which he and the
General exchanged a correspondence that widened the breach between them.

[Footnote 692: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Avril_, 1759. The _Memoires sur
le Canada,_ 1749-1760, says 15,229 effective men.]

Should every effort of resistance fail, and the invaders force their way
into the heart of Canada, Montcalm proposed the desperate resort of
abandoning the valley of the St. Lawrence, descending the Mississippi
with his troops and as many as possible of the inhabitants, and making a
last stand for France among the swamps of Louisiana.[693]

[Footnote 693: Memoire sur le Canada remis au Ministre, 27 Dec. 1758._]

In April, before Bougainville's return, he wrote to his wife: "Can we
hope for another miracle to save us? I trust in God; he fought for us on
the eighth of July. Come what may, his will be done! I wait the news
from France with impatience and dread. We have had none for eight
months; and who knows if much can reach us at all this year? How dearly
I have to pay for the dismal privilege of figuring two or three times in
the gazettes!" A month later, after Bougainvile had come: "Our daughter
is well married. I think I would renounce every honor to join you again;
but the King must be obeyed. The moment when I see you once more will be
the brightest of my life. Adieu, my heart! I believe that I love you
more than ever."

Bougainville had brought sad news. He had heard before sailing from
France that one of Montcalm's daughters was dead, but could not learn
which of them. "I think," says the father, "that it must be poor Mirete,
who was like me, and whom I loved very much." He was never to know if
this conjecture was true.

To Vaudreuil came a repetition of the detested order that he should
defer to Montcalm on all questions of war; and moreover that he should
not take command in person except when the whole body of the militia was
called out; nor, even then, without consulting his rival.[694] His ire
and vexation produced an access of jealous self-assertion, and drove him
into something like revolt against the ministerial command. "If the
English attack Quebec, I shall always hold myself free to go thither
myself with most of the troops and all the militia and Indians I can
assemble. On arriving I shall give battle to the enemy; and I shall do
so again and again, till I have forced him to retire, or till he has
entirely crushed me by excessive superiority of numbers. My obstinacy in
opposing his