port, the tents in the encampments, and provisions enough in
the storehouses to supply the army for a week. "The loss of the
Marquis de Montcalm," says a French officer then on the spot, "robbed
his successors of their senses, and they thought of nothing but flight;
such was their fear that the enemy would attack the intrenchments
the next day. The army abandoned the camp in such disorder
that the like was never known."[792] "It was not a retreat," says
Johnstone, who himself a part of it, "but an abominable
flight, with such disorder and confusion that, had the English
known it, three hundred men sent after us would have been
sufficient to cut all our army to pieces. The soldiers were all
mixed, and scattered, dispersed, and running as hard as they
could, as if the English army were at their heels." They
passed Charlesbourg, Lorette, and St. Augustin, till, on the
fifteenth, they found rest on the impregnable hill of Jacques-Cartier,
by the brink of the St. Lawrence, thirty miles from danger.

[Footnote 791: _Livre d'Ordres, Ordre du 13 Sept_. 1759.]

[Footnote 792: Foligny, _Journal memoratif._]

In the night of humiliation when Vaudreuil abandoned
Quebec, Montcalm was breathing his last within its walls.
When he was brought wounded from the field, he was placed
in the house of the Surgeon Arnoux, who was then with Bourlamaque
at Isle-aux-Noix, but whose younger brother, also a surgeon,
examined the wound and pronounced it mortal. "I am glad of it,"
Montcalm said quietly; and then asked how long he had to live.
"Twelve hours, more or less," was the reply. "So much the better,"
he returned. "I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender
of Quebec." He is reported to have said that since he had lost the battle
it consoled him to have been defeated by so brave an enemy;
and some of his last words were in praise of his successor,
Levis, for whose talents and fitness for command he expressed
high esteem. When Vaudreuil sent to ask his opinion, he gave
it; but when Ramesay, commandant of the garrison, came to
receive his orders, he replied: "I will neither give orders nor
interfere any further. I have much business that must be
attended to, of greater moment than your ruined garrison
and this wretched country. My time is very short; therefore
pray leave me. I wish you all comfort, and to be happily extricated
from your present perplexities." Nevertheless he thought to the last
of those who had been under his co