road, he had seen the English forces on the crest of the cliff, facing the Hospital, between what is now Maple Avenue and Claire Fontaine Streets. From the unusual activity displayed by the troops, and from the hurried movements and desultory firing of a number of Canadian riflemen, he knew that some important military manœuvre was in progress.

Montcalm hastily questioned him as to the position of the enemy, and Boishebert reported what he had himself observed from the windows of the Hospital and was instructed by the General to hasten on to Beauport and to see that all the remaining troops were promptly hurried to his assistance.

The threatening action of Admiral Saunders' fleet in front of his camp had at first determined Montcalm to leave a large force behind him with Vaudreuil. He had now become convinced that there was less danger of an immediate and serious descent of the English at Beauport, for it was low tide, and the shallows extended far out from the shore. He must have argued, too, that Wolfe would require all his available strength for such a movement as was in progress above the town, that the continued activity of the ships might as well precede an attack upon the town as on the camp at Beauport, and that the balance of his own troops were likely to prove more necessary as well as more useful in opposing the evident design of Wolfe upon the heights, than in awaiting a problematical assault upon the intrenchments beyond the St. Charles.

The Regiment of Bearn had barely started on its march, when Montcalm was met returning from Côte d'Abraham.

He reported that the English were drawn up in battle array on the heights, and that he had come to see that the Royal Roussillon Regiment and other troops of which he had need were immediately marched along the route taken by the first part of the army to reach the plateau nearest the town. His return at such a time, upon a mission which ordinarily might be entrusted to an Aidede-camp, illustrates the anxiety which he experienced as to the immediate following up of his instructions. That this anxiety was by no means unnecessary, is shown by the order of Vaudreuil to retain in camp some of the troops which Montcalm had instructed to march. Perhaps it was Johnston's report to him of this strange action on the part of the Governor, which had decided him to ride back to the camp. We shall see later how Vaudreuil's efforts to thwart the endeavours of the Commander of his forces that day, were made to prevail. One would have supposed that the startling character of the information from the heights, which had reached the camp from both Boishebert and the General himself, would have induced Vaudreuil to set out immediately to rejoin Montcalm, with all his available troops. It had no such effect however. Vaudreuil remained in camp until too late to be of any service to his country's cause, only arriving upon the battlefield when the issue of the struggle had been decided, and when the battle that was to seal the fate of New France had resulted disastrously to the cause of France and the King.

CHAPTER IX.

IN BATTLE ARRAY

W HEN Wolfe, after gaining the heights and ordering the capture of the four-gun battery at Samos, set out to reconnoître for the position of the enemy, he immediately crossed over to the Ste. Foye road to take in the situation, being already quite familiar with the ground, from the plans furnished him some time before by the chief engineer of his army. It was now daylight. His eye swept the valley of the St. Charles: all was quiet. Viewing the ground between his own army and the city, his range of vision could take in the ridge which spanned the plateau at a distance of about half a mile from the walls of the city. To gain this ridge and take possession of it would be quite a simple task; but the opportunity which the situation appeared at first sight to offer him, was one that it was impossible for him to seriously contemplate, since many drawbacks far outweighed its apparent advantages. It was too close to the town, too well within the range of its guns, which could readily sweep him from such a,position, and destroy all his plans. He therefore quickly decided that the heights known as the Buttes-à-Neveu were impracticable as a site for the formation of his army in line of battle.