THE TROOPS LAND AT THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM.

In consequence of the resolution taken to quit the camp at Montmorenci, the troops and artillery were re-embarked, and landed at Point Levi: they afterwards passed up the river in transports, while admiral Holmes made a movement with his ships to amuse the enemy posted on the north shore; and the men being much crowded on board, the general ordered one-half of them to be landed for refreshment on the other side of the river. As no possibility appeared of annoying the enemy above the town, the scheme of operations was totally changed. A plan was formed for conveying the troops farther down in boats, and landing them in the night within a league of Cape Diamond, in hopes of ascending the heights of Abraham, which rise abruptly with a steep ascent from the banks of the river, that they might take possession of the ground on the back of the city, where it was but indifferently fortified. The dangers and difficulties attending the execution of this design were so peculiarly discouraging, that one would imagine it could not have been embraced but by a spirit of enterprise that bordered on desperation. The stream was rapid; the shore shelving; the bank of the river lined with sentinels; the landing place so narrow as to be easily missed in the dark; and the ground so difficult as hardly to be surmounted in the day-time, had no opposition been expected. If the enemy had received the least intimation from spy or deserter, or even suspected the scheme; had the embarkation been disordered in consequence of the darkness of the night, the rapidity of the river, or the shelving nature of the north shore, near which they were obliged to row; had one sentinel been alarmed, or the landing place much mistaken; the heights of Abraham must have been instantly secured by such a force as would, have rendered the undertaking abortive: confusion would necessarily have ensued in the dark; and this would have naturally produced a panic, which might have proved fatal to the greater part of the detachment. These objections could not escape the penetration of the gallant Wolfe, who nevertheless adopted the plan without hesitation, and even executed it in person; though at that time labouring under a severe dysentery and fever, which had exhausted his constitution, and reduced him almost to an extremity of weakness. The previous steps being taken, and the time fixed for this hazardous attempt, admiral Holmes moved with his squadron farther up the river, about three leagues above the place appointed for the disembarkation, that he might deceive the enemy, and amuse M. de Bougainville, whom Montcalm had detached with fifteen hundred men to watch the motions of that squadron; but the English admiral was directed to sail down the river in the night, so as to protect the landing of the forces; and these orders he punctually fulfilled. On the twelfth day of September, an hour after midnight, the first embarkation, consisting of four complete regiments, the light infantry commanded by colonel Howe, a detachment of Highlanders, and the American grenadiers, was made in flat-bottomed boats, under the immediate command of the brigadiers Monck-ton and Murray; though general Wolfe accompanied them in person, and was among the first who landed; and they began to fall down with the tide, to the intended place of disembarkation, rowing close to the north shore in order to find it the more easily. Without any disorder the boats glided gently along: but by the rapidity of the tide, and the darkness of the night, the boats over-shot the mark, and the troops landed a little below the place at which the disembarkation was intended. 513 [See note 3 Z, at the end of this Vol.] As the troops landed the boats were sent back for the second embarkation, which was superintended by brigadier Townshend. In the meantime, colonel Howe, with the light infantry and the Highlanders, ascended the woody precipices with admirable courage and activity, and dislodged a sergeant’s guard which defended a small intrenched narrow path, by which alone the rest of the forces could reach the summit. Then they mounted without further molestation from the enemy, and the general drew them up in order as they arrived. Monsieur de Montcalm no sooner understood that the English had gained the heights of Abraham, which in a manner commanded the town on its weakest part, than he resolved to hazard a battle; and began his march without delay, after having collected his whole force from the side of Beauport.