Foulon, landed at the appointed spot,
climbed up the cliff, and overpowered the sleeping guard. A little after
daylight Wolfe had nearly five thousand soldiers, a "thin red line,"
busy preparing a strong position on the Plains of Abraham, while the
fleet was landing cannon, to be dragged up the steep hill to bombard the
fortress on its weakest side.

Montcalm had spent many anxious days. He had been incessantly on the
move, examining for himself over and over again every point, Cap Rouge,
Beauport, Montmorency, reviewing the militia of which he felt uncertain,
inspecting the artillery, the commissariat, everything that mattered.
At three o'clock in the morning of one of these days he wrote to
Bourlamaque, at Lake Champlain, noting the dark night, the rain, his men
awake and dressed in their tents, everyone alert. "I am booted and
my horses are saddled, which is in truth my usual way of spending the
night. I have not undressed since the twenty-third of June." On the
evening of the 12th of September the batteries at Point Levis kept up
a furious fire on Quebec. There was much activity on board the British
war-ships lying below the town. Boats filled with men rowed towards
Beauport as if to attempt a landing during the night. Here the danger
seemed to lie. At midnight the British boats were still hovering off the
shore. The French troops manned the entrenched lines and Montcalm was
continually anxious. A heavy convoy of provisions was to come down to
the Foulon that night, and orders had been given to the French posts on
the north shore above Quebec to make no noise. The arrival of the convoy
was vital, for the army was pressed for food. Montcalm was therefore
anxious for its fate when at break of day he heard firing from the
French cannon at Samos, above Quebec. Had the provisions then been taken
by the English? Near his camp all now seemed quiet. He gave orders
for the troops to rest, drank some cups of tea with his aide-de-camp
Johnstone, a Scotch Jacobite, and at about half-past six rode towards
Quebec to the camp of Vaudreuil to learn why the artillery was firing
at Samos. Immediately in front of the Governor's house he learned the
momentous news. The English were on the Plains of Abraham. Soon he had
the evidence of his own eyes. On the distant heights across the valley
he could see the redcoats.

No doubt Montcalm had often pondered this possibility and had decided in
such a case to attack at once before the enemy