[Footnote 681:  Doreil au Ministre, 31 Juillet, 1758.  Ibid. 12 Aout, 1758.  Ibid. 31 Aout, 1758.  Ibid. 1 Sept. 1758.]

The condition of Canada was indeed deplorable.  The St. Lawrence was watched by British ships; the harvest was meagre; a barrel of flour cost two hundred francs; most of the cattle and many of the horses had been killed for food.  The people lived chiefly on a pittance of salt cod or on rations furnished by the King; all prices were inordinate; the officers from France were starving on their pay; while a legion of indigenous and imported scoundrels fattened on the general distress.  “What a country!” exclaims Montcalm.  “Here all the knaves grow rich, and the honest men are ruined.”  Yet he was resolved to stand by it to the last, and wrote to the Minister of War that he would bury himself under its ruins.  “I asked for my recall after the glorious affair of the eighth of July; but since the state of the colony is so bad, I must do what I can to help it and retard its fall.”  The only hope was in a strong appeal to the Court; and he thought himself fortunate in persuading Vaudreuil to consent that Bougainville should be commissioned to make it, seconded by Doreil.  They were to sail in different ships, in order that at least one of them might arrive safe.

Vaudreuil gave Bougainville a letter introducing him to the Colonial Minister in high terms of praise:  “He is in all respects better fitted than anybody else to inform you of the state of the colony.  I have given him my instructions, and you can trust entirely in what he tells you."[682] Concerning Doreil he wrote to the Minister of War:  “I have full confidence in him, and he may be entirely trusted.  Everybody here likes him."[683] While thus extolling the friends of his rival, the Governor took care to provide against the effects of his politic commendations, and wrote thus to his patron, the Colonial Minister:  “In order to condescend to the wishes of M. de Montcalm, and leave no means untried to keep in harmony with him, I have given letters to MM.  Doreil and Bougainville; but I have the honor to inform you, Monseigneur, that they do not understand the colony, and to warn you that they are creatures of M. de Montcalm."[684]

[Footnote 682:  Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 4 Nov. 1758.]

[Footnote 683:  Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Guerre, 11 Oct. 1758.]

[Footnote 684:  Vaudreuil au Ministre de la Marine, 3 Nov. 1758.]

The two envoys had sailed for France.  Winter was close at hand, and the harbor of Quebec was nearly empty.  One ship still lingered, the last of the season, and by her Montcalm sent a letter to his mother:  “You will be glad to have me write to you up to the last moment to tell you for the hundredth time that, occupied as I am with the fate of New France, the preservation of the troops, the interest of the state, and my own glory, I think continually of you all.  We did our best in 1756, 1757, and 1758; and so, God helping, we will do in 1759, unless you make peace in Europe.”  Then, shut from the outer world for half a year by barriers of ice, he waited what returning spring might bright forth.