" On the eleventh of September he wrote his last
letter to Bourlamaque, and probably the last that his pen ever traced.
"I am overwhelmed with work, and should often lose temper, like you, if
I did not remember that I am paid by Europe for not losing it. Nothing
new since my last. I give the enemy another month, or something less, to
stay here." The more sanguine Vaudreuil would hardly give them a week.
Meanwhile, no precaution was spared. The force under Bougainville above
Quebec was raised to three thousand men.[757] He was ordered to watch
the shore as far as Jacques-Cartier, and follow with his main body every
movement of Holmes's squadron. There was little fear for the heights
near the town; they were thought inaccessible.[758] Even Montcalm
believed them safe, and had expressed himself to that effect some time
before. "We need not suppose," he wrote to Vaudreuil, "that the enemy
have wings;" and again, speaking of the very place where Wolfe
afterwards landed, "I swear to you that a hundred men posted there would
stop their whole army."[759] He was right. A hundred watchful and
determined men could have held the position long enough for
reinforcements to come up.
[Footnote 757: _Journal du Siege_ (Bibliotheque de Hartwell). _Journal
tenu a l'Armee, etc. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct._ 1759.]
[Footnote 758: Pontbriand, _Jugement impartial._]
[Footnote 759: _Montcalm a Vaudreuil, 27 Juillet.
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