repeated charges, in which the Highland broadsword was powerfully wielded, soon completed the victory. As soon as Wolfe received his mortal wound, he said, "Support me! let not my brave soldiers see me drop." He was carried to some distance in the rear,—and hearing the cry "They run!" he asked "Who run?" Being told "The enemy," he gave some short directions, and then said: "Now, God be praised, I die happy!"
We cannot forbear quoting the simple and feeling observations of General Townshend respecting his heroic friend,[1] whose fate threw so affecting a lustre on this memorable victory: "I am not ashamed to own to you, that my heart does not exult in the midst of this success. I have lost but a friend in General Wolfe; our country has lost a sure support and a perpetual honor. If the world were sensible at how dear a price we have purchased Quebec in his death, it would damp the public joy. Our best consolation is, that Providence seemed not to promise that he should remain long among us. He was himself sensible of the weakness of his constitution, and determined to crowd into a few years actions that would have adorned length of life."[2]
The battle had scarcely closed when De Bougainville appeared in the rear, but on seeing the fortune of the day, immediately retreated. On the 17th, a flag of truce came out, and on the 18th, a capitulation was concluded on honorable terms to the French, who were not made prisoners, but conveyed home to their native country.
Canada was, however, not yet conquered. The winter had arrested the farther advance of Amherst and Johnson; and General de Levi, who had assembled at Montreal upwards of ten thousand men, conceived the design of recapturing Quebec in the spring, before it could obtain succors, either by sea or land. Being baffled in his projects to carry it by a coup de main, he landed his army, on the 27th of April, 1760, advanced to the Heights of Abraham, and prepared to carry on a regular siege. General Murray had been left with a garrison of six thousand men; but a severe attack of scurvy had reduced to half that number those who were capable of bearing arms. This officer, dreading that the place was unfit to stand a siege, and hoping much from the bravery of his troops, attacked the enemy, on the 28th of April, at Sillery; but, being overpowered by superior numbers, he was defeated with great loss. If guilty here of any rashness, he atoned for it by the activity with which he placed Quebec in a state of defence, and held out the town till the 15th of May, when a fleet, under Admiral Swanton, arrived and raised the siege.
The French army then concentrated
- ↑ But see Mr. Bancroft's account, (vol. iv., p. 339): he speaks strongly of Townshend's meanness in respect to this battle.
- ↑ The body of Wolfe was conveyed for sepulture to England, and a monument was erected to his memory in Westminster Abbey. A small pillar marks the spot where he fell, on the plains of Abraham; and a pyramid since raised upon the heights of the city, simply bearing the names of "WOLFE" and "MONTCALM," is destined to perpetuate the common memory of these gallant chiefs, and of the memorable battle in which they gloriously fell.
