orts were therefore compelled to run the
perilous blockade of the vigilant English fleet.

[Illustration: GENERAL HOSPITAL]

Meanwhile, upon the report of the slow but successful advance of
Amherst in the Richelieu Valley, news had come of the fall of Fort
Niagara. New France now retained no vestige of her Western empire.
Except for Bourlamaque at Isle-aux-Noix, Montreal had no defence
against British attack; and thither, on the ninth of August, Montcalm
despatched Levis with eight hundred men. Even though Wolfe had failed
to carry the city by assault, the garrison were now thoroughly alarmed
at the protracted siege, and prayed for an early winter which must
drive the English out of the river. The militia of Montcalm's army
were deserting by hundreds, their fortitude breaking down as they saw
the sky reddened with the flames of the river parishes, and languished
under the strain of short rations.

Montcalm himself felt the pinch of a failing commissariat, but with
good-humour he made the best of the position. An example of his
whimsical mood and gay fortitude may be found in a menu he presents in
a letter to Levis--

"Petits pates de cheval, a l'Espagnole.
Cheval a la mode.
Escalopes de cheval.
Filet de cheval a la brochu avec une poivarde bien liee.
Semelles de cheval au gratin."

On the other hand, the English army had its own discouragements. Night
after night, Canadian irregulars and Indians crept up to Wolfe's lines
to murder and scalp the outposts and sentries. Fever invaded the camp,
and, more than all else, the serious illness of the General himself
depressed the spirits of his men. Ceaseless anxiety over a hitherto
ineffective campaign had played sad havoc with the nervous,
high-strung temperament of the English commander; and the grey,
inaccessible city still rose grimly to mock his schemes. Only the most
invincible spirit could have borne so frail a body through those weeks
of hope deferred. A vague melancholy marked the line of his tall
ungainly figure; but resolution, courage, endurance, deep design,
clear vision, dogged will, and heroism shone forth from those
searching eyes, making of no account the incongruities of the sallow
features. Straight red hair, a nose thrust out like a wedge, and a
chin falling back from an affectionate sort of mouth, made, by an
antic of nature, the almost grotesque setting of those twin furnaces
of dari