piercing eyes one might get a Wolfe's James Wolfe glimpse of the illhoused spirit of the man-an imperious will that dominated its tabernacle and forced the inert clay to execute the mandates of the soul. Such was the about-to-be conqueror of Quebec. As his army was not as large as he had asked, Wolfe suggested that the choice of his chief officers would be a partial compensation, and this, with one exception, was in the operations against Gel: Townshend. Louisburg, and Wolfe had a high opinion of his military 17 59 qualities. As his quartermaster-general, Wolfe selected Guy Carleton, later governor-general of Canada and the first Lord Dorchester. This appointment was made only after repeated efforts, for Carleton had incurred the enmity of the king by some ill-advised remarks about the Hanoverian troops; George twice struck his name off the list but was finally induced by Pitt to lay aside his prejudices. The command of the naval forces was given to Admiral Admiral Sir Charles Saunders who, by training and by temperament, was admirably fitted for the task before him. He had been with Anson on his famous cruise around the world, was with Hawke in the battle off Cape Finisterre in 1747, and, in command of the "Yarmouth" of sixty-four guns, had captured a French vessel of seventy guns after a desperate engagement, and had seen much other active service. Skilful and resourceful, he also had abundant tact, a quality of importance in conducting a joint expedition. Saunders Your mos -most obedy Chat-Saunders. On the seventeenth of February, Wolfe and Saunders sailed on the "Neptune" from Portsmouth for Louis Wolfe and 1759 burg, the selected rendezvous. "In a few hours, the whole squadron was at sea, the transports, the frigates, and the great line-of-battle ships, with their ponderous armament and freight of rude humanity armed and trained for destruction; while on the heaving deck of the 'Neptune,' wretched with sea-sickness and racked with pain, stood the gallant invalid who was master of it all." A few days earlier, the squadron of Admiral Holmes had sailed for New York to fetch thence troops, and that of Admiral Durell had sailed for the Saint Lawrence to intercept the ships that France had sent with supplies for Quebec. Off Louisburg The English The voyage of Wolfe and Saunders was made without special incident. When the fleet arrived off Louisburg, "scarred with shot and shell and the red cross floating over its battered ramparts," the harbor was still choked with ice, and anchorage had to be found at Halifax. Late in May, however, the whole fleet, with the exception of ten vessels under Admiral Durell, was gathered at the rendezvous where the troops also were assembled. Among these troops was the forty-third regiment which had spent the winter in garrison in Fort Cumberland on the hill of Beausejour. Among the officers of this regiment was Captain John Knox to whose blunt, matter-offact record of events from day to day the serious student of the struggle for 'the possession of New France is under lasting obligation. Durell's mission was almost a failure for all but three of the French supply ships eluded him. By the end of May, Quebec had received all the succor that was expected from the mother country. All told, the army and fleet constituted the most formidable armament ever gathered in the Western Hemisphere. There were forty-nine warships, including one ship of ninety guns, two of eighty, three of seventy-four, and four of seventy, manned by more than thirteen thousand of the best sailors and marines in the world. In addition, there were seventy-six transports and one hundred and fifty-two smaller craft, manned by about five thousand men of whom three thousand were Americans. The army itself was not as large as had been intended; 1 7 5 9 the orders for some West India regiments had been countermanded and the reinforcements from the garrisons in New York and Nova Scotia had fallen short of what had been anticipated. Instead of twelve thousand, the number embarked was only eight thousand five hundred and thirty-five. But most of these were well-seasoned veterans; there were only five companies of American rangers, although others arrived later. These colonial troops were, Wolfe said, newly raised, badly equipped, and the worst soldiers in the world. On By the middle of May, Durell's advance squadron was on to Quebec at Isle aux Coudres in the Saint Lawrence River. the first of June, the rest of the fleet began to sail from Louisburg and, by the sixth, every vessel had left the harbor. All on board were in high spirits, the bands played the time-honored tune, "The Girl I Left Behind Me," the men cheered lustily, and at the mess tables the officers drank the toast, "British colors on every French fort, post, and garrison in America." Among the officers were some who were later famous, Jervis (Earl Saint Vincent), Isaac Barré, the parliamentary friend of America, and William Howe. The ascent of the Saint Lawrence was a dangerous Pilots undertaking. The officers and sailors of the fleet were Secured unacquainted with the reefs and shoals and treacherous currents and cross-currents of the river, fogs were frequent, and between the Atlantic and Quebec there was a then mysterious variation of the compass of twenty degrees or more. But the English had some captured charts and a French pilot whom they had taken at sea and now compelled to serve them under penalty of being hanged if he refused. Additional pilots had been secured by one of Durell's stratagems. When his squadron was abreast of Bic, where river pilots were usually taken on board, the foremost vessel ran up French colors to the great joy of the Canadians on shore who thought that a French fleet had come and that New France was safe. As usual, the waiting pilots took to their canoes and |