[dougit-yJ battle OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM 383 



western extremity of which is Buttes à Neveti, or Claire Fontaine, the 

 troops advanced with good grace, but they had only proceeded a dis- 

 tance of 100 paces, when a false movement on the part of the Cana- 

 dians, disorganized the rest of the battalions, and most of the soldiers 

 of the first line were either killed or wounded by the discharges of the 

 English. 



A large number of the French were therefore killed at a distance 

 of about 100 yards from Claire Fontaine. 



This statement agrees with Knox, who writes that the camp, after 

 the battle was formed at a distance of 1000 yards from the garrison, 

 and that on the following day, "a flag of truce came from the garrison 

 " this afternoon, requesting petmission to bury their dead; all that were 

 ^•^ within our reach we had interred before." 



If the camp were situated 'at a distance of 1000 yards from the walls, 

 as stated by Knox ; and most of the soldiers of the front line were 

 killed at a distance of one hundred paces from the ridge, or Claire Fon- 

 taine, as claimed by Malartic, then the place where the French fell 

 would be about 150 yards in front of the camp. We, therefore, find a 

 close agreement between Malartic on the part of the French, and Knox, 

 on the part of the English. We will now estimate the distance by 

 figures furnished by each of these sources. 



Knox states that the French began firing when at a distance of 

 130 yards from the English, and j\Ialartic says that the French began to 

 fire after they had advanced 100 paces from their ground (Claire 

 Fontaine). 



The 130 yards given by Knox, added to the 100 paces given by 

 Malartic, make a total of about 230 yards. 



The distance separating the two armies on plan A, presumably be- 

 fore any advance was made (that is just before the battle) is 400 yards. 

 The advance made by the' French of 100 paces, must therefore, be de- 

 ducted from the 400 yards, and this would leave a descrepancy of about 

 70 3'ards in the figures furnished by Knox and Malartic. This appar- 

 ently proves that the positions indicated on plan A are accurate. 



We will now compare the lines indicated on plan A with measure- 

 mei.ts of the ground. The distance between the highest point of the 

 ridge and the highest point of the hill, is about 500 yards. (That is 

 the distance between points A and B on the profile). The distance 

 between the English and French line on plan A is about 400 yards. 

 There is, therefore, a difference of 100 yards, but when we consider that 

 the English line was not formed on the highest point of the hill, but on 

 the slope, the agreement appears very close. If the English line had 



