Wolfe and Montcalm at Quebec: Montreal and De

In the following spring, as soon as the river St. Lawrence opened, he approached Quebec, and landed at Point au Tremble, about twelve miles off. The garrison had suffered dreadfully during the winter from excessive cold, want of vegetables and of fresh provisions. Many had died of scurvy, and many more were ill. Murray, sanguine and injudicious, and hearing that De Levi was advancing with ten thousand men and five hundred Indians, sallied out with his diminished forces of not more than three thousand. English soldiers, he boasted, were habituated to victory; he had a fine train of artillery, and stood a better chance in the field than cooped up in a wretched fortification. If defeated, he would defend the place to the last extremity, and then retreat to the Isle of Orleans and wait for reinforcements. More brave than discreet, he attacked the vanguard of the enemy. The battle which took place was fierce and sanguinary. Murray's troops had caught his own headlong valor, and fought until nearly a third of their number were slain. They were at length driven back into the town, leaving their boasted train of artillery on the field.

De Levi opened trenches before the town the very evening of the battle. Three French ships, which had descended the river, furnished him with cannon, mortars, and ammunition. By the 11th of May he had one bomb battery and three batteries of cannon. Murray, equally alert within the walls, strengthened his defences and kept up a vigorous fire. His garrison was now reduced to two hundred and twenty effective men, and he himself, with all his vaunting spirit, was driven almost to despair, when a British fleet arrived in the river. The whole scene was now reversed. One of the French frigates was driven on the rocks above Cape Diamond; another ran on shore and was burnt; the rest of their vessels were either taken or destroyed. The besieging army retreated in the night, leaving provisions, implements, and artillery behind them; and so rapid was their flight that Murray, who sallied forth on the following day, could not overtake them.

A last stand was made at Montreal. But a force of nearly ten thousand men, with a host of Indians, gathered around the town, which was forced to capitulate on the 8th of September, including in the surrender not only Montreal, but all Canada.

Thus ended the contest between France and England for dominion in America, in which, as has been said, the first gun was fired in Washington's encounter with De Jumonville. A French statesman and diplomatist consoled himself by the persuasion that it would be a fatal triumph to England. It would remove the only check by which her colonies were kept in awe. "They will no longer need her protection," said he; "she will call on them to contribute towards supporting the burdens they have helped to bring on her, and they will answer by striking off all dependence." (Count de Vergennes, French ambassador at Constantinople.)