ide. Only the rear of the city is
vulnerable; but it is walled and inaccessible.

Quebec was a prize for any commander's ambition; but how to win it?

The night of June 28 is calm, warm, pitch-dark, the kind of summer
night when the velvet heat touches you as with a hand. The English
soldiers of the crowded transports have gone ashore, when suddenly out
of the darkness glide fire ships as from an under world, with flaming
mast poles, and hulls in shadow, roaring with fire, throwing out
combustibles, drifting straight down on the tide towards the English
fleet. But the French have managed {265} badly. They have set the
ships on fire too soon. The air is torn to tatters by terrific
explosions that light up the outlines of the city spires and churn the
river to billows. Then the English sailors are out in small boats,
avoiding the suck of the undertow. Throwing out grappling hooks, they
tow the flaming fire rafts away from their fleet. It is the first play
of the game, and the French have lost.

[Illustration: THE SITE OF QUEBEC AND THE GROUND OCCUPIED DURING THE
SIEGE OF 1759]

Monckton goes ashore south on Point Levis side next day. Townshend has
landed his troops east of the Montmorency on the north shore. It is
the second play of the game, and Wolfe has violated every rule of war,
for he has separated his forces in three divisions close to a powerful
enemy. He is counting on Montcalm's policy, however, and Montcalm's
play is to lie inactive, sleeping in his boots, refusing to be lured to
battle till winter drives the English off. It is usual in all accounts
of the great struggle to find that certain facts have been suppressed.
Let us frankly confess that when the English rangers went foraging they
brought back French scalps, and when the French Indians went scouting
they returned with English scalps. However, manners were improving.
Strict orders are given: this is not a war on women; neither women nor
children are to be touched. Wolfe posts proclamations on the parish
churches, calling on the habitants to stand neutral. In answer, they
tear the proclamations down. {266} By July 12 Wolfe's batteries on the
south side of the river are preparing to shell the city. A band of
five hundred students and habitants rows across from Quebec by night to
dislodge the English gunners, but mistaking their own shots for the
shots of the enemy, fall on each other in the dark and retreat in wild
confusion. Then