Nobody supposed that a handful of French who lacked everything, who seemed forbidden by fortune itself to harbor any hope, would dare to dream of retarding inevitable fate." On the 28th of April, the army of General de Levis, with great difficulty maintained during the winter, debouched before Quebec on those Plains of Abraham but lately so fatal to Montcalm.
General Murray at once sallied from the place in order to engage before the French should have had time to pull themselves together.

It was a long and obstinate struggle; the men fought hand to hand, with impassioned ardor, without the cavalry or the savages taking any part in the action; at nightfall General Murray had been obliged to re-enter the town and close the gates.

The French, exhausted but triumphant, returned slowly from the pursuit; the unhappy fugitives fell into the hands of the Indians; General de Levis had great difficulty in putting a stop to the carnage.

In his turn he besieged Quebec.
One single idea possessed the minds of both armies; what flag would be carried by the vessels which were expected every day in the St.
Lawrence?
"The circumstances were such on our side," says the English writer Knox, "that if the French fleet had been the first to enter the river, the place would have fallen again into the hands of its former masters." On the 9th of May, an English frigate entered the harbor.

A week afterwards, it was followed by two other vessels.