THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM
September 13, 1759

On August 19 an aide-de-camp came out of the farmhouse
at Montmorency which served as the headquarters of the
British army to say that Wolfe was too ill to rise from
his bed. The bad news spread like wildfire through the
camp and fleet, and soon became known among the French.
A week passed; but Wolfe was no better. Tossing about on
his bed in a fever, he thought bitterly of his double
defeat, of the critical month of September, of the grim
strength of Quebec, formed by nature for a stronghold,
and then--worse still--of his own weak body, which made
him most helpless just when he should have been most fit
for his duty.

Feeling that he could no longer lead in person, he dictated
a letter to the brigadiers, sent them the secret instructions
he had received from Pitt and the king, and asked them
to think over his three new plans for attacking Montcalm
at Beauport. They wrote back to say they thought the
defeats at the upper fords of the Montmorency and at the
heights facing the St Lawrence showed that the French
could not be beaten by attacking the Beauport lines again,
no matter from what side the attack was made. They then
gave him a plan of their own, which was, to convey the
army up the St Lawrence and fight their way ashore
somewhere between Cap Rouge, nine miles above Quebec,
and Pointe-aux-Trembles, twenty-two miles above. They