In the middle of August, he issued a third proclamation to the Canadians, declaring, as they had refused his offers of protection, and had practised the most unchristian barbarity against his troops on all occasions, he could no longer refrain, in justice to himself and his army, in chastising them as they deserved.  The barbarities consisted in the frequent scalping and mutilating of sentinels, and men on outpost duty, which were perpetrated alike by the Canadians and Indians.

Wolfe’s object was twofold:  first, to cause the militia to desert, and secondly, to exhaust the colony.  Accordingly the rangers, light infantry and Highlanders were sent out, in all directions, to waste the settlements wherever resistance was offered.  Farm houses and villages were laid in ashes, although the churches were generally spared.  Wolfe’s orders were strict that women and children were to be treated with honour.

“If any violence is offered to a woman, the offender shall be punished with death.”

These orders were obeyed, and, except in one instance, none but armed men, in the act of resistance, were killed.

Vaudreuil, in his despatches home, loudly denounced these barbarities; but he himself was answerable for atrocities incomparably worse, and on a far larger scale, for he had, for years, sent his savages, red and white, along a frontier of 600 miles, to waste, burn, and murder at will, and these, as he was perfectly aware, spared neither age nor sex.

Montcalm was not to be moved from his position by the sight of the smoke of the burning villages.  He would not risk the loss of all Canada, for the sake of a few hundred farm houses.

Seeing the impossibility of a successful attack below the town, Wolfe determined to attempt operations on a large scale above it.  Accordingly, with every fair wind and tide, ships and transports ran the gauntlet of the batteries of Quebec, and, covered by a hot fire from Point Levi, generally succeeded, with more or less damage, in getting above the town.  A fleet of flatboats was also sent up, and 1200 troops marched overland, under Brigadier Murray, to embark in them.

To meet this danger above the town, Bougainville was sent from the camp at Beaufort with 1500 men.  Murray made another descent at Pointe-aux-Trembles, but was repulsed with loss.  He tried a second time at another place, but a body of ambushed Canadians poured so heavy a fire into the boats, that he was forced to fall back again with considerable loss.  His third attempt was more successful, for he landed at Deschambault, and burned a large building filled with stores, and with all the spare baggage of the officers of the French regular troops.

Vaudreuil now regretted having sent the French frigates up the river, and withdrawing their crews to work in the batteries.  Had they been kept just above the town, they could have overpowered the English vessels as they passed up.  The sailors were now sent up to man their ships again; but Admiral Holmes, who had taken command of the ships of war above Quebec, was already too strong for them, and the sailors were recalled to Quebec.