A well-informed
French writer calls them "a generation of _petits-maitres,_ dissolute,
frivolous, heedless, light-witted; but brave always, and ready to die
with their soldiers, though not to suffer with them."[373] In fact the
course of the war was to show plainly that in Europe the regiments of
France were no longer what they had once been. It was not so with those
who fought in America. Here, for enduring gallantry, officers and men
alike deserve nothing but praise.
[Footnote 371: Of about twelve hundred who came with Montcalm, nearly
three hundred were now in hospital. The four battalions that came with
Dieskau are reported at the end of May to have sixteen hundred and
fifty-three effective men. _Etat de la Situation actuelle des
Bataillons,_ appended to Montcalm's despatch of 12 June. Another
document, _Detail de ce qui s'est passe en Canada, Juin, 1755, jusqu'a
Juin_, 1756, sets the united effective strength of the battalions in
Canada at twenty-six hundred and seventy-seven, which was increased by
recruits which arrived from France about midsummer.]
[Footnote 372: Except perhaps, the battalion of Bearn, which formerly
wore, and possibly wore still, a uniform of light blue.]
[Footnote 373: Susane, _Ancienne Infanterie Francaise_. In the atlas of
this work are colored plates of the uniforms of all the regiments of
foot.]
The _troupes de la marine_ had for a long time formed the permanent
military establishment of Canada.
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