Vaudreuil complained of this to
Montcalm, adding, "I am greatly above it, and I despise it."[674] To
which the General replied: "You are right to despise gossip, supposing
that there has been any. For my part, though I hear that I have been
torn to pieces without mercy in your presence, I do not believe
it."[675]
[Footnote 674: _Vaudreuil a Montcalm, 1 Aout, 1758._]
[Footnote 675: _Montcalm a Vaudreuil, 6 Aout, 1758._]
In these infelicities Bigot figures as peacemaker, though with no
perceptible success. Vaudreuil's cup of bitterness was full when letters
came from Versailles ordering him to defer to Montcalm on all questions
of war, or of civil administration bearing up war.[676] He had begged
hard for his rival's recall, and in reply his rival was set over his
head.
[Footnote 676: _Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1758, 1759_.]
The two yokefellows were excellently fitted to exasperate each other:
Montcalm, with his southern vivacity of emotion and an impetuous,
impatient volubility that sometimes forgot prudence; and Vaudreuil,
always affable towards adherents, but full of suspicious egotism and
restless jealousy that bristled within him at the very thought of his
colleague. Some of the by-play of the quarrel may be seen in Montcalm's
familiar correspondence with Bourlamaque. One day the Governor, in his
own house, brought up the old complaint that Montcalm, after taking Fort
William Henry, did not take Fort Edward also.
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