efused others.
That which the French officers thought more important than
all the rest was the provision that the troops should march
out with arms, cannon, and the honors of war; to which it
was replied: "The whole garrison of Montreal and all other
French troops in Canada must lay down their arms, and shall not
serve during the present war." This demand was felt to be intolerable.
The Governor sent Bougainville back to remonstrate; but Amherst was
inflexible. Then Levis tried to shake his resolution, and sent him an
officer with the following note: "I send your Excellency M. de la
Pause, Assistant Quartermaster-General of the Army, on the subject of
the too rigorous article which you dictate to the troops by the
capitulation, to which it would not be possible for us to subscribe."
Amherst answered the envoy: "I am fully resolved, for the infamous part
the troops of France have acted in exciting the savages to perpetrate the
most horrid and unheard of barbarities in the whole progress of the war,
and for other open treacheries and flagrant breaches of faith, to manifest
to all the world by this capitulation my detestation of such practices;"
and he dismissed La Pause with a short note, refusing to change the
conditions.

[Footnote 851: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Sept. 1760_.]

[Footnote 852: _Proces-verbal de la Deliberation du Conseil de Guerre tenu
a Montreal, 6 Sept. 1760_.]

On the next morning, September eighth, Vaudreuil yielded,
and signed the capitulation. By it Canada and all its dependencies
passed to the British Crown. French officers, civil and
military, with French troops and sailors, were to be sent to
France in British ships. Free exercise of religion was assured
to the people of the colony, and the religious communities
were to retain their possessions, rights, and privileges. All
persons who might wish to retire to France were allowed to
do so, and the Canadians were to remain in full enjoyment
of feudal and other property, including negro and Indian
slaves.[853]

[Footnote 853: _Articles of Capitulation, 8 Sept. 1760. Amherst to Pitt,
same date_.]

The greatest alarm had prevailed among the inhabitants
lest they should suffer violence from the English Indians, and
Vaudreuil had endeavored to provide that these dangerous
enemies should be sent back at once to their villages. This
was refused, with the remark: "There never have been any
cruelties committed by the Indians of our army." Strict pr