“I will have Quebec,” wrote back Wolfe, “if I stay here till the winter.  I have come from England to win it.  I do not go back till my task is done.”

Some smiled at that message; but Madame Drucour received it with a little shivering sigh.

“Ah,” she exclaimed, “I have seen Monsieur Wolfe; I can hear him speak the words!  Somehow it seems to me that he is a man who will never go back from his resolve.  If he has made up his mind to take Quebec, Quebec will be taken!”

Book 6:  Without Quebec.

Chapter 1:  In Sight Of His Goal.

Wolfe stood rapt in thought beside the batteries upon Point Levi.  From his own camp at the Montmorency falls he had come over in a boat to visit Brigadier Moncton’s camp, opposite the city of Quebec; and now he stood surveying the town—­and the havoc wrought upon its buildings by his cannon—­with a glass at his eye, a look of great thoughtfulness and care stamped upon his thin face.

Near at hand, ready to answer if addressed, was Brigadier Moncton, a brave and capable officer; and a little farther off, also watching the General and the scene spread out before him, stood a little group of three, who had come across with Wolfe in the boat, and who were, in fact, none other than our old friends, Fritz Neville, Julian Dautray, and Humphrey Angell.

It had been an immense joy to these three men to meet together in the camp of Wolfe round about Quebec.  Julian had accompanied the expedition from England, Fritz had joined Admiral Durell’s contingent whilst it was waiting for junction with the fleet from England, and Humphrey had come to join them in the transport ships from New York, bringing news of friends in Philadelphia, where he had passed a portion of the time of waiting.

Now these three comrades, so long parted, and now brought together by the chances of war, were almost inseparable.  Wolfe had appointed them posts about his own person, having taken for Fritz almost the same warm liking that he had from the first felt towards Julian and Humphrey, and which, in the case of Julian, had ripened into a deep and ardent friendship.

Whilst the young General was making his survey, rapt in thoughts which as yet he kept to himself, the three comrades spoke together of the war and the outlook.

“It will be a hard nut to crack, this city of Quebec,” said Humphrey; “they were all saying that in Philadelphia as I left.  Yet all men say that Quebec is the key of Canada.  If that falls into our hands, we shall be masters of the country.”

“And if our General has set his mind upon it, he will accomplish it,” said Julian briefly.

“He is a wonderful man,” said Fritz, with a look of admiration directed towards the tall, slim figure of the soldier; “would that his body were as strong as his spirit!  Sometimes when I look at him I fear that the blade is too keen for the scabbard.  That ardent spirit will wear out the frail body.”