r all brooded the reality of famine in the
present and--the foreboding of disaster to come.

By April 20, 1760, the St. Lawrence was open and, though the shores were
cumbered with masses of broken ice, the central channel was free for the
boats which Levis filled with his soldiers. It was a bleak experience to
descend the turbulent river between banks clogged with ice. When Levis
was not far from Quebec, he learned that it was impossible to surprise
Murray who was well on guard between Cap Rouge on the west and Beauport
on the east. The one thing to do was to reach the Plains of Abraham in
order to attack the feeble walls of Quebec from the landward side. Since
Murray's alertness made impossible attack by way of the high cliffs
which Wolfe had climbed in the night, Levis had to reach Quebec by a
circuitous route. He landed his army a little above Cap Rouge, marched
inland over terrible roads in heavy rain, and climbed to the plateau of
Quebec from the rear at Sainte Foy. On April 27, 1760, he drew up his
army on the heights almost exactly as Wolfe had done in the previous
September. Murray followed the example of Montcalm. He had no trust in
the feeble defenses of Quebec and on the 28th marched out to fight on
the open plain. The battle of Sainte Foy followed exactly the precedents
of the previous year. The defenders of Quebec were driven off the field
in overwhelming defeat. The difference was that Murray took his army
back to Quebec and from behind its walls still defied his French
assailant. Levis had poor artillery, but he did what he could. He
entrenched and poured his fire into Quebec. In the end it was sea power
which balked him. On the 15th of May, when a British fleet appeared
round the head of the Island of Orleans, Levis withdrew in something
like panic and Quebec was safe.

Levis returned to Montreal; and to this point all the forces of France
slowly retreated as they were pressed in by the overwhelming numbers of
the British. At Oswego, the scene of Montcalm's first brilliant success
four years earlier, Amherst had gathered during the summer of 1760 an
army of about ten thousand men. From here he descended the St. Lawrence
in boats to attack Montreal from the west. From the south, down Lake
Champlain and the Richelieu River to the St. Lawrence, came another
British force under Haviland also to attack Montreal. At Quebec Murray
put his army on transports, left the city almost destitute of defense,
and thus