Wolfe studied out the situation and, emboldened by the good news from the Lakes, planned an assault by night. Carefully selecting the place, he told no one but the admiral and the captain who was to lead the great procession of boats to the assault. Shortly after midnight on September 12th, 1759, the boats in line dropped down the river with Wolfe and his staff in the leading boat. They passed successfully a French sentry who thought they were a French convoy, and about four o’clock on that autumn morning Wolfe leaped ashore at a cove about a mile and a half above the city, and led his men up the steep path which he had already carefully investigated. Again they successfully answered the challenge of a sentry and by six o’clock the whole landing force was on the heights. It was a surprise to the French, but even then the chance for recovery would have been greater if Montcalm had not been hampered by having to consult the governor on all details. This was a national crisis. Half a continent was at stake and yet the man whose training had been for this purpose, whose business it was to know what to do at such a crisis, had to lay his plans before a political appointee, who in turn used his power for the humiliation of the expert military leader. But Montcalm was a patriot, and he made the best of the situation. By nine o’clock the French marched out in battle array against Wolfe’s army, which by this time had reached the level known as the Plains of Abraham. The armies were almost equal in numbers, approximately 5,000 each, and as the French advanced to the attack, which was their best policy, Wolfe, advancing his men so that the action would be close, gave the order that no shot was to be fired until the enemy was within forty paces. It was a difficult matter to remain steady and resist the temptation to fire, but they did, and when at forty paces a volley was let loose, followed immediately by a second, the French line wavered and Wolfe gave the order to charge. The French could not withstand the shock and the battle was won. Wolfe, already wounded, received a death wound in the first moment of the charge. While being carried to the rear he heard some one say, “They run, they run!” Wolfe roused himself and asked, “Who run?” “The French, sir! Egad! they give way everywhere!” “Then I die content.” And so passed away the young intrepid general, who had recognized fully the great issues involved in this encounter and on the previous evening had made a disposition of all his belongings. And Montcalm, while trying to rally the fugitives, was stricken down, and when told that he could not live, replied calmly, “So much the better. I am happy not to live to see the surrender of Quebec.”