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In April 1760, Levis returned to Quebec with an army of over seven thousand, including Canadian militia and first nations warriors. He hoped to put Quebec under seige and force its surrender with the arrival of a French fleet in the spring. Murray, feeling his army was too small to adequately defend the walls of Quebec (which had not been improved much since the fall) put all the men he could muster, some 3,800 into the field, along with over twenty pieces of cannon, occupying at first the same position held by Montcalm on September 13, 1759. Rather than waiting for the French to advance,however, he took the gamble of going on the offensive. At first he had some success, but the British advance masked their artillery and the infantry became bogged down in the mud and melting snowdrifts of the late spring. The battle turned into a two-hour fight at close range, and eventually, as more French soldiers joined the fray, the British flanks were turned and the army retreated back to Quebec, leaving behind its guns, which Levis turned on the city.

The British army lost over a thousand, killed and wounded (three-quarters of the officers of the Fraser Highlanders were killed or wounded) and the French almost nine hundred, one of the bloodiest battles on Canadian soil.

Lévis was, however, unable to retake Quebec City. The British force remained besieged in the city until naval reinforcements were able to arrive. The French fleet never arrived, France's naval hopes having been smashed at Quiberon Bay the previous autumn - and when HMS Lowestoft raised its flag as it neared Quebec, Levis raised the seige and retreated to Montreal, where he surrendered in September to overwhelming British force.