France in many a
closely-contested battle, felt his pulses tingling at the recital
of her successes against England's infant colonies.

Men were wanted for the service, the paper had said--men of courage
and proved valour. We had had too many bunglers already out there;
it was now time that men of a different stamp should be
forthcoming.

In his ears there seemed beaten the sound of a question and its
reply. Where had he heard those words, and when?

"Who will go up to battle against this proud foe?"

"Here am I; send me."

The light leaped into his eyes; his long, thin hands clasped and
unclasped themselves as stirring thoughts swept over him. He knew
that there was a great struggle impending between England and her
French rival upon the other side of the world. Hitherto his
battlefields had been in Europe, but a voice from far away seemed
to be calling to him in urgent accents. Away in the West, English
subjects were being harried and killed, driven like helpless sheep
to slaughter. How long was it to continue? Would the mother country
be content that her provinces should be first contracted and then
slowly strangled by the chains imposed by the boundless ambition of
France? Never, never, never! The young officer spoke the words
aloud, half raising himself from his couch as he did so.

There was a rising man now at the helm of the state; he had not the
full powers that many desired to see. He had to work hand in hand
with a colleague of known incapacity. Yet the voice of the nation
was beginning to make itself heard. England was growing enraged
against a minister under whose rule so many grievous blunders had
been committed. Newcastle still retained his position of foremost
of the King's advisers, but Pitt now stood at his side; and it was
understood that the younger statesman was to take the real command
of the ship of state, whilst his elder associate confined himself
to those matters in which he could not well do harm.

"If only it had come three years earlier," breathed Wolfe--"before
we had suffered such loss and disgrace!"

The young soldier knew that an expedition had been fitted out a few
months ago for Louisbourg in Acadia--that French fortress of Cape
Breton which alone had been able to resist the English arms. The
capture of Louisbourg had been the one thing determined upon by the
tardy government for the relief of their colonies in the Western
world. It had been surmised that this action on the