Montcalm had intrusted Bougainville with another mission, widely different.  This was no less than the negotiating of suitable marriages for the eldest son and daughter of his commander, with whom, in the confidence of friendship, he had had many conversations on the matter.  “He and I,” Montcalm wrote to his mother, Madame de Saint-Veran, “have two ideas touching these marriages,—­the first, romantic and chimerical; the second, good, practicable."[689] Bougainville, invoking the aid of a lady of rank, a friend of the family, acquitted himself well of his delicate task.  Before he embarked for Canada, in early spring, a treaty was on foot for the marriage of the young Comte de Montcalm to an heiress of sixteen; while Mademoiselle de Montcalm had already become Madame d’Espineuse.  “Her father will be delighted,” says the successful negotiator.[690]

[Footnote 689:  Montcalm a Madame de Saint-Veran, 24 Sept. 1758.]

[Footnote 690:  Lettres de Bougainville a Madame de Saint-Veran, 1758, 1759.]

Again he crossed the Atlantic and sailed up the St. Lawrence as the portentous spring of 1759 was lowering over the dissolving snows of Canada.  With him came a squadron bearing the supplies and the petty reinforcement which the Court had vouchsafed.  “A little is precious to those who have nothing,” said Montcalm on receiving them.  Despatches from the ministers gave warning of a great armament fitted out in English ports for the attack of Quebec, while a letter to the General from the Marechal de Belleisle, minister of war, told what was expected of him, and why he and the colony were abandoned to their fate.  “If we sent a large reinforcement of troops,” said Belleisle, “there would be great fear that the English would intercept them on the way; and as the King could never send you forces equal to those which the English are prepared to oppose to you, the attempt would have no other effect than to excite the Cabinet of London to increased efforts for preserving its superiority on the American continent.”

“As we must expect the English to turn all their force against Canada, and attack you on several sides at once, it is necessary that you limit your plans of defence to the most essential points and those most closely connected, so that, being concentrated within a smaller space, each part may be within reach of support and succor from the rest.  How small soever may be the space you are able to hold, it is indispensable to keep a footing in North America; for if we once lose the country entirely, its recovery will be almost impossible.  The King counts on your zeal, courage, and persistency to accomplish this object, and relies on you to spare no pains and no exertions.  Impart this resolution to your chief officers, and join with them to inspire your soldiers with it.  I have answered for you to the King; I am confident that you will not disappoint me, and that for the glory of the nation, the good of the state, and your own preservation, you will go to the utmost extremity rather than submit to conditions as shameful as those imposed at Louisbourg, the memory of which you will wipe out."[691] “We will save this unhappy colony, or perish,” was the answer of Montcalm.