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A
DIALOGUE IN HADES.
A PARALLEL OF MILITARY ERRORS, OF WHICH THE FRENCH
AND ENGLISH ARMIES WERE GUILTY, DURING THE
CAMPAIGN OF 1759, IN CANADA.
ATTRIBUTED TO CHEVALIER JOHNSTONE.
Published under the Auspices of the
Literary and Historical Society of Quebec
[REPRINTED.]
QUEBEC:PRINTED AT THE “MORNING CHRONICLE” OFFICE.
1887.
[The original of this manuscript is deposited in the French war archives,in Paris; a copy was, with the permission of the French Government, taken in1855, and deposited in the Library of the Legislative Assembly of Canada.The Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, through the kindness of Mr.Todd, the Librarian, was permitted to have communication thereof. Thisdocument is supposed to have been written about the year 1765, that is fiveyears after the return to France from Canada of the writer, the ChevalierJohnstone, a Scottish Jacobite, who had fled to France after the defeat atCulloden, and obtained from the French monarch, with several otherScotchmen, commissions in the French armies. In 1748, says FrancisqueMichel,A “he sailed from Rochefort as an Ensign with troops going to CapeBreton; he continued to serve in America until he returned to France, inDecember, 1760, having acted during the campaign of 1759, in Canada, asaide-de-camp to Chevalier de Levis. On Levis being ordered to Montreal,Johnstone was detached and retained by General Montcalm on his staff, onaccount of his thorough knowledge of the environs of Quebec, and particularlyof Beauport, where the principal works of defence stood, and where the wholearmy, some 11,000 men, were entrenched, leaving in Quebec merely a garrisonof 1500. The journal is written in English, and is not remarkable fororthography or purity of diction; either Johnstone had forgotten or had neverthoroughly known the language. The style is prolix, sententious, aboundingin quotations from old writers. This document had first attracted theattention of one of the late historians of Canada, the Abbé Ferland, whoattached much importance to it, as calculated to supply matters of detail andincidents unrecorded elsewhere. Colonel Margry, in charge of the Frenchrecords, had permitted the venerable writer, then on a visit to Paris, to makeextracts from it; some of which extracts, the abbé published at the time ofthe laying of the St. Foy Monument, in 1862. The Chevalier Johnstone differsin toto from the opinions expressed by several French officers of regulars,respecting the conduct of the Canadian Militia, in 1759, ascribing to theirvalour, on the 13th September, the salvation of a l