crowning exploit of the war. But for a while his
sagacity seemed to have failed. No efforts could draw Montcalm from the
long line of inaccessible cliffs which borders the river, and for six
weeks Wolfe saw his men wasting away in inactivity while he himself lay
prostrate with sickness and despair. At last his resolution was fixed,
and in a long line of boats the army dropped down the St. Lawrence to a
point at the base of the Heights of Abraham, where a narrow path had
been discovered to the summit. Not a voice broke the silence of the
night save the voice of Wolfe himself, as he quietly repeated the
stanzas of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard," remarking as he
closed, "I had rather be the author of that poem than take Quebec." But
his nature was as brave as it was tender; he was the first to leap on
shore and to scale the narrow path where no two men could go abreast.
His men followed, pulling themselves to the top by the help of bushes
and the crags, and at daybreak on the 12th of September the whole army
stood in orderly formation before Quebec. Montcalm hastened to attack,
though his force, composed chiefly of raw militia, was far inferior in
discipline to the English; his onset however was met by a steady fire,
and at the first English advance his men gave way. Wolfe headed a charge
which broke the French line, but a ball pierced his breast in the moment
of victory. "They run," cried an officer who held the dying man in his
arms--"I protest they run." Wolfe rallied to ask who they were that ran,
and was told "the French." "Then," he murmured, "I die happy!" The fall
of Montcalm in the moment of his defeat completed the victory; and the
submission of Canada, on the capture of Montreal by Amherst in 1760, put
an end to the dream of a French empire in America.

BOOK IX

MODERN ENGLAND

CHAPTER I

ENGLAND AND ITS EMPIRE

1760-1767

[Sidenote: The Seven Years' War.]

Never had England played so great a part in the history of mankind as in
the year 1759. It was a year of triumphs in every quarter of the world.
In September came the news of Minden, and of a victory off Lagos. In
October came tidings of the capture of Quebec. November brought word of
the French defeat at Quiberon. "We are forced to ask every morning what
victory there is," laughed Horace Walpole, "for fear of missing one."
But it was not so much in the number as in the importance of its
triumphs that the Seven Years' War stood