Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/224

 had been arranged by the British, which was to bring the war to a close by one great and united effort. Amherst was to proceed along the line of Lakes George and Champlain, and take Ticonderoga and Crown Point. General Prideaux, aided by Sir William Johnson and his Indians, was to attack Niagara, while to Wolfe was given the heavy task of assaulting Quebec.. Amherst and Prideaux having performed their allotted tasks were to join Wolfe at Quebec. Prideaux was killed while besieging Niagara, and the honor of taking the fort fell to Sir Wiliam Johnson. Amherst found little opposition at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the French falling back on Quebec for the final defence. Amherst, however, lingered at these points, building and strengthening forts to secure the line of Lakes George and Champlain.

Early in 1759, Wolfe sailed from Louisburg to Quebec with his army of less than nine thousand men. Saunders and Holmes commanded the fleet, while Wolfe was assisted by an able staff of officers, Townshend, Monckton and Murray. Landing at the Island of Orleans, Wolfe anxiously viewed for the first time the rock fortress, Quebec, the greatest stronghold of France in the New World. For miles on both the east and west of Quebec, Montcalm had fortified the banks of the St. Lawrence. Between the St. Charles and the Montmorency were more than thirteen thousand men of all ages, and the walls of Quebec itself bristled with guns. Who could hope to capture this Gibraltar of America, with such a small force as Wolfe had at hiscommand? Yet, Wolfe, weakened as he was by a fatal disease, did not shrink from the effort. Soon he seized a strong position opposite Quebec, Point Levi, and their Monckton fixed his batteries. The French made fruitless efforts to dislodge the British fleet, by sending fire-ships down the river, but these were taken in tow by the sailors and did little harm. The batteries from Point Levi began to play upon the doomed fortress, and soon a great part of Quebec was in ruins. Nevertheless, Montcalm strong in his position on the north shore, with entrenchments from Quebec to the river Montmorency, defied every effort of Wolfe to land his troops. On the 31st of July, a desperate attempt was made to gain a footing and storm the heights near the Montmorency; but to no purpose, Wolfe was compelled to retire with heavy loss, and his chagrin and grief brought on a fever.

It looked as if Quebec could not be taken, and winter was