Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/268

244 only be carried by storming the entrenchments which the French had thrown up in front of it. This bold measure Wolfe resolved to adopt, and on the 31st of July he effected a landing. The boats, however, had met with an accidental delay; the grenadiers, it is said, rushed forward with too blind and impetuous a valor; Montcalm, strongly posted between Quebec and Montmorenci, poured in upon them a destructive fire; the Indian rifle told with fatal effect; and the assailants were finally repulsed with the loss of five hundred men.

Wolfe felt this disappointment so deeply that his delicate frame was thrown into a violent fever; and in a despatch to Mr. Pitt he afterwards expressed the apprehension under which he labored. The fleet, his strongest arm, could not act against the wall of rock on which Quebec is seated; and with his weakened force he had to storm fortified positions, defended by troops almost as numerous as his own. So soon, however, as his health permitted, he called a council of war, desired the general officers to consult together; and, it is said, proposed to them a second attack on lie French lines, avoiding the errors which had led to the failure of the first. They were decidedly of opinion that this was inexpedient; but on the suggestion, as is now believed, of Brigadier-general Townshend, the second in command, they proposed to attempt a point on the other side of Quebec, where the enemy were yet unprepared, and whence they might gain the Heights of Abraham, which overlooked the city. Wolfe assented, and applied all his powers to the accomplishment of this plan. Such active demonstrations were now made against Montcalm's original position, that he believed it still the main object; and though he observed detachments moving up the river, merely sent De Bougainville with fifteen hundred men to Cape Rouge, a position too distant, being nine miles above Quebec.

On the night of the 12th of September, in deep silence, the troops were embarked and conveyed in two divisions to the place now named Wolfe's Cove. The precipice here was so steep, that even the general for a moment doubted the possibility of scaling it but Fraser's Highlanders, grasping the bushes which grew on its face, soon reached the summit, and in a short time he had his whole army drawn up in regular order on the plains above Montcalm, struck by this unexpected intelligence, at once concluded that unless the English could be driven from this position, Quebec was lost; and, hoping probably, that only a detachment had yet reached it, pushed forward at once to the attack. About fifteen hundred light infantry and Indians arrived first, and began a desultory fire from among the bushes; but the British reserved their shot for the main body, which was seen advancing behind. They came forward in good order, and commenced a brisk attack; yet no general fire was opened in return till they were within forty yards, when it could be followed up by the bayonet. The first volley was decisive; Wolfe and Montcalm both fell almost at the same moment; the French instantly gave way in every quarter; and