ll of difficulty, and with no possibility of intercommunication,
were to meet at the same place at the same time, or, failing to do
so, run the risk of being destroyed in detail. If the French troops
could be kept together, and if the small army of Murray or of
Haviland should reach Montreal a few days before the co-operating
forces appeared, it might be separately attacked and overpowered.
In this lay the hope of Vaudreuil and Levis.[836]

[Footnote 836: _Levis a Bourlamaque, Juillet, Aout, 1760_.]

After the siege of Quebec was raised, Murray had an
effective force of about twenty-five hundred rank and file.[837]
As the spring opened the invalids were encamped on the Island of
Orleans, where fresh air, fresh provisions, and the change from
the pestiferous town hospitals wrought such wonders on the scorbutic
patients, that in a few weeks a considerable number of them were
again fit for garrison duty, if not for the field. Thus it happened
that on the second of July twenty-four hundred and fifty men and
officers received orders to embark for Montreal; and on the fifteenth
they set sail, in thirty-two vessels, with a number of boats and
bateaux.[838] They were followed some time after by Lord Rollo,
with thirteen hundred additional men just arrived from Louisbourg,
the King having ordered that fortress to be abandoned and dismantled.
They advanced slowly, landing from time to time, skirmishing with
detachments of the enemy who followed them along the shore, or
more frequently trading with the farmers who brought them vegetables,
poultry, eggs, and fresh meat. They passed the fortified hill of
Jacques-Cartier, whence they were saluted with shot and shell,
stopped at various parishes, disarmed the inhabitants, administered
oaths of neutrality, which were taken without much apparent reluctance,
and on the fourth of August came within sight of Three Rivers, then
occupied by a body of troops expecting an attack. "But," says Knox,
"a delay here would be absurd, as that wretched place must share the
fate of Montreal. Our fleet sailed this morning. The French
troops, apparently about two thousand, lined their different
works, and were in general clothed as regulars, except a very
few Canadians and about fifty naked Picts or savages, their
bodies being painted of a reddish color and their faces of
different colors, which I plainly discerned with my glass.
Their light cavalry, who paraded along shore, seemed to be
well appointe