244 J. G. BOURINOT 



Amherst aucl Boscawen conducted their expedition with skill and prudence, and the 

 number of their men killed and "wounded during the operations was exceedingly small — 

 five hundred and twenty-one in all.' The French, on the other hand, lost according to 

 the English accounts upwards of one thousand, although the Chevalier Drucour repre- 

 sents the number at only three hundred and thirty, but he does not include the crews of 

 the ships. The French governor, it must be admitted, conducted the defence with great 

 energy, and he was well supported, according to his own statement, by the garrison, who, 

 despite the great dangers and discomforts to which they were subject during the opera- 

 tions, "did not display the least discontent." Th.^ governor could not praise "too highly 

 the exertions of the ollicers who had defended the town and had done their best to delay 

 the surrender." Frenchmen and Englishmen, all accounts of the siege tell us, emulated 

 each other in paying the tribute of their admiration to Madame Drucour, wife of the 

 governor, who, during the siege, even fired off cannon with her own hand to nerve the 

 soldiery to fresh efforts, and who was able when the fight was over to obtain some favours 

 for her countrymen in recognition of the respect entertained for her courage and patriotism 

 by the English general and admiral.- If M. de Drucour was unable to prevent the town 

 falling into the hands of the English, at all events he succeeded in protracting the siege 

 so that it was impossible for the expedition to proceed up the St. Lawrence to attack 

 Quebec with any prospect of victory that year ; and indeed he states in his report of the 

 siege that he had this object steadily in view while engaged in the defence of the fortress. 

 Comparing the facts of the siege of 1*758 with those of 1745, it must be admitted that 

 Pepperrell's success was the more remarkable of the two. In the one case we see a famous 

 admiral and experienced generals, skilled in the art of war on land and sea, at the head 

 of a great force of soldiers and sailors, of an army of twelve thousand well trained soldiers, 



1 Killed, 21 officers, 150 privates ; wounded, 30 officers, 320 privates. Wright's " Life of Wolfe," 455, n. 



- One must regret that Dr. Kingsford, in liis History of Canada, should have thought it necessary to devote a 

 long foot note — a page almost — to throw doubt on the often quoted story of Madame Drucour's courage and devotion 

 during the siege. (See vol. iv. 142.) It is true, as he says, Pichon is the authority generally cit«d for the state- 

 ment, but there is no reason to doubt its truth siuce he was certainly not disposed to pay many compliments to his 

 countrymen, and had opportunities to hear stories of the siege from participants both on the English and French 

 side that the Canadian historian certainly has not had- Canadian history records the story of Madame de La Tour 

 (Hannay's Acadia, 170-172), who defended the French fort on the St. John against her husband's foe, D'Auhiay 

 de Charnisay. An American writer, Mary Hartwell Catherwood, has recalled ISIadame de La Tour's devotion to her 

 husband's cause and the treachery of his relentless enemy in a romance, true to history, and full of the light and 

 colour of the past,— "Tlie Lady of Fort St. John " (Boston, 1890). We find on record many other evidences of the 

 devotion of the Canadian women of old to King and Country. Every Canadian remembers the story of the heroine 

 of Verchôres. (See " The Heroines of New France," by J. M. LeMoine, in " Canadian Leaves," or a series of papers 

 read before the Canadian Club of New York ; New York, 18S7.) But Pichon is not the only French writer who 

 refers to this interesting episode. The Abbé Kaynal, who wrote his " Philosophical and Political History " at a time 

 when he probably heard the story from a French witness of the siege, refers to the incident. " Madame Drucour," 

 he says, " was constantly on the ramparts, with her purse in her /lanrf, and, firing herself three guns everyday, 

 seemed to dispute with the governor, her husband, the glory of his office " The words in italics (ignored by Dr. 

 Kingsford) are not in Pichon's relation, and go to show that Kaynal had probably other authority for his state- 

 ment. Wright in his " Life of Wolfe," p. 444, quotes from •' Anecdotes Américaines," Paris, 1776. Under all these 

 circumstances why doubt Madame Drucour's heroism when no statement to the contrary can be found anywhere? 

 That Wolfe did not mention the story in his letters is no evidence in favour of Dr. Kingsford's contention. Wolfe's 

 letters are hastily written and show irritability of temper. It is a pity that the Canadian hisloriau was not more 

 chivalrous in view of the fact that he has no evidence on his side when he assumes the rule of adoubting Thomas. 

 Parkman ("Montcalm and Wolfe") relates the incident and bears testimony to the courtesy with which the 

 English commanders treated the brave woman. 



