A Dialogue in Hades: A Parallel of Military Errors, of Which the French and English Armies Were Guilty, During the Campaign of 1759, in Canada — John Shaqi
A Dialogue in Hades: A Parallel of Military Errors, of Which the French and English Armies Were Guilty, During the Campaign of 1759, in CanadaJohnstone, James Johnstone, chevalier de
History
A Dialogue in Hades: A Parallel of Military Errors, of Which the French and English Armies Were Guilty, During the Campaign of 1759, in Canada
Johnstone, James Johnstone, chevalier de
Québec Campaign, Québec, 1759; United States -- History -- French and Indian War, 1754-1763
[Published under the auspices of the Literary and Historical Society
of Quebec.]
A DIALOGUE IN HADES.
A PARALLEL OF MILITARY ERRORS, OF WHICH THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH ARMIES
WERE GUILTY, DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF 1759, IN CANADA.
THE MARQUIS DE MONTCALM:--Having ardently desired a conversation with
you, sir, upon the operations of a campaign which proved to both of us
so fatal, I have sought you continually amongst the shades ever since I
descended here, where I soon followed you.
GENERAL WOLFE:--I can assure you, sir, I was equally impatient to meet
with you. Some of my countrymen, arrived here since the battle of the
13th September, informed me that there was only an interval of a few
hours in our sharing the same hard fate. They gave me some accounts
of that event which joined Canada to the British dominions; but as
they had a very imperfect knowledge of the circumstances, and entirely
ignorant of your plan of operations, I have little information from
them, and I am heartily glad that chance at last has procured me the
pleasure of seeing you.
MONTCALM:--Will you permit me, sir, before our conversation becomes
serious, to offer some reflections upon the difference in our destiny.
Your nation rendered you the greatest honours; your body was conveyed
to London, and buried there magnificently in Westminster Abbey,
amongst your kings. Generous Britons erected to your memory a superb
monument over your grave, at public expense; and your name, most
dear to your countrymen, is ever in their mouths, accompanied with
praise and regret. But in my country what a strange indifference?
What sensation did my death make upon my compatriots? My conduct
denounced and censured without measure, is the continual subject of
conversation for gossiping fools and knaves, who form the majority in
all communities, and prevail against the infinitely small number to be
found of honest, judicious, impartial men, capable of reflection. The
Canadians and savages who knew the uprightness of my soul, ever devoted
to the interests of my beloved king and country, they alone rendered
me justice, with a few sincere friends, who, not daring to oppose
themselves openly to the torrent of my enemies, bewailed in secret my
unhappy fate, and shed on my tomb their friendly tears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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