The letters of Montcalm are more
reserved. Unlike Vaudreuil, he never stooped to falsehood. He
knew that he was under the orders of the Governor and he accepted
the situation. When operations were on hand, Vaudreuil would give
Montcalm instructions so ambiguous that if he failed he would be
sure to get the discredit, while, if he succeeded, to Vaudreuil
would belong the glory.
War is, at best, a cruel business. In Europe its predatory
barbarity was passing away and there the lives of prisoners and
of women and children were now being respected. Montcalm had been
reared under this more civilized code, and he and his officers
were shocked by what Vaudreuil regarded as normal and proper
warfare. In 1756 the French had a horde of about two thousand
savages, who had flocked to Montreal from points as far distant
as the great plains of the West. They numbered more than thirty
separate tribes or nations, as in their pride they called
themselves, and each nation had to be humored and treated as an
equal, for they were not in the service of France but were her
allies.
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