Book Description

Excerpt from The Life of George Washington, Vol. 2 of 4 Just then a guard-boat, belonging to the Lizard, ' came slowly along shore and discovered them. They hailed it and ordered it to land. Not complying, it was fired into, and three men were killed. The boat instantly pulled for the frigate, giving vociferous alarm. Without waiting the arrival Of the residue of his men, for whom the canoes had been despatched, Arnold led those Who had landed to the foot of the cragged defile, once scaled by the intrepid \volfe, and scrambled up it in all haste. By daylight he had planted his daring flag on the far-famed heights of Abraham. Here the main difficulty stared him in the face. A strong line of walls and bastions traversed the promontory from one of its precipitous sides to the other; enclosing the upper and lower towns. On the right the great bas tion of Cape Diamond crowned the rocky height Of that name. On the left was the bastion of La Potasse, close by the gate of St. Johns opening upon the barracks; the gate where Wolfe's antagonist, the gallant Montcalm, received his death-wound. A council of war was now held. Arnold, who had some knowledge Of the place, was for dashing forward at once and storming the gate Of St. Johns. Had they done so, they might have been successful. The gate was Open and unguarded. Through some blunder and delay, a message from the commander Of the Lizard' to the lieutenant governor had not yet been delivered, and no alarm had reached the fortress. The formidable aspect Of the place, however, awed Arnold's associates in council. They considered that their whole force was but between seven and eight hundred men. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.