[Footnote 793:  I am indebted to Abbe Bois for a copy of this note.  The last words of Montcalm, as above, are reported partly by Johnstone, and partly by Knox.]

Bishop Pontbriand, himself fast sinking with mortal disease, attended his deathbed and administered the last sacraments.  He died peacefully at four o’clock on the morning of the fourteenth.  He was in his forty-eighth year.

In the confusion of the time no workman could be found to make a coffin, and an old servant of the Ursulines, known as Bonhomme Michel, gathered a few boards and nailed them together so as to form a rough box.  In it was laid the body of the dead soldier; and late in the evening of the same day he was carried to his rest.  There was no tolling of bells or firing of cannon.  The officers of the garrison followed the bier, and some of the populace, including women and children, joined the procession as it moved in dreary silence along the dusky street, shattered with cannon-ball and bomb, to the chapel of the Ursuline convent.  Here a shell, bursting under the floor, had made a cavity which had been hollowed into a grave.  Three priests of the Cathedral, several nuns, Ramesay with his officers, and a throng of townspeople were present at the rite.  After the service and the chant, the body was lowered into the grave by the light of torches; and then, says the chronicle, “the tears and sobs burst forth.  It seemed as if the last hope of the colony were buried with the remains of the General."[794] In truth, the funeral of Montcalm was the funeral of New France.[795]

[Footnote 794:  Ursulines de Quebec, III. 10.]

[Footnote 795:  See Appendix J.]

It was no time for grief.  The demands of the hour were too exigent and stern.  When, on the morning after the battle, the people of Quebec saw the tents standing in the camp of Beauport, they thought the army still there to defend them.[796] Ramesay knew that the hope was vain.  On the evening before, Vaudreuil had sent two hasty notes to tell him of his flight.  “The position of the enemy,” wrote the Governor, “becomes stronger every instant; and this, with other reasons, obliges me to retreat.”  “I have received all your letters.  As I set out this moment, I pray you not to write again.  You shall hear from me to-morrow.  I wish you good evening.”  With these notes came the following order:  “M. de Ramesay is not to wait till the enemy carries the town by assault.  As soon as provisions fail, he will raise the white flag.”  This order was accompanied by a memorandum of terms which Ramesay was to ask of the victors.[797]

[Footnote 796:  Memoire du Sieur de Ramesay.]

[Footnote 797:  Memoire pour servir d’Instruction a M. de Ramesay, 13 Sept. 1759.  Appended, with the foregoing notes, to the Memoire de Ramesay.]