MONTREAL, MILITARY HEADQUARTERS

THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR SUPREMACY—THE SEVEN YEARS, 1756-1763—THE CAMPAIGN OF 1756 (OSWEGO)—THE WINTER AT MONTREAL

REVIEW—CELERON DE BIENVILLE—DE VAUDREUIL—MONTCALM—HIS MILITARY AND HOUSEHOLD STAFF—DE LEVIS, BOURLAMAQUE, BOUGAINVILLE—CHATEAU DE VAUDREUIL—THE MEETING OF MONTCALM AND DE VAUDREUIL—MONTCALM'S POSITION—THE THREE MILITARY ARMS—THE MILITIA, MARINE, REGULARS—THE RED ALLIES—CAPITULATION OF OSWEGO—SACKING—TE DEUM IN THE PARISH CHURCH—THE TWO PREJUGES—WINTER IN MONTREAL—GAMING AT QUEBEC—A WINTER WAR PARTY—SOCIAL GAYETIES AT MONTREAL—SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS—SHIPS AWAITED.

The long peace during which Montreal had made great progress was at last to end. The Seven Years' War began formally in 1750, when France, Austria and Russia entered the lists against England and Prussia, and ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763. We are now to study the history of Montreal in the period during which the final struggle for the mastery between the English and the French powers was being fiercely maintained. Montreal played a peculiar part as the headquarters of military operations, to be directed for defence and offence, by way of Lake Champlain, against the heart of the British settlements. This was the most natural point of attack, as the other two routes for the invasion of Canada offered little encouragement—the lower St. Lawrence on the east being guarded by the natural and almost impregnable fortress of Quebec, the upper St. Lawrence on the west being protected by a long chain of dangerous rapids. If we delay on the events of 1756-60, it is because this was the crucial and pivotal point of Canadian history and Montreal was for the most part the headquarters of de Vaudreuil and Montcalm, who directed the military operations thence. Before entering on these fateful years, let us review the situation.

The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was concluded on October 8, 1748. By it an official and fictitious peace ruled between England and France, but in the colonies the rival powers were still disputing the possession of territories and influence, whether in India or in America. In the latter country there were frequent skirmishes on the frontiers of Acadia. In the summer of 1749 GalissoniÈre, the hump-backed but high-minded administrator general, sent out to vindicate French rights in the valley of Ohio, CÉleron de Bienville, one of the Le Moynes, a chevalier of St. Louis and a captain in the colonial troops. Leaving Lachine on June 15th, he took with him twenty-three birchwood canoes, with fourteen officers and cadets, twenty soldiers, a hundred and eighty Canadians and a band of Indians, to the district of the Ohio and the Alleghenies, where he buried six leaden plates at various places, to mark French occupation.

The same policy of vindication was followed under the Sieur de la JonquiÈre, made governor, on August 16th of the same year, and the Marquis du Quesne, succeeding him August 7, 1752. This activity provoked the recriminations of Virginia and the other colonies west of the Alleghenies, the treacherous slaying of the young Coulon de Jumonville and nine of his band, on May 28, 1754, being one of the events which woke up Canada and France to the farcical make-believe of peace between the two nations. England was ready to declare war, but France, weakened after the Austrian Succession, impoverished in her finances, with a decadent marine service, immersed in religious and parliamentary troubles, and its people loaded with taxes, sought to temporize and to stave off the inevitable crisis.

In the month of January, 1755, the English government provoked the French to defend Canada, by sending Major General Braddock, with two regiments, to command the regular and colonial troops. Accordingly on May 3, 1755, a squadron of fourteen ships sailed from Brest, bearing about three thousand soldiers for America, under the command of Admiral Dubois de la Motte. With the fleet were M. de Vaudreuil, son of the former Governor of Montreal, himself now governor general elect, his appointment being dated from July 1Oth, and the Baron de Dieskau, commissioned as commandant of the troops which were sent out. Their journey was interrupted by the English pirates, who captured the Alcide and the Lis, making prisoners of M. Rigaud de Vaudreuil, brother of the governor general, and himself the Governor of Three Rivers, several officers and eight companies. Similar acts of piracy, directly countenanced by the English government, were being committed on the seas, and they provoked lively indignation in France. But, although the Marquis de Mirepoix, the French ambassador at the Court of St. James in London, was recalled and shots were being interchanged in America, so that Baron de Dieskau was wounded and taken prisoner at Lake George by General William Johnson, yet conflicting views in France between the parties led by the Count d'Argenson, minister of war, and M. de Machault, minister of marine, delayed any decision that year.

In January, 1756, however, it became necessary to look around in France for a successor to Dieskau and to prepare a new body of troops for Canada, to be sent that spring. D'Argenson's choice fell upon the Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, then at Montpellier, a soldier of forty-four years of age, who had seen many campaigns. Montcalm lost no time in arranging his staff and household retinue. Since these are to figure in the life of Montreal of their period, we give their names. His first aide-de-camp was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, of whom Montcalm wrote in his journal: "He is a young man of light, and literary ability, a great geometrician, known for his work on the integral calculus; he belongs to the Royal Society of London, and aspires to the Academy of Sciences in Paris, where he could have had a place, had he not preferred to go to America to learn the trade of war and to give proofs of his good will." He was highly recommended to the new marÉchal de camp, a dignity equivalent to that of a general of brigade. Bougainville was named, before leaving, Capitaine rÉformÉ. The second aide was M. de la Rochebeaucour, "a gentleman of good birth from Poitou, a lieutenant in Montcalm's cavalry," The third, a working aide-de-camp, acting as secretary, was an under-officer of the Flanders Regiment, named Marcel, a sergeant, who now became lieutenant rÉformÉ.

Among his household attendants he included "a cook and his assistant, a demi valet-de-chambre, Grison, Joseph, Dejean, as first lacqueys, and two other men in livery." "I am going away in great style, with the young surgeons whom the king is sending."

His military staff appointed by the king included, as brigadier, FranÇois Gaston, Chevalier de LÉvis, cousin of the Marquis de Mirepoix, recently the French ambassador in London but now named lieutenant general of Languedoc, and M. de Bourlamaque as colonel. The Chevalier de LÉvis was in his thirty-seventh year, being born in 1719; he had served in one of the regiments of the marine department in the campaign in Bohemia in 1741-42; he was at the battle of Dettingen and took an active part in the campaigns on the Rhine from 1743 to 1756. This gallant soldier, already distinguished for his bravery and military qualities, has left his name in Canadian history. Colonel Bourlamaque had been captain and staff adjutant in the Dauphin Regiment. With Montcalm's staff there were also two engineers, des Combles and Desandrouins.

At Brest, the point of departure, the two battalions of the La Sarre and Royal-Roussillon, each composed of thirteen companies, were ready to depart, when Montcalm arrived on March 21st, and met the personnel of his staff. By the 26th the battalions were all embarked on three vessels. Montcalm and Bougainville were on the Licorne, commanded by M. de la RigaudiÈre, and with Captain Pelegrin, of whom Montcalm wrote to his family before departing that "he could sail the Saint Lawrence with his eyes shut," The rest were distributed on the other vessels, the Sauvage and the SirÈne. But the Licorne was prevented from leaving the roadstead till April 3d.

At last, after a stormy voyage, the Licorne reached Quebec on May 13th, a few hours before Montcalm, who, in his eagerness to reach Quebec, had disembarked the day before to make the rest of the journey by calÈche. On arriving at the capital the honours were paid to the new general by the Intendant Bigot in the absence of the Governor de Vaudreuil, then in Montreal. [197] Speaking of the magnificence of the dinner and the good cheer provided by Bigot, Montcalm wrote in his journal that a "Parisian would have been surprised at the profusion of the good things of every kind." In their turn Monseigneur de Pontbriand and the Chevalier de Longueuil and others entertained him.

Montcalm sent a courier at once to Montreal to announce his arrival, but contrary winds and the bad state of the roads prevented his own departure till May 23d. Reaching Montreal on May 26th, he was received with courtesy by the governor general, Pierre de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, the son of Philippe de Vaudreuil, Governor of New France from 1703 to 1725. He was announced with the welcome of cannon, "an honour which was not due me in France," he wrote in his journal, "but in point of honours there are particular usages in the colonies."

The meeting was at the ChÂteau de Vaudreuil, the almost permanent residence of the governor since the outbreak of the war and his military headquarters during the years of 1756-1760, although Quebec still continued to be the capital of government and the religious Vatican of Canada till 1759. Montreal was thus a focus of activity, of military and social splendour, such as it had never been before. ChÂteau Vaudreuil was the centre of much official life and formality. Staff officers, officers, soldiers and redskins, brilliant extremes in their picturesque costumes, were to be seen hurrying to and fro, the Esplanade and quay fronting the chÂteau presenting a busy and ever changing coloured throng. Then there was the constant arrival of fresh convoys, and the military movements of the soldiers through the streets to the sound of fife and drum. All this gave Montreal an unaccustomed animation and brilliancy. With Montcalm's advent there would soon arrive his own fashionable entourage, his household staff and his military staff from France, to add still greater Éclat. Soon, too, the regiments of La Sarre and Royal-Roussillon would come to invade the town's resources and to add to its gayety, its love adventures and its scandal, before they were sent out to various danger points to offset the perilous war preparations now being made by the English.

Already the BÉarn regiment had been sent to Niagara; those of La Reine and Languedoc were at Carillon; Guyenne was on the road to Fort Frontenac, whither shortly La Sarre would join them. The destination of Royal-Roussillon regiment was not so quickly made known. The La Sarre regiment left Quebec in two divisions on June 5th and 6th and arrived at Montreal by water on June 13th and 16th. The Royal-Roussillon made the journey by land, the first division leaving Quebec on June 10th and the second on June 11th, reaching Montreal after eight or nine days' march. Relative to the water journey, an officer of La Sarre thus describes the arrival at Montreal: "We arrived at Montreal, where M. le GÉnÉral awaited us, to dispose of his army. Montreal is a very large town and very exposed to conflagrations, its houses being all built of wood. The 'ton franÇais' prevails; the vocation for marriage is in favour, and there are very pretty girls who entertain us. We have already had five of our officers married. 'On y est orgueilleux quoique pauvre, et il n'y a que le particulier qui y rÉgit des postes en État de suffire au train qu'ils menent.'"

The meeting of the governor general with his commander in chief may be thus described: Montcalm was a thorough Frenchman, and Vaudreuil a native Canadian. Born in Quebec on November 22, 1698, Vaudreuil had served most of his time in this colony save when he exercised the functions of governor in Louisiana from 1743 to 1745. He was the embodiment of that prÉjugÉ colonial, which existed against officials from the mother country; while Montcalm stood for a corresponding prÉjugÉ mÉtropolitain. This antipathy was the fruitful seed of much discord, and increased the agonies of the death struggle of the French rÉgime. Therefore, although Vaudreuil received Montcalm with affability, it was not unmixed with jealousy. Before the arrival of Montcalm, Vaudreuil had protested to the minister of war, that there was no need of a general officer from France at the head of the Canadian battalions, which preferred to fight under one of their own commanders, who understood the mode of warfare suitable in this country, while those from France were disdainful of the Canadian troops. This was the prevalent opinion shared by the greater part of the Canadian officers. Indeed, it was the ordinary conflict between colonial susceptibility and European haughtiness, not unknown even today.

The interview, however, seems to have left a good impression on both sides. In the letter of Vaudreuil, written to d'Argenson, the minister of war, on June 8th, and that of Montcalm to de Machault, minister of marine, both express mutual admiration of one another. At the same time, writing more freely to d'Argenson, his patron, Montcalm says, "M. de Vaudreuil pays particular respect to the savages, loves the Canadians, knows the country, has good sense, but is tame and a little weak, and I get on well with him."

Vaudreuil's natural weakness for the Canadians, due to his birth and education, was enhanced by his marriage with Fleury de la GorgendiÈre, a Canadian, the widow of FranÇois de Verrier, an officer of the marine troops, by whom she had a son and daughter. Madame de Vaudreuil had no children by the second marriage, but she had many relatives in the colony and maintained the reputation of being exceedingly jealous of their advancement.

What was Montcalm's position? His commission, signed by Louis XV, at Versailles, on March 17, 1756, places him in all things under "Our Governor General in New France," and the instructions of his majesty to Montcalm are still more precise. He was to be the executive officer, with power of representation. "In a word," says his majesty, "it will be the duty of the governor general to rule and arrange everything for the military operations. The Sieur de Montcalm will be held to execute the orders given him. He will, however, be able to make suitable representations in accordance with the projects entrusted to his execution. But if the governor general believes he has reason sufficient, not to defer to them, and to persist in his dispositions, the Sieur de Montcalm will conform without difficulty or delay." This definition of duties, while it clipped somewhat the wings of the initiative of the ambitious marÉchal de camp, nevertheless had the merit of clearness.

Let us now see the threefold composition of the forces in the little Canadian army, over which Vaudreuil and Montcalm are to have control—the land troops, the marine and the militia forces. The militia or yeomanry forces were composed of all the male population from fifteen to sixty years of age. This was, as we know, the oldest part of the service. Every parish and district had been organized in companies with capitaines de la cÔte, chosen from the most substantial men of the district, who would muster their men when required for war purposes. Their dress and equipment was similar to the regular soldiers and when in service they were fed at the king's expense, but received no pay, although they had a right for remuneration when called upon for corvÉes, for convoys and transports. In 1756 the Canadian militia numbered as high as 14,000 men, but, except at the end of the war, when the final crisis approached, there were never more than 4,000 in active service at once, since the necessity of having to attend to their crops made frequent returns to their parishes imperative. Canada had reason to be proud of her sturdy and brave yeoman militia.

The second military arm was the marine service or the marine troops. Not that they served on the sea or inland waters, but they were so denominated because they were under the jurisdiction of the minister of marine affairs. This service had been in Canada for over fifty years and constituted a permanent standing force, having charge of the garrisons and posts, and were employed for the defence of the frontier and the maintenance of order in the colony. Most of the officers were Canadian by birth; some came from France and became settled colonists here. Many of the prominent explorers and military leaders had held commissions in this force. In 1756 these troops formed thirty companies of sixty-five men, making a total of 1,950 men.

The third and main branch was the land troops or regulars, specially sent from France. We have seen this method pursued before in former emergencies. At present the troops in Canada were the second battalions of the regular infantry belonging to the regiments, called after the names of the provinces or regions, from which they were raised, of La Reine, Guyenne, BÉarn and Languedoc. These made a contingent of 2,100 men, being composed of forty-eight companies of fusiliers of forty men each, and four companies of grenadiers of forty-five men each. Disasters on the voyage out, sickness, and the battle at Lake George had reduced their numbers, at the arrival of Montcalm, to an effective force of 1,652 men. Add to these the 1,050 men belonging to the second battalions of the La Sarre and Royal-Roussillon Regiments. In the month of June, of this year 1756, the Chevalier de Montreuil, major general of the troops, made the following recapitulation: La Reine, 327 men; Languedoc, 326; Guyenne, 492; BÉarn, 498; La Sarre, 515; Royal-Roussillon, 520; to which it is necessary to add 150 volunteers and 918 recruits, giving a total of 3,752 men, not counting the officers.

Such were the three forces to be directed from the military capital of Montreal.

Montcalm, settled in Montreal, had a busy time keeping his staff in constant activity, only hoping, however, for peace for that winter, which was not to be. Among those whom he met constantly were M. Doreil of the commissary department, the boastful and somewhat inefficient Chevalier de Montreuil, adjutant major general of the troops, and the notorious Intendant Bigot, who came from Quebec to organize the provisions of the regiments and whose activity, at first, very favourably impressed Montcalm.

He soon became acquainted with his red allies. On June 3d, according to his journal, he received a complimentary visit from the Iroquois of Sault St. Louis, who came with their "ladies" to compliment him on his arrival and to felicitate Onontio, the governor. They gave Montcalm a necklace and he assured them that he would visit them in return. Writing on June 16th to his wife, he describes this occasion: "They are a dirty gentry, even when fresh from their toilet, at which they pass all their time; you would hardly believe it, but the men always carry to war, along with their tomahawks and guns, a mirror, by which they daub their faces with various colours, and arrange feathers on their heads, and rings in their ears and noses. They think it a great beauty to mutilate the lobes of their ears at an early age, so as to stretch them till they fall on the shoulders. Often they wear no shirt at all, but only a laced jacket; you would take them for devils or masqueraders. They would exercise the patience of an angel. Moreover, these gentry wage war with astonishing cruelty, slaying women and children alike: They scalp you most skilfully, an operation from which one ordinarily dies.... In general all that PÈre Charlevoix [198] says is true—with the exception of their burning their prisoners; that has almost gone out of fashion."

Meanwhile the military plans were being completed. As news came that the English were mostly menacing the frontier of Lake St. Sacrement (Lake George), it was decided to send the Royal-Roussillon Regiment to Carillon (called by the savages Ticonderoga), where the forces were concentrating. Thither also, at the command of the governor, went Montcalm, on June 27th, accompanied by the Chevaliers de LÉvis and Montreuil. There he worked hard for twelve days with indefatigable zeal, preparing the forts to be able to resist English attacks and organizing the military and commissariat departments. Leaving LÉvis in command, he returned to Montreal on July 16th at the call of the governor. He had had his first experience of the home infantry and the differences between Canadian conditions in campaigning and those of France. He had learned that the Canadian soldier was very independent, and that the savages needed special treatment. Yet he wrote to his family at this time that he had succeeded at present with the Canadians, and with the Indians, whose bearings he had also taken.

Montcalm was recalled to undertake the siege and capture of Chouaguen (Oswego), a stronghold of the English and the key of the situation. This project, being meditated by Vaudreuil from the first days of his governorship, was undoubtedly hazardous and problematical, and Montcalm and LÉvis and the others from France had always feared failure, unless a combination of lucky conditions should favour them. Vaudreuil, in spite of a certain hesitancy, still believed it was possible, as indeed did Bigot, and Montcalm set out from Lachine on July 21st with his aide-de-camp Bougainville. They made their portages successfully around the rapids of the Sault, so that they reached the post of La PrÉsentation on the 27th, arriving at Frontenac on the 29th, where he hoped to find the battalions of La Sarre, Guyenne and BÉarn already there, with de Bourlamaque, M. Rigaud de Vaudreuil, brother of the governor general, and a body of colonial troops, Canadians and Indians, to the number of 1,500 men, and engineers and artillery, and then he would attempt to make a landing, hard by Oswego, in preparation for the siege. We cannot follow the story of the fall of Oswego. Suffice it to say that within ten days after embarking from Frontenac on August 4th, Fort Chouaguen or Oswego, hitherto thought impregnable, had capitulated on August 14th to Montcalm.

That same night he sent an officer to Vaudreuil at Montreal to bear to him the five flags of the regiments of Shirley, Pepperell and Schuyler. The story of the riotous sacking of the post is sad reading but Montcalm cannot be justly accused of countenancing it. "The Canadians and Indians," says Parkman (Wolfe and Montcalm, I, p. 413), "broke through all restraint and fell to plundering. There was an opening of rum barrels and a scene of drunkenness in which some of the prisoners had their share; while others tried to escape in the confusion and were tomahawked by the excited savages. Many more would have been butchered but for the efforts of Montcalm, who by unstinted promises succeeded in appeasing his ferocious allies, whom he dared not offend. 'It will cost the king,' he says, 'eight or ten thousand livres in presents.'"

From the 16th to the 20th of August the work of demolition was continued. By the 21st at the place where five days before the powerful English fort of Oswego stood nothing but burning ruins remained, on which Montcalm caused a cross and a stake with the arms of France to be placed, bearing these inscriptions:

In hoc signo vincunt," and
Manibus date lilia plenis."

After the fall of Oswego, Montcalm having embarked on August 23d, arrived at Montreal on the 26th, wearied out but buoyed up by his triumph after a month's absence, during which he had traversed over six hundred and fifty miles, taken three forts, captured a war flotilla, made prisoner an army and seized from the enemy an immense store of provisions, and secured for France the undisputed rule over the majestic Ontario. Chouaguen had been the apple of discord and its fall was a decisive success for the colony.

The joyful colony met in the churches to celebrate the victory. In the parish church of Montreal, three days after Montcalm's return, an imposing ceremony occurred at which the solemn Te Deum was sung and M. de Bourlamaque and M. de Rigaud, in the name of the governor general, publicly presented the conquered English flags to the AbbÉ de Tonnancour, a member of the diocesan chapter. Outside the church the public joy was made manifest by many effusions of the Canadian muse. One set of song verses from an anonymous Pindar, addressed to the governor general, comes down to us, beginning:

Nous cÉlebrons du grand Vaudreuil
La sagesse et la gloire
Toute l'Angleterre est en deuil
Au bruit de sa victoire.

The bishop of Quebec, Monseigneur de Pontbriand, published a mandement, of thanksgiving, full of patriotic enthusiasm and appreciation of Vaudreuil, and calling the taking of Oswego the "action, the most memorable that has taken place since the founding of the colony, ... it is the more astonishing since we have had only three of our men killed and ten to twelve wounded. The Canadians, the troops from France and the colonial forces, even the savages, have signalized by their mutual emulation their zeal for the fatherland and the service of his majesty."

Not all were entirely pleased with this mandement, for there were allusions to "timid spirits," which Montcalm and his chief officers took to refer to themselves for their previous doubts on the hazardous possibility of capturing Fort Chouaguen, for they knew the prevalent opinion, held by the Canadians, that the French troops, because unaccustomed, did not understand guerrilla warfare, in which, however, the colonial troops had become very expert. Vaudreuil was triumphant, success justified him. In his dispatches to the minister he has no praise for Montcalm, whom he represents as timorous, vacillating, and indisposed to undertake the siege. On the other hand, the Canadian officers, Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, his brother, and the Chevalier de Mercier, were accredited with being the moving and dominant spirits. Family pride manifests itself frequently in such expressions, as "my brother" did this, "my brother" did that, while his own egotism finds play in similar uses of the first person, varied by "My brother and I."

Montcalm's private judgment of these was written on August 17th from Oswego to de LÉvis at Carillon: "Do you remember that Mercier is an ignoramus and a weak man ... all the rest are not worth the trouble of speaking about, even my first lieutenant general, Rigaud." Of the Canadian militia he wrote this appreciation to d'Argenson, the minister of war, "I have employed them usefully but not at works exposed to the fire of the enemy. They know neither discipline nor subordination; j'en ferais dans six mois des grenadiers, et, actuellement, je me garderais bien d'y faire autant de cas que le malheureux Monsieur Dieskau y en a fait, pour avoir trop ÉcoutÉ les propos avantageux des Canadiens, qui se croient, sur tous les points, la premiÈre nation du monde."

Once more in the above conflict we see the presence of the prÉjugÉ colonial and the prÉjugÉ mÉtropolitain again in evidence. It existed between the two protagonists of the period, Vaudreuil and Montcalm, and it was there with the officers and rank and file of both parties. Five months of acquaintance had formed for Vaudreuil a profound aversion to Montcalm, while the latter judged the former a mediocre and vain man, suspected his sincerity, thought him a double dealer, a victim to favoritism, and conceived an antipathy which unhappily daily increased.

After the fall of Oswego, Montcalm visited St. Jean and Carillon, and as it became evident by the end of October that the campaign was finished for the year, the troops were disposed for winter quarters, the regiment of La Sarre being placed at Pointe aux Trembles, Longue Pointe, RiviÈre des Prairies, Lachine and Pointe Claire; that of BÉarn at Boucherville, Longueuil and La Prairie, and the Languedoc Regiment at Montreal itself. The other regiments from France were placed at Quebec, Chambly, St. Charles and St. Antoine, along the Richelieu river. Three Rivers had no French troops.

Montcalm spent the winter in Montreal, with the exception of a trip to Quebec in January, for a month. On November 24th his letter to Bourlamaque from Montreal gives an indication of a time of leisure, for amusement. "M. le Chevalier (de LÉvis) passes the time socially at Madame de PÉnisseault's house. He has been to a great supper party at M. Martel's. As for myself I play at backgammon, or I have a hand at whist with my general, Madame Varin occasionally, or Madame d'Eschambault." From the end of November to the end of December the audiences with visiting delegations of Indians occupied the attention of Vaudreuil and the military authorities. Montcalm spent the New Year's day alone but on January 3d he joined Vaudreuil and de LÉvis at Quebec, whither they had gone on December 31st. His object was to visit the troops garrisoned there under Bourlamaque. The presence of the distinguished visitors in Quebec gave rise to a series of brilliant receptions and balls in an already brilliant season, at which the Intendant Bigot surpassed even himself by his splendour. The fashionable gayety of the capital, then numbering about twelve hundred souls, at this period of peril, is saddening, being only equalled by the venality and corruption abounding. Montcalm reports, "Quebec has appeared to me as a town of very high tone; I do not believe that in France there are a dozen surpassing Quebec in society." He had to note that excessive gaming was the order of the day. The Intendant Bigot indulged his taste in it and Vaudreuil also complacently permitted the extravagances, although many of the officers were ruined by them.

During his stay in Quebec, Montcalm carried out the policy, so energetically inaugurated by Talon, of inducing the soldiery to marry with the view of settling down. But he did not approve so much of the marriages of his officers, for he feared that they would make mediocre marriages, as some indeed did, with the rashness of youth. Montcalm enjoyed his stay in Quebec; its gayeties appealed to him more than those of Montreal, whither he returned shortly.

During the months of February, March and April, Vaudreuil organized from Montreal one of those winter war parties at which the Canadians were past masters. Having received news at Three Rivers, where he was ill from pleurisy, that there had been a brush between an English and a French party at Carillon, he conceived the project of sending a war party to try a coup de main against Fort William Henry, at the head of Lake St. Sacrement (Lake George). This enterprise, directed from Montreal, resulted in an appreciable success, in that it broke down the preparations of the English in that part, for a campaign against the French.

This war aroused fresh dissensions between Vaudreuil and Montcalm, the latter complaining of the expense and also imagining that the governor wished to put in relief the colonial and militia forces to the detriment of the battalions from France. Montcalm in his letter to the minister of marine on April 24th could not, however, but acknowledge the success of these severe manoeuvres, with their snowshoe marches over lakes and through forests, and terrible tempests, and the bivouacs by night under the cold stars. Yet he added with pride that "the Canadians have been astonished to see that our officers and soldiers have not been a whit behind them in method of war and march, to which they were not accustomed. It must, however, be admitted that in Europe they have no idea of the hardships which one is obliged to endure during the six weeks of marching and sleeping, as it were, always on the snow or the ice, and of being reduced to bread and lard, and often having to drag or to carry provisions, for fifteen days." He also mentions that the winter had been very severe, "the thermometer being many times down to twenty-seven, often eighteen to twenty, and nearly always from twelve to fifteen, minus. There has been an astonishing quantity of snow."

Yet these military preoccupations did not hinder the gay routine of social engagements at headquarters during this winter of 1757. The presence of the governor general, Montcalm, de LÉvis and the military staff gave much Éclat and life to Montreal with its succession of balls, receptions and dinners. Never had Montreal seen such a carnival. In all this, as befitting his high rank, the general had to share. In his correspondence with Bourlamaque, Montcalm gives us in his letter of February 14th a picture of the fashionable society of the time.

"Since being here I pass my time giving big dinners to parties of fifteen or sixteen persons and sometimes suppers, aussi nombreux sans en Être plus gaillards. Il faut souhaiter que l'hiver prochain on en puisse faire qui puissent dÉdommager. On Sunday, I gathered together the ladies from France, with the exception of Madame Parfouru, who did me the honour to visit me, three days ago; in seeing her I perceived that love has powerful attractions, of which one can render no reasonable account; not by the impression which she has made on my part, but especially by that which she has made on her husband. Wednesday, a gathering at the house of Madame Varin; [199] Thursday, a ball at that of the Chevalier de LÉvis, who had invited sixty-five 'dames ou demoiselles.' Thirty would have been enough, so many men being away in the war. The hall was brilliantly illuminated; it is as large as the intendant's; much ceremony and attentive hospitality, refreshments, in abundance, all the night, of every kind and species, and the party did not leave till seven o'clock in the morning. I, however, who had given up the gay life of my stay at Quebec, went to bed at an early hour. I had had, however, the same day, a supper for eight ladies, in honour of Madame Varin. Tomorrow I shall give another for half a dozen. I do not know yet to whom it is to be given, but I am inclined to think it will be Madame Rochebeaucour. The gallant chevalier is giving us another ball. The public imagined that our aides-de-camp were to give a mardi gras; but I have advised them to wait until after Easter and after the success of our detachment, when it will be more suitable to give public marks of joy."

Amidst these gayeties and his official duties in preparation for the hazardous campaigns of spring, Montcalm did not neglect to write to his family, for whom he prepares, for the departure of the boats in spring, chatty accounts of his daily doings, interspersing them with amusing Canadian sketches. He tells his wife on April 16th of the doings of his household staff, his men, the gayeties. "Everything is very expensive. One must live according to one's rank and I do it. Every day, sixteen persons at table. Once a week with the governor general, and with M. de LÉvis, who also lives well. He has given three fine balls. As for myself,—up to Lent, besides the dinners, great supper parties with ladies three times a week." He speaks of the games of chance he could not refuse, the impromptu dancing parties after the suppers; very expensive, not very entertaining and oftentimes boresome. "... I have had my assistant cook married, for I am bent on peopling the colony. Eighty soldier marriages this winter and two of officers.... The ladies are witty, courteous and pious. At Quebec, they are gamesters; at Montreal conversations and the dance prevail." He speaks highly of his good relations with de LÉvis, Bourlamaque, the colonial and militia troops, the savages; of his intense desire to rejoin them and his impatient desire for peace; of the likelihood of the commencement of military operations on the frontier of Lake St. Sacrement on the 12th or 15th of May. "... Adieu, my sweetheart, I adore and love you, I embrace my daughter, my mother."

The winter gayeties of Montreal this year did not close without an additional zest being imparted by the visit of a contingent of ladies from Quebec. "Mesdames de St. Ours [200] and de Beaubassin and Mesdemoiselles de Longueuil and Drucour arrived yesterday evening," wrote Montcalm on March 14th to Bourlamaque at Quebec; this meant renewed exchange of hospitality.

Meanwhile spring had arrived and as yet the boats from France had not appeared with the provisions for the troops. Quebec was menaced with a famine. The intendant was obliged to distute 2,000 bushels of grain to the habitants to seed their lands and there was a fear of want of flour, as the 14th of May had already passed. Montreal, less poor in wheat, sent some down to Quebec. This penury paralyzed operations, for it was impossible to put the troops in motion without provisions. Their objective was the frontier of Lake St. Sacrement. The governor wished to concentrate at Carillon as great an army as possible, to attempt the siege of Fort William Henry. This scarcity of provisions became daily more alarming, as May came to an end. There was talk of horse flesh being supplied instead of pork. At last the news came that the David and the Jason of Bordeaux, laden with provisions, arms, and men, were coming up the river, bringing news from France, that would give new zest to the conversation, after being so long sequestered, during the winter seclusion, from contact with the mother country.