ng resolve, which, in the end, fulfilled the yearning hopes of
England.

August had nearly gone, and the gallant General, only thirty-two years
of age and already touched by the finger of death, lay sick in a
farmhouse at Montmorency. Success seemed even further away than it
had been in the early summer. Yet, in consultation with his three
brigadiers--Monckton, Townshend, and Murray--Wolfe had decided upon a
new and desperate plan.

"I know perfectly well you cannot cure me," he said to
the surgeon; "but pray make me up so that I may be
without pain for a few days, and able to do my duty; that
is all I want," To Pitt he wrote--and this was his last
despatch: "The obstacles we have met with in the
operations of the campaign are much greater than we had
reason to expect, or could foresee; not so much from the
number of the enemy (though superior to us), as from the
natural strength of the country, which the Marquis de
Montcalm seems wisely to depend upon. When I learned that
succours of all kinds had been thrown into Quebec--that
five battalions of regular troops, completed from the
best inhabitants of the country, some of the troops of
the colony, and every Canadian that was able to bear
arms, besides several nations of savages, had taken the
field in a very advantageous situation,--I could not
flatter myself that I should be able to reduce the place.
I sought, however, an occasion to attack their army,
knowing well that with these troops I was able to fight,
and hoping that a victory might disperse them....I found
myself so ill, and am still so weak, that I begged the
general officers to consult together for the general
utility. They are all of opinion that, as more ships and
provisions are now got above the town, they should try,
by conveying up a corps of four or five thousand men
(which is nearly the whole strength of the army after the
Points of Levi and Orleans are left in a proper state of
defence), to draw the enemy from their present situation
and bring them to an action. I have acquiesced in the
proposal, and we are preparing to put it into execution."

Carrying out this new plan, Wolfe first abandoned his camp at
Montmorency, and for the moment concentrated his strength at Levi and
Orleans. Then Admiral Holmes's division in the river above the city
was strengthened, and on the night of the 4th of September ship