ps came racing in. But the leading
British, like hounds in full cry, were closing on them so fast that
before they could join his line they were caught in the fury of the
fight. Within a few desperate minutes two French ships were so badly
battered that they had to surrender, while three more were sent to the
bottom. Then the gale shifted and blew Conflans' own line out of
order. He at once tried to move into a better place. But this only
made matters worse. So he anchored in utter confusion, with wrecking
rocks on one side and Hawke's swooping fleet on the other. Once more,
however, he tried a change--this time the bold one of charging out to
sea. But Hawke was too quick for him, though the well-named
_Intrepide_ rushed in between the two racing flagships, the _Royal
George_ and _Soleil Royal_. This was the end. The gale rose to its
height. Darkness closed in. And then, amid the roaring of the battle
and the sea, the victorious British anchored beside all that was left
of the French.

There were no such sea fights on the coasts of Canada, where the
British were in overwhelming naval strength. But never was there a
joint expedition which owed more to its fleet than the one that took
Quebec this same year (1759). The fact that the battles were fought on
the land, and that Wolfe and Montcalm both fell in the one which
decided the fate of Quebec, has made us forget that sea-power had more
to do with this and the other American campaigns than all the other
forces put together. The army did magnificently; and without Wolfe's
and the other armies the conquest could never have been made. But the
point is this, that, while each little army was only a finger of the
hand that drew the British sword in Canada, the fleet which brought the
armies there and kept them going was part and parcel of the whole vast
body of British sea-power united round the world.

Pitt planned to give French Canada the knockout blow in Empire Year.
So, holding the extreme east and west at Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne,
he sent a small force to cut the line of the Lakes at Niagara, a much
larger one to cut into the line of the St. Lawrence from Lake
Champlain, and the largest and strongest of all up the St. Lawrence to
take Quebec, which, then as now, was the key of Canada. Niagara was
taken; and the line of Lake Champlain was secured by Amherst, who,
however, never got through to the St. Lawrence that year. But the
great question was,