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71 - Montcalm and Wolfe by Francis Parkman, Jr. · Montcalm and Wolfe

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Speaker 1: Section seventy of Montcarmen Wolfe by Francis Parkman. This LibriVox
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Speaker 1: recordings in the public domain, Chapter thirty one, Part one,
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Speaker 1: seventeen fifty eight to seventeen sixty three. The Peace of Paris,
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Speaker 1: in accordance with the terms of the Capitulation of Montreal,
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Speaker 1: the French military officers, with such of the soldiers as
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Speaker 1: could be kept together, as well as all the chief
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Speaker 1: civil officers of the colony, sailed for France in vessels
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Speaker 1: provided by the conquerors. They were voluntarily followed by the
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Speaker 1: principal members of the Canadian noblesse and by many of
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Speaker 1: the merchants, who had no mind to swear allegiance to
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Speaker 1: King George. The peasants and poorer colonists remained at home
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Speaker 1: to begin a new life under a new flag. Though
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Speaker 1: this exodus of the natural leaders of Canada was in
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Speaker 1: good part deferred till the next year, and though the
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Speaker 1: number of persons to be immediately embarked was reduced by
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Speaker 1: the desertion of many French soldiers who had married Canadian wives,
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Speaker 1: yet the English authorities were sorely perplexed to find vessels
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Speaker 1: enough for the motley crowd of passengers. When at last
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Speaker 1: they were all on their way, a succession of furious
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Speaker 1: autumnal storms fell upon them. The ship that carried Levice
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Speaker 1: barely escaped wreck, and that which bore voor Droy and
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Speaker 1: his wife fared little better. Worst of all was the
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Speaker 1: fate of the Auguste, on board of which was the
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Speaker 1: bold but ruthless partisan, said Luc de La, his brother,
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Speaker 1: his children, and a party of Canadian officers, together with ladies, merchants,
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Speaker 1: and soldiers. A worthy ecclesiastical chronicler paints the unhappy vessel
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Speaker 1: as a floating Babylon, and sees in her fate the
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Speaker 1: stern judgment of Heaven. It is true that New France
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Speaker 1: ran riot in the last years of her existence, But
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Speaker 1: before the Auguste was well out of the Saint Lawrence,
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Speaker 1: she was so tossed and buffeted, so lashed with waves
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Speaker 1: and pelted with rain, that the most alluring forms of
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Speaker 1: sin must have lost their charm, and her inmates passed
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Speaker 1: days rather of penance than transgression. There was a violent
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Speaker 1: storm as the ship entered the gulf, then a calm,
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Speaker 1: during which she took fire in the cook's galley. The
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Speaker 1: crew and passengers subdued the flames after desperate efforts, but
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Speaker 1: their only food thenceforth was dry biscuit. Off the coast
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Speaker 1: of Cape Breton, another gale rose. They lost their reckoning
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Speaker 1: and lay tossing blindly amid the tempest. The exhausted sailors
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Speaker 1: took in despair to their hammocks, from which neither commands
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Speaker 1: nor blows could rouse them. While amid shrieks, tears, prayers
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Speaker 1: and vows to Heaven, the Auguste drove towards the shore,
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Speaker 1: struck and rolled over on her side. La Corne with
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Speaker 1: six others gained the beach, and towards night they saw
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Speaker 1: the ship break asunder and counted one hundred and fourteen
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Speaker 1: corpses strewn along them sand. Aided by Indians and English officers,
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Speaker 1: La Corne made his way on snow shoes up the
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Speaker 1: Saint John, and by a miracle of enduring hardihood, reached
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Speaker 1: Quebec before the end of winter. The other ships weathered
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Speaker 1: the November gales and landed their passengers on the shores
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Speaker 1: of France, where some of them found a dismal welcome,
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Speaker 1: being seized and thrown into the bastille. These were voor
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Speaker 1: droi Bigaux, Cadet, Paon Breard Varennes, Le Mercieres, Penoisseaul Morains, Corprint,
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Speaker 1: and others accused of the frauds and peculations that had
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Speaker 1: helped to ruin Canada. In the next year, they were
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Speaker 1: all put on trial, whether as an act of pure
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Speaker 1: justice or as a device to turn public indignation from
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Speaker 1: the government. In December seventeen sixty one, judges commissioned for
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Speaker 1: the purpose began their sessions at the Chatelat and a
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Speaker 1: prodigious mass of evidence was laid before them. Caday, with
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Speaker 1: brazen effrontery, at first declared himself innocent, but ended with
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Speaker 1: full and unblushing confession. Bigeaux denied everything till silenced, point
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Speaker 1: by point, with papers bearing his own signature. The prisoners
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Speaker 1: defended themselves by accusing each other. Bigeaux and vor Droy
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Speaker 1: brought mutual charges, while all agreed in denouncing Caday. Vor Droy,
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Speaker 1: as before mentioned, was acquitted. Bigaux was banished from France
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Speaker 1: for life, his property was confiscated, and he was condemned
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Speaker 1: to pay fifteen hundred thousand francs by way of restitution.
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Speaker 1: Cadet was banished for nine years from Paris and required
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Speaker 1: to refund six millions, while others were sentenced in sums
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Speaker 1: varying from thirty thousand to eight hundred thousand francs and
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Speaker 1: were ordered to be held in prison till the money
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Speaker 1: was paid. Of twenty one persons brought to trial, ten
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Speaker 1: were condemned, six were acquitted, three received an admonition, and
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Speaker 1: two were dismissed for want of evidence. Thirty four failed
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Speaker 1: to appear, of whom seven were sentenced in default, and
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Speaker 1: judgment was reserved in the case of the rest. Even
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Speaker 1: those who escaped from justice profited little by their gains,
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Speaker 1: for unless they had turned them betimes into land or
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Speaker 1: other substantial values, they lost them in a discredited paper
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Speaker 1: currency and dishonored bills of exchange. While on the American continent,
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Speaker 1: the last scenes of the war were drawing to their clothes,
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Speaker 1: the contest raged in Europe with unabated violence. England was
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Speaker 1: in the full career of success, but her great ally,
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Speaker 1: Frederick of Prussia, seemed tottering to his ruin. In the
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Speaker 1: summer of seventeen fifty eight, his glory was at its height. French,
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Speaker 1: Austrians and Russians had all fled before him, But the
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Speaker 1: autumn brought reverses, and the Austrian general Dawn, at the
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Speaker 1: head of an overwhelming force, gained over him, a partial victory,
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Speaker 1: which his masterly strategy robbed of its fruits. It was
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Speaker 1: but a momentary respite. His kingdom was exhausted by its
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Speaker 1: own triumphs. His best generals were dead, his best soldiers
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Speaker 1: killed or disabled, his resources almost spent, the very chandeliers
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Speaker 1: of his palace melted into coin, and all Europe was
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Speaker 1: in arms against him. The disciplined valor of the Prussian
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Speaker 1: troops and the supreme leadership of their undespairing king had
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Speaker 1: thus far held the invading hosts at bay, but now
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Speaker 1: the end seemed near. Frederic could not be everywhere at once,
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Speaker 1: and while he stopped one leak, the torrent poured in
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Speaker 1: at another. The Russians advanced again, defeated General Weddell, whom
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Speaker 1: he sent against them, and made a junct with the Austrians.
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Speaker 1: In August seventeen fifty nine, he attacked their united force
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Speaker 1: at Koonersdorf, broke their left wing to pieces, took a
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Speaker 1: hundred and eighty cannon, forced their center to give ground,
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Speaker 1: and after hours of furious fighting, was overwhelmed at last
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Speaker 1: in vain, he tried to stop the route. The bullets
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Speaker 1: killed two horses under him, tore his clothes and crushed
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Speaker 1: a gold snuff box in his west pocket. Is there
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Speaker 1: no bee of a shot that can hit me? Then
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Speaker 1: he cried in his bitterness, as his aide de camp
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Speaker 1: forced him from the field for a few days. He despaired,
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Speaker 1: then rallied to his forlorn task, and with smiles on
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Speaker 1: his lip and anger wish at his heart, watched maneuvered
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Speaker 1: and fought with cool and stubborn desperation. To his friend Dargan,
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Speaker 1: he wrote, soon after his defeat, death is sweet in
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Speaker 1: comparison to such a life as mine. Have pity on me,
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Speaker 1: and it believe that I still keep to myself a
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Speaker 1: great many evil things, not wishing to afflict or disgust
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Speaker 1: anybody with them, and that I would not counsel you
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Speaker 1: to fly these unlucky countries if I had any ray
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Speaker 1: of hope. Adieu moncheur. It is well for him and
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Speaker 1: for Prussia that he had strong allies in the dissensions
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Speaker 1: and delays of his enemies. But his cup was not
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Speaker 1: yet full. Dresden was taken from him ate if his
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Speaker 1: remaining generals and twelve thousand men were defeated and captured
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Speaker 1: at Maxon, and this infernal campaign, as he called it,
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Speaker 1: closed in thick darkness, I wrap myself in stoicism as
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Speaker 1: best I can, he writes to Voltaire. If you saw me,
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Speaker 1: you would hardly know me. I am old, broken, gray headed, wrinkled.
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Speaker 1: If this goes on, there will be nothing left of
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Speaker 1: me but the mania of making verses, and an inviolable
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Speaker 1: attachment to my duties and to the few virtuous men
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Speaker 1: I know. But you will not get a piece signed
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Speaker 1: by my hand except on conditions honorable to my nation.
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Speaker 1: Your people, blown up with conceit and folly, may depend
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Speaker 1: on this. The same stubborn conflict with overmastering odds, the
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Speaker 1: same intrepid resolution, the same subtle strategy, the same skill
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Speaker 1: in eluding the blow, and lightning like quickness in retorting it.
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Speaker 1: Marked Frederick's campaign of seventeen sixty at Leignitz, three armies,
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Speaker 1: each equal to his own, closed around him, and he
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Speaker 1: put them all to flight. While he was fighting in Silesia,
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Speaker 1: the Allies marched upon Berlin, took it and held it
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Speaker 1: three days, but withdrew on his approach. For him, there
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Speaker 1: was no peace. Why weary you with the details of
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Speaker 1: my labors and sorrows, He wrote again to his faithful Darjent,
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Speaker 1: My spirits have forsaken me, all gaieties buried with the loved,
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Speaker 1: noble ones to whom my heart was bound. He had
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Speaker 1: lost his mother and his devoted sister Wilhelmina. You, as
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Speaker 1: a follower of Epicurus, put a value upon life. As
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Speaker 1: for me, I regard death from the stoic point of view.
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Speaker 1: I have told you, and I repeat it. Never shall
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Speaker 1: my hand sign a humiliating peace finish this campaign. I
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Speaker 1: will resolved to dare all to succeed or find a
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Speaker 1: glorious end. Then came the victory of Torgau, the last
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Speaker 1: and one of the most desperate of his battles, a
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Speaker 1: success dearly bought and bringing neither rest nor safety. Once more,
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Speaker 1: he wrote to Darjean adieu, Dear Marquis, write to me sometimes,
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Speaker 1: don't forget a poor devil who curses his fatal existence
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Speaker 1: ten times a day. I live like a military monk,
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Speaker 1: endless business and a little consolation from my books. I
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Speaker 1: don't know if I shall outlive this war. But if
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Speaker 1: I do, I am firmly resolved to pass the rest
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Speaker 1: of my life in solitude in the bosom of philosophy
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Speaker 1: and friendship. Your nation, you see, is blinder than you thought.
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Speaker 1: These fools will lose their Canada and Pondicherry to please
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Speaker 1: the Queen of Hungary and the Czarina. The campaign of
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Speaker 1: seventeen sixty one was mainly defensive on the part of Frederic.
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Speaker 1: In the exhaustion of his resources, he could see no
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Speaker 1: means of continuing the struggle. It is only fortune, says
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Speaker 1: the royal skeptic, that can extricate me from the situation
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Speaker 1: I am in. I escape out of it by looking
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Speaker 1: at the universe on the great scale, like an observer
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Speaker 1: from some distant planet. All then seems to be so
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Speaker 1: infinitely small that I could almost pity my enemies for
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Speaker 1: giving themselves so much trouble about so very little. I
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Speaker 1: read a great deal. I devour my books, But for
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Speaker 1: them I think hypochondria would have had me in bedlamb
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Speaker 1: before now. In fine, dear Marquis, we live in troublous
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Speaker 1: times and desperate situations. I have all the properties of
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Speaker 1: a stage hero, always in danger, always on the point
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Speaker 1: of perishing, and in another mood, I begin to feel that,
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Speaker 1: as the Italians say, revenge is a pleasure for the gods.
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Speaker 1: My philosophy is worn out by suffering. I am no saint,
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Speaker 1: and I will own that I should die content if
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Speaker 1: only I could first inflict a part of the misery
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Speaker 1: that I endure. While Frederick was fighting for life and crown,
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Speaker 1: an event took place in England that was to have
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Speaker 1: great influence on the war. Walpole recounts it thus, writing
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Speaker 1: to George Montague on the twenty fifth of October seventeen sixty,
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Speaker 1: my man Harry tells me all the amusing news. He
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Speaker 1: first told me of the late Prince of Wales's death,
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Speaker 1: and to day of the King's So I must tell
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Speaker 1: you all I know of departed majesty. He went to
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Speaker 1: bed well last night, rose at six this morning, looked,
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Speaker 1: I suppose if all his money was in his purse,
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Speaker 1: and called for his chocolate. A little after seven he
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Speaker 1: went into the closet the German Valet de Champbre heard
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Speaker 1: a noise, listened, heard something like a groan, ran in,
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Speaker 1: and found the hero of Oudenard and Dettingen on the
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Speaker 1: floor with a gash on his right temple. By falling
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Speaker 1: against the corner of a bureau He tried to speak,
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Speaker 1: could not and expired. The great ventricle of the heart
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Speaker 1: had burst. What an enviable death. The old king was
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Speaker 1: succeeded by his grandson, George the Third. A mirror of
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Speaker 1: domestic virtues conscientiousness, obstinate, narrow. His accession produced political changes
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Speaker 1: that had been preparing for some time. His grandfather was
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Speaker 1: German at heart, loved his continental kingdom of Hanover, and
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Speaker 1: was eager for all measures that looked to its defense
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Speaker 1: and preservation. Pitt, too, had of late vigorously supported the
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Speaker 1: Continental War, saying that he would conquer America in Germany. Thus,
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Speaker 1: with differing views, the king and the Minister had concurred
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Speaker 1: in the same measures. But George the third was English
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Speaker 1: by birth, language and inclination. His ruling passion was the
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Speaker 1: establishment and increase of his own authority. He disliked Pitt,
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Speaker 1: the representative of the people. He was at heart averse
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Speaker 1: to a war, the continuance of which would make the
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Speaker 1: great commoner necessary and therefore powerful, and he wished for
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Speaker 1: a peace that would give free scope to his schemes
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Speaker 1: for strengthening the prerogative. He was not alone in his
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Speaker 1: pacific inclinations. The enemies of the haughty Minister, who had
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Speaker 1: ridden roughshod over men far above him in rank, were
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Speaker 1: tired of his ascendancy and saw no hope of ending it,
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Speaker 1: but by ending the war. Thus a peace party grew up,
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Speaker 1: and the young King became its real Though not at
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Speaker 1: first its declared supporter. The Tory party, long buried, showed
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Speaker 1: signs of resurrection. There were those amongst its members who,
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Speaker 1: even in a king of the hated line of Hanover,
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Speaker 1: could recognize and admire the same spirit of arbitrary domination
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Speaker 1: that had marked their fallen idols, the Stuarts, and they
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Speaker 1: now joined hands with the discontented Whigs in opposition to Pitt.
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Speaker 1: The horrors of war, the blessings of peace, the weight
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Speaker 1: of taxation, the growth of the national debt were the
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Speaker 1: rallying cries of the new party, But the main spring
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Speaker 1: of their zeal was hostility to the Great Minister. Even
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Speaker 1: his own colleagues chafed under his spirit of mastery. The
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Speaker 1: chiefs of the opposition longed to inherit his power, and
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Speaker 1: the King had begun to hate him as a lion
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Speaker 1: in his path, Pitt held to his purpose, regardless of
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Speaker 1: the gathering storm. That purpose, as proclaimed by his adherents,
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Speaker 1: was to secure a solid and lasting peace, which meant
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Speaker 1: the reduction of France to so low an a state
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Speaker 1: that she could no more be a danger to her rival.
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Speaker 1: In this he had the sympathy of the great body
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Speaker 1: of the nation. Early in seventeen sixty one, the King,
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Speaker 1: a fanatic for prerogative, set his enginery in motion. The
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Speaker 1: elections for the new Parliament were manipulated in his interest.
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Speaker 1: If he discre liked Pitt as the representative of the
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Speaker 1: popular will, he also disliked his colleagues, the shuffling and
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Speaker 1: uncertain Newcastle, as the representative of a too powerful nobility.
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Speaker 1: Elements hostile to both were introduced into the Cabinet and
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Speaker 1: the great offices. The King's favourite, the Earl of Butte,
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Speaker 1: supplanted Holderness as Secretary of State for the Northern Department.
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Speaker 1: Charles Townsend, an opponent of Pitt, was made Secretary of War. Legg,
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Speaker 1: Chancellor of the Exchequer, was replaced by Viscount Barrington, who
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Speaker 1: was sure for the King. While a place in the
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Speaker 1: cabinet was also given to the Duke of Bedford, one
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Speaker 1: of the few men who dared face the formidable minister.
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Speaker 1: It was the policy of the King and his following
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Speaker 1: to abandon Prussia hitherto support by British subsidies, make friends
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Speaker 1: with Austria and Russia at her expense, and conclude a
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Speaker 1: separate peace with France. France was in sore need of peace.
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Speaker 1: The infatuation that had turned her from her own true
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Speaker 1: interest to serve the passions of Maria Theresa and the
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Speaker 1: Serena Elizabeth had brought military humiliation and financial ruin. Abbe
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Speaker 1: de Bernice, Minister of Foreign Affairs, had lost the favor
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Speaker 1: of Madame de Pompadour and had been supplanted by the
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Speaker 1: Duc de Choiselle. The new minister had gained his place
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Speaker 1: by pleasing the favorite, but he kept it through his
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Speaker 1: own ability and the necessities of the time. The Englishman Stanley,
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Speaker 1: whom Pitt sent to negotiate with him, drew this sketch
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Speaker 1: of his character. Though he may have his superiors, not
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Speaker 1: only in experience of business, but in depth and refinement
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Speaker 1: as a statesman, he is a person of as bold
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Speaker 1: and daring a spirit as any man whatever in our
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Speaker 1: country or in his own. Madame Pompadour has ever been
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Speaker 1: looked upon by all preceding courtiers and ministers as their
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Speaker 1: tutelary deity under whose auspices only they could exist, and
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Speaker 1: who was as much out of their reach as if
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Speaker 1: she were of a superior class of beings. But this
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Speaker 1: minister is so far from being in subordination to her
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Speaker 1: influence that he seized the first opportunity of depriving her
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Speaker 1: not of an equality, but of any share of power,
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Speaker 1: reducing her to the necessity of applying to him, even
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Speaker 1: for those things that she wants for herself and her dependence.
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Speaker 1: He has effected this great change which every other man
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Speaker 1: would have thought impossible in the interior of the court,
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Speaker 1: not by plausibility, flatter and address, but with a high hand,
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Speaker 1: with frequent railleries and sarcasms which would have ruined any other,
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Speaker 1: and in short, by a clear superiority of spirit and resolution.
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Speaker 1: Chuaseeaud was vivacious, brilliant, keen, penetrating, believing nothing, fearing nothing,
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Speaker 1: an easy moralist, an uncertain ally a hater of priests,
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Speaker 1: light minded in constant, yet a kind of patriot eager
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Speaker 1: to serve France and retrieve her fortunes. End of Section
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Speaker 1: seven te