"[680]
[Footnote 680: _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Avril, 1759._]
"Rapacity, folly, intrigue, falsehood, will soon ruin this colony which
has cost the King so dear," wrote Doreil to the Minister of War. "We
must not flatter ourselves with vain hope; Canada is lost if we do not
have peace this winter." "It has been saved by miracle in these past
three years; nothing but peace can save it now, in spite of all the
efforts and the talents of M. de Montcalm."[681] Vaudreuil himself
became thoroughly alarmed, and told the Court in the autumn of 1758 that
food, arms, munitions, and everything else were fast failing, and that
without immediate peace or heavy reinforcements all was lost.
[Footnote 681: _Doreil au Ministre, 31 Juillet, 1758. Ibid. 12 Aout,
1758. Ibid. 31 Aout, 1758. Ibid. 1 Sept. 1758._]
The condition of Canada was indeed deplorable. The St. Lawrence was
watched by British ships; the harvest was meagre; a barrel of flour cost
two hundred francs; most of the cattle and many of the horses had been
killed for food. The people lived chiefly on a pittance of salt cod or
on rations furnished by the King; all prices were inordinate; the
officers from France were starving on their pay; while a legion of
indigenous and imported scoundrels fattened on the general distress.
"What a country!" exclaims Montcalm. "Here all the knaves grow rich, and
the honest men are ruined." Yet he was resolved to stand by it to the
last, and wrote to the Minister of War that he would bury himself under
its ruins.
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