e for the service and for the colony made
me subscribe to the views of the council. In fact, if I had
attacked the English against the advice of all the principal
officers, their ill-will would have exposed me to the risk of
losing the battle and the colony also."[789]

[Footnote 788: Bigot, as well as Vaudreuil, sets Bougainville's force
at three thousand. "En reunissant le corps M. de Bougainville, les
bataillons de Montreal _[laisses au camp de Beauport]_ et la garrison
de la ville, il nous restoit encore pres de 5,000 hommes de troupes
fraiches." _Journal tenu a l'Armee._ Vaudreuil says that there were
fifteen hundred men in garrison at Quebec who did not take part
in the battle. If this is correct, the number of fresh troops after
it was not five thousand, but more than six thousand; to whom
the defeated force is to be added, making, after deducting killed
and wounded, some ten thousand in all.]

[Footnote 789: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct._ 1759.]

It was said at the time that the officers voted for retreat
because they thought Vaudreuil unfit to command an army,
and, still more, to fight a battle.[790] There was no need, however,
to fight at once. The object of the English was to take
Quebec, and that of Vaudreuil should have been to keep it.
By a march of a few miles he could have joined Bougainville;
and by then intrenching himself at or near Ste.-Foy he would
have placed a greatly superior force in the English rear, where
his position might have been made impregnable. Here he might be
easily furnished with provisions, and from hence he could readily
throw men and supplies into Quebec, which the English were too few
to invest. He could harass the besiegers, or attack them, should
opportunity offer, and either raise the siege or so protract it
that they would be forced by approaching winter to sail homeward,
robbed of the fruit of their victory.

[Footnote 790: _Memoires sur le Canada,_ 1749-1760.]

At least he might have taken a night for reflection. He was
safe behind the St. Charles. The English, spent by fighting,
toil, and want of sleep, were in no condition to disturb him.
A part of his own men were in deadly need of rest; the night
would have brought refreshment, and the morning might have brought
wise counsel. Vaudreuil would not wait, and orders were given at
once for retreat.[791] It began at nine o'clock that evening. Quebec
was abandoned to its fate. The cannon were left in the lines of
Beau