the most strongly attacked. Two English columns were thrown against that point. Bourlamaque was dangerously wounded and replaced by M. de Senezergues. The third column tried to storm the centre. But Montcalm was there with Royal-Roussillon. He exposed himself as the last soldier of his army, going to the left, to the right, raising enthusiasm and confidence everywhere. The fourth column directed its efforts on the right, and was hotly received by Lévis with Béarn and La Reine.

During the afternoon some firing was heard towards the river. Barges filled with English soldiers tried to land near Carillon. But Montcalm had anticipated this. The volunteers of Bernard and Duprat were on the shore and opened fire on the barges. In the meantime the guns of the fort were levelled at them; two barges were sunk and the rest retired.

Towards four o'clock a desperate effort was made against the French right. The brave Highlanders were there, stubborn and unflinching soldiers, never daunted, never dispirited, always ready to charge. They press on, they force their way through the entanglement of trees; their ranks are thinned by death; but they heed it not; forward! forward! until they are near the intrenchments. A few minutes more and they will force them. For one moment the fate of the day is doubtful. But Lévis encourages his soldiers to persevere. Montcalm, bare headed, hastens to the dangerous spot with his valiant grenadiers. Bayonets glitter; a deadly fire decimates the braves of Scotland. And, at the same moment, the Canadians and marine troops answering Lévis' orders make a sortie on the flank

of the column. At last it gives way. Abercromby, who has not appeared on the battle-field, sends word to retreat. It is seven o'clock. Nearly two thousand English soldiers killed and wounded are lying in front of the French intrenchments.

Montcalm had fought and vanquished; he had won a great victory; more than that; he had saved New-France from invasion and shed immortal glory on his flag and

nation.

When he went through the lines that night, accompanied by Lévis, his soldiers hailed him with triumphant acclamations. They had a right to be jubilant, 3,800 men had repulsed 15,000.

The General sent immediately an officer to carry these glorious tidings to the governor at Montreal.

The day after, French scouts reported that Abercromby and his army had retreated from the Falls and the Portage, and reimbarked hastily for William Henry.

We have seen already that Montcalm was a christian soldier. He proved it once more by having a big cross erected on the site of his victory, with these two lines :

Quid dux? Quid miles? Quid strata ingentia ligna
En signum! En victor! Deus hic, Deus ipse triumphat.

Having composed himself this Latin inscription, which was a credit to his scholarship, he translated it in the following French verse.

Chrétien! ce ne fut point Montcalm et sa prudence,
Ces arbres renversés, ces héros, leurs exploits,
Qui des Anglais confus ont brisé l'espérance,
C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PRICE OF GLORY-VAUDREUIL'S EPISTLES

THE

Montcalm had saved

HE battle was fought and won. the colony. And his victory had given him an immense prestige. But after the first moments of exultation, very natural on such an occasion, he felt again the burden of public anxieties weighing heavily on his heart and mind. Carillon had been defended and protected but Abercromby could return; he had yet 14,000 soldiers and that strong army was not to be despised. Then what would be the fate of Louisbourg, and later on, of Frontenac ?

But that was not all, Montcalm would have to submit to the same displeasure as the year before, after the fall of William Henry. As soon as the victory was won, M. de Vaudreuil who had failed to send the reinforcements in time, began to send them in excess after the crisis, and to write to the victorious general letters which were well calculated to exasperate him. Our readers must remember that after William Henry, Vaudreuil accused Montcalm of not having completed his victory in laying siege to Fort Lydius. This year he tried to show that Montcalm had neglected to reap the results of Aber

cromby's defeat, because he had not driven the latter altogether from the lake St-Sacrement frontier. He deluged the general with a shower of letters urging him to send strong detachments, to harass the enemy, to take advantage of their terror, to cut off their communication to old Fort George, intercept their convoys, oblige them to retire, and thereby deprive them forever of all hope of renewing their attempt. All this was stated in a letter dated at Montreal, the 12th of July, and was repeated under different forms by the Governor, in his letters of the 15th, the 16th, and the 17th of July.

On the 15th he wrote: "I cannot sufficiently reiterate to you, Sir, all that I have had the honor to observe to you on that point. You are in fact now in a position to have constantly considerable detachments of Regulars, Canadians and Indians along the Lake and head of the Bay, to harass our enemies with vigor, to cut off their communication with Lydius, to intercept their convoys, to force them to retire and perhaps even to abandon their artillery, field train, bateaux, provisions, ammunition, etc.... This is of such great consequence that, so far from reducing the forces that I have destined for you, I have nothing more pressing than to increase them, and to hasten their departure to you. You have the élite of our officers, of our young men, of our Canadians and of our Indians."

Again on the 16th: "I cannot forbear having the honor again of renewing to you, Sir, all the observations I have submitted to you in my last letter. You cannot want for canoes, Canadians and Indians, to send out large detachments. We could not have a finer opportunity to oblige

:

the enemy to retire from old Fort George." And on the 17th "You perceive, Sir, that I have not neglected anything for the prompt conveyance to you of a great number of Indians and the élite of our Canadians. You have now a very considerable force; therefore, we have nothing better to do, as I have had the honor to observe to you, than to employ them, without the loss of a moment, in vigorously harassing our enemies, etc.... What I have had the honor to write to you on this subject in many of my letters, merits, Sir, your attention. Your brilliant affair must not remain incomplete.... These reasons, Sir, lead me to defer writing to France, because, in rendering the Court an account of your brave affair of the eighth of this month, I hope to inform it that we have not neglected the great advantage of the retreat and discouragement of our enemies, and that we have rendered it impossible for them to make any new attempts at least for this year." ("

(1)

Montcalm smarted under these lectures on the art of making victory fruitful. He addressed to the governor very sharp rejoinders. "It is always astonishing," he wrote, "that the Marquis de Vaudreuil considers himself qualified at a distance of fifty leagues to determine operations of war in a country he has never seen, and where the best Generals, after having seen it, would have been embarrassed. The Marquis de Vaudreuil forgets that the army (English) was at least 20,000 strong, and according to several prisoners 25,000. Supposing that it had lost in killed and wounded 5,000 men, that a portion of

(1) Paris Documents, pp. 759-760.