e invasion of England and
Scotland with a great force, the enterprise which, nearly half a
century later, Napoleon conceived as his master stroke against the proud
maritime state. During that winter and spring France was building a
great number of small boats with which to make a sudden descent and to
land an army in England.

If this plan succeeded, all else would succeed. Montcalm must just hold
on, conduct a defensive campaign and, above all, retain some part of
Canada since, as the Duke said with prophetic foresight, if the British
once held the whole of the country they would never give it up. Montcalm
himself had laid before the court a plan of his own. He estimated that
the British would have six men to his one. Rather than surrender to
them, he would withdraw to the far interior and take his army by way of
the Ohio to Louisiana. The design was a wild counsel of despair for he
would be cut off from any base of supplies, but it shows the risks
he was ready to tale. In him now the court had complete confidence.
Vaudreuil was instructed to take no military action without seeking the
counsel of Montcalm. "The King," wrote Belle-Isle to Montcalm, "relies
upon your zeal, your courage and your resolution." Some little help was
sent. The British control of the sea was not complete; since more than
twenty French ships eluded British vigilance, bringing military stores,
food (for Canada was confronted by famine), four hundred soldiers, and
Bougainville himself, with a list of honors for the leaders in Canada.
Montcalm was given the rank of Lieutenant-General and, but for a
technical difficulty, would have been made a Marshal of France.

All this reliance upon Montcalm was galling to Vaudreuil. This weak
man was entirely in the hands of a corrupt circle who recognized in the
strength and uprightness of Montcalm their deadly enemy. An incredible
plundering was going on. Its strength was in the blindness of Vaudreuil.
The secretary of Vaudreuil, Grasset de Saint-Sauveur, an ignorant and
greedy man, was a member of the ring and yet had the entire confidence
of the Governor. The scale of the robberies was enormous. Bigot, the
Intendant, was stealing millions of francs; Cadet, the head of the
supplies department, was stealing even more. They were able men who knew
how to show diligence in their official work. More than once Montcalm
praises the resourcefulness with which Bigot met his requirements. But
it was all done at a fear