450 wounded, including 11 officers killed and 46 wounded. In consequence of this repulse, Wolfe sent despatches to England, stating that he had doubts of being able to reduce Quebec during that campaign. [Illustration: _Montmorency Cove._] [Illustration: _Monument to Wolfe and Montcalm_ (near Quebec.)] Prudence and foresight are the characteristics of a good general, as well as of an able statesman. Wolfe called a council of war—he showed that the fire of his ships of war, which had passed and repassed Quebec, had done little damage to the citadel, though the lower town had been nearly destroyed—that further attacks on the Montmorency intrenchments were useless: it was therefore proposed, as the only hope of success, to gain the heights of Abraham behind and above the city, commanding the weakest point of the fortress. The council, composed of the principal naval and military commanders, acceded to this daring proposal; and their heroic leader, although suffering severely from sickness, commenced his operations on the memorable morning of the 13th of September, 1759, with an address, secrecy and silence, that have perhaps never been equalled; indeed, so difficult was the ascent of the narrow pass where the troops landed, that the soldiers had to climb the precipice, by the aid of the branches of shrubs and roots of trees growing among the rocks. De Montcalm found all his vigilance unavailing to guard this important pass—he lost his usual prudence and forbearance, and finding his opponent had gained so much by hazarding all, he, with an infatuation for which it is difficult to account, resolved to meet the British in battle array on the plains of Abraham. The French sallied forth from a strong fortress without field artillery—without even waiting for the return of a large force of 2,000 men, detached as a corps of observation under De Bougainville against the British fleet—and with a heat and precipitation as remarkable as were the coolness of the British. The eagle eye of Wolfe saw that to him retreat was almost impossible; but, while directing his main attention to the steady advance of his right division, he skilfully covered his flanks, and endeavoured to preserve their communication with the shore. Both armies may be said to have been without artillery, the French having only two guns, and the English a light cannon, which the sailors dragged up the heights with ropes; the sabre and the bayonet accordingly decided the day, and never was the nervous strength of the British arm better wielded. The agile Scotch Highlanders, with their stout claymores, served the purpose of cavalry, and the steady fire of the English fusileers compensated in some degree for the want of artillery. The French fought with a desperation heightened by the fanaticism to which their priests had excited them against the English heretics, while the heroism of De Montcalm was as conspicuous as that of his illustrious