the St. Lawrence. Westward from the city
this ridge falls so nearly sheer into the St. Lawrence for several miles
that, watched by a mere handful of men, it was impregnable. Moreover,
the river suddenly narrows to a breadth of three-quarters of a mile
opposite the town, whose batteries were regarded as being fatal to any
attempt of an enemy to run past them. On the other side of the town the
St. Charles River, coming in from the northwest immediately below its
walls, formed a secure protection.

Montcalm, however, decided to leave only a small garrison in the city
itself and go outside it for his main defence. Now, from the eastern
bank of the mouth of the St. Charles, just below the city, there extends
in an almost straight line along the northern shore of the St. Lawrence
a continuous ridge, the brink, in fact, of a plateau, at no point far
removed from the water's edge. Six miles away this abruptly terminates
in the gorge of the Montmorency River, which, rushing tumultuously
toward the St. Lawrence, makes that final plunge on to its shore level
which is one of the most beautiful objects in a landscape teeming with
natural and human interest. Along the crown of this six-mile ridge,
known in history as "the Beauport lines," Montcalm decided to make his
stand. So, throughout the long days of May and June the French devoted
themselves to rendering impregnable from the front a position singularly
strong in itself, while the Montmorency and its rugged valley protected
the only flank which was exposed to attack. Below him spread the river,
here over two miles in width from shore to shore, with the western point
of the island of Orleans overlapping his left flank. Above the woods of
this long, fertile island, then the garden of Canada, the French, upon
June 27th, first caught sight of the pennons flying from the topmasts of
the English battle-ships, and before evening they witnessed the strange
sight of red-coated infantry swarming over its well-tilled fields.

Wolfe had not much time that evening to consider the situation, which
might well have appalled a less stout heart than his, for the troops had
scarcely landed when a sudden summer storm burst upon the scene, churned
the river into angry waves, broke some of the smaller ships from their
moorings, casting them upon the rocks, and staving in many of the boats
and rafts. The people of Quebec, who for weeks had been urging upon the
Divinity in their peculiar way that they,