Montgomery, killed none but armed men in the act of
resistance or attack; Vaudreuil's war-parties spared neither age nor
sex.

Montcalm let the parishes burn, and still lay fast intrenched in his
lines of Beauport. He would not imperil all Canada to save a few hundred
farmhouses; and Wolfe was as far as ever from the battle that he
coveted. Hitherto, his attacks had been made chiefly below the town;
but, these having failed, he now changed his plan and renewed on a
larger scale the movements begun above it in July. With every fair wind,
ships and transports passed the batteries of Quebec, favored by a hot
fire from Point Levi, and generally succeeded, with more or less damage,
in gaining the upper river. A fleet of flatboats was also sent thither,
and twelve hundred troops marched overland to embark in them, under
Brigadier Murray. Admiral Holmes took command of the little fleet now
gathered above the town, and operations in that quarter were
systematically resumed.

To oppose them, Bougainville was sent from the camp at Beauport with
fifteen hundred men. His was a most arduous and exhausting duty. He must
watch the shores for fifteen or twenty miles, divide his force into
detachments, and subject himself and his followers to the strain of
incessant vigilance and incessant marching. Murray made a descent at
Pointe-aux-Trembles, and was repulsed with loss. He tried a second time
at another place, was met before landing by a body of ambushed
Canadians, and was again driven back, his foremost boats full of dead
and wounded. A third time he succeeded, landed at Deschambault, and
burned a large building filled with stores and all the spare baggage of
the French regular officers. The blow was so alarming that Montcalm
hastened from Beauport to take command in person; but when he arrived
the English were gone.

Vaudreuil now saw his mistake in sending the French frigates up the
river out of harm's way, and withdrawing their crews to serve the
batteries of Quebec. Had these ships been there, they might have
overpowered those of the English in detail as they passed the town. An
attempt was made to retrieve the blunder. The sailors were sent to man
the frigates anew and attack the squadron of Holmes. It was too late.
Holmes was already too strong for them, and they were recalled. Yet the
difficulties of the English still seemed insurmountable. Dysentery and
fever broke out in their camps, the number of their effective men was