1759. MONTCALM DEFEATED. 39 was performed with equal success-the French picquet, scared and astounded at such an unexpected assault upon their post, having run away. Meantime, the reserve of the English had disembarked; and the whole army having scrambled up the hill, each man as he could in the dead of the night, were drawn out in order of battle on the plain above, at dawn of day. The Marquis de Montcalm, having satisfied himself by ocular observation, that the intel Montcalm ligence which had been conveyed to him defeated." was not merely another stratagem of the invader to seduce him from his entrenchments, instantly gave orders for his army to pass the St. Charles, and hasten to the battle which he fully anticipated would result in the utter destruction of the daring foe. His arrangements were promptly made, and with the skill which sustained his high military reputation. But the English knew that they must conquer or die, and they saw their heroic chief, having made his final dispositions, station himself in the post of danger. Wolfe adopted the same plan which Nelson, on the other element, always employed with such terrible and decisive effect. He reserved his fire until the enemy should approach within close range. Then their career was suddenly arrested by one general volley of musketry; and, upon the disorder and carnage produced by this discharge, Wolfe himself, although already wounded, rushed forward at the head of his Grenadiers to the charge. The confusion of the enemy was then completed, and the English had only to pursue their flight. Death of Wolfe. But their leader was left behind: pierced by three musket balls, two of them mortal wounds, his dim eyes, over which the veil of death rapidly gathered, were still anxiously strained, in the intervals of agony, towards the raging conflict. He lived to hear the joyful tidings of victory. 'God 40 CONQUEST OF CANADA. CH. I. be praised!' said he with his last breath; I die happy.' Death of A similar fate befell the French General, the gallant Marquis de Montcalm: struck down, in the act of rallying his disordered troops, he was borne from the field into the town. When informed of his approaching death, he expressed satisfaction at the intelligence. It is well,' said the high-spirited Frenchman, I shall not then see the surrender of Quebec.' General Monckton having also fallen, the command devolved upon Townshend, who received the capitulation of the city. Surrender of The intelligence of the surrender of Quebec arrived in England only three days after the publication of that despatch by which Wolfe had prepared his country for the failure of the service entrusted to him. The revulsion of the public mind was therefore the greater at this glorious disappointment of their General's gloomy anticipations. The enthusiasm was indeed unbounded. The people voluntarily put on mourning: and every public honour was heaped upon the memory of the departed hero. Subjugation of Canada. The subjugation of the whole of the fine province of Canada was completed in the following year. Montreal, the capital of Lower Canada, surrendered to Amherst, and an ineffectual attempt having been made to recover Quebec, the whole territory was finally evacuated by the French in the autumn of 1760. The Canadas thus became and have since continued a part of the British empire. A few weeks after the conquest of Quebec, all fears of invasion were dissipated, and a decisive blow was given to the naval power of France by the victory of the Channel squadron, commanded by Sir Edward Hawke, over the French fleet under M. de Conflans. The action was fought Sir Edward 1759. HAWKE'S NAVAL VICTORY. 41 under circumstances which showed how the masterspirit of Pitt had infused itself into this as well as into the other arm of the service. Hawke was the officer, who, four years before, had held the same command under orders, the execution of which became a pirate rather than a British admiral. But the duty now prescribed to him was not the pursuit and capture of helpless traders; it was to maintain. the inviolability of England, and to assail the armed power of her great and formidable rival. During the summer, Hawke had been engaged in watching the French fleet, which lay safe in the harbour, under the ramparts of Brest. But having been driven back upon his own coast by the gales of November, De Conflans took the opportunity of coming out, for the purpose of cutting out a small detachment of English cruisers, under Captain Duff, which lay in Quiberon Bay. Hawke, anticipating his design, put to sea again immediately, and Naval victory at having effected a junction with Duff be- Belleisle. fore the French Admiral could come up with him, he assumed the offensive. Conflans, however, whose force was inferior to that of his opponent, by two ships of the line and six frigates, declining an engagement, withdrew his fleet between the island of Belleisle and the main land, within a line of rocks and shoals, which appeared to afford a sufficient protection against any hostile attempt. And so it would have done, had the English commander balanced the chances of success and failure according to professional routine. He ordered the signal to be made for action. The master duly reported the extreme peril of the navigation. The Admiral's answer was in the tone and spirit which now directed the councils of Whitehall. You have done your duty,' said he, in making this representation. Now obey my orders, and lay me alongside the French Admiral.' A complete victory was the result. Four of the 42 WAR ON THE CONTINENT. CH. I. enemy's ships of the line were destroyed; two surrendered. The rest of the fleet were dispersed. The naval power of France was thus disabled for the remainder of the war. Frederick the cess. While almost unqualified success thus attended the skill and daring with which the British arms were wielded both by sea and land, the war against French ascendancy was carried on upon the continent of Europe with equal courage and conduct, but not with the like measure of sucIn the summer of 1759, the King of Prussia experienced a terrible reverse. He was defeated in a pitched battle with the Russians at Kunersdorf, near the city of Frankfort, and his army was almost destroyed. His capital lay open to the enemy, and had they promptly profited by the advantage, the military career of the great Frederick would probably have been closed for ever. He was himself prepared for this catastrophe; he wrote to his chief minister at Berlin, announcing the ruinous disaster which had befallen him, and his determination not to survive it. He gave directions to the general who was his second in command relative to the succession of the crown, and pointed out the means which might yet be available for the defence of the capital. Having made these arrangements, he resigned himself to that philosophy which taught him that self-destruction was preferable to submission, and calmly awaited the event. But fortune had not abandoned him. The Russian General failed to improve his victory. Frederick, on the other hand, with his usual promptitude, took advantage of a delay which offered him another chance of regaining his lost position; in a few days. he had collected an army of thirty thousand men ; and though two of his generals severally encountered serious reverses during the same campaign, he went into winter quarters, not materially reduced, 1759. AUSTRIANS DEFEATED AT TORGAU. 43 nor at all disheartened by the disasters which he had sustained. The campaign in Germany was renewed the following year. Frederick attempted the Dresden siege of Dresden, but being baffled by bombarded. the resolution with which it was defended, he indulged a brutal spirit of revenge by bombarding the city, and thus inflicting death and ruin upon its defenceless inhabitants. Such an act as this deprives the Prussian monarch of all the sympathy which arises in favour of the undaunted defender of his country, and reduces the applause of history to a cold acknowledgment of those great mental and moral qualities which he displayed throughout his eventful career. Leaving Dresden partially destroyed, the King of Prussia marched into Silesia, followed by the Austrian Marshal Daun, at the head of a great army, with two other armies of Austrians and Russians to oppose his progress. Over one of these corps he obtained a victory which saved Silesia. But a body of combined Austrians and Russians pushed forward to Berlin, which, after a gallant resistance, was forced to capitulate. The allies retired, however, at the approach of Frederick, whose energy relieved his capital in three days. Having effected this object, Frederick determined to attack the allies in their stronghold, Daun Saxony, of which they had entire posses- defeated. sion. A more daring movement can hardly be conceived. Daun, the ablest of Frederick's antagonists, was posted in a strong position at Torgau on the River Elbe, with an army greatly superior in numbers and in artillery. From this position there was no chance of dislodging him but by an action; yet, hazardous and almost hopeless as this would be, the alternative presented so many certain evils and probable calamities, that the Prussian monarch decided upon an |