1758._]
[Footnote 683: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Oct. 1758._]
[Footnote 684: _Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 3 Nov. 1758._]
The two envoys had sailed for France. Winter was close at hand, and the
harbor of Quebec was nearly empty. One ship still lingered, the last of
the season, and by her Montcalm sent a letter to his mother: "You will
be glad to have me write to you up to the last moment to tell you for
the hundredth time that, occupied as I am with the fate of New France,
the preservation of the troops, the interest of the state, and my own
glory, I think continually of you all. We did our best in 1756, 1757,
and 1758; and so, God helping, we will do in 1759, unless you make peace
in Europe." Then, shut from the outer world for half a year by barriers
of ice, he waited what returning spring might bright forth.
Both Bougainville and Doreil escaped the British cruisers and safely
reached Versailles, where, in the slippery precincts of the Court, as
new to him as they were treacherous, the young aide-de-camp justified
all the confidence of his chief. He had interviews with the ministers,
the King, and, more important than all, with Madame de Pompadour, whom
he succeeded in propitiating, though not, it seems, without difficulty
and delay. France, unfortunate by land and sea, with finances ruined and
navy crippled, had gained one brilliant victory, and she owed it to
Montcalm.
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