Vaudreuil went from the hornwork to his quarters on the Beauport road and called a council of war.  It was a tumultuous scene.  A letter was despatched to Quebec to ask for advice of Montcalm.  The dying General sent a brief message to the effect that there was a threefold choice,—­to fight again, retreat to Jacques-Cartier, or give up the colony.  There was much in favor of fighting.  When Bougainville had gathered all his force from the river above, he would have three thousand men; and these, joined to the garrison of Quebec, the sailors at the batteries, and the militia and artillerymen of the Beauport camp, would form a body of fresh soldiers more than equal to the English then on the Plains of Abraham.  Add to these the defeated troops, and the victors would be greatly outnumbered.[788] Bigot gave his voice for fighting.  Vaudreuil expressed himself to the same effect; but he says that all the officers were against him.  “In vain I remarked to these gentlemen that we were superior to the enemy, and should beat them if we managed well.  I could not at all change their opinion, and my love for the service and for the colony made me subscribe to the views of the council.  In fact, if I had attacked the English against the advice of all the principal officers, their ill-will would have exposed me to the risk of losing the battle and the colony also."[789]

[Footnote 788:  Bigot, as well as Vaudreuil, sets Bougainville’s force at three thousand.  “En reunissant le corps M. de Bougainville, les bataillons de Montreal [laisses au camp de Beauport] et la garrison de la ville, il nous restoit encore pres de 5,000 hommes de troupes fraiches.” Journal tenu a l’Armee. Vaudreuil says that there were fifteen hundred men in garrison at Quebec who did not take part in the battle.  If this is correct, the number of fresh troops after it was not five thousand, but more than six thousand; to whom the defeated force is to be added, making, after deducting killed and wounded, some ten thousand in all.]

[Footnote 789:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5 Oct. 1759.]

It was said at the time that the officers voted for retreat because they thought Vaudreuil unfit to command an army, and, still more, to fight a battle.[790] There was no need, however, to fight at once.  The object of the English was to take Quebec, and that of Vaudreuil should have been to keep it.  By a march of a few miles he could have joined Bougainville; and by then intrenching himself at or near Ste.-Foy he would have placed a greatly superior force in the English rear, where his position might have been made impregnable.  Here he might be easily furnished with provisions, and from hence he could readily throw men and supplies into Quebec, which the English were too few to invest.  He could harass the besiegers, or attack them, should opportunity offer, and either raise the siege or so protract it that they would be forced by approaching winter to sail homeward, robbed of the fruit of their victory.