He
and his companions used the scalping-knife as freely as the Indians
themselves; nor were the New England rangers much behind them in this
respect, till an order came from Wolfe forbidding "the inhuman practice
of scalping, except when the enemy are Indians, or Canadians dressed
like Indians."
A part of the fleet worked up into the Basin, beyond the Point of
Orleans; and here, on the warm summer nights, officers and men watched
the cannon flashing and thundering from the heights of Montmorenci on
one side, and those of Pont Levi on the other, and the bombs sailing
through the air in fiery semicircles. Often the gloom was lighted up by
the blaze of the burning houses of Quebec, kindled by incendiary shells.
Both the lower and the upper town were nearly deserted by the
inhabitants, some retreating into the country, and some into the suburb
of St. Roch; while the Ursulines and Hospital nuns abandoned their
convents to seek harborage beyond the range of shot. The city was a prey
to robbers, who pillaged the empty houses, till an order came from
headquarters promising the gallows to all who should be caught. News
reached the French that Niagara was attacked, and that the army of
Amherst was moving against Ticonderoga. The Canadians deserted more and
more. They were disheartened by the defensive attitude in which both
Vaudreuil and Montcalm steadily persisted; and accustomed as they were
to rapid raids, sudden strokes, and a quick return to their homes, they
tired of long weeks of inaction.
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