his chosen people, were in
danger, would not have been Canadian Catholics of their generation had
they not been jubilant at this undoubted sign of divine intervention.
But Montcalm was the last man to presume on such favor by any lack of
energy. The very next night the British, having in the mean time pitched
their camp upon the Isle of Orleans, were thrown into no small alarm by
the descent of a fleet of fire-ships.

The only men awake were the guards and sentries at the point, and as the
matches were not applied to the drifting hulks till they were close at
hand, the sudden effect in the darkness of the night upon the soldiers'
nerves was more than they could stand, having beheld nothing like it in
their lives, and they rushed in much confusion on the sleeping camp,
causing still more there. For it was not alone the flames and the
explosives that were a cause of perturbation, but a hail of grape-shot
and bullets from the igniting guns poured hurtling through the trees.
The chief object of the fire-ships, however, was the fleet which lay in
the channel between the Isle of Orleans and the shore, and toward it
they came steadily drifting. Knox describes the pandemonium as awful,
and the sight as inconceivably superb of these large burning ships,
crammed with every imaginable explosive and soaked from their mast-heads
to their water-line in pitch and tar. It was no new thing, however, to
the gallant sailors, who treated the matter as a joke, grappling
fearlessly with the hissing, spitting demons, and towing them ashore.
"Damme, Jack," they shouted, "didst ever take h--ll in tow before?"

This exploit seems to have been a venture of Vaudreuil's, and its
failure, an extremely expensive one, cost that lively egotist and his
friends a severe pang. The next day Wolfe published his first manifesto
to the Canadian people. "We are sent by the English King," it ran, "to
conquer this province, but not to make war upon women and children, the
ministers of religion, or industrious peasants. We lament the sufferings
which our invasion may inflict upon you: but if you remain neutral, we
proffer you safety in person and property and freedom in religion. We
are masters of the river; no succor can reach you from France. General
Amherst, with a large army, assails your southern frontier. Your cause
is hopeless, your valor useless. Your nation have been guilty of great
cruelties to our unprotected settlers, but we seek not revenge. We offe