the afternoon, sometimes
making for one point, sometimes for another, keeping the French
always on the alert, uncertain and wondering. But Montcalm was too
acute a general to be long deceived. He saw where the real attack
must be made, and there he concentrated his chief force. Had Wolfe
been able to see how his batteries could sweep with a crossfire the
whole of the steep ascent from the redoubt to the heights above,
where the men from the Montmorency camp might be able to join with
them, he might have withheld his men from the bold attack. And yet
English soldiers have won the victory even against such odds as
these!

He stood in a commanding place upon the ship, and his eyes
anxiously scanned the scene. The hot sun had gone in now beneath
banks of heavy cloud. A few splashes of rain seemed to herald an
approaching storm; there was a rumble as of thunder away to the
right.

The tide was out; the bank of mud lay bare. Wolfe gave a long look
round him and waved his hand.

It was the signal waited for. The moment after, the Centurion's
guns opened their iron mouths, and a storm of shot rattled around
the redoubt. The batteries from the Montmorency blazed forth, and
so did the more distant ones from Point Levi. The fire of all three
was concentrated upon the redoubts and batteries and forces at this
portion of the Beauport camp; and the French gave answer back from
their well-placed batteries.

Under cover of this heavy fire the boats rowed to shore, and the
men in waiting upon the stranded transports leaped out and joined
their comrades. The grenadiers were the first to land; and though
Moncton's brigade and Fraser's Highlanders were close behind, the
eagerness of the men could not be restrained. They did not wait for
their companions; they did not even wait to form up in very orderly
fashion themselves. They made a gallant dash upon the redoubt, and
so strong was the onrush that the French, after a very brief
resistance, fled; and with a shout and cheer of triumph the English
gained their prize.

Julian, standing beside Wolfe on the vessel, could not refrain from
a shout of triumph; but the face of the General was grave and
stern.

"They are wrong--they are wrong!" he said; "they are too impetuous.
Their rash gallantry will cost them dear. See, they are not even
waiting now for their companions to join them; they are trying to
rush the heights alone! Folly--madness! They will lose everything
by such rashness