y pieces, planted on the
lofty promontory beyond the Montmorenci, began a furious cannonade upon
the flank of the French intrenchments. It did no great harm, however,
for the works were protected by a great number of traverses, which
stopped the shot; and the Canadians, who manned this part of the lines,
held their ground with excellent steadiness.

About eleven o'clock a fleet of boats filled with troops, chiefly from
Point Levi, appeared in the river and hovered off the shore west of the
parish church of Beauport, as if meaning to land there. Montcalm was
perplexed, doubting whether the real attack was to be made here, or
toward the Montmorenci. Hour after hour the boats moved to and fro, to
increase his doubts and hide the real design; but he soon became
convinced that the camp of Levis at the Montmorenci was the true object
of his enemy; and about two o'clock he went thither, greeted as he rode
along the lines by shouts of _Vive notre General!_ Levis had already
made preparations for defence with his usual skill. His Canadians were
reinforced by the battalions of Bearn, Guienne, and Royal Roussillon;
and, as the intentions of Wolfe became certain, the right of the camp
was nearly abandoned, the main strength of the army being gathered
between the river of Beauport and the Montmorenci, where, according to a
French writer, there were, towards the end of the afternoon, about
twelve thousand men.[721]

[Footnote 721: Panet, _Journal_.]

At half-past five o'clock the tide was out, and the crisis came. The
batteries across the Montmorenci, the distant batteries of Point Levi,
the cannon of the "Centurion," and those of the two stranded ships, all
opened together with redoubled fury. The French batteries replied; and,
amid this deafening roar of artillery, the English boats set their
troops ashore at the edge of the broad tract of sedgy mud that the
receding river had left bare. At the same time a column of two thousand
men was seen, a mile away, moving in perfect order across the
Montmorenci ford. The first troops that landed from the boats were
thirteen companies of grenadiers and a detachment of Royal Americans.
They dashed swiftly forward; while at some distance behind came
Monckton's brigade, composed of the fifteenth, or Amherst's regiment,
and the seventy-eighth, or Fraser's Highlanders. The day had been fair
and warm; but the sky was now thick with clouds, and large rain-drops
began to fall, the precursors of a