1759.] WOLFE BEFORE QUEBEC. 127 



the precipice, towered the massive walls of the 

 Castle of St. Louis. Above, for many a league, the 

 bank was guarded by an unbroken range of steep 

 acclivities. Below, the Kiver St. Charles, flowing 

 into the St. Lawrence, washed the base of the 

 rocky promontory on which the city stood. Lower 

 yet lay an army of fourteen thousand men, under 

 an able and renowned commander, the Marquis of 

 Montcalm. His front was covered by intrench- 

 ments and batteries, which lined the bank of the 

 St. Lawrence ; his right wing rested on the city 

 and the St. Charles ; his left, on the cascade 

 and deep gulf of Montmorenci ; and thick forests 

 extended along his rear. Opposite Quebec rose 

 the high promontory of Point Levi ; and the St. 

 Lawrence, contracted to less than a mile in width, 

 flowed between, with deep and powerful current. 

 To a chief of less resolute temper, it might well 

 have seemed that art and nature were in league to 

 thwart his enterprise ; but a mind like that of 

 Wolfe could only have seen in this majestic combi- 

 nation of forest and cataract, mountain and river, a 

 fitting theatre for the great drama about to be 

 enacted there. 



Yet nature did not seem to have formed the 

 young English general for the conduct of a doubt- 

 ful and almost desperate enterprise. His person 

 was slight, and his features by no means of a mar- 

 tial cast. His feeble constitution had been under- 

 mined by years of protracted and painful disease.^ 



1 " I have this day signified to Mr. Pitt that he may dispose of my 

 slight carcass as he pleases ; and that I am ready for any undertaking 



