I think I would renounce every honor to join you again;
but the King must be obeyed. The moment when I see you once more will be
the brightest of my life. Adieu, my heart! I believe that I love you
more than ever."
Bougainville had brought sad news. He had heard before sailing from
France that one of Montcalm's daughters was dead, but could not learn
which of them. "I think," says the father, "that it must be poor Mirete,
who was like me, and whom I loved very much." He was never to know if
this conjecture was true.
To Vaudreuil came a repetition of the detested order that he should
defer to Montcalm on all questions of war; and moreover that he should
not take command in person except when the whole body of the militia was
called out; nor, even then, without consulting his rival.[694] His ire
and vexation produced an access of jealous self-assertion, and drove him
into something like revolt against the ministerial command. "If the
English attack Quebec, I shall always hold myself free to go thither
myself with most of the troops and all the militia and Indians I can
assemble. On arriving I shall give battle to the enemy; and I shall do
so again and again, till I have forced him to retire, or till he has
entirely crushed me by excessive superiority of numbers. My obstinacy in
opposing his landing will be the more _a propos_, as I have not the
means of sustaining a siege. If I succeed as I wish, I shall next march
to Carillon to arrest him there.
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