THE FALL OF NEW FRANCE II5 
After an hour of weak cannonading the French 
army charged upon the Englishmen, who stood as 
firm as a stone wall and with a swift and steady 
musket fire soon made the French recoil. As soon 
as the French attack wavered, the English in turn 
promptly charged, and the enemy were routed. In 
this supreme moment the two heroic commanders 
were borne from the field with mortal wounds, and 
as life ebbed quickly away each said his brief and 
touching word which history will never forget. 
“Now, God be praised, I will die in peace,” said 
Wolfe; “ Thank God, I shall not live to see Quebec 
surrendered,” said the faithful Frenchman. These 
noble deaths, and the wild hardihood of the feat that 
had just been accomplished, mark well the battle which 
completed the ruin of the colonial empire of Catholic 
and despotic France. There have been many greater 
generals than Wolfe, as there have been many greater 
battles than the battle of Quebec. But just as the 
adventurous boldness of that morning’s exploit stands 
unsurpassed in history, so in its far-reaching historic 
significance the victory of Wolfe stands foremost among 
modern events. As the boats were gliding quietly down 
the river in the darkness, while the great events of the 
next ten hours were still in the unknown future, the 
young general repeated to his friends standing about 
him the exquisite verses of Gray’s “ Elegy written in a 
Country Churchyard,” which had been published only 
ten years before, and declared that he would rather 
have written that poem than take Quebec. Could he 
have foreseen all that his victory would mean to future 
ages, and what a landmark it would forever remain in 
the history of mankind, he might perhaps have modi- 
