uld come to its assistance.

Wolfe, indeed, was soon well intrenched, but, although safe against
attack, he was powerless to take the offensive. The fact, however, that
he had taken up his position so near their camp, had discomfited the
Canadians, and his battery played, with considerable effect, on the
left of their camp.

The time passed slowly. The deep and impassable gulf of the Montmorenci
separated the two enemies, but the crests of the opposite cliffs were
within easy gunshot of each other, and men who showed themselves near
the edge ran a strong chance of being hit. Along the river, from the
Montmorenci to Point Levi, continued fighting went on between the guns
of the frigates, and the gunboats and batteries on shore. The Indians
swarmed in the forest, near the English camp, and constant skirmishing
went on between them and the rangers.

The steady work of destruction going on in the city of Quebec, by the
fire from Point Levi, and the ceaseless cannonade kept up by the ships
and Wolfe's batteries; added to the inactivity to which they were
condemned, began to dispirit the Canadian militia, and many desertions
took place, the men being anxious to return to their villages and look
after the crops; and many more would have deserted, had it not been for
the persuasion of the priests, and the fear of being maltreated by the
Indians, whom the governor threatened to let loose upon any who should
waver in their resistance.

On the 18th of July a fresh move was made by the English. The French
had believed it impossible for any hostile ships to pass the batteries
of Quebec; but, covered by a furious cannonade from Point Levi, the man
of war Sutherland, with a frigate and several small vessels, aided by a
favouring wind, ran up the river at night and passed above the town.
Montcalm at once despatched six hundred men, under Dumas, to defend the
accessible points in the line of precipices above Quebec, and on the
following day, when it became known that the English had dragged a
fleet of boats over Point Levi, and had launched them above the town, a
reinforcement of several hundreds more was sent to Dumas.

On the night of the 20th Colonel Carleton, with six hundred men, rowed
eighteen miles up the river, and landed at Pointe aux Trembles on the
north shore. Here, many of the fugitives from Quebec had taken refuge,
and a hundred women, children and old men were taken prisoners by
Carleton, and brought down the next da