e river on the approach of
Holmes's fleet in the summer of 1759. The naval engagement was fierce
but decisive, the French commander Vauquelin behaving with the utmost
gallantry, and refusing to strike his flag even when his powder was
spent and his ship a wreck. "Our ships," says Knox, in describing the
battle, "forced _La Pomone_ ashore and burned her, then pursued the
others; drove _l'Atalanta_ ashore near Pointe-aux-Trembles, and set
her on fire; took and destroyed all the rest, except a small sloop of
war which escaped to Lake St. Peter." On the English side, the
_Leostaff_ wrecked on the rocks.

To De Levis the destruction of the French squadron was the greatest
possible catastrophe, for the ships carried his supplies. No
alternative but retreat remained; and next morning, when Murray
marched out for a sortie, he found the French camp deserted by all
save the sick and wounded, whom in a letter left behind De Levis had
commended to his care. Their tents still stood upon the Plains, and
their guns and mortars gaped silently in the trenches; but the French
army had already passed over the Cap Rouge, and the fourth siege of
Quebec had come to an end.

So, too, had the _ancien regime_: for although Bougainville still held
his strong position at Isle-aux-Noix, and Montreal, whither Vaudreuil
had transferred his government, was not subdued till the 8th of
September, 1760, when three British columns under Amherst, Murray, and
Haviland compelled Vaudreuil to make a formal surrender of that city
and of the whole of Canada; still, the key of New France had passed
into English hands. Quebec, the Gibraltar of America, was never more
to salute the Bourbon lilies, and French empire in the Western world
had ceased to be.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIRST YEARS OF BRITISH RULE

The period which immediately succeeded the capitulation of Canada is
known as the _regne militaire_; but the administration so sternly
named was remarkable for the most careful equity. Allowing for
circumstances which made military rule a necessity, it was in fact an
era of almost unexampled tenderness; for though still on the threshold
of her colonial empire, England already realised that the lightest
yoke is the longest borne. She had annexed the vast domain of Canada,
and the sentiment of its seventy thousand French inhabitants was her
first concern. These must be won to a new loyalty and schooled in the
free institutions of a progressive nation.