Grandma Elsie took a moment to collect her thoughts, then gave
the little ones very much the same story of the settlement and
after-history of Montreal that Lucilla had heard from their father
earlier in the day. From that she went on to give a similar account of
Quebec.
"The city," she said, "is built upon a steep promontory, where two
rivers, the St. Lawrence, on which we now are, and the St. Charles
meet. There was formerly an Indian village there called Stadacona.
Jacques Cartier, the same person I have been telling you about as
the first white man who visited this spot where Montreal now stands,
discovered that Indian village in the same year. But the city of Quebec
was not founded until 1608; and not by Cartier, but by another man
named Champlain, who on the third day of July of that year raised over
it a white flag. Soon afterward rude cottages were built, a few acres
of ground cleared, and one or two gardens were planted."
"Is that all of it there is now, grandma?" asked Elsie.
"Oh, no, my child! there is a city with a very strong fortress; there
are colleges and churches; there is a building yard for vessels, where
thirty or forty are built every year. Quebec has a very fine harbor,
where many vessels can ride at anchor at the same time, and I have read
that from fourteen hundred to two thousand come in every year from the
ocean."
"Just to ride there, grandma?" asked Neddie, with grave earnestness.
Then he wondered why grandma smiled at his query and everybody else
laughed.
"No, sonnie," Mrs. Travilla replied, "but to trade. They bring goods
to the people--silk, cotton, woolen; salt too, coal, and hardware. And
they carry away what the folks in Canada have to sell, which is mostly
timber."
"Did you say French folks live there, grandma?" asked Elsie.
"Yes; it was built by the French in the first place, but taken from
them by the English in 1759."
"That was before our Revolution, wasn't it, grandma?"
"Yes; about sixteen years earlier."
"Please tell about it, grandma."
Grandma kindly complied.
"There was war at that time between England and France," she said,
"and, for that reason, war between the English and French colonies
of America. The French built a strong fortress on the island of Cape
Breton, which is at the mouth of this, the St. Lawrence River; they
began also to build forts along the lakes and the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers. Fleets and armies came over from Europe, and the English and
French colonists, on this side of the ocean, formed armies and engaged
Indians to help them fight each other. The English attacked the French
fortress of Louisburgh on Cape Breton Island, and took it. Then Wolfe,
who was in command, put his troops on board of vessels, and went on up
the river as far as the island of Orleans, a few miles below Quebec.
There they built batteries for guns, intending to fire upon Quebec,
where was the French general, Montcalm, with an army of 13,000 men;
some of them regulars, the rest Canadians and Indians.
"But I will not go into all the particulars, as you two little ones
could hardly understand them well enough to be much interested."
"Oh, yes, grandma, please go on," exclaimed Elsie.
"The English were unsuccessful at first, if I remember right, mamma?"
remarked Rosie inquiringly.
"Yes," replied her mother. "It was nearly night when their divisions
joined, and the grenadiers were so impatient that they charged madly
upon the works of the French before the other troops had time to form
and be ready to sustain them. As a natural consequence they were driven
back to the beach with severe loss, where they sought shelter behind a
redoubt abandoned by the French.
"A storm was brewing, and the French kept up a galling fire, until it
burst upon their foes with great fury. The tide from the ocean came
roaring up against the current of the river with unusual strength,
and the British were obliged to retreat to their camp across the
Montmorency, to avoid being caught in the raging waters and drowned.
They had lost 180 killed and 650 wounded.
"Wolfe, who was not a strong, healthy man, was so distressed over the
calamity that he became really ill. Of course he was much fatigued, and
that, joined to distress of mind, brought on a fever and other illness
that nearly cost him his life. It was almost a month before he was able
to resume command.
"When sufficiently recovered to write a letter, he sent an almost
despairing one to Pitt, but at its close said he would do his best.
Then he and Admiral Saunders contrived their plan for scaling the
Heights of Abraham, and so getting possession of the elevated plateau
at the back of the city, where the fortifications were weakest, the
French engineers having trusted for their defence to the precipices and
the river below.
"Montcalm and his men saw that the English camp was broken up, and
that the troops were conveyed across to Point Levi, then some distance
up the river, by a part of their fleet, while the rest of it remained
behind to feign an attack upon the intrenchment at Beauport. Montcalm,
though he saw these movements, was at a loss to understand them; so
he remained in his camp, while another officer was stationed a little
above the Plains of Abraham, to watch that part of the English fleet
that had sailed up the river.
"At night the troops were all embarked in flat boats and proceeded
up the river with the tide. The French saw them, and marched up the
shore to prevent them from landing. Toward daylight the boats moved
cautiously down the river, with muffled oars, passing the French
without being perceived, and the troops landed safely in a cove below.
They were all on shore by daylight.
"Then the light infantry scrambled up the precipice and dispersed a
French guard stationed there, while the rest of the army climbed up
a winding and steep ravine. Then another division landed, and before
sunrise five thousand British troops were drawn up in battle array on
the Plains of Abraham, three hundred feet above the St. Lawrence."
"How surprised the French must have been!" exclaimed Lucilla.
"Yes," said Mrs. Travilla, "the first intimation Montcalm had of their
intentions was the sight of the English army drawn up there, on what he
had doubtless deemed those inaccessible heights. He at once perceived
that this exposed his garrison and the city to imminent danger, and
immediately marched his whole army across the St. Charles to attack the
enemy.
"It was about ten o'clock when he got his troops there and into battle
line. He had two field-pieces, while the English had but one; only a
light six-pounder which some sailors had dragged up the ravine about
eight o'clock that morning.
"At that time the plains had no fences or inclosures, and extended
to the walls of the city on the St. Louis side, their surface being
dotted over with bushes which furnished places of concealment for the
French and Indian marksmen. I will not attempt to describe the relative
positions of the two armies, which you little ones would hardly
understand. I will only say that Wolfe placed himself on the right, at
the head of a regiment of grenadiers who were burning to avenge their
defeat at the Montmorency, and Montcalm was on the left of the French,
at the head of his regiments.
"Wolfe ordered his men to load their pieces with two bullets each and
reserve their fire until the French should be within forty yards of
them, an order which every man was careful to obey.
"The English fired several rounds, then charged furiously with their
bayonets. Wolfe was urging them on, when some Canadians singled him
out and fired, slightly wounding him in the wrist. He wound his
handkerchief about it and still went on, cheering his men, but quickly
received another wound in the groin; then another struck him in the
breast, and he fell to the ground mortally wounded. But he seemed
hardly to think of himself, only of his troops and gaining the victory.
'Support me; let not my brave soldiers see me drop,' he said to an
officer near him. 'The day is ours--keep it.' Then they carried him to
the rear while his troops were still charging. The officer on whose
shoulder he was leaning cried out, 'They run, they run!' At that the
light came back into the dim eyes of the dying hero and he asked, 'Who
run?' 'The enemy, sir; they give way everywhere,' replied the officer.
'What! do they run already?' asked the feeble, dying voice. 'Go to
Colonel Preston and tell him to march Webb's regiment immediately to
the bridge over the St. Charles, and cut off the fugitives' retreat.
Now, God be praised, I die happy!' He spoke no more, but died, with his
sorrowing companions about him, just in the moment of victory. Montcalm
too was mortally wounded in that battle, and died the next morning
about five o'clock."
"What a pity!" exclaimed little Ned. "What makes men fight so, grandma?"
"If there were no sin there would be no fighting," Grandma Elsie
replied. "There is none in heaven; there all is peace and joy and love."
"Is it bad men that fight, grandma?"
"Not quite always; sometimes a good man has to fight to protect his
wife and children, or other helpless ones, from being injured by a
bad man. If a bad man were trying to hurt your mamma, or one of your
sisters, it would be right for your papa to prevent him, even if he had
to hurt him a great deal in doing so."
"Oh, yes; and when I grow big I won't let anybody hurt my dear mamma or
sisters. I'll help papa drive 'em away if they try to."
"Please, grandma, tell some more," entreated Elsie.
"Yes, dear," said grandma. "The British have kept Quebec ever since
they took it that time, and there was no more fighting there till our
Revolutionary war began some sixteen years later: the 19th of April,
1775. In the fall of that year troops were sent to Canada; some under
Ethan Allen, as you have already learned, some under Montgomery, and
others commanded by Arnold.
"They, poor fellows, had dreadful times pushing their way through the
wilderness, often suffering for lack of sufficient food and raiment,
braving storms and bitter cold. I cannot tell you the whole sad story
now, but you can read it when you are older. Arnold and his men
reached Quebec first, but were not strong enough to attack it, and the
garrison would not come out and fight them on the plains. Then Arnold,
inspecting his arms, found that most of his cartridges were spoiled,
therefore he retreated to a place twenty miles distant. There, on the
1st of December, he was joined by Montgomery and his troops; but very
few of them were fit for fighting, many being sick; also a good many
had deserted, so that the force was small indeed--only about nine
hundred men."
"What's desert, grandma, to run away without leave?" asked Neddie.
"Yes," she replied; "and they generally shoot a soldier for it."
"I think I won't be a soldier when I get big," said the little fellow
reflectively; "'cause I might get scared and run away and the other
fellows might catch me and shoot me; and then papa and mamma would feel
very sorry; wouldn't they, grandma?"
"Yes, indeed! and so would a good many other folks, grandma for one,"
she replied, dropping her work to put an arm about him, stroking his
hair with the other hand, patting his rosy cheek, and kissing him again
and again. "But we hope our little boy will make a good and brave
man, like his father, and never play the coward by running away from
dangerous duty."
"Maxie, my big brother, wouldn't, grandma."
"No, I feel very sure Max would fight for the right and his dear native
land."
"So do I," said Lucilla. "Max is very much like our father in both
looks and character; though papa says Max has a better temper than his.
I never saw papa show a bad temper, but he says he has one and that
that's where I get mine."
"Now, Lu, don't talk in that way about yourself," said Grace. "I've
hardly seen you show any temper at all for years past. If you got it
from papa, you got the power of controlling it too, from him, I think."
At that moment Walter came hurrying down from the deck, whither he had
gone shortly before, his face full of joyous excitement.
"Folks," he cried, "do you know that it is clearing off? The sun is out
and the clouds are retreating rapidly before it. Surely the change will
bring grandpa and the captain back in haste, after the rest of us. So I
think we should better be making our preparations as fast as possible."
"Why, my dear young brother," laughed Rosie, "one would imagine our
lives or fortunes, one or both, depended on our seeing the sights of
Montreal to-day."
"Very well, my wise sister, you can stay behind, if you wish," laughed
the lad; "but I'm bound to make one of the exploring party. And there!
they have come, for I hear Brother Levis' voice on deck."
The words had scarcely left his lips when Captain Raymond's quick,
manly step was heard coming down the companion-way; then his pleasant
voice, saying, "Everybody who wants to see Montreal to-day must make
haste to don hat and coat or shawl, for the air will be quite cool in
driving."
"Oh, have you brought a carriage for us, papa?" asked little Elsie.
"Yes," he replied; "we have three of what they call _calèches_ out here
on the wharf. They are pleasant vehicles to ride in, and the three will
hold us all very comfortably. We will not want to stop anywhere for
dinner," he continued turning to Violet, "so I have ordered a lunch put
up for each _calèche_."
"My dear, you think of everything," she said, with an admiring
affectionate look up into his face. "We will be ready in ten minutes;
we need no preparations but what you have advised."