landing will be the more _a propos_, as I have not the
means of sustaining a siege. If I succeed as I wish, I shall next march
to Carillon to arrest him there. You see, Monseigneur, that the
slightest change in my arrangements would have the most unfortunate
consequences."[695]

[Footnote 694: _Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, Lettre a
Vaudreuil, 3 Fev. 1759._]

[Footnote 695: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril, 1759._]

Whether he made good this valorous declaration will presently be seen.

* * * * *

NOTE. The Archives de la Guerre and the Archives de la Marine contain a
mass of letters and documents on the subjects treated in the above
chapter; these I have carefully read and collated. The other principal
authorities are the correspondence of Montcalm with Bourlamaque and with
his own family; the letters of Vaudreuil preserved in the Archives
Nationales; and the letters of Bougainville and Doreil to Montcalm and
Madame de Saint-Veran while on their mission to France. For copies of
these last I am indebted to the present Marquis de Montcalm.

Chapter 24

1758, 1759

Wolfe

Captain John Knox, of the forty-third regiment, had spent the winter in
garrison at Fort Cumberland, on the hill of Beausejour. For nearly two
years he and his comrades had been exiles amid the wilds of Nova Scotia,
and the monotonous inaction was becoming insupportable. The great marsh
of Tantemar on the one side, and that of Missaguash on the other, two
vast flat tracts of glaring snow, bounded by dark hills of spruce and
fir, were hateful to their sight. Shooting, fishing, or skating were a
dangerous relief; for the neighborhood was infested by "vermin," as they
called the Acadians and their Micmac allies. In January four soldiers
and a ranger were waylaid not far from the fort, disabled by bullets,
and then scalped alive. They were found the next morning on the snow,
contorted in the agonies of death, and frozen like marble statues. St.
Patrick's Day brought more cheerful excitements. The Irish officers of
the garrison gave their comrades a feast, having laid in during the
autumn a stock of frozen provisions, that the festival of their saint
might be duly honored. All was hilarity at Fort Cumberland, where it is
recorded that punch to the value of twelve pounds sterling, with a
corresponding supply of wine and beer, was consumed on this joyous
occasion.[696]

[Footnote 696: Knox, _Historic