"[829] Some of these had left the
hospitals of their own accord in their eagerness to take part in
the fray.
[Footnote 829: _Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760_.]
The rain had ceased; but as the column emerged from St.
Louis Gate, the scene before them was a dismal one. As yet
there was no sign of spring. Each leafless bush and tree was
dark with clammy moisture; patches of bare earth lay oozy and
black on the southern slopes: but elsewhere the ground was
still covered with snow, in some places piled in drifts, and
everywhere sodden with rain; while each hollow and depression
was full of that half-liquid, lead-colored mixture of snow and
water which new England schoolboys call "slush," for all
drainage was stopped by the frozen subsoil. The troops had
with them two howitzers and twenty field-pieces, which had
been captured when Quebec surrendered, and had formed a
part of that very battery which Ramesay refused to Montcalm
at the battle of the autumn before. As there were no horses, the
cannon were dragged by some of the soldiers, while others
carried picks and spades; for as yet Murray seems not to have
made up his mind whether to fortify or fight. Thus they advanced
nearly half a mile; till reaching the Buttes-a-Neveu, they formed
in order of battle along their farther slopes, on thesame ground
that Montcalm had occupied on the morning of his death.
Murray went forward to reconnoitre.
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