Part 40 (1/2)
His part in the taking of Louisbourg greatly increased his reputation.
After his return he went to Bath to recruit his health; and it seems to have been here that he wooed and won Miss Katherine Lowther, daughter of an ex-Governor of Barbadoes, and sister of the future Lord Lonsdale. A betrothal took place, and Wolfe wore her portrait till the night before his death. It was a little before this engagement that he wrote to his friend Lieutenant-Colonel Rickson: ”I have this day signified to Mr.
Pitt that he may dispose of my slight carca.s.s as he pleases, and that I am ready for any undertaking within the compa.s.s of my skill and cunning. I am in a very bad condition both with the gravel and rheumatism; but I had much rather die than decline any kind of service that offers. If I followed my own taste it would lead me into Germany.
However, it is not our part to choose, but to obey. My opinion is that I shall join the army in America.”
Pitt chose him to command the expedition then fitting out against Quebec; made him a major-general, though, to avoid giving offence to older officers, he was to hold that rank in America alone; and permitted him to choose his own staff. Appointments made for merit, and not through routine and patronage, shocked the Duke of Newcastle, to whom a man like Wolfe was a hopeless enigma; and he told George II. that Pitt's new general was mad. ”Mad is he?” returned the old King; ”then I hope he will bite some others of my generals.”
At the end of January the fleet was almost ready, and Wolfe wrote to his uncle Walter: ”I am to act a greater part in this business than I wished. The backwardness of some of the older officers has in some measure forced the Government to come down so low. I shall do my best, and leave the rest to fortune, as perforce we must when there are not the most commanding abilities. We expect to sail in about three weeks. A London life and little exercise disagrees entirely with me, but the sea still more. If I have health and const.i.tution enough for the campaign, I shall think myself a lucky man; what happens afterwards is of no great consequence.” He sent to his mother an affectionate letter of farewell, went to Spithead, embarked with Admiral Saunders in the s.h.i.+p ”Neptune,”
and set sail on the seventeenth of February. In a few hours the whole squadron was at sea, the transports, the frigates, and the great line-of-battle s.h.i.+ps, with their ponderous armament and their freight of rude humanity armed and trained for destruction; while on the heaving deck of the ”Neptune,” wretched with sea-sickness and racked with pain, stood the gallant invalid who was master of it all.
The fleet consisted of twenty-two s.h.i.+ps of the line, with frigates, sloops-of-war, and a great number of transports. When Admiral Saunders arrived with his squadron off Louisbourg, he found the entrance blocked by ice, and was forced to seek harborage at Halifax. The squadron of Admiral Holmes, which had sailed a few days earlier, proceeded to New York to take on board troops destined for the expedition, while the squadron of Admiral Durell steered for the St. Lawrence to intercept the expected s.h.i.+ps from France. In May the whole fleet, except the ten s.h.i.+ps with Durell, was united in the harbor of Louisbourg. Twelve thousand troops were to have been employed for the expedition; but several regiments expected from the West Indies were for some reason countermanded, while the accessions from New York and the Nova Scotia garrisons fell far short of the looked-for numbers. Three weeks before leaving Louisbourg, Wolfe writes to his uncle Walter that he has an army of nine thousand men. The actual number seems to have been somewhat less.[697] ”Our troops are good,” he informs Pitt; ”and if valor can make amends for the want of numbers, we shall probably succeed.”
[Footnote 697: See _Grenville Correspondence,_ I. 305.]
Three brigadiers, all in the early prime of life, held command under him: Monckton, Townshend, and Murray. They were all his superiors in birth, and one of them, Townshend, never forgot that he was so. ”George Townshend,” says Walpole, ”has thrust himself again into the service; and, as far as wrongheadedness will go, is very proper for a hero.”[698]
The same caustic writer says further that he was of ”a proud, sullen, and contemptuous temper,” and that he ”saw everything in an ill-natured and ridiculous light.”[699] Though his perverse and envious disposition made him a difficult colleague, Townshend had both talents and energy; as also had Monckton, the same officer who commanded at the capture of Beausejour in 1755. Murray, too, was well matched to the work in hand, in spite of some lingering remains of youthful rashness.
[Footnote 698: Horace Walpole, _Letters_ III. 207 (ed. Cunningham, 1857).]
[Footnote 699: Ibid. _George II._, II. 345.]
On the sixth of June the last s.h.i.+p of the fleet sailed out of Louisbourg harbor, the troops cheering and the officers drinking to the toast, ”British colors on every French fort, port, and garrison in America.” The s.h.i.+ps that had gone before lay to till the whole fleet was reunited, and then all steered together for the St. Lawrence. From the headland of Cape Egmont, the Micmac hunter, gazing far out over the s.h.i.+mmering sea, saw the horizon flecked with their canvas wings, as they bore northward on their errand of havoc.
NOTE: For the material of the foregoing sketch of Wolfe I am indebted to Wright's excellent Life of him and the numerous letters contained in it.
Several autograph letters which have escaped the notice of Mr. Wright are preserved in the Public Record Office. The following is a characteristic pa.s.sage from one of these, written on board the ”Neptune,” at sea, on the sixth of June, the day when the fleet sailed from Louisbourg. It is directed to a n.o.bleman of high rank in the army, whose name does not appear, the address being lost (War Office Records: _North America, various,_ 1756-1763): ”I have had the honour to receive two letters from your Lords.h.i.+p, one of an old date, concerning my stay in this country [_after the capture of Louisbourg,_] in answer to which I shall only say that the Marshal told me I was to return at the end of the campaign; and as General Amherst had no other commands than to send me to winter at Halifax under the orders of an officer _[Brigadier Lawrence]_ who was but a few months before put over my head, I thought it was much better to get into the way of service and out of the way of being insulted; and as the style of your Lords.h.i.+p's letter is pretty strong, I must take the liberty to inform you that ... rather than receive orders in the Government [_of Nova Scotia_] from an officer younger than myself (though a very worthy man), I should certainly have desired leave to resign my commission; for as I neither ask nor expect any favour, so I never intend to submit to any ill-usage whatsoever.”
Many other papers in the Public Record Office have been consulted in preparing the above chapter, including the secret instructions of the King to Wolfe and to Saunders, and the letters of Amherst to Wolfe and to Pitt. Other correspondence touching the same subjects is printed in _Selections from the Public Doc.u.ments of Nova Scotia,_ 441-450. Knox, Mante, and Entick are the best contemporary printed sources.
A story has gained currency respecting the last interview of Wolfe with Pitt, in which he is said to have flourished his sword and boasted of what he would achieve. This anecdote was told by Lord Temple, who was present at the interview, to Mr. Grenville, who, many years after, told it to Earl Stanhope, by whom it was made public. That the incident underwent essential changes in the course of these transmissions,--which extended over more than half a century, for Earl Stanhope was not born till 1805,--can never be doubted by one who considers the known character of Wolfe, who may have uttered some vehement expression, but who can never be suspected of gasconade.
Chapter 25
1759
Wolfe at Quebec
In early spring the chiefs of Canada met at Montreal to settle a plan of defence. What at first they most dreaded was an advance of the enemy by way of Lake Champlain. Bourlamaque, with three battalions, was ordered to take post at Ticonderoga, hold it if he could, or, if overborne by numbers, fall back to Isle-aux-Noix, at the outlet of the lake. La Corne was sent with a strong detachment to intrench himself at the head of the rapids of the St. Lawrence, and oppose any hostile movement from Lake Ontario. Every able-bodied man in the colony, and every boy who could fire a gun, was to be called to the field. Vaudreuil sent a circular letter to the militia captains of all the parishes, with orders to read it to the paris.h.i.+oners. It exhorted them to defend their religion, their wives, their children, and their goods from the fury of the heretics; declared that he, the Governor, would never yield up Canada on any terms whatever; and ordered them to join the army at once, leaving none behind but the old, the sick, the women, and the children.[700] The Bishop issued a pastoral mandate: ”On every side, dearest brethren, the enemy is making immense preparations. His forces, at least six times more numerous than ours, are already in motion. Never was Canada in a state so critical and full of peril. Never were we so dest.i.tute, or threatened with an attack so fierce, so general, and so obstinate. Now, in truth, we may say, more than ever before, that our only resource is in the powerful succor of our Lord. Then, dearest brethren, make every effort to deserve it. 'Seek first the kingdom of G.o.d; and all these things shall be added unto you.'” And he reproves their sins, exhorts them to repentance, and ordains processions, ma.s.ses, and prayers.[701]
[Footnote 700: _Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_.]
[Footnote 701: I am indebted for a copy of this mandate to the kindness of Abbe Bois. As printed by Knox, it is somewhat different, though the spirit is the same.]
Vaudreuil bustled and boasted. In May he wrote to the Minister: ”The zeal with which I am animated for the service of the King will always make me surmount the greatest obstacles. I am taking the most proper measures to give the enemy a good reception whenever he may attack us. I keep in view the defence of Quebec. I have given orders in the parishes below to muster the inhabitants who are able to bear arms, and place women, children, cattle, and even hay and grain, in places of safety.
Permit me, Monseigneur, to beg you to have the goodness to a.s.sure His Majesty that, to whatever hard extremity I may be reduced, my zeal will be equally ardent and indefatigable, and that I shall do the impossible to prevent our enemies from making progress in any direction, or, at least, to make them pay extremely dear for it.”[702] Then he writes again to say that Amherst with a great army will, as he learns, attack Ticonderoga; that Bradstreet, with six thousand men, will advance to Lake Ontario; and that six thousand more will march to the Ohio.
”Whatever progress they may make,” he adds, ”I am resolved to yield them nothing, but hold my ground even to annihilation.” He promises to do his best to keep on good terms with Montcalm, and ends with a warm eulogy of Bigot.[703]
[Footnote 702: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Mai, 1759._]