rick
of Prussia. At the same time the intellect of France was busy with
problems of science and was soon to express itself in the massive
volumes of Diderot's Encyclopaedia. The soldiers of France were
preparing to fight on many battlefields. The best of them took little
part in the debilitating pleasures of Versailles.

Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm, was a member of the ancient nobility
of Languedoc, in the south of France. He was a scholar, a soldier, and
a landowner. He could write a Latin inscription, fight a battle, and
manage a farm--all with excellence. His was a fruitful race. His wife
had borne him ten children, of whom six had survived. He was sincerely
religious, a family man, enjoying quiet evenings at home. In his career,
as no doubt in that of many other French leaders of the time, we find no
lurid lights, no gay scenes at court--nothing but simple and laborious
devotion to duty. Though a grand seigneur, Montcalm was poor. His
letters show that his mind was always much occupied with family affairs,
the need of economy, the careers of his sons, his mill, his plantations.
He showed the minute care in management which the French practise better
than the English. In 1756 he was forty-four years of age, a soldier who
had campaigned in Germany, Bohemia, and Italy, had known victory and
defeat, had been a prisoner in the hands of the Austrians, and had made
a reputation as a man fit to lead. He lived far from court and went to
Paris only rarely. It was this quiet man who, on January 31, 1756, was
summoned to Paris to head the military force about to be sent to Canada.
Dieskau was a captive in English hands, and Montcalm was to replace
Dieskau.

Thus began that connection of Montcalm with Canada which was destined
three or four years later to bring to him first victory and then defeat,
death, and undying fame. On receiving his appointment he went to Paris,
thanked the King in person for the honor done him, and was delighted
that his son, a mere boy, was given the rank and pay of a colonel, one
of the few abuses of court favor which we find in his career. On March
26, 1756, Montcalm embarked at Brest with his staff. War had not yet
been declared, but already Britain had captured some three hundred
French merchant ships, had taken prisoner nearly ten thousand French
sailors, and was sweeping from the sea the fleets of France.

Owing to the fear of British cruisers, the voyage of Montcalm had its
excitements.