together five quarto volumes, all of which I have carefully examined.  These are in the Library of Harvard University.  There is another set, also of five volumes, in the Library of the Historical Society of Quebec, containing most of the papers just mentioned, and, bound with them, various others in manuscript, among which are documents in defence of Vaudreuil (printed in part); Estebe, Corpron, Penisseault, Maurin, and Breard.  I have examined this collection also.  The manuscript Ordres du Roy et Depeches des Ministres, 1757-1760, as well as the letters of Vaudreuil, Bougainville, Daine, Doreil, and Montcalm throw much light on the maladministration of the time; as do many contemporary documents, notably those entitled Memoire sur les Fraudes commises dans la Colonie, Etat present du Canada, and Memoire sur le Canada (Archives Nationales).  The remarkable anonymous work printed by the Historical Society of Quebec under the title Memoires sur le Canada depuis 1749 jusqu’ae 1760, is full of curious matter concerning Bigot and his associates which squares well with other evidence.  This is the source from which Smith, in his History of Canada_ (Quebec, 1815), drew most of his information on the subject.  A manuscript which seems to be the original draft of this valuable document was preserved at the Bastile, and, with other papers, was thrown into the street when that castle was destroyed.  They were gathered up, and afterwards bought by a Russian named Dubrowski, who carried them to St. Petersburg.  Lord Dufferin, when minister there, procured a copy of the manuscript in question, which is now in the keeping of Abbe H. Verreau at Montreal, to whose kindness I owe the opportunity of examining it.  In substance it differs little from the printed work, though the language and the arrangement often vary from it.  The author, whoever he may have been, was deeply versed in Canadian affairs of the time, and though often caustic, is generally trustworthy.

Chapter 18

1757, 1758

Pitt

The war kindled in the American forest was now raging in full conflagration among the kingdoms of Europe; and in the midst stood Frederic of Prussia, a veritable fire-king.  He had learned through secret agents that he was to be attacked, and that the wrath of Maria Theresa with her two allies, Pompadour and the Empress of Russia, was soon to wreak itself upon him.  With his usual prompt audacity he anticipated his enemies, marched into Saxony, and began the Continental war.  His position seemed desperate.  England, sundered from Austria, her old ally, had made common cause with him; but he had no other friend worth the counting.  France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Saxony, the collective Germanic Empire, and most of the smaller German States had joined hands for his ruin, eager to crush him and divide the spoil, parcelling out his dominions among themselves in advance by solemn