Part 50 (1/2)
[Footnote 834: Thompson in _Revue Canadienne_, IV. 866.]
Levis, in ignorance of this, still clung to the hope that French s.h.i.+ps would arrive strong enough to overpower the unwelcome stranger. His guns, being at last in position, presently opened fire upon a wall that was not built to bear the brunt of heavy shot; but an artillery better and more numerous than his own almost silenced them, and his gunners were hara.s.sed by repeated sallies. The besiegers had now no real chance of success unless they could carry the place by storm, to which end they had provided abundant scaling-ladders as well as petards to burst in the gates. They made, however, no attempt to use them. A week pa.s.sed, when, on the evening of the fifteenth, the s.h.i.+p of the line ”Vanguard” and the frigate ”Diana”
sailed into the harbor; and on the next morning the ”Diana” and the ”Lowestoffe” pa.s.sed the town to attack the French vessels in the river above. These were six in all,--two frigates, two smaller armed s.h.i.+ps, and two schooners; the whole under command of the gallant Vauquelin. He did not belie his reputation; fought his s.h.i.+p with persistent bravery till his ammunition was spent, refused even then to strike his flag, and being made prisoner, was treated by his captors with distinguished honor. The other vessels made little or no resistance. One of them threw her guns overboard and escaped; the rest ran ash.o.r.e and were burned.
The destruction of his vessels was a death-blow to the hopes of Levis, for they contained his stores of food and ammunition. He had pa.s.sed the preceding night in great agitation; and when the cannonade on the river ceased, he hastened to raise the siege. In the evening deserters from hiscamp told Murray that the French were in full retreat; on which all the English batteries opened, firing at random through the darkness, and sending cannon-b.a.l.l.s _en ricochet_, bowling by scores together, over the Plains of Abraham on the heels of the retiring enemy. Murray marched out at dawn of day to fall upon their rear; but, with a hundred and fifty cannon bellowing behind them, they had made such speed that, though he pushed over the marsh to Old Lorette, he could not overtake them; they had already crossed the river of Cap-Rouge. Why, with numbers still superior, they went off in such haste, it is hard to say. They left behind them thirty-four cannon and six mortars, with petards, scaling-ladders, tents, ammunition, baggage, intrenching tools, many of their muskets, and all their sick and wounded.
The effort to recover Quebec did great honor to the enterprise of the French; but it availed them nothing, served only to waste resources that seemed already at the lowest ebb, and gave fresh opportunity of plunder to Cadet and his crew, who failed not to make use of it.
After the battle of Ste.-Foy Murray sent the frigate ”Racehorse”
to Halifax with news of his defeat, and from Halifax it was sent to England. The British public were taken by surprise. ”Who the deuce was thinking of Quebec?” says Horace Walpole. ”America was like a book one has read and done with; but here we are on a sudden reading our book backwards.” Ten days pa.s.sed, and then came word that the siege was raised and that the French were gone; upon which Walpole wrote to General Conway: ”Well, Quebec is come to life again. Last night I went to see the Holdernesses.
I met my Lady in a triumphal car, drawn by a Manx horse, thirteen little fingers high, with Lady Emily. Mr. Milbank was walking by himself in ovation after the car, and they were going to see the bonfire at the alehouse at the corner.
The whole procession returned with me; and from the Countess's dressing-room we saw a battery fired before the house, the mob crying, 'G.o.d bless the good news!' These are all the particulars I know of the siege. My Lord would have showed me the journal; but we amused ourselves much better in going to eat peaches from the new Dutch stoves [_hothouses_].”
NOTE: On the battle of Ste.-Foy and the subsequent siege, Levis, _Guerre du Canada. Relation de la seconde Bataille de Quebec et du Siege de cette Ville_ (there are several copies of this paper, with different t.i.tles and some variation). _Murray to Amherst, 30 April, 1760_. Murray, _Journal kept at Quebec from Sept.
18, 1759, to May 17, 1760_ (Public Record Office, _America and West Indies_, XCIX.). _Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760_. _Letter from an Officer of the Royal Americans at Quebec, 24 May, 1760_ (in _London Magazine_ and several periodical papers of the time).
Fraser, _Journal_ (Quebec Hist. Soc.); Johnstone, _Campaign of 1760_ (Ibid.). _Relation de ce qui s'est pa.s.se au Siege de Quebec, par une Religieuse de l'Hopital General_ (Ibid.). _Memoirs of the Siege of Quebec_, by Sergeant John Johnson. _Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760_. Letters of Levis, Bourlamaque, and Vaudreuil, May, June, 1760. Several letters from officers at Quebec in provincial newspapers. Knox, II. 292-322. _Plan of the Battle and Situation of the British and French on the Heights of Abraham, the 28th of April, 1760_,--an admirable plan, attached to the great plan of operations at Quebec before mentioned, and necessary to an understanding of the position and movements of the two armies (British Museum, King's Maps).
The narratives of Mante, Entick, Wynne, Smith, and other secondary writers give no additional light. On the force engaged on each side, see Appendix K.
Chapter 30
1760
Fall of Canada
The retreat of Levis left Canada little hope but in a speedy peace. This hope was strong, for a belief widely prevailed that, even if the colony should be subdued, it would be restored to France by treaty. Its available force did not exceed eight or ten thousand men, as most of the Canadians below the district of Three Rivers had sworn allegiance to King George; and though many of them had disregarded the oath to join the standard of Levis, they could venture to do so no longer. The French had lost the best of their artillery, their gunpowder was falling short, their provisions would barely carry them to harvest time, and no more was to be hoped for, since a convoy of s.h.i.+ps which had sailed from France at the end of winter, laden with supplies of all kinds, had been captured by the English. The blockade of the St. Lawrence was complete. The Western Indians would not fight, and even those of the mission villages were wavering and insolent.
Yet Vaudreuil and Levis exerted themselves for defence with an energy that does honor to them both. ”Far from showing the least timidity,” says the ever-modest Governor, ”I have taken positions such as may hide our weakness from the enemy.”[835] He stationed Rochbeaucourt with three hundred men at Pointe-aux-Trembles; Repentigny with two hundred at Jacques-Cartier; and Dumas with twelve hundred at Deschambault to watch the St. Lawrence and, if possible, prevent Murray from moving up the river. Bougainville was stationed at Isle-aux-Noix to bar the approach from Lake Champlain, and a force under La Corne was held ready to defend the rapids above Montreal, should the English attempt that dangerous pa.s.sage. Prisoners taken by war parties near Crown Point gave exaggerated reports of hostile preparation, and doubled and trebled the forces that were mustering against Canada.
[Footnote 835: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 22 Juin, 1760_.]
These forces were nevertheless considerable. Amherst had resolved to enter the colony by all its three gates at once, and, advancing from east, west, and south, unite at Montreal and crush it as in the jaws of a vice. Murray was to ascend the St. Lawrence from Quebec, while Brigadier Haviland forced an entrance by way of Lake Champlain, and Amherst himself led the main army down the St. Lawrence from Lake Ontario. This last route was long, circuitous, difficult, andfull of danger from the rapids that obstructed the river. His choice of it for his chief line of operation, instead of the shorter and easier way of Lake Champlain, was meant, no doubt, to prevent the French army from escaping up the Lakes to Detroit and the other wilderness posts, where it might have protracted the war for an indefinite time; while the plan adopted, if successful, would make its capture certain. The plan was a critical one. Three armies advancing from three different points, hundreds of miles apart, by routes full of difficulty, and with no possibility of intercommunication, were to meet at the same place at the same time, or, failing to do so, run the risk of being destroyed in detail. If the French troops could be kept together, and if the small army of Murray or of Haviland should reach Montreal a few days before the co-operating forces appeared, it might be separately attacked and overpowered.
In this lay the hope of Vaudreuil and Levis.[836]
[Footnote 836: _Levis a Bourlamaque, Juillet, Aout, 1760_.]
After the siege of Quebec was raised, Murray had an effective force of about twenty-five hundred rank and file.[837]
As the spring opened the invalids were encamped on the Island of Orleans, where fresh air, fresh provisions, and the change from the pestiferous town hospitals wrought such wonders on the s...o...b..tic patients, that in a few weeks a considerable number of them were again fit for garrison duty, if not for the field. Thus it happened that on the second of July twenty-four hundred and fifty men and officers received orders to embark for Montreal; and on the fifteenth they set sail, in thirty-two vessels, with a number of boats and bateaux.[838] They were followed some time after by Lord Rollo, with thirteen hundred additional men just arrived from Louisbourg, the King having ordered that fortress to be abandoned and dismantled.
They advanced slowly, landing from time to time, skirmis.h.i.+ng with detachments of the enemy who followed them along the sh.o.r.e, or more frequently trading with the farmers who brought them vegetables, poultry, eggs, and fresh meat. They pa.s.sed the fortified hill of Jacques-Cartier, whence they were saluted with shot and sh.e.l.l, stopped at various parishes, disarmed the inhabitants, administered oaths of neutrality, which were taken without much apparent reluctance, and on the fourth of August came within sight of Three Rivers, then occupied by a body of troops expecting an attack. ”But,” says Knox, ”a delay here would be absurd, as that wretched place must share the fate of Montreal. Our fleet sailed this morning. The French troops, apparently about two thousand, lined their different works, and were in general clothed as regulars, except a very few Canadians and about fifty naked Picts or savages, their bodies being painted of a reddish color and their faces of different colors, which I plainly discerned with my gla.s.s.
Their light cavalry, who paraded along sh.o.r.e, seemed to be well appointed, clothed in blue, faced with scarlet; but their officers had white uniforms. In fine, their troops, batteries, fair-looking houses; their situation on the banks of a delightful river; our fleet sailing triumphantly before them, with our floating batteries drawn up in line of battle; the country on both sides interspersed with neat settlements, together with the verdure of the fields and trees and the clear, pleasant weather, afforded as agreeable a prospect as the most lively imagination can conceive.”
[Footnote 837: _Return of the Present State of His Majesty's Forces in Garrison at Quebec, 21 May, 1760_.]
[Footnote 838: Knox, II. 344, 348.]
This excellent lover of the picturesque was still more delighted as the fleet sailed among the islands of St. Peter. ”I think nothing could equal the beauties of our navigation this morning: the meandering course of the narrow channel; the awfulness and solemnity of the dark forests with which these islands are covered; the fragrancy of the spontaneous fruits, shrubs, and flowers; the verdure of the water by the reflection of the neighboring woods; the wild chirping notes of the feathered inhabitants; the masts and sails of s.h.i.+ps appearing as if among the trees, both ahead and astern: formed altogether an enchanting diversity.”
The evening recalled him from dreams to realities; for towards seven o'clock they reached the village of Sorel, where they found a large body of troops and militia intrenched along the strand. Bourlamaque was in command here with two or three thousand men, and Dumas, with another body, was on the northern sh.o.r.e.