1759.] BATTLE OF QUEBEC. 135 



before the town ; when, on that disastrous morning, 

 the news of their successful temerity fell like a 

 cannon shot upon his ear. Still he asssumed a 

 tone of confidence. " They have got to the weak 

 side of us at last," he is reported to have said, 

 " and we must crush them with our numbers." 

 With headlong haste, his troops were pouring over 

 the bridge of the St. Charles, and gathering in 

 heavy masses under the western ramparts of the 

 town. Could numbers give assurance of success, 

 their triumph would have been secure ; for five 

 French battalions and the armed colonial peasantry 

 amounted in all to more than seven thousand five 

 hundred men. Full in sight before them stretched 

 the long, thin lines of the British forces, — the 

 half- wild Highlanders, the steady soldiery of Eng- 

 land, and the hardy levies of the provinces, — less 

 than five thousand in number, but all inured to 

 battle, and strong in the full assurance of success. 

 Yet, could the chiefs of that gallant army have 

 pierced the secrets of the future, could they have 

 foreseen that the victory which they burned to 

 achieve would have robbed England of her proud- 

 est boast, that the conquest of Canada would pave 

 the way for the independence of America, their 

 swords would have dropped from their hands, and 

 the heroic fire have gone out within their hearts. 



It was nine o'clock, and the adverse armies stood 

 motionless, each gazing on the other. The clouds 

 hung low, and, at intervals, warm light showers 

 descended, besprinkling both alike. The coppice 

 and cornfields in front of the British troops were 



