the expedition a young general, James Wolfe, who had
distinguished himself at the capture of Louisburg. Wolfe had about eight
thousand troops under a convoy of twenty-two line-of-battleships, and as
many frigates and smaller armed vessels. Montcalm defended the city with
about seven thousand Frenchmen and Indians. The heights on which the
upper town of Quebec was situated, rising almost perpendicularly at one
point of three hundred feet above the river, and extending back in a
lofty plateau called the Plains of Abraham, seemed to defy successful
attack. Wolfe spent the summer in fruitless efforts to reduce Quebec. At
length he learned that the precipice fronting on the river and supposed
to be impassable, could be scaled at a point a short distance above the
town, where a narrow ravine gave access to the plateau. On the evening of
September 12, the British vessels, loaded with troops, floated with the
inflowing tide some distance up the river. Then past midnight, while the
sky was black with clouds, the ships silently and undetected by the
French floated down to the designated landing-place. The troops were
taken on shore in flat-bottomed boats, with muffled oars. At dawn
Lieutenant-Colonel William Howe led the advance up the ravine, drove back
the guard at the summit, and protected the ascent of the army. The
garrison and people of Quebec awoke to see the redcoats in battle array
on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm soon confronted the British. Both of
the heroic commanders knew and felt all that was at stake on the fate of
the day, and they both fought with a courage that gave a splendid example
to their men. Wolfe, twice wounded, continued to give orders until
mortally wounded he fell. Montcalm fell nearly at the same time, mortally
wounded, and his troops, already wavering before the irresistible onset
of the British, broke and fled. When told that death was near, "So much
the better," said Montcalm, "I will not live to see the surrender of
Quebec." "Now, God be praised, I will die in peace," said the English
commander, on hearing that victory was assured. Quebec was surrendered a
few days later. Forts Niagara and Ticonderoga had already fallen.

Spain, having taken side with France, lost Cuba and the Philippine
Islands to the English, but in the treaty of Paris of 1763, England gave
those islands to Spain and received Florida in exchange. France ceded to
Spain, in order to compensate that power for the loss of Florida,