This follows a map in Miles’s Hist. of Canada, p. 427; also in Lemoine’s Picturesque Quebec, p. 419.
The French placed their cannon and stores on the frigates and smaller vessels which had escaped up the river in the autumn, and with their army in bateaux they started on the 21st April for the descent from Montreal. With the accessions gained on the way, by picking up the scattered garrisons, Lévis landed between eight and nine thousand men at Cap Rouge, and advanced on Sainte-Foy. The English at the outposts fell back, and the delay on the part of the French was sufficient for Murray to learn of their approach. He resolved to meet them outside the walls. It must be an open-field fight for Murray, since the frozen soil still rendered entrenching impossible in the time which he had. He led out about three thousand men, and at first posted himself on the ridge, where Montcalm had drawn up his lines the year before. He pushed forward till he occupied Wolfe’s ground of the same morning, when, with his great superiority of cannon, he found a position that gave him additional advantage, which he ought to have kept. The fire of the English guns, however, induced Lévis to withdraw his men to the cover of a wood, a movement which Murray took for a retreat, and, emulous of Wolfe’s success in seizing an opportune moment, he ordered a general advance. His cannon were soon stuck in some low ground, and no longer helped him. The fight was fierce and stubborn; but after a two hours’ struggle, the greater length of the enemy’s line began to envelop the English, and Murray ordered a retreat. It was rapid, but not so disordered that Lévis dared long to follow.
QUEBEC, 1763.
From A set of plans and forts in America, reduced from actual surveys, 1763, published in London.
The English had lost a third of their force; the French loss was probably less. Murray got safely again within the walls, and could muster about 2,400 men for their defence.[1181] There was sharp work, and little time left further to strengthen the walls and gates. Officer and man worked like cattle. A hundred and fifty cannon were soon belching upon the increasing trenches of Lévis, who finally dragged some artillery up the defile where Wolfe had mounted, and was thus enabled to return the fire.
Both sides were anxiously waiting expected reinforcements from the mother country. On the 9th of May a frigate beat up the basin, and to the red flag which was run up at Cape Diamond she responded with similar colors. It was ominous to Lévis, for he felt she was the advanced ship of a British squadron, as she proved to be. It was a week before others arrived, when some of the heavier vessels passed up the river and destroyed the French fleet. As soon as the naval result was certain, Lévis deserted his trenches, left his guns and much else, with his wounded, and hastily fled. This was in the night; in the morning the French were beyond Murray’s reach.
VIEW OF MONTREAL.