for support, ran hastily
towards the entrenchments, and were repulsed in such disorder that they
could not again come into line. Wolfe was compelled to order a retreat.
Intrepidity and discipline could not overcome the heavy fire of a well
protected enemy. In that assault, which occurred on July 31st, Wolfe
lost four hundred in killed.

General Murray was next sent with twelve hundred men, above the town, to
destroy the French ships and open communication with General Amherst.
They learned that Niagara had surrendered and that Ticonderoga and Crown
Point had been abandoned. But General Wolfe looked in vain for General
Amherst. The commander-in-chief, opposed by no more than three thousand
men, was loitering at Crown Point; nor was even a messenger received
from him. The heroic Wolfe was left to struggle alone against odds and
difficulties which every hour made more appalling. Everyone able to bear
arms was in the field fighting for their homes, their language, and
their religion. Old men of seventy and boys of fifteen fired at the
English detachments from the edges of the woods.

The feeble frame of General Wolfe, disabled by fever, began to sink
under the fearful strain. He laid before his chief officers three
desperate methods of attacking Montcalm, all of which they opposed, but
proposed to convey five thousand men above the town, and thus draw
Montcalm from his intrenchments. General Wolfe acquiesced and prepared
to carry it into effect. On the 5th and 6th of September he marched the
army from Point Levi, and embarked in transports, resolving to land at
the point that ever since has borne his name, and take the enemy by
surprise. Every officer knew his appointed duty, when at one o'clock on
the morning of the 13th, about half the army glided down with the tide.
When the cove was reached, General Wolfe and the troops with him leaped
ashore, and clambered up the steep hill, holding by the roots and boughs
of the maple, spruce and ash trees, that covered the declivity, and with
but little difficulty dispersed the picket which guarded the height. At
daybreak General Wolfe, with his battalions, stood on the plains of
Abraham. When the news was carried to Montcalm, he said, "They have at
last got to the weak side of this miserable garrison; we must give
battle, and crush them before mid-day." Before ten o'clock the two
opposing armies were ranged in each other's presence. The English, five
thousand strong, were all regu