"P.S.--Monsieur Fleurot is said to be sailed with his tiny squadron; but can the lords of America be afraid of half a dozen canoes? Mr. Chute is sitting by me, and says nobody is more obliged to Mr. Pitt than you are: he has raised you from a very uncomfortable situation to hold your head above the Capitol."--Walpole's _Letters to Sir H. Mann_, October 19, 1759.]
[Footnote 194: "The late Mrs. Wolfe, the mother of the brave general of that name, has very humanely left the residue of her estate and effects, after debts and legacies are paid, to be disposed of among the widows and families of the officers who were employed in the military land service under her son, General Wolfe.
"The executors of the late Mrs. Henrietta Wolfe, mother of the brave General Wolfe, have paid a legacy of £1000, left by her, to the Incorporated Society in Dublin for promoting English Protestant working schools in Ireland."--_Annual Register_, 1765.]
On the 18th of October, Admiral Saunders, with the whole fleet--the Race-horse of twenty, and the Porcupine of eighteen guns, excepted--weighed anchor and dropped down the river to Isle aux Coudres, there to await a fair wind to sail for Halifax and England. Brigadier Monckton embarked at the same time for New York, where he soon recovered from his wound, and Brigadier Townshend proceeded direct to London. The government of Quebec was intrusted to Brigadier Murray, with Colonel Burton as lieutenant-governor, and all the soldiers of the several regiments engaged in the campaign, who were still fit for duty, remained to form the garrison: the number of all ranks and arms now only amounted to 7300 men. The sick and wounded, whose recovery was remote or improbable, were sent home with the admiral. Having left a squadron at Halifax, the fleet reached England in safety ere the severity of the winter had set in.
Before the close of the navigation, the French governor and intendant of Canada intrusted their melancholy dispatches to M. Cannon, who succeeded in passing Quebec unobserved, by taking advantage of a favorable wind and a thick fog. Having escaped the many other dangers which beset his voyage, he arrived safely in France. These dispatches were filled with criminations and recriminations: M. de Vaudreuil animadverted bitterly upon M. de Ramsay for his "precipitate surrender" of Quebec, while from other quarters heavy complaints were put forward against M. de Vaudreuil for his retreat, or rather flight, from the lines of Montmorency.