The brigadiers assembled in consequence of this communication, and, after having maturely deliberated, agreed in recommending the remarkable plan which Wolfe unreservedly adopted. The merit of this daring and skillful proposition belongs to Colonel George Townshend, although long disputed, or withheld by jealousy or political hostility. This able officer had left every happiness that domestic life could bestow, and every gratification which fortune and position could procure, to face the hardships and seek the honors of his country's service. When the ministry's determination to prepare the expedition against Quebec became known, he successfully exerted his powerful interest to obtain employment, and was appointed to the third post of seniority in Wolfe's army. The general plan of operations being arranged, preparations were commenced to carry it into execution. The prospect of action revived the drooping spirits of the British troops, and tended considerably to improve their health; fever had been rife among them: a number of men and officers had already died, and the temporary hospitals were still crowded. Supplies had become so scant that horseflesh was frequently served out as rations. The duties were rendered peculiarly harassing by the subtle and dangerous hostility of the savages: although invariably defeated, they seldom failed in the first instance to surprise and massacre some hapless stragglers; and no outpost was ever safe from their attacks. The Canadians were scarcely less dangerous and vindictive; their knowledge of the country, and activity in forest warfare, gave them a great advantage over the British soldiers in irregular encounters; but, whenever they ventured to act in bodies, they were sure to meet with severe chastisement. The invaders, however, were not backward in revenging these injuries; for miles round their camp, and on the banks of the river, they devastated the country without mercy. Stimulated by the sight of the ruin wrought in neighboring parishes, the unfortunate priest of Château Richer armed some eighty of his flock, and fortified himself in a large stone house, about ten miles eastward of the British camp, at Montmorency; from thence he sent a message, defying to the combat an English detachment posted in his neighborhood. At the same time, however, conveying in a note a polite request for the favor of the commanding officer's company at dinner, with an assurance of a safe-conduct. The strange but simple courtesy was of course rejected. In a short time a detachment of light troops, with a field-piece, was sent against the fortified house; the English took post in an adjoining road, and by a stratagem contrived to draw the little garrison from their defenses, and surrounded thirty of them, who were slain and scalped, including the unhappy priest himself. The excuse pleaded for this atrocious barbarity was, that the victims were disguised as Indians.