use of
the most frightful imprecations, swearing that most of the fleet and the
whole army would find their graves in Canada. An old British tar, on the
other hand, master of a transport and possessed of an immense scorn for
foreigners, would not allow a French pilot to interfere, and insisted,
in the teeth of all remonstrance, on navigating his own ship. "D--n me,"
he roared, "I'll convince you that an Englishman shall go where a
Frenchman daren't show his nose," and he took it through in safety. "The
enemy," wrote Vaudreuil soon after this to his Government, "have passed
sixty ships-of-war where we dare not risk a vessel of a hundred tons by
night or day." The British navy has not been sufficiently remembered in
the story of Quebec.

Let us now turn for a moment to Montcalm and see what he has been doing
all this time to prepare for the attack. It was an accepted axiom in
Canada that no armament strong enough to seriously threaten Quebec could
navigate the St. Lawrence. In the face of expected invasion it was the
Lake George and Champlain route that mostly filled the public mind.
Bougainville, however, had returned from France early in May with the
startling news that a large expedition destined for Quebec was already
on the sea. A former opinion of this able officer's declared that three
or four thousand men could hold the city against all comers. There was
now four times that strength waiting for Wolfe, while his own, so far as
numbers went, we know already. Eighteen transport ships, carrying
supplies and some slight reenforcements, had slipped past the English
cruisers in the fogs, and brought some comfort to Montcalm. The question
now was how best to defend Quebec, as well as make good the two land
approaches at Ticonderoga and Lake Ontario respectively.

For the defence of the city, when every able-bodied militia-man had been
called out, nearly sixteen thousand troops of all arms would be
available. About the disposition of these and the plan of defence there
was much discussion. Montcalm himself was for a long time undecided. The
alternative plans do not concern us here; the one finally adopted is
alone to the point. Everyone knows that the ancient capital of Canada is
one of the most proudly placed among the cities of the earth. But it may
be well to remind those who have not seen it, that it occupies the point
of a lofty ridge, forming the apex of the angle made by the confluence
of the St. Charles River and