The British batteries being completed at Point Levi and at Montmorency, a fire of guns and mortars was poured night and day upon the city of Quebec, and upon the French lines to the westward. The enemy replied with spirit, but with little effect. The Lower Town was much damaged by the constant bombardment from the opposite side of the river, and at eleven o'clock on the forenoon of the 16th, a fire broke out in the Upper Town, where a shell had fallen. The flames spread with rapidity, fanned by a strong northwest wind; many buildings were destroyed before the conflagration was arrested; among others the great Cathedral, with all its paintings, images, and ornaments. The defenses remained untouched throughout this lamentable destruction; the assailants only diminished the value of the prize for which they strove, without approaching a whit nearer to its attainment.
Wolfe returned to the north camp on the 16th, and pushed the works above the Falls of Montmorency with vigor. He frequently, during the day, sent out detachments of troops to scour the neighboring woods, and to keep the marauding Indians in check. The savages hovered constantly round the British position, and from their ambush sprang like tigers upon those who ventured unprotected within their reach. On the night of the 16th they surprised and scalped four sentries of the Louisburg Grenadiers. While Wolfe busied himself in strengthening his position, and cannonading the French lines at a distance, M. de Levi, a distinguished French officer, solicited Montcalm to drive him away. "Dislodge him thence, and he will give us more trouble," replied Montcalm, "while there he can not hurt us; let him amuse himself."
The British general determined to reconnoiter the banks of the river above the town, while he still continued his preparations below. With this view, a small squadron under Captain Rous sailed with fair wind and tide a little before midnight on the 18th, and passed up unharmed in the face of the enemy's batteries. One frigate, however, the Diana, ran aground near Point Levi, and could not be got off till the following day. This bold passage was a complete surprise to the besieged: the English ships were not observed by the sentries till it was too late to bring their guns to bear. Two of these unhappy soldiers paid the penalty of death for their carelessness: they were hung on a gibbet the following morning, in sight of both armies.
Montcalm lost no time in sending some guns up the left bank of the river to annoy the British squadron; he erected a battery in a suitable position at a place called Sillery, and compelled Rous to weigh anchor and move up the stream. The French artillerymen had not been long inactive after this achievement when they were again called to their guns; a barge was discovered skirting the southern shore, and steering toward the nearest English ship. They gave her a salvo as she went by, and one shot carried away her mast; before they could reload she was out of reach. General Wolfe was in this barge on his way to reconnoiter the upper river.
Wolfe found the aspect of affairs as unpromising above the town as it was below; the banks were every where high and precipitous; at each assailable point intrenchments more or less formidable had been thrown up, and each movement was jealously watched from the shore. However, to divide and harass the enemy, and in the hope of procuring intelligence, he sent Colonel Carleton, who commanded the troops embarked in Rous's squadron, to make a descent upon the small town of Point aux Trembles, to which many of the inhabitants of Quebec had retired with their stores, papers, and valuables.
Carleton landed on the 22d at the head of three companies of Grenadiers and a battalion of the Royal Americans; a few Indians offered some resistance at first, and wounded several of the leading files, but were soon overpowered and driven into the woods. A number of useless prisoners, some plunder, and several packets of letters, fell into the hands of the English. The latter were of importance. "De Vaudreuil, the governor, and Montcalm have disagreed, and endeavor to embarrass each other," quotes one writer. "But for respect for our priests, and fear of the savages, we would submit," writes the next. "We are without hope, and without food," says a third. "Since the English have passed the town, our communication with Montreal is cut off—God has forsaken us," laments another. The misery of the besieged was great, therefore great also was the hope of the besiegers.
To increase the distress of the enemy, an order was issued from the English head-quarters on the 24th of July. "Our out-parties are to burn and lay waste the country for the future, sparing only churches, or houses dedicated to divine worship." However, it was again repeated, "that women and children are not to be molested, on any account whatsoever." We may suppose men received scant mercy. "We played so warmly on the town last night, that a fire broke out in two different parts of it at eleven o'clock, which burned with great rapidity until near three this morning. We are erecting a new six-gun battery to the right of the others, to keep the town in ruins, which appears to be almost destroyed." So writes an officer of the 43d, in his journal, dated Point Levi, 25th of July, 1759. Such is war, even when Wolfe, the pious, the domestic, and the tender-hearted, was the general!
On the 26th the indefatigable British general proceeded up the left bank of the Montmorency River to reconnoiter some works which the enemy were erecting on the opposite side. His escort was attacked by a swarm of Indians, and for a time hardly pressed; many of the English soldiers were struck down before they could get sight of their subtle enemy; and when the savages were finally silenced, it was with the loss of nearly fifty of Wolfe's men killed and wounded. The next morning the 78th Highlanders surprised a French detachment, and slew nine of them; their own colonel and a captain were, however, wounded in the struggle.
In consequence of some threatening movements in the British fleet, the French sent down a fire-raft on the night of the 28th. A number of small schooners, shallops, and rafts were chained together, to the breadth of 200 yards, and laden with shells, grenades, old guns, pistols, and tar barrels: this mischievous contrivance floated rapidly down with the ebb tide. The English seamen, however, were, as before, alert, and towed the fire-raft ashore, without its having caused the slightest damage. The following morning Wolfe sent a flag of truce to the garrison of Quebec, with the following message: "If the enemy presume to send down any more fire-rafts, they are to be made fast to two particular transports, in which are all the Canadian and other prisoners, in order that they may perish by their own base inventions." The French constructed no more fire-rafts.