Charles River were as good as an army against us; the
Upper Town and citadel were practically impregnable; and for
eight miles west of the town to the cove and river at Cap Rouge
there was one long precipice, broken in but one spot; but just
there, I was sure, men could come up with stiff climbing as I
had done. Bougainville came to Cap Rouge now with three thousand
men, for he thought that this was to be our point of attack.
Along the shore from Cap Rouge to Cape Diamond small batteries
were posted, such as that of Lancy's at Anse du Foulon; but they
were careless, for no conjectures might seem so wild as that of
bringing an army up where I had climbed.
"Tut, tut," said General Murray, when he came to me on the
Terror of France, after having, at my suggestion, gone to the
south shore opposite Anse du Foulon, and scanned the faint line
that marked the narrow cleft on the cliff side--"tut, tut, man,"
said he, "'tis the dream of a cat or a damned mathematician."
Once, after all was done, he said to me that cats and
mathematicians were the only generals.
With a belligerent pride Clark showed the way up the river one
evening, the batteries of the town giving us plunging shots as we
went, and ours at Point Levis answering gallantly. To me it was a
good if most anxious time: good, in that I was having some sort of
compensation for my own sufferings in the town; anxious, because no
single word came to me of Alixe or her father, and all the time we
were pouring death into the place.
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