Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/174

 142 French attempts to recover Quebec. [1759- faithful militia and Indians, made the tenure oi Quebec by Murray and his 6000 men no easy matter. The glory of Wolfe's exploit has some- what obscured the trials and merits of his immediate successors. Amherst and his army wintered in New York, Albany and other posts, looking forward with entire confidence, justified by the past summer work, to reaching Montreal in the coming season. Murray, however, isolated at Quebec amid the frozen waters and snowbound forests of the North, was in anything but a comfortable position. Barrington, the Secretary for War, had been lamentably neglectful. The troops had no winter clothes, and their pay was greatly in arrear: Quebec was almost in ruins and afforded miserable shelter. There was neither fresh meat nor vegetables; the harassed fire-scourged neighbourhood was itself half starving, and wood-chopping parties were continually attacked by disbanded militia- men and hostile Indians. The city too was most vulnerable from the Heights of Abraham, to which the French from the direction of Montreal had ready access. A winter attack by de Levis, who had still a large force at his command, burning for revenge though cramped by lack of provisions, was expected. Lastly sickness, due to scant clothing and bad food, was so rife among the garrison, that by the end of winter it had dwindled to 3000 effective men. Early in April, 1760, de Levis with a force of twice that number moved up to the attack. Montcalm, surrounded by a friendly country, had failed to hold Quebec against numbers far inferior. Murray, in the midst of an unfriendly one, had now to hold it against a force more than twice the strength of his own. The British general however went out to meet de Levis, and on April 28 fought the battle of St Foy, just beyond the plains of Abraham, in which the loss of life was greater than in the more famous fight of the preceding September. De Levis had some 10,000 men with him, besides Indians, and after a fierce engagement drove Murray back into Quebec with the loss of a thousand men, though the French loss in killed and wounded was more than double that number. The British general has been blamed for going out to battle at such a disadvantage, and is frequently accused of having been dazzled by Wolfe's fame and desirous of emulating his achievement. It must be said on Murray's behalf that the ground was still frozen and impervious to entrenching tools, while the town itself, on that side, was barely defen- sible. The French now prepared for a formal siege. But the river was nearly free from ice. Either a French or a British fleet might appear at any moment, and it was well understood that upon the nationality of the first comer the fate of the city hung. On May 9th the British frigate Lozvestoft, the precursor of others, sailed into the basin. De Levis' scanty food supplies from the west would now be totally cut off; and he at once fell back on Montreal, Murray following him with 200 men. Amherst too, with the new season, was gathering his forces at the old base upon the upper Hudson, to join in the final blow. The