Montcalm hesitated whether he should not fall back to Crown Point. It was but a choice of difficulties, and he stayed at Ticonderoga. His troops were disposed as they had been in the summer before; one battalion5, that of Berry, being left near the fort, while the main body, under Montcalm himself, was encamped by the saw-mill at the Falls, and the rest, under Bourlamaque, occupied the head of the portage, with a small advanced force at the landing-place on Lake George. It remained to determine at which of these points he should concentrate them and make his stand against the English. Ruin threatened him in any case; each position had its fatal weakness or its peculiar7 danger, and his best hope was in the ignorance or blundering of his enemy. He seems to have been several days in a state of indecision.
In the afternoon of the fifth of July the partisan8 Langy, who had gone out to reconnoitre towards the head of Lake George, came back in haste with the report that the English were embarked9 in great force. Montcalm sent a canoe down Lake Champlain to hasten Lévis to his aid, and ordered the battalion of Berry to begin a breastwork and abatis on the high ground in front of the fort. That they were not begun before shows that he was in doubt as to his plan of defence; and that his whole army was not now set to work at them shows that his doubt was still unsolved.
It was nearly a month since Abercromby had begun his camp at the head of Lake George. Here, on the ground where Johnson had beaten Dieskau, where Montcalm had planted his batteries, and Monro vainly defended the wooden ramparts of Fort William Henry, were now assembled more than fifteen thousand men; and the shores, the foot of the mountains, and the broken plains between them were studded thick with tents. Of regulars there were six thousand three hundred and sixty-seven, officers and soldiers, and of provincials11 nine thousand and thirty-four. To the New England levies12, or at least to their chaplains, the expedition seemed a crusade against the abomination of Babylon; and they discoursed13 in their sermons of Moses sending forth14 Joshua against Amalek. Abercromby, raised to his place by political influence, was little but the nominal15 commander. "A heavy man," said Wolfe in a letter to his father; "an aged16 gentleman, infirm in body and mind," wrote William Parkman, a boy of seventeen, who carried a musket17 in a Massachusetts regiment18, and kept in his knapsack a dingy19 little note-book, in which he jotted20 down what passed each day. The age of the aged gentleman was fifty-two.
Pitt meant that the actual command of the army should be in the hands of Brigadier Lord Howe, and he was in fact its real chief; "the noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time, and the best soldier in the British army," says Wolfe. And he elsewhere speaks of him as "that great man." Abercromby testifies to the universal respect and love with which officers and men regarded him, and Pitt calls him "a character of ancient times; a complete model of military virtue21." High as this praise is, it seems to have been deserved. The young nobleman, who was then in his thirty-fourth year, had the qualities of a leader of men. The army felt him, from general to drummer boy. He was its soul; and while breathing into it his own energy and ardor22, and bracing23 it by stringent24 discipline, he broke through the traditions of the service and gave it new shapes to suit the time and place. During the past year he had studied the art of forest warfare25, and joined Rogers and his rangers26 in their scouting-parties, sharing all their hardships and making himself one of them. Perhaps the reforms that he introduced were fruits of this rough self-imposed schooling28. He made officers and men throw off all useless incumbrances, cut their hair close, wear leggings to protect them from briers, brown the barrels of their muskets29, and carry in their knapsacks thirty pounds of meal, which they cooked for themselves; so that, according to an admiring Frenchman, they could live a month without their supply-trains. "You would laugh to see the droll30 figure we all make," writes an officer. "Regulars as well as provincials have cut their coats so as scarcely to reach their waists. No officer or private is allowed to carry more than one blanket and a bearskin. A small portmanteau is allowed each officer. No women follow the camp to wash our linen31. Lord Howe has already shown an example by going to the brook32 and washing his own."
Here, as in all things, he shared the lot of the soldier, and required his officers to share it. A story is told of him that before the army embarked he invited some of them to dinner in his tent, where they found no seats but logs, and no carpet but bearskins. A servant presently placed on the ground a large dish of pork and peas, on which his lordship took from his pocket a sheath containing a knife and fork and began to cut the meat. The guests looked on in some embarrassment33; upon which he said: "Is it possible, gentlemen, that you have come on this campaign without providing yourselves with what is necessary?" And he gave each of them a sheath, with a knife and fork, like his own.
Yet this Lycurgus of the camp, as a contemporary calls him, is described as a man of social accomplishments34 rare even in his rank. He made himself greatly beloved by the provincial officers, with many of whom he was on terms of intimacy35, and he did what he could to break down the barriers between the colonial soldiers and the British regulars. When he was at Albany, sharing with other high officers the kindly36 hospitalities of Mrs. Schuyler, he so won the heart of that excellent matron that she loved him like a son; and, though not given to such effusion, embraced him with tears on the morning when he left her to lead his division to the lake. In Westminster Abbey may be seen the tablet on which Massachusetts pays grateful tribute to his virtues38, and commemorates39 "the affection her officers and soldiers bore to his command."
On the evening of the fourth of July, baggage, stores, and ammunition41 were all on board the boats, and the whole army embarked on the morning of the fifth. The arrangements were perfect. Each corps42 marched without confusion to its appointed station on the beach, and the sun was scarcely above the ridge44 of French Mountain when all were afloat. A spectator watching them from the shore says that when the fleet was three miles on its way, the surface of the lake at that distance was completely hidden from sight. There were nine hundred bateaux, a hundred and thirty-five whaleboats, and a large number of heavy flat boats carrying the artillery45. The whole advanced in three divisions, the regulars in the centre, and the provincials on the flanks. Each corps had its flags and its music. The day was fair, and men and officers were in the highest spirits.
Before ten o'clock they began to enter the Narrows; and the boats of the three divisions extended themselves into long files as the mountains closed on either hand upon the contracted lake. From front to rear the line was six miles long. The spectacle was superb: the brightness of the summer day; the romantic beauty of the scenery; the sheen and sparkle of those crystal waters; the countless46 islets, tufted with pine, birch, and fir; the bordering mountains, with their green summits and sunny crags; the flash of oars47 and glitter of weapons; the banners, the varied48 uniforms, and the notes of bugle49, trumpet50, bagpipe51, and drum, answered and prolonged by a hundred woodland echoes. "I never beheld52 so delightful53 a prospect," wrote a wounded officer at Albany a fortnight after.
Rogers with the rangers, and Gage40 with the light infantry54, led the way in whaleboats, followed by Bradstreet with his corps of boatmen, armed and drilled as soldiers. Then came the main body. The central column of regulars was commanded by Lord Howe, his own regiment, the fifty-fifth, in the van, followed by the Royal Americans, the twenty-seventh, forty-fourth, forty-sixth, and eightieth infantry, and the Highlanders of the forty-second, with their major, Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, silent and gloomy amid the general cheer, for his soul was dark with foreshadowings of death. With this central column came what are described as two floating castles, which were no doubt batteries to cover the landing of the troops. On the right hand and the left were the provincials, uniformed in blue, regiment after regiment, from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey55, and Rhode Island. Behind them all came the bateaux, loaded with stores and baggage, and the heavy flat boats that carried the artillery, while a rear-guard of provincials and regulars closed the long procession.
At five in the afternoon they reached Sabbath-Day Point, twenty-five miles down the lake, where they stopped till late in the evening, waiting for the baggage and artillery, which had lagged behind; and here Lord Howe, lying on a bearskin by the side of the ranger27, John Stark56, questioned him as to the position of Ticonderoga and its best points of approach. At about eleven o'clock they set out again, and at daybreak entered what was then called the Second Narrows; that is to say, the contraction57 of the lake where it approaches its outlet58. Close on their left, ruddy in the warm sunrise, rose the vast bare face of Rogers Rock, whence a French advanced party, under Langy and an officer named Trepezec, was watching their movements. Lord Howe, with Rogers and Bradstreet, went in whaleboats to reconnoitre the landing. At the place which the French called the Burned Camp, where Montcalm had embarked the summer before, they saw a detachment of the enemy too weak to oppose them. Their men landed and drove them off. At noon the whole army was on shore. Rogers, with a party of rangers, was ordered forward to reconnoitre, and the troops were formed for the march.
From this part of the shore[4] a plain covered with forest stretched northwestward half a mile or more to the mountains behind which lay the valley of Trout61 Brook. On this plain the army began its march in four columns, with the intention of passing round the western bank of the river of the outlet, since the bridge over it had been destroyed. Rogers, with the provincial regiments62 of Fitch and Lyman, led the way, at some distance before the rest. The forest was extremely dense63 and heavy, and so obstructed64 with undergrowth that it was impossible to see more than a few yards in any direction, while the ground was encumbered65 with fallen trees in every stage of decay. The ranks were broken, and the men struggled on as they could in dampness and shade, under a canopy66 of boughs67 that the sun could scarcely pierce. The difficulty increased when, after advancing about a mile, they came upon undulating and broken ground. They were now not far from the upper rapids of the outlet. The guides became bewildered in the maze68 of trunks and boughs; the marching columns were confused, and fell in one upon the other. They were in the strange situation of an army lost in the woods.
The advanced party of French under Langy and Trepezec, about three hundred and fifty in all, regulars and Canadians, had tried to retreat; but before they could do so, the whole English army had passed them, landed, and placed itself between them and their countrymen. They had no resource but to take to the woods. They seem to have climbed the steep gorge69 at the side of Rogers Rock and followed the Indian path that led to the valley of Trout Brook, thinking to descend70 it, and, by circling along the outskirts71 of the valley of Ticonderoga, reach Montcalm's camp at the saw-mill. Langy was used to bushranging; but he too became perplexed72 in the blind intricacies of the forest. Towards the close of the day he and his men had come out from the valley of Trout Brook, and were near the junction73 of that stream with the river of the outlet, in a state of some anxiety, for they could see nothing but brown trunks and green boughs. Could any of them have climbed one of the great pines that here and there reared their shaggy spires74 high above the surrounding forest, they would have discovered where they were, but would have gained not the faintest knowledge of the enemy. Out of the woods on the right they would have seen a smoke rising from the burning huts of the French camp at the head of the portage, which Bourlamaque had set on fire and abandoned. At a mile or more in front, the saw-mill at the Falls might perhaps have been descried75, and, by glimpses between the trees, the tents of the neighboring camp where Montcalm still lay with his main force. All the rest seemed lonely as the grave; mountain and valley lay wrapped in primeval woods, and none could have dreamed that, not far distant, an army was groping its way, buried in foliage76; no rumbling77 of wagons78 and artillery trains, for none were there; all silent but the cawing of some crow flapping his black wings over the sea of tree-tops.
Lord Howe, with Major Israel Putnam and two hundred rangers, was at the head of the principal column, which was a little in advance of the three others. Suddenly the challenge, Qui vive! rang sharply from the thickets79 in front. Fran?ais! was the reply. Langy's men were not deceived; they fired out of the bushes. The shots were returned; a hot skirmish followed; and Lord Howe dropped dead, shot through the breast. All was confusion. The dull, vicious reports of musketry in thick woods, at first few and scattering80, then in fierce and rapid volleys, reached the troops behind. They could hear, but see nothing. Already harassed81 and perplexed, they became perturbed82. For all they knew, Montcalm's whole army was upon them. Nothing prevented a panic but the steadiness of the rangers, who maintained the fight alone till the rest came back to their senses. Rogers, with his reconnoitring party, and the regiments of Fitch and Lyman, were at no great distance in front. They all turned on hearing the musketry, and thus the French were caught between two fires. They fought with desperation. About fifty of them at length escaped; a hundred and forty-eight were captured, and the rest killed or drowned in trying to cross the rapids. The loss of the English was small in numbers, but immeasurable in the death of Howe. "The fall of this noble and brave officer," says Rogers, "seemed to produce an almost general languor83 and consternation84 through the whole army." "In Lord Howe," writes another contemporary, Major Thomas Mante, "the soul of General Abercromby's army seemed to expire. From the unhappy moment the General was deprived of his advice, neither order nor discipline was observed, and a strange kind of infatuation usurped85 the place of resolution." The death of one man was the ruin of fifteen thousand.
The evil news was despatched to Albany, and in two or three days the messenger who bore it passed the house of Mrs. Schuyler on the meadows above the town. "In the afternoon," says her biographer, "a man was seen coming from the north galloping86 violently without his hat. Pedrom, as he was familiarly called, Colonel Schuyler's only surviving brother, was with her, and ran instantly to inquire, well knowing that he rode express. The man galloped87 on, crying out that Lord Howe was killed. The mind of our good aunt had been so engrossed88 by her anxiety and fears for the event impending89, and so impressed with the merit and magnanimity of her favorite hero, that her wonted firmness sank under the stroke, and she broke out into bitter lamentations. This had such an effect on her friends and domestics that shrieks90 and sobs91 of anguish92 echoed through every part of the house."
The effect of the loss was seen at once. The army was needlessly kept under arms all night in the forest, and in the morning was ordered back to the landing whence it came. Towards noon, however, Bradstreet was sent with a detachment of regulars and provincials to take possession of the saw-mill at the Falls, which Montcalm had abandoned the evening before. Bradstreet rebuilt the bridges destroyed by the retiring enemy, and sent word to his commander that the way was open; on which Abercromby again put his army in motion, reached the Falls late in the afternoon, and occupied the deserted93 encampment of the French.
Montcalm with his main force had held this position at the Falls through most of the preceding day, doubtful, it seems, to the last whether he should not make his final stand there. Bourlamaque was for doing so; but two old officers, Bernès and Montguy, pointed43 out the danger that the English would occupy the neighboring heights; whereupon Montcalm at length resolved to fall back. The camp was broken up at five o'clock. Some of the troops embarked in bateaux, while others marched a mile and a half along the forest road, passed the place where the battalion of Berry was still at work on the breastwork begun in the morning, and made their bivouac a little farther on, upon the cleared ground that surrounded the fort.
The peninsula of Ticonderoga consists of a rocky plateau, with low grounds on each side, bordering Lake Champlain on the one hand, and the outlet of Lake George on the other. The fort stood near the end of the peninsula, which points towards the southeast. Thence, as one goes westward60, the ground declines a little, and then slowly rises, till, about half a mile from the fort, it reaches its greatest elevation94, and begins still more gradually to decline again. Thus a ridge is formed across the plateau between the steep declivities that sink to the low grounds on right and left. Some weeks before, a French officer named Hugues had suggested the defence of this ridge by means of an abatis. Montcalm approved his plan; and now, at the eleventh hour, he resolved to make his stand here. The two engineers, Pontleroy and Desandrouin, had already traced the outline of the works, and the soldiers of the battalion of Berry had made some progress in constructing them. At dawn of the seventh, while Abercromby, fortunately for his enemy, was drawing his troops back to the landing-place, the whole French army fell to their task. The regimental colors were planted along the line, and the officers, stripped to the shirt, took axe95 in hand and labored96 with their men. The trees that covered the ground were hewn down by thousands, the tops lopped off, and the trunks piled one upon another to form a massive breastwork. The line followed the top of the ridge, along which it zigzagged97 in such a manner that the whole front could be swept by flank fires of musketry and grape. Abercromby describes the wall of logs as between eight and nine feet high; in which case there must have been a rude banquette, or platform to fire from, on the inner side. It was certainly so high that nothing could be seen over it but the crowns of the soldiers' hats. The upper tier was formed of single logs, in which notches98 were cut to serve as loopholes; and in some places sods and bags of sand were piled along the top, with narrow spaces to fire through. From the central part of the line the ground sloped away like a natural glacis; while at the sides, and especially on the left, it was undulating and broken. Over this whole space, to the distance of a musket-shot from the works, the forest was cut down, and the trees left lying where they fell among the stumps99, with tops turned outwards100, forming one vast abatis, which, as a Massachusetts officer says, looked like a forest laid flat by a hurricane. But the most formidable obstruction101 was immediately along the front of the breastwork, where the ground was covered with heavy boughs, overlapping102 and interlaced, with sharpened points bristling103 into the face of the assailant like the quills104 of a porcupine105. As these works were all of wood, no vestige106 of them remains107. The earthworks now shown to tourists as the lines of Montcalm are of later construction; and though on the same ground, are not on the same plan.
Here, then, was a position which, if attacked in front with musketry alone, might be called impregnable. But would Abercromby so attack it? He had several alternatives. He might attempt the flank and rear of his enemy by way of the low grounds on the right and left of the plateau, a movement which the precautions of Montcalm had made difficult, but not impossible. Or, instead of leaving his artillery idle on the strand108 of Lake George, he might bring it to the front and batter10 the breastwork, which, though impervious109 to musketry, was worthless against heavy cannon110. Or he might do what Burgoyne did with success a score of years later, and plant a battery on the heights of Rattlesnake Hill, now called Mount Defiance111, which commanded the position of the French, and whence the inside of their breastwork could be scoured112 with round-shot from end to end. Or, while threatening the French front with a part of his army, he could march the rest a short distance through the woods on his left to the road which led from Ticonderoga to Crown Point, and which would soon have brought him to the place called Five-Mile Point, where Lake Champlain narrows to the width of an easy rifle-shot, and where a battery of field-pieces would have cut off all Montcalm's supplies and closed his only way of retreat. As the French were provisioned for but eight days, their position would thus have been desperate. They plainly saw the danger; and Doreil declares that had the movement been made, their whole army must have surrendered. Montcalm had done what he could; but the danger of his position was inevitable113 and extreme. His hope lay in Abercromby; and it was a hope well founded. The action of the English general answered the utmost wishes of his enemy.
Abercromby had been told by his prisoners that Montcalm had six thousand men, and that three thousand more were expected every hour. Therefore he was in haste to attack before these succors114 could arrive. As was the general, so was the army. "I believe," writes an officer, "we were one and all infatuated by a notion of carrying every obstacle by a mere115 coup116 de mousqueterie." Leadership perished with Lord Howe, and nothing was left but blind, headlong valor117.
Clerk, chief engineer, was sent to reconnoitre the French works from Mount Defiance; and came back with the report that, to judge from what he could see, they might be carried by assault. Then, without waiting to bring up his cannon, Abercromby prepared to storm the lines.
The French finished their breastwork and abatis on the evening of the seventh, encamped behind them, slung118 their kettles, and rested after their heavy toil119. Lévis had not yet appeared; but at twilight120 one of his officers, Captain Pouchot, arrived with three hundred regulars, and announced that his commander would come before morning with a hundred more. The reinforcement, though small, was welcome, and Lévis was a host in himself. Pouchot was told that the army was half a mile off. Thither121 he repaired, made his report to Montcalm, and looked with amazement122 at the prodigious123 amount of work accomplished124 in one day. Lévis himself arrived in the course of the night, and approved the arrangement of the troops. They lay behind their lines till daybreak; then the drums beat, and they formed in order of battle. The battalions125 of La Sarre and Languedoc were posted on the left, under Bourlamaque, the first battalion of Berry with that of Royal Roussillon in the centre, under Montcalm, and those of La Reine, Béarn, and Guienne on the right, under Lévis. A detachment of volunteers occupied the low grounds between the breastwork and the outlet of Lake George; while, at the foot of the declivity126 on the side towards Lake Champlain, were stationed four hundred and fifty colony regulars and Canadians, behind an abatis which they had made for themselves; and as they were covered by the cannon of the fort, there was some hope that they would check any flank movement which the English might attempt on that side. Their posts being thus assigned, the men fell to work again to strengthen their defences. Including those who came with Lévis, the total force of effective soldiers was now thirty-six hundred.
Soon after nine o'clock a distant and harmless fire of small-arms began on the slopes of Mount Defiance. It came from a party of Indians who had just arrived with Sir William Johnson, and who, after amusing themselves in this manner for a time, remained for the rest of the day safe spectators of the fight. The soldiers worked undisturbed till noon, when volleys of musketry were heard from the forest in front. It was the English light troops driving in the French pickets127. A cannon was fired as a signal to drop tools and form for battle. The white uniforms lined the breastwork in a triple row, with the grenadiers behind them as a reserve, and the second battalion of Berry watching the flanks and rear.
Meanwhile the English army had moved forward from its camp by the saw-mill. First came the rangers, the light infantry, and Bradstreet's armed boatmen, who, emerging into the open space, began a spattering fire. Some of the provincial troops followed, extending from left to right, and opening fire in turn; then the regulars, who had formed in columns of attack under cover of the forest, advanced their solid red masses into the sunlight, and passing through the intervals128 between the provincial regiments, pushed forward to the assault. Across the rough ground, with its maze of fallen trees whose leaves hung withering129 in the July sun, they could see the top of the breastwork, but not the men behind it; when, in an instant, all the line was obscured by a gush130 of smoke, a crash of exploding firearms tore the air, and grapeshot and musket-balls swept the whole space like a tempest; "a damnable fire," says an officer who heard them screaming about his ears. The English had been ordered to carry the works with the bayonet; but their ranks were broken by the obstructions131 through which they struggled in vain to force their way, and they soon began to fire in turn. The storm raged in full fury for an hour. The assailants pushed close to the breastwork; but there they were stopped by the bristling mass of sharpened branches, which they could not pass under the murderous crossfires that swept them from front and flank. At length they fell back, exclaiming that the works were impregnable. Abercromby, who was at the saw-mill, a mile and a half in the rear, sent orders to attack again, and again they came on as before.
The scene was frightful132: masses of infuriated men who could not go forward and would not go back; straining for an enemy they could not reach, and firing on an enemy they could not see; caught in the entanglement133 of fallen trees; tripped by briers, stumbling over logs, tearing through boughs; shouting, yelling, cursing, and pelted134 all the while with bullets that killed them by scores, stretched them on the ground, or hung them on jagged branches in strange attitudes of death. The provincials supported the regulars with spirit, and some of them forced their way to the foot of the wooden wall.
The French fought with the intrepid135 gayety of their nation, and shouts of Vive le Roi! and Vive notre Général! mingled136 with the din6 of musketry. Montcalm, with his coat off, for the day was hot, directed the defence of the centre, and repaired to any part of the line where the danger for the time seemed greatest. He is warm in praise of his enemy, and declares that between one and seven o'clock they attacked him six successive times. Early in the action Abercromby tried to turn the French left by sending twenty bateaux, filled with troops, down the outlet of Lake George. They were met by the fire of the volunteers stationed to defend the low grounds on that side, and, still advancing, came within range of the cannon of the fort, which sank two of them and drove back the rest.
A curious incident happened during one of the attacks. De Bassignac, a captain in the battalion of Royal Roussillon, tied his handkerchief to the end of a musket and waved it over the breastwork in defiance. The English mistook it for a sign of surrender, and came forward with all possible speed, holding their muskets crossed over their heads in both hands, and crying Quarter. The French made the same mistake; and thinking that their enemies were giving themselves up as prisoners, ceased firing, and mounted on the top of the breastwork to receive them. Captain Pouchot, astonished, as he says, to see them perched there, looked out to learn the cause, and saw that the enemy meant anything but surrender. Whereupon he shouted with all his might: "Tirez! Tirez! Ne voyez-vous pas que ces gens-là vont vous enlever?" The soldiers, still standing137 on the breastwork, instantly gave the English a volley, which killed some of them, and sent back the rest discomfited138.
This was set to the account of Gallic treachery. "Another deceit the enemy put upon us," says a military letter-writer: "they raised their hats above the breastwork, which our people fired at; they having loopholes to fire through, and being covered by the sods, we did them little damage, except shooting their hats to pieces." In one of the last assaults a soldier of the Rhode Island regiment, William Smith, managed to get through all obstructions and ensconce himself close under the breastwork, where in the confusion he remained for a time unnoticed, improving his advantages meanwhile by shooting several Frenchmen. Being at length observed, a soldier fired vertically139 down upon him and wounded him severely140, but not enough to prevent his springing up, striking at one of his enemies over the top of the wall, and braining him with his hatchet141. A British officer who saw the feat142, and was struck by the reckless daring of the man, ordered two regulars to bring him off; which, covered by a brisk fire of musketry, they succeeded in doing. A letter from the camp two or three weeks later reports him as in a fair way to recover, being, says the writer, much braced37 and invigorated by his anger against the French, on whom he was swearing to have his revenge.
Toward five o'clock two English columns joined in a most determined143 assault on the extreme right of the French, defended by the battalions of Guienne and Béarn. The danger for a time was imminent144. Montcalm hastened to the spot with the reserves. The assailants hewed145 their way to the foot of the breastwork; and though again and again repulsed146, they again and again renewed the attack. The Highlanders fought with stubborn and unconquerable fury. "Even those who were mortally wounded," writes one of their lieutenants147, "cried to their companions not to lose a thought upon them, but to follow their officers and mind the honor of their country. Their ardor was such that it was difficult to bring them off." Their major, Campbell of Inverawe, found his foreboding true. He received a mortal shot, and his clansmen bore him from the field. Twenty-five of their officers were killed or wounded, and half the men fell under the deadly fire that poured from the loopholes. Captain John Campbell and a few followers148 tore their way through the abatis, climbed the breastwork, leaped down among the French, and were bayoneted there.
As the colony troops and Canadians on the low ground were left undisturbed, Lévis sent them an order to make a sortie and attack the left flank of the charging columns. They accordingly posted themselves among the trees along the declivity, and fired upwards149 at the enemy, who presently shifted their position to the right, out of the line of shot. The assault still continued, but in vain; and at six there was another effort, equally fruitless. From this time till half-past seven a lingering fight was kept up by the rangers and other provincials, firing from the edge of the woods and from behind the stumps, bushes, and fallen trees in front of the lines. Its only objects were to cover their comrades, who were collecting and bringing off the wounded, and to protect the retreat of the regulars, who fell back in disorder150 to the Falls. As twilight came on, the last combatant withdrew, and none were left but the dead. Abercromby had lost in killed, wounded, and missing, nineteen hundred and forty-four officers and men. The loss of the French, not counting that of Langy's detachment, was three hundred and seventy-seven. Bourlamaque was dangerously wounded; Bougainville slightly; and the hat of Lévis was twice shot through.
Montcalm, with a mighty151 load lifted from his soul, passed along the lines, and gave the tired soldiers the thanks they nobly deserved. Beer, wine, and food were served out to them, and they bivouacked for the night on the level ground between the breastwork and the fort. The enemy had met a terrible rebuff; yet the danger was not over. Abercromby still had more than thirteen thousand men, and he might renew the attack with cannon. But, on the morning of the ninth, a band of volunteers who had gone out to watch him brought back the report that he was in full retreat. The saw-mill at the Falls was on fire, and the last English soldier was gone. On the morning of the tenth, Lévis, with a strong detachment, followed the road to the landing-place, and found signs that a panic had overtaken the defeated troops. They had left behind several hundred barrels of provisions and a large quantity of baggage; while in a marshy152 place that they had crossed was found a considerable number of their shoes, which had stuck in the mud, and which they had not stopped to recover. They had embarked on the morning after the battle, and retreated to the head of the lake in a disorder and dejection wofully contrasted with the pomp of their advance. A gallant153 army was sacrificed by the blunders of its chief.
Montcalm announced his victory to his wife in a strain of exaggeration that marks the exaltation of his mind. "Without Indians, almost without Canadians or colony troops,—I had only four hundred,—alone with Lévis and Bourlamaque and the troops of the line, thirty-one hundred fighting men, I have beaten an army of twenty-five thousand. They repassed the lake precipitately154, with a loss of at least five thousand. This glorious day does infinite honor to the valor of our battalions. I have no time to write more. I am well, my dearest, and I embrace you." And he wrote to his friend Doreil: "The army, the too-small army of the King, has beaten the enemy. What a day for France! If I had had two hundred Indians to send out at the head of a thousand picked men under the Chevalier de Lévis, not many would have escaped. Ah, my dear Doreil, what soldiers are ours! I never saw the like. Why were they not at Louisbourg?"
On the morrow of his victory he caused a great cross to be planted on the battle-field, inscribed155 with these lines, composed by the soldier-scholar himself,—
En Signum! en victor! Deus hic, Deus ipse triumphat."
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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4
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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5
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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6
din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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7
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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8
partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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9
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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10
batter
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| v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员 | |
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11
provincials
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| n.首都以外的人，地区居民( provincial的名词复数 ) | |
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12
levies
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| （部队）征兵( levy的名词复数 )； 募捐； 被征募的军队 | |
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13
discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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14
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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15
nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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16
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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17
musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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18
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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19
dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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20
jotted
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| v.匆忙记下( jot的过去式和过去分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下 | |
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21
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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22
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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23
bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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24
stringent
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| adj.严厉的；令人信服的；银根紧的 | |
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25
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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26
rangers
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| 护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员 | |
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27
ranger
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| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
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28
schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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29
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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30
droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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31
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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32
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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33
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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34
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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35
intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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36
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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37
braced
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| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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38
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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39
commemorates
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| n.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的名词复数 )v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40
gage
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| n.标准尺寸，规格；量规，量表 [=gauge] | |
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41
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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42
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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43
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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44
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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45
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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46
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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47
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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48
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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49
bugle
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| n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集 | |
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50
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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51
bagpipe
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| n.风笛 | |
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52
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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53
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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54
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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55
jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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56
stark
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| adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地 | |
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57
contraction
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| n.缩略词，缩写式，害病 | |
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58
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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59
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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60
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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61
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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62
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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63
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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64
obstructed
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| 阻塞( obstruct的过去式和过去分词 )； 堵塞； 阻碍； 阻止 | |
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65
encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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67
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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68
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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69
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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70
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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71
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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72
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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73
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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74
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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75
descried
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| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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76
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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77
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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78
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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79
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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80
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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81
harassed
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| adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词 | |
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82
perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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84
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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85
usurped
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| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
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86
galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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87
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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88
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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89
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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90
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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91
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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92
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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93
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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94
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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95
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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96
labored
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| adj.吃力的，谨慎的v.努力争取(for)( labor的过去式和过去分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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97
zigzagged
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| adj.呈之字形移动的v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
notches
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| n.（边缘或表面上的）V型痕迹( notch的名词复数 )；刻痕；水平；等级 | |
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99
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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100
outwards
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| adj.外面的，公开的，向外的；adv.向外；n.外形 | |
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101
obstruction
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| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
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102
overlapping
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| adj./n.交迭（的） | |
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103
bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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104
quills
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| n.（刺猬或豪猪的）刺( quill的名词复数 )；羽毛管；翮；纡管 | |
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105
porcupine
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| n.豪猪， 箭猪 | |
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106
vestige
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| n.痕迹，遗迹，残余 | |
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107
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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108
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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109
impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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110
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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111
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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112
scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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113
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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114
succors
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| n.救助，帮助（尤指需要时）( succor的名词复数 )v.给予帮助( succor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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115
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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116
coup
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| n.政变；突然而成功的行动 | |
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117
valor
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| n.勇气，英勇 | |
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118
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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119
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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120
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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121
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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122
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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123
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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124
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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125
battalions
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| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
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126
declivity
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| n.下坡，倾斜面 | |
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pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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entanglement
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| n.纠缠，牵累 | |
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pelted
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| （连续地）投掷( pelt的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续抨击； 攻击； 剥去…的皮 | |
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intrepid
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| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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discomfited
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| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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vertically
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| adv.垂直地 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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141
hatchet
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| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
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feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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hewed
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| v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的过去式和过去分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟 | |
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146
repulsed
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| v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝 | |
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lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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marshy
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| adj.沼泽的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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precipitately
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| adv.猛进地 | |
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inscribed
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
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strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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