From boat to boat the General's eye passed, then shifted to the ships--the _Squirrel_, the _Leostaff_, the _Seahorse_, and the rest--and lastly, to the spot where lay the army of Bougainville. Now an officer came towards him, who said, quietly, "The tide has turned, sir." For reply, he made a swift motion towards the _Sutherland's_ maintop shrouds, and almost instantly lanterns showed in them. In response, the crowded boats began to cast away. Immediately descending the General passed into his boat, drew to the front, and drifted in the current ahead of his gallant forces. It was two hours after midnight when the boats began to move, and slowly they ranged down the stream, silently steered and carried by the ebbing tide. No paddle, no creaking oarlock broke the stillness; but ever and anon the booming of a thirty-two pounder from the Point Lévi battery echoed up the river walls. To a young midshipman beside him, the General turned and said, "How old are you, sir?" "Seventeen, sir," was the reply. "It is the most lasting passion," he said, musing. Then, after a few moments' silence, he repeated aloud these verses from Gray's _Elegy_-- "The curfew tolls the knell of parting day; The lowing herds wind slowly o'er the lea; The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. * * * * * "The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour-- The paths of glory lead but to the grave." "Gentlemen," he said, "I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec." Meanwhile, the tide had swept the foremost boats round the headland above the _Anse du Foulon_,[30] a tiny bay where Wolfe had determined to land. Suddenly, down from the dark heights there came a challenge: "_Qui vive?_" "_La France_," answered an officer of Fraser's Highlanders, who had learned French in Flanders. "_À quel Régiment?_" "_De la Reine_," responded the Highlander; and to disarm suspicion he added, "_Ne faites pas de bruit, ce sont les vivres._" From a deserter, the English had learned that a convoy of provisions was expected down the river that night; and the officer's response deceived the sentry. [Note 30: Now known as Wolfe's Cove.] The boats of the Light Infantry swung in to the shore. The twenty-four volunteers, who had been given the hazardous task of scaling the cliff and overpowering Vergor's guard at the top of the path, now commenced the ascent. On the strand below, the van of Wolfe's army breathlessly waited the signal to dash up the cliff to support their daring scouts. Presently quick ringing shots told the anxious General that his men had begun their work, and in a few moments a thin British cheer claimed possession of the rocky pathway up which Wolfe's battalions now swarmed in the misty grey of early morning.