heureux_? Can it be surmised that
fortune acts with her favorite sons at the head of armies, as she does
at gambling tables? However it may be, a great General will always
watch vigilantly the chapter of accidents--seize rapidly that which is
favorable to him, and, by his prudence, foresight and circumspection,
will ward off and correct what is contrary to his interests. The
smallest things are not unworthy of his attention; they often produce
the greatest events, and the neglecting what at first view might
appear trivial, has often overturned the best-calculated schemes. The
most trifling of our actions becomes often a first cause which
produces an endless chain of effects--linked to each other--of the
greatest importance. The boat sunk by the ice, at Cap Rouge, was a
first cause. The cannonier, by this accident, was upon a sheet of ice
in the middle of the St. Lawrence, opposite to Quebec; this inspired
with pity the English to save his life. This humane action of the
English in saving the unhappy cannonier, saved Quebec from being taken
by surprise, which probably would have been the case without his
information, that M. de Levis' army was at Cap Rouge. If taken by M.
de Levis, it would have deterred the English from any further attempt
upon Canada, and peace would have soon ensued. But by the cannonier's
declaration, it was not taken, and consequently the war was prolonged.

Quebec in possession of the English rendered the conquest of Canada
inevitable and sure. The possession of that vast country of Canada,
after so much blood, and such immense expenses it had cost the English
in these different expeditions, excited too much the cupidity of the
English to consent to a peace upon reasonable conditions, and induced
them to extend their conquest to other French colonies.

The possession of so many French and Spanish colonies by the English
brought about the shameful peace that France and Spain were obliged to
receive at the hands of the English, upon the hardest terms, as laws
of the conqueror.

The boat upset and sunk at Cap Rouge was the primary cause and the
first link of the chain which had the greatest influence over all the
affairs of Europe. If M. de Levis had saved the cannonier at Cap
Rouge, what a multitude of events would have been nipped in the bud!
Perhaps even Great Britain would have been forced to receive the peace
from France instead of granting it on her own conditions.

There is scarcely any hum