George II., as Elector of Hanover, had refused to ratify the capitulation of Cloister-Severn, and his troops were already renewing the campaign under the command of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. Being clever and honest, he had soon gained possession of the country of Luneberg, of Zell, of a part of Brunswick and of Bremen. In order to maintain the struggle in Germany, King Louis XV. and Madame de Pompadour had just put the Count de Clermont at the head of the French troops.
The Zaporogue Cossacks inundated Prussia, and Frederick II. had scarcely beaten the Russians on the bloody day of Zorndorff when he was himself conquered at Hochkirch by Marshal Daun and forced to evacuate Saxony. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick had just won the important victory of Crevelt over the new French general. The Count de Clermont had given evidence of the most distressing incapacity; his army escaped every day more and more from under the yoke of discipline. It was discontented, humiliated, and without confidence in the chiefs who successively headed it, being exalted to the command by court intrigues or manœuvres. The Marquis de Contades had succeeded M. de Clermont. At Versailles the Count de Stainville, created Duke de Choiseul, had become Minister of Foreign Affairs in place of Cardinal de Bernis, who was always inclined to pacific counsels. The second treaty of Versailles had united France to Maria Theresa more firmly than ever. The English had on two occasions unsuccessfully attempted an attack on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. The Duke d'Aiguillon, governor of that province, had taken to himself the honor of having repulsed the invasion; a single unimportant battle had taken place, and this formed the pretext for a grand project of descent on the English coasts. The Prince de Soubise was recalled from Germany in order to direct the invading army. The expedition was ready, and only awaited the signal to issue from the port, but Admiral Hawke was cruising in front of Brest, Admiral Rodney had just bombarded Havre, and it was only in the month of November, 1759, that the Marquis de Conflaus, who commanded the fleet, was able to put to sea with twenty-one vessels of the line and four frigates. The English forces were superior to his, and immediately set out in pursuit. M. de Conflaus thought he would find refuge in the tortuous passages at the mouth of the Vilaine.
The English penetrated there after him. Sir Edward Hawke engaged the Soleil Royal, which was commanded by the French admiral. His pilot represented to him the danger of navigating. The brave seaman let him talk. "Very well," he answered; "you have done your duty, now you have only to obey me; manage so as to place me alongside the Soleil Royal." The battle thus waged in the various narrow passages became disastrous to the French vessels. The commander of the rear guard, M. Saint-André du Verger, let it be raked by the enemy's cannon in order to cover the retreat. The admiral ran aground in the Bay of Croisic, and himself burned his vessel. Seven French and two English ships remained engaged in the Vilaine. M. de Conflaus' day, as the sailors named the episode, dealt a fatal blow to the unfortunate remnant of the French navy. The English triumphed everywhere on the sea, and even in our own waters.
They also triumphed at a distance in our colonies, entirely abandoned to their forces, which prolonged in a heroic struggle the throes of their agony. Pitt had determined to achieve the conquest of Canada. Already the outposts of Louisburg and Cape Breton had succumbed beneath the attacks of the English. The Anglo-American forces were increased during the campaign of 1758 to sixty thousand men. The entire population of Canada was not more numerous. In 1759, three armies invaded the French territory at once. On the 29th of June, a considerable fleet carried to the Island of Orleans, fronting Quebec, General Wolfe, a young officer of great promise who had distinguished himself at the siege of Louisburg. Pitt believed that he discerned in him the elements of superior merit. In spite of the blundering— sometimes presuming, and again depressed—of Wolfe, he had resolved to confide to him the direction of the great expedition he contemplated. "If the Marquis de Montcalm succeeds again this year in deceiving our hopes," said the new general, "he can pass for a clever man: either the colony has resources that are unknown, or our generals are worse than ordinary."
Quebec occupied an advantageous position, but the fortifications were bad; the loss of the place involved that of Canada. "If the Marquis were shut up there," said Wolfe, "we should soon have triumphed; our artillery would have made short work of the walls." An intrenched camp stretched before Quebec. The Indian tribes, hitherto ardently attached to France by the habitual kindness of its commerce, were decimated by the war, or had silently withdrawn, gained over by the money as well as the success of England. The two great European nations did not hesitate to wage war by means of the cruel or perfidious proceedings of their Indian allies.
For more than a month the town had borne the enemy's fire. The churches and convents were in ruins, and the French had not stirred from their camp of l'Ange-Gardien. Skirmishes were frequent. "Old men of seventy and children of fifteen years fire on our detachments," wrote Wolfe. "Our men are wounded at every border of the forest." The anger of the English soldiers had little by little reduced to a desert both banks of the St. Lawrence. In every direction villages and scattered dwellings were given to the flames.
Generals Amherst and Johnson, who had been charged with distant expeditions against Niagara and Ticonderoga, had succeeded in their enterprises, but had not rejoined Wolfe according to Pitt's plan. The latter bore on his shoulders all the responsibility of final success. Being repulsed before the French camp on the 31st of July, Wolfe fell sick from vexation and spite. "There only remains to me the choice of difficulties," he wrote to the English cabinet. "I have regained sufficient health to do my work, but my constitution is destroyed without my having the consolation of having rendered, or being able to render, considerable service to the state." Three days after the date of this letter. General Wolfe suddenly advanced on the banks of the St. Lawrence. On the night of the 12th of September he landed on the creek of the Foulon. The officers had responded in French to the "Qui vive?" of the sentinels, who believed that they beheld a long expected convoy of provisions passing. Twice did the boats, which were insufficient in number, silently cross the stream. Wolfe alone repeated in an undertone the poet Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard." He was touching land, when he turned to say to his lieutenants, "I would prefer to be the author of that poem than to take Quebec."