. Raided through and through by
the fierce _guerillas_ of North American warfare, swept bare of grain
and cattle for Wolfe's army, the fugitives from smoking farms and
hamlets were glad to seek refuge in the English lines, where the
soldiers generously shared with them their meagre rations. More than one
expedition had been sent up the river. Admiral Holmes, with over twenty
ships, was already above the town, and had driven the French vessels,
which had originally taken refuge there, to discharge their crews and
run up shallow tributaries.

Wolfe's intention now was to place every man that he could spare on
board the ships in the upper river, and his entire force was reduced by
death, wounds, and sickness to under seven thousand men. On September
3d, with slight annoyance from an ill-directed cannon fire, he removed
the whole force at Montmorency across the water to the camps of Orleans
or Point Levis. On the following day all the troops at both these
stations which were not necessary for their protection were paraded; for
what purpose no one knew, least of all the French, who from their lofty
lines could mark every movement in the wide panorama below, and were
sorely puzzled and perturbed. Some great endeavor was in the wind,
beyond a doubt; but both Wolfe and his faithful ally, the admiral, did
their utmost to disguise its import. And for this very reason it would
be futile, even if necessary, to follow the fluctuating manoeuvres
that for the next few days kept the enemy in constant agitation: the
sudden rage of batteries here, the threatening demonstrations of
troop-laden boats there, the constant and bewildering movement of armed
ships at every point. It was well designed and industriously maintained,
for the sole purpose of harassing the French and covering Wolfe's real
intention.

On the night of September 4th the general was well enough to dine with
Monckton's officers at Point Levis, but the next day he was again
prostrate with illness, to the great anxiety of his army. He implored
the doctor to "patch him up sufficiently for the work in hand; after
that nothing mattered." Chronic gravel and rheumatism, with a sharp low
fever, aggravated by a mental strain of the severest kind, all preying
on a sickly frame, were what the indomitable spirit there imprisoned had
to wrestle with. On the 6th, however, Wolfe struggled up, and during
that day and the next superintended the march of his picked column,
numbering some