I copy the following interesting Note from the _London Chronicle_, August
19, 1788:
It is a circumstance not generally known, but believed by the army
which served under General Wolfe, that his death-wound was not received
by the common chance of war, but given by a deserter from his own
regiment. The circumstances are thus related:--The General perceived
one of the sergeants of his regiment strike a man under arms (an act
against which he had given particular orders), and knowing the man to
be a good soldier, reprehended the aggressor with much warmth, and
threatened to reduce him to the ranks. This so far incensed the
sergeant, that he took the first opportunity of deserting to the enemy,
where he meditated the means of destroying the General, which he
effected by being placed in the enemy's left wing, which was directly
opposite the right of the British line, where Wolfe commanded in
person, and where he was marked out by the miscreant, who was provided
with a rifle piece, and, unfortunately for this country, effected his
purpose. After the defeat of the French army, the deserters were all
removed to Crown Point, which being afterwards suddenly invested and
taken by the British army, the whole of the garrison fell into the
hands of the captors; when the sergeant of whom we have been speaking
was hanged for desertion, but before the execution of his sentence
confessed the facts above recited."[3]
In Smith's _Marylebone_, p. 272., is a notice of Lieutenant McCulloch,
according to whose plan Wolfe attacked Quebec. McCulloch became destitute,
and died in Marylebone workhouse in 1793. A letter from Wolfe to Admiral
Saunders is in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1801; and one addressed by
him to Barré was sold by Puttick and Simpson about three years since.
A portrait of Wolfe by Sir Joshua Reynolds is in possession of Mr. Cole of
Worcester.
Since my last notice, I have heard that Mr. Henry George, proprietor of the
_Westerham Journal_, made some collections towards a life of Wolfe: if so,
it is not improbable that Mr. Streatfield obtained them at his sale in
1844. In conclusion, I beg to inquire, whence come the lines quoted by the
Marquis of Lansdowne?--
"Enough for him
That Chatham's language was his mother-tongue,
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own."