1758_.]
[Footnote 690: _Lettres de Bougainville a Madame de Saint-Veran, 1758,
1759_.]
Again he crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence as the
portentous spring of 1759 was lowering over the dissolving snows of
Canada. With him came a squadron bearing the supplies and the petty
reinforcement which the Court had vouchsafed. "A little is precious to
those who have nothing," said Montcalm on receiving them. Despatches
from the ministers gave warning of a great armament fitted out in
English ports for the attack of Quebec, while a letter to the General
from the Marechal de Belleisle, minister of war, told what was expected
of him, and why he and the colony were abandoned to their fate. "If we
sent a large reinforcement of troops," said Belleisle, "there would be
great fear that the English would intercept them on the way; and as the
King could never send you forces equal to those which the English are
prepared to oppose to you, the attempt would have no other effect than
to excite the Cabinet of London to increased efforts for preserving its
superiority on the American continent."
"As we must expect the English to turn all their force against Canada,
and attack you on several sides at once, it is necessary that you limit
your plans of defence to the most essential points and those most
closely connected, so that, being concentrated within a smaller space,
each part may be within reach of support and succor from the rest.
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