This he pronounced impossible; and he expressed a strong desire that the
English would attack him, "so that we may rid ourselves of them at
once."[715] He was courageous, except in the immediate presence of
danger, and failed only when the crisis came.
[Footnote 715: _Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque, 8 Juillet, 1759._]
Wolfe, held in check at every other point, had one movement in his
power. He could seize the heights of Point Levi, opposite the city; and
this, along with his occupation of the Island of Orleans, would give him
command of the Basin of Quebec. Thence also he could fire on the place
across the St. Lawrence, which is here less than a mile wide. The
movement was begun on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth, when, shivering
in a north wind and a sharp frost, a part of Monckton's brigade was
ferried over to Beaumont, on the south shore, and the rest followed in
the morning. The rangers had a brush with a party of Canadians, whom
they drove off, and the regulars then landed unopposed. Monckton ordered
a proclamation, signed by Wolfe, to be posted on the door of the parish
church. It called on the Canadians, in peremptory terms, to stand
neutral in the contest, promised them, if they did so, full protection
in property and religion, and threatened that, if they presumed to
resist the invaders, their houses, goods, and harvests should be
destroyed, and their churches despoiled. As soon as the troops were out
of sight the inhabitants took down the placard and carried it to
Vaudreuil.
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