uch Greek and Latin as most men of the world; also the four rules of
arithmetic, and something of history, geography, and French and Latin
_belles-lettres_, as well as to have a taste for the arts and sciences.
Thirdly, and above all, to be obedient, docile, and very submissive to
your orders and those of my dear mother; and also to defer to the advice
of M. Dumas. Fourthly, to fence and ride as well as my small abilities
will permit."[361]

[Footnote 361: This passage is given by Somervogel from the original
letter.]

If Louis de Montcalm failed to satisfy his preceptor, he had a brother
who made ample amends. Of this infant prodigy it is related that at six
years he knew Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and had some acquaintance with
arithmetic, French history, geography, and heraldry. He was destined for
the Church, but died at the age of seven; his precocious brain having
been urged to fatal activity by the exertions of Dumas.

Other destinies and a more wholesome growth were the lot of young Louis.
At fifteen he joined the army as ensign in the regiment of Hainaut. Two
years after, his father bought him a captaincy, and he was first under
fire at the siege of Philipsbourg. His father died in 1735, and left him
heir to a considerable landed estate, much embarrassed by debt. The
Marquis de la Fare, a friend of the family, soon after sought for him an
advantageous marriage to strengthen his position and increase his
prospects of promotion; and he accordingly espoused Mademoiselle
Angelique Louise Talon du Boulay,--a union which brought him influential
alliances and some property. Madame de Montcalm bore him ten children,
of whom only two sons and four daughters were living in 1752. "May God
preserve them all," he writes in his autobiography, "and make them
prosper for this world and the next! Perhaps it will be thought that the
number is large for so moderate a fortune, especially as four of them
are girls; but does God ever abandon his children in their need?"

"'Aux petits des oiseaux il donne la pature,
Et sa bonte s'etend sur toute la nature.'"

He was pious in his soldierly way, and ardently loyal to Church and
King.

His family seat was Candiac; where, in the intervals of campaigning, he
found repose with his wife, his children, and his mother, who was a
woman of remarkable force of character and who held great influence over
her son. He had a strong attachment to this home of his childhood; and
in after y