S8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



hospital to take part in the battle, saying he oould never let a private 

 quarrel stand between him and his public duty ; had been sliot through 

 the lungs while leading his company of Grenadiers, had refused to leave 

 the field after such a defeat, and had been rescued from a scalping 

 party by a French soldier of the Regiment of Guienne. Two days later 

 a messenger came out, under a flag of truce, for Ochterlone/s effects, 

 which Wolfe sent in, with t\venty guineas for the soldier who had saved 

 him. But Vaudreuil theatrically refused to allow any money to be given 

 for this gallant deed. So Wolfe replied, thanking Vaudreuil, and promis- 

 ing Madame de Eamesay, directress of the hospital, that he would grant 

 her specLal protection if victory should crown the British arms. This 

 [promise soon became kno-s^m, and the hospital was more crowded with 

 refugees than ever. Towards the end of August Ochterloney died, 

 having been tenderly nursed by the good sisters to the last. And both 

 sides ceased firing for two hours, while Captain de St. Laurent came out 

 of Quebec to anoounc? his, death and return his effects. 



In September hopes began to revive. It was thought the Canadian 

 autumn would compel the British fleet to raise the siege. Wolfe's restless 

 energy had to be reckoned wich. But l\Iontcalm's skill was depended 

 on to keep him at. arm's length. And so it might have, though ultimate 

 conquest was only a question of time, if Vaudreuil's meddling counter- 

 iorders had not thwarted Montcalm's foresight. Suddenly, on the mom- 

 ang of the 13th, Quebec gasped at the desperate news that the red wall 

 of the British army was on the Plains of Abraham, cutting off the town 

 from the west as the British fleet cut it off from the east. Within four 

 hours the French army had marched up from its entrenchments, formed 

 line of battle, attacked, and been broken in defeat. The Ursulines in 

 the General Hospital saw the fugitives flying for their lives down the 

 Côte d'Abraham and across the valley of the St. Charles. By midday 

 the overcrowded hospital had to receive hundreds more of their wounded 

 friends. At midnight a detachment of wild-looking Highlanders took 

 possession and guaranteed protection. The next morning the British 

 wounded were brought in, and every nook and comer in the hospital and 

 all its outbuildings was filled with friend and foe, now drawn together 

 by the sympathy of common suffering, and become but man and man 

 once more under the ministering hands of the good nuns. 



While the Ui'sulines in the General Tlosjiital were busily struggling 

 to do this, service in the thickest of all the crowding horrors of war, the 

 little garrison left behind in the convent was racked by still further 

 Euspenso. The dire news that Wolfe w^as on the Plains had reaiched them 

 early in the morning. Their straining ears had heard the sharp, knell- 

 ing clap of volley after volley from that steadfast British line; then the 



