Quebec and its Environs. 17 



the first and only action which was fought in the course of 

 the De Levis' bold attempt to wrest the Fortress City from 

 the British, and was also the last victory won by French 

 arms on Canadian soil. Quebec, during that winter, was 

 held by but a handful of British troops, and the occasion 

 seemed most auspicious for the French. The battle lasted 

 one hour and three-quarters, and from accurate data about 

 4000 corpses strewed the environs of the spot where the 

 monument now stands. 



Stretching southwards, the next object of historical interest 

 is the expanse of table land known as The Plains of 

 Abraham, celebrated in history as being the death scene 

 of Wolfe and Montcalm. The battle ground presents almost 

 a level surface from the brink of the St. Lawrence to the 

 Ste. Foy Road. The Grande Allee, or Road to Cap Rouge, 

 running parallel to that of Ste. Foy, passes through its centre. 

 On the highest ground, considerably in advance of the 

 Martello Towers, not far from the fence which divides the 

 race-ground from the enclosures on the east, are the remains 

 of a redoubt, close by which, a rock is pointed out as marking 

 the spot where Wolfe actually breathed his last, and in one of 

 the enclosures near to the road is the well whence they 

 brought him water. Montcalm, who survived some twelve 

 hours, was buried in an excavation made by the bursting of 

 a shell within the precincts of the Ursuline Convent, — a fit 

 resting place for the remains of a man who died fighting for 

 the honor and defence of his country ; but England, jealous 

 of the ashes of Wolfe, laid them beside his father's at Green- 

 wich, the town in which he was born. The skull of Mont- 

 calm was exhumed some ten or twelve years ago, and placed 

 in a glass case in the Convent, where the curious in relics 

 can see it on application to the chaplain there. The monu- 

 ment in Quebec, common to Wolfe and Montcalm, — the stone 

 placed in the Ursuline Convent in honor of the latter, — and 

 the smaller column, on the plains dyed with the blood of 



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