On a blithe summer day we sighted, far off, the Island of
Orleans and the tall masts of two patrol ships of war, which in
due time we passed, saluting, and ran abreast of the island in the
North Channel. Coming up this passage, I could see on an eminence,
far distant, the tower of the Chateau Alixe.
Presently there opened on our sight the great bluff at the Falls
of Montmorenci, and, crowning it, tents and batteries, the camp of
General Wolfe himself, with the good ship Centurion standing off
like a sentinel at a point where the Basin, the River Montmorenci,
and the North Channel seem to meet. To our left, across the shoals,
was Major Hardy's post, on the extreme eastern point of the Isle
Orleans; and again beyond that, in a straight line, Point Levis on
the south shore, where Brigadier-General Monckton's camp was
pitched; and farther on his batteries, from which shell and shot
were poured into the town. How all had changed in the two months
since I left there! Around the Seigneur Duvarney's manor, in the
sweet village of Beauport, was encamped the French army, and
redoubts and batteries were ranged where Alixe and I and her brother
Juste had many a time walked in a sylvan quiet.
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