At the end of March Montcalm, with all his following, was ready to embark; and three ships of the line, the “Leopard,” the “Heros,” and the “Illustre,” fitted out as transports, were ready to receive the troops; while the General, with Levis and Bourlamaque, were to take passage in the frigates “Licorne,” “Sauvage,” and “Sirene.”  “I like the Chevalier de Levis,” says Montcalm, “and I think he likes me.”  His first aide-de-camp, Bougainville, pleased him, if possible, still more.  This young man, son of a notary, had begun life as an advocate in the Parliament of Paris, where his abilities and learning had already made him conspicuous, when he resigned the gown for the sword, and became a captain of dragoons.  He was destined in later life to win laurels in another career, and to become one of the most illustrious of French navigators.  Montcalm, himself a scholar, prized his varied talents and accomplishments, and soon learned to feel for him a strong personal regard.

The troops destined for Canada were only two battalions, one belonging to the regiment of La Sarre, and the other to that of Royal Roussillon.  Louis XV. and Pompadour sent a hundred thousand men to fight the battles of Austria, and could spare but twelve hundred to reinforce New France.  These troops marched into Brest at early morning, breakfasted in the town, and went at once on board the transports, “with an incredible gayety,” says Bougainville.  “What a nation is ours!  Happy he who commands it, and commands it worthily!"[363] Montcalm and he embarked in the “Licorne,” and sailed on the third of April, leaving Levis and Bourlamaque to follow a few days after.[364]

[Footnote 363:  Journal de Bougainville.  This is a fragment; his Journal proper begins a few weeks later.]

[Footnote 364:  Levis a——­, 5 Avril, 1756.]

The voyage was a rough one.  “I have been fortunate,” writes Montcalm to his wife, “in not being ill nor at all incommoded by the heavy gale we had in Holy Week.  It was not so with those who were with me, especially M. Esteve, my secretary, and Joseph, who suffered cruelly,—­seventeen days without being able to take anything but water.  The season was very early for such a hard voyage, and it was fortunate that the winter has been so mild.  We had very favorable weather till Monday the twelfth; but since then till Saturday evening we had rough weather, with a gale that lasted ninety hours, and put us in real danger.  The forecastle was always under water, and the waves broke twice over the quarter-deck.  From the twenty-seventh of April to the evening of the fourth of May we had fogs, great cold, and an amazing quantity of icebergs.  On the thirtieth, when luckily the fog lifted for a time, we counted sixteen of them.  The day before, one drifted under the bowsprit, grazed it, and might have crushed us if the deck-officer had not called out quickly, Luff.  After speaking of our troubles and sufferings, I must tell you of our pleasures, which