Meanwhile Amherst advanced north with a large force composed for the most part of regulars. In July he reached the deserted fort of Ticonderoga; on August 1 he found Crown Point abandoned. From this position Amherst ought to have hurried forward to the assistance of Wolfe at Quebec, but he suddenly directed his energies into wrong channels, and instead of pushing forward, employed his army in cutting paths and roads during the whole of August and September. The exertions of Robert Rogers and his New England Rangers has alone saved the expedition from contempt. Amherst lost his opportunity, and instead of being the Conqueror of Canada, by sheer sloth and lack of energy he allowed another man to do the work and win immortal glory on the Heights of Abraham.
James Wolfe had returned to England after the capture of Louisburg, but Pitt had other work for him to do, and he was dispatched to undertake the siege of Quebec. His immediate subordinates were Townshend, Monckton, Murray, and Carleton. The men who were to oppose him in this great undertaking were Montcalm and the incapable Vaudreuil, with Bougainville, upon whom his senior maliciously placed all the blame. In June 1759, Wolfe, supported by a strong naval contingent, sailed up the St Lawrence to the attack of Quebec. The town, steep and precipitous, frowned defiance upon the English; all along the Beauport shore was one vast camp, any path being strongly guarded, and the whole ridge being one long extended earthwork. Montcalm knew his business. If he could but keep Wolfe out until the winter months had come, he felt convinced that the expedition must fail. The English general, on the other hand, longed to tempt the French regulars and Canadian militia out of their snug position and beat them in open ground. In vain Wolfe established a battery upon the Ile d'Orleans, opposite to Quebec, and shattered the lower part of the town. Night after night the countryside was lighted by the fires of farmsteads and barns which were answered back by the flashing fires of Lower Quebec in flames. Nothing would tempt Montcalm to come out. His position was enormously strong, for his flank was protected by the rushing falls of Montmorency. It was at the foot of these that Wolfe made his first serious attempt on July 31, which proved a failure, not for want of bravery, but because of the rash behaviour of the grenadiers. To the astonishment of the general and his officers, the grenadiers had no sooner landed than without orders they tried to rush the hill. They clambered over the rocks, fought their way through bushes and thickets, and were then suddenly met with a withering fire from the French above them. A rain-storm came on at the moment and the army below stood petrified. The rain ceased almost as quickly as it had begun, and the cliffside was seen to be strewn with the redcoats; and worse, the Indians had rushed out and were wreaking their vengeance by their awful custom of scalping.
This success of Montcalm did not tempt him to leave his position and make an attack upon the English. The latter were now for a short time to lose all hope, for the news passed rapidly through the army that their beloved general was at the point of death owing to an incurable complaint from which he had long suffered. His indomitable spirit, however, overcame his sufferings, and rousing himself he once more spent his time gazing carefully at the beetling cliffs. On the 2nd of September he had found what he wanted and determined to start upon what seemed to him somewhat of a forlorn hope, but which was destined to form one of the most glorious pages in British history.
A path had been discovered up the cliffside—the path disclosed seventy years before to Phipps—at the top there was a small guard and nothing more. On the night of the great venture the boats slipped quietly down the river, and as the French were expecting a convoy of provisions two sentries let them go by after a first challenge. Wolfe, sitting in the stem of one of the boats, was murmuring in a solemn whisper the beautiful lines of Grey's Elegy:—
"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Await alike th' inevitable hour;
The paths of glory lead but to the grave."[302]
"Gentlemen," said he, "I would sooner have written that poem than take Quebec."
THE DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE
AFTER THE PAINTING BY B. WEST.
The landing was successfully accomplished, the guard at the top was overpowered, and before Montcalm knew that the English had left their camp, four thousand five hundred men were standing in that "thin red line" upon the Heights of Abraham. The gallant Montcalm did what he could, and with surprising energy collected his troops and led them against the English. The French fired time and again upon Wolfe's men, but they stolidly awaited their advance until they could see the whites of their eyes and then let loose upon them a withering fire. The white coats of the French regulars and the gay costumes of the French Canadian trappers were ready targets and they reeled and fell. Wolfe then ordered the assault, and with a second volley the whole army charged, Wolfe leading his grenadiers. After receiving a slight wound, a fatal bullet singled out that gallant man, and he fell, unnoticed for the moment save by four of his officers, who tenderly carried him to the rear of the advancing host. "They run! They run!" cried one of the officers. "Who run?" said Wolfe. "The French," they replied. "God be praised, I die in peace."