CANADIAN GUIDE BOOK. 89 Such was the death of Wolfe upon the Plains of Abraham, at the early age of thirty-two years ! It has been well observed, that “ death, more glorious and attended with circumstances more pic turesque and interesting, is no where to be found in the annals of history.” His extraordinary qualities, and singular fate, have af forded a fruitful theme of panegyric to the historian and the poet to the present day. . How they were appreciated by his gallant com panions in arms, may be learned by the subjoined extract from a letter written after the battle by General, afterwards Marquess, Townshend to one of his friends in England : “lam not ashamed to own to you that my heart does not exult in the midst of this suc cess. I have lost but a friend in General Wolfe, our country has lost a sure support, and a perpetual honour. If the world w ere sensi ble at how dear a price we have purchased Quebec in his death, it would damp the public joy. Our best consolation is that Provi dence seemed not to promise that he should remain long among us. He w as himself sensible of the weakness of his constitution, and de termined to crowd into a few years actions that would have adorned length of life.” The feeling and affecting manner in which Wolfe is spoken of in this letter, and its elegance of expression, confer equal honour upon the head and heart of the accomplished writer. The spot consecrated by the fall of General Wolfe in the charge made by the Grenadiers upon the left of the French line, will to the latest day be visited with deep interest and emotion. A few years ago His Excellency Lord Aylmer, then Governor- in-Chief, caused a small pillar to be erected on the spot with the following inscription : HEBE DIED WOLFE VICTORIOUS. This memorial has been sadly mutilated; we trust, however, ere long it will give place to a more enduring memento, such as an iron pillar cast from some of the old cannon. Montcalm received his fatal wound in the front rank of the French left, and died at five o’clock on the morning of the 14th Sep tember. He was buried in an excavation made by the bursting of a H2