of munitions that they had no means of bringing off.  When they entered Quebec a gill of rum was served out to each man; several houses in the suburb of St. Roch were torn down to supply them with firewood for drying their clothes; and they were left to take what rest they could against the morrow.  The French, meanwhile, took possession of the abandoned heights; and while some filled the houses, barns, and sheds of Ste.-Foy and its neighborhood, others, chiefly Canadians, crossed the plateau to seek shelter in the village of Sillery.

Three courses were open to Murray.  He could defend Quebec, fortify himself outside the walls on the Buttes-a-Neveu, or fight Levis at all risks.  The walls of Quebec could not withstand a cannonade, and he had long intended to intrench his army on the Buttes, as a better position of defence; but the ground, frozen like a rock, had thus far made the plan impracticable.  Even now, though he surface was thawed, the soil beneath was still frost-bound, making the task of fortificationextremely difficult, if indeed the French would give him time for it.  Murray was young in years, and younger still in impulse.  He was ardent, fearless, ambitious, and emulous of the fame of Wolfe.  “The enemy,” he soon after wrote to Pitt, “was greatly superior in number, it is true; but when I considered that our little army was in the habit of beating the enemy, and had a very fine train of field artillery; that shutting ourselves at once within the walls was putting all upon the single chance of holding out for a considerable time a wretched fortification, I resolved to give them battle; and, half an hour after six in the morning, we marched with all the force I could muster, namely, three thousand men."[829] Some of these had left the hospitals of their own accord in their eagerness to take part in the fray.

[Footnote 829:  Murray to Pitt, 25 May, 1760.]

The rain had ceased; but as the column emerged from St. Louis Gate, the scene before them was a dismal one.  As yet there was no sign of spring.  Each leafless bush and tree was dark with clammy moisture; patches of bare earth lay oozy and black on the southern slopes:  but elsewhere the ground was still covered with snow, in some places piled in drifts, and everywhere sodden with rain; while each hollow and depression was full of that half-liquid, lead-colored mixture of snow and water which new England schoolboys call “slush,” for all drainage was stopped by the frozen subsoil.  The troops had with them two howitzers and twenty field-pieces, which had been captured when Quebec surrendered, and had formed a part of that very battery which Ramesay refused to Montcalm at the battle of the autumn before.  As there were no horses, the cannon were dragged by some of the soldiers, while others carried picks and spades; for as yet Murray seems not to have made up his mind whether to fortify or fight.  Thus they advanced nearly half a mile; till reaching the Buttes-a-Neveu, they formed in order of battle along their farther slopes, on thesame ground that Montcalm had occupied on the morning of his death.