As for me, my time is short, and
I have matters of more importance to attend to than the defence of Quebec
I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death." Not long
afterwards he again spoke: "Since it was my misfortune to be discomfitted
and mortally wounded, it is a great consolation to me to be vanquished by
so great and generous an enemy. If I could survive this wound, I would
engage to beat three times the number of such forces as I commanded this
morning with a third of their number of British troops." His chaplain
arrived about this time, accompanied by the bishop of the colony, from
whom the dying man received the last sacred offices of the Roman Catholic
religion. He lingered for some hours afterwards, and finally passed away,
to all outward seeming, with calmness and resignation.
It seems like an ungrateful task to recur to the frailties of a brave and
chivalrous man, more especially when he dies in the odour of sanctity.
But as we ponder upon that final scene in the life of the gay, charming,
brilliant Marquis of Montcalm, we cannot avoid wondering whether the
"sheeted ghosts" of the wounded men, helpless women, and innocent babes who
were so ruthlessly slaughtered at Oswego and William Henry flitted around
his pillow in these last fleeting moments.
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