real militia, held the road from the Beauport to the
Montmorency. Montcalm established his headquarters in the centre,
wisely entrusting the left wing to the capable De Levis, the right
being assigned to Bougainville.

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE CITADEL TO-DAY]

[Illustration: _General the Marquis de Montcalm_]

Within the walls, the Chevalier de Ramezay commanded a garrison of
above a thousand men. Every gate but one had been closed and
barricaded, the Porte du Palais being left open to afford
communication between the city and the camp by way of a bridge of
boats across the St. Charles. Vaudreuil transferred the seat of
government to Beauport, taking up his quarters at the centre with
Montcalm; and those of the citizens who were not required to man the
ramparts removed themselves and their valuables for safety to the
country. Quebec was armed to the teeth. Three hundred feet above the
river rose the battery of the citadel; on a lower level the Castle
Battery frowned over towards Point Levi, the Grand Battery commanding
the harbour; while, on the wharves of Lower Town, the Queen's,
Dauphin's, and Royal batteries were able to sweep the narrows. Even
though the English fleet might run this gauntlet of heavy ordnance,
the high cliffs for miles above the city remained practically
inaccessible, and at almost any point a hundred resolute men would
suffice to beat back an army. In the face of these preparations, it
seemed an act of madness to attempt the reduction of Quebec. But
within defences so secure the ardent spirits of the Canadian troops
were chafing at enforced inaction; for although diligently exercised
by their commanders, they still had leisure to think of the homes they
loved, where the corn would never be garnered.

On the English side Captain Cook, as his biographer relates, "was
employed to procure accurate soundings of the channel between the
Island of Orleans and the shore of Beauport--a service of great
danger, which could only be performed in the night-time. He had
scarcely finished when he was discovered, and a number of Indians in
canoes started to cut him off. The pursuit was so close that they
jumped in at the boat's stern as Cook leaped out to gain the
protection of the English sentinel. The boat was carried off by the
Indians. Cook, however, furnished the admiral with as correct a draft
of the channel and soundings as could afterwards have been made when
the English were in peaceable possess