Isle-aux-Noix, planted in mid-channel of the
Richelieu soon after it issues from Lake Champlain, had been diligently
fortified since the spring. On each side of it was an arm of the river,
closed against an enemy with _chevaux-de-frise_. To attack it in front
in the face of its formidable artillery would be a hazardous attempt,
and the task of reducing it was likely to be a long one. The French
force in these parts had lately received accessions. After the fall of
Niagara the danger seemed so great, both in the direction of Lake
Ontario and that of Lake Champlain, that Levis had been sent up from
Quebec with eight hundred men to command the whole department of
Montreal.[746] A body of troops and militia was encamped opposite that
town, ready to march towards either quarter, as need might be, while
the abundant crops of the neighboring parishes were harvested by armed
bands, ready at a word to drop the sickle for the gun.
[Footnote 745: _Bourlamaque a_ (_Bernetz?_), _22 Sept. 1759._]
[Footnote 746: _Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 9 Aout, 1759. Rigaud a
Bourlamaque, 14 Aout, 1759. Levis a Bourlamaque, 25 Aout, 1759._]
Thus the promised advance of Amherst into Canada would be not without
its difficulties, even when his navy, too tardily begun, should be ready
to act its part. But if he showed no haste in succoring Wolfe, he at
least made some attempts to communicate with him. Early in August he
wrote him a letter, which Ensign Hutchins, of the rangers, carried to
him in about a month by the long and circuitous route of the Kennebec,
and which, after telling the news of the campaign, ended thus: "You may
depend on my doing all I can for effectually reducing Canada.
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