with a promise that, in return for the kindness shown to
Ochterloney, the General Hospital would be specially
protected if the British took Quebec. Towards the end of
August Ochterloney died; and both sides ceased firing
while a French captain came out to report his death and
return his effects.

This was by no means the only time the two enemies treated
each other like friends. A party of French ladies were
among the prisoners brought in to Wolfe one day; and they
certainly had no cause to complain of him. He gave them
a dinner, at which he charmed them all by telling them
about his visit to Paris. The next morning he sent them
into Quebec with his aide-de-camp under a flag of truce.
Another time the French officers sent him a kind of wine
which was not to be had in the British camp, and he sent
them some not to be had in their own.

But the stern work of war went on and on, though the
weary month of August did not seem to bring victory any
closer than disastrous July. Wolfe knew that September
was to be the end of the campaign, the now-or-never of
his whole career. And, knowing this, he set to work--head
and heart and soul--on making the plan that brought him
victory, death, and everlasting fame.




CHAPTER VII