For himself he had no pity;
but when he heard of the illness of two officers in one of the ships, he
sent them a message of warm sympathy, advised them to return to Point
Levi, and offered them his own barge and an escort. They thanked him,
but replied that, come what might, they would see the enterprise to an
end. Another officer remarked in his hearing that one of the invalids
had a very delicate constitution. "Don't tell me of constitution," said
Wolfe; "he has good spirit, and good spirit will carry a man through
everything."[762] An immense moral force bore up his own frail body and
forced it to its work.
[Footnote 762: Knox, II. 61, 65.]
Major Robert Stobo, who, five years before, had been given as a hostage
to the French at the capture of Fort Necessity, arrived about this time
in a vessel from Halifax. He had long been a prisoner at Quebec, not
always in close custody, and had used his opportunities to acquaint
himself with the neighborhood. In the spring of this year he and an
officer of rangers named Stevens had made their escape with
extraordinary skill and daring; and he now returned to give his
countrymen the benefit of his local knowledge.[763] His biographer says
that it was he who directed Wolfe in the choice of a landing-place.[764]
Be this as it may, Wolfe in person examined the river and the shores as
far as Pointe-aux-Trembles; till at length, landing on the south side a
little above Quebec, and looking across the water with a telescope, he
descried a path that ran with a long slope up the face of the woody
precipice, and saw at the top a cluster of tents.
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