"TO CHEAT THE DEVIL YET."
My hurt proved more serious than I had looked for, and the day
after my escape I was in a high fever. General Wolfe himself,
having heard of my return, sent to inquire after me. He also was
ill, and our forces were depressed in consequence; for he had a
power to inspire them not given to any other of our accomplished
and admirable generals. He forbore to question me concerning the
state of the town and what I had seen; for which I was glad. My
adventure had been of a private nature, and such I wished it to
remain. The general desired me to come to him as soon as I was
able, that I might proceed with him above the town to reconnoitre.
But for many a day this was impossible, for my wound gave me much
pain and I was confined to my bed.
Yet we on the Terror of France served our good general, too; for
one dark night, when the wind was fair, we piloted the remaining
ships of Admiral Holmes's division above the town. This move was
made on my constant assertion that there was a way by which Quebec
might be taken from above; and when General Wolfe made known my
representations to his general officers, they accepted it as a
last resort; for otherwise what hope had they? At Montmorenci our
troops had been repulsed, the mud flats of the Beauport shore and
the St. Charles River were as good as an army against us; the
Upper Town and citadel were practically impregnable; and for
eight miles west of the town to the cove and river at Cap Rouge
there was one long precipice, broken in but one spot; but just
there, I was sure, men could come up with stiff climbing as I
had done. Bougainville came to Cap Rouge now with three thousand
men, for he thought that this was to be our point of attack.
Along the shore from Cap Rouge to Cape Diamond small batteries
were posted, such as that of Lancy's at Anse du Foulon; but they
were careless, for no conjectures might seem so wild as that of
bringing an army up where I had climbed.
"Tut, tut," said General Murray, when he came to me on the
Terror of France, after having, at my suggestion, gone to the
south shore opposite Anse du Foulon, and scanned the faint line
that marked the narrow cleft on the cliff side--"tut, tut, man,"
said he, "'tis the dream of a cat or a damned mathematician."
Once, after all was done, he said to me that cats and
mathematicians were the only generals.
With a belligerent pride Clark showed the way up the river one
evening, the batteries of the town giving us plunging shots as we
went, and ours at Point Levis answering gallantly. To me it was a
good if most anxious time: good, in that I was having some sort of
compensation for my own sufferings in the town; anxious, because no
single word came to me of Alixe or her father, and all the time we
were pouring death into the place.
But this we knew from deserters, that Vaudreuil was Governor
and Bigot Intendant still; by which it would seem that, on the
momentous night when Doltaire was wounded by Madame Cournal, he
gave back the governorship to Vaudreuil and reinstated Bigot.
Presently, from an officer who had been captured as he was setting
free a fire-raft upon the river to run among the boats of our
fleet, I heard that Doltaire had been confined in the Intendance
from a wound given by a stupid sentry. Thus the true story had been
kept from the public. From him, too, I learned that nothing was
known of the Seigneur Duvarney and his daughter; that they had
suddenly disappeared from the Intendance, as if the earth had
swallowed them; and that even Juste Duvarney knew nothing of them,
and was, in consequence, much distressed.
This officer also said that now, when it might seem as if both
the Seigneur and his daughter were dead, opinion had turned in
Alixe's favour, and the feeling had crept about, first among the
common folk and afterwards among the people of the garrison, that
she had been used harshly. This was due largely, he thought, to the
constant advocacy of the Chevalier de la Darante, whose nephew had
married Mademoiselle Georgette Duvarney. This piece of news, in
spite of the uncertainty of Alixe's fate, touched me, for the
Chevalier had indeed kept his word to me.
At last all of Admiral Holmes's division was got above the town,
with very little damage, and I never saw a man so elated, so
profoundly elated as Clark over his share in the business. He was
a daredevil, too; for the day that the last of the division was
taken up the river, without my permission or the permission of the
admiral or any one else, he took the Terror of France almost up to
Bougainville's earthworks in the cove at Cap Rouge and insolently
emptied his six swivels into them, and then came out and stood
down the river. When I asked what he was doing--for I was now well
enough to come on deck--he said he was going to see how monkeys
could throw nuts; when I pressed him, he said he had a will to
hear the cats in the eaves; and when I became severe, he added
that he would bring the Terror of France up past the batteries of
the town in broad daylight, swearing that they could no more hit
him than a woman could a bird on a flagstaff. I did not relish this
foolish bravado, and I forbade it; but presently I consented, on
condition that he take me to General Wolfe's camp at Montmorenci
first; for now I felt strong enough to be again on active service.
Clark took the Terror of France up the river in midday, running
perilously close to the batteries; and though they pounded at him
petulantly, foolishly angry at his contemptuous defiance, he ran
the gauntlet safely, and coming to the flagship, the Sutherland,
saluted with his six swivels, to the laughter of the whole fleet
and his own profane joy.
"Mr. Moray," said General Wolfe, when I saw him, racked with
pain, studying a chart of the river and town which his chief
engineer had just brought him, "show me here this passage in the
hillside."
I did so, tracing the plains of Maitre Abraham, which I
assured him would be good ground for a pitched battle. He nodded;
then rose, and walked up and down for a time, thinking. Suddenly
he stopped, and fixed his eyes upon me.
"Mr. Moray," said he, "it would seem that you, angering La
Pompadour, brought down this war upon us." He paused, smiling in a
dry way, as if the thought amused him, as if indeed he doubted it;
but for that I cared not, it was an honour I could easily live
without.