CHAPTER XVII.

MONTCALM'S OPPORTUNITY.

Master of human destinies am I !

Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait.
Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate

Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate!
If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise before
It is the hour of fate,

I turn away.

And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire, and conquer every foe
Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, penury and woe
Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore;
I answer not, and I return no more.

-INGALLS

THE field marshal of New France, the Marquis De Montcalm, had no sooner arrived at Quebec as governor-general and commander-in-chief, than he began to post himself as to the relative strength of the English and French forces in the New World. He was not long in discovering that the provincial troops, with their determined officers, were more to be dreaded than the Earl of Loudon and all his regulars.

"Keep Washington and his provincials employed in the southwest, and we need not fear Loudon and Abercrombie," he declared. Then he also knew that there was a bitter strife between the royalists and provincials, and, while Montcalm dreaded the provincials most, his sympathies were with them. They were a race of brave men struggling for liberty.

Montcalm, however, saw his opportunity and determined to improve it. He cemented the friendship with the Indians by every possible means. He sang their war songs, danced in their war dances and attended their camp fires. To allay the jealousy of the Six Nations, he destroyed the forts at Oswego after they were captured; and the priests who accompanied him erected a cross, on which they placed the words:

"This is the banner of victory.

Close to it was raised a wooden column, on which was placed the arms of France and the inscription:

Bring lilies with full hands.

Then Montcalm descended the St. Lawrence with his prisoners, and sent the captured English flags to decorate the churches of Montreal and Quebec. The destruction of the forts at Oswego was an admirable stroke of policy on the part of the French

commander. It pleased the savages and, as he hoped, caused them to assume a position of neutrality toward the belligerents. French emissaries soon seduced the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas from British interest.

A more repugnant or incompetent person than the Earl of Loudon could not have been chosen. He was imperious and undignified in his deportment. Devoid of either civil or military genius; quick to threaten, but slow to execute; possessing no semblance of public virtue; unsympathetic with anything noble or generous in human character; always in a hurry and hurrying others, but excessively dilatory in the performance of duties, he excited the disgust, jealousy, dislike and contempt of the colonists. He was a stranger to the terms, unselfishness and honor. When Dr. Franklin asked him to reimburse some outlays in public service, the earl said:

MONTCALM.

"You can well afford to wait, as you have doubtless taken care to fill your own pockets in your public transactions."

Franklin was stunned at this accusation, but, recovering himself, answered:

"I assure you, earl, that I have not taken one penny of the public money.'

With a knowing smile and a wink, the earl answered:

"Such a thing is incredible, doctor."

In writing to a friend about Loudon, Franklin said:

"I wonder how such a man came to be intrusted with so important a business as the conduct of a great doing; but, having since seen more of the great world, and the means of obtaining and motives for giving places and employments, my wonder is diminished. He is always ready to do and never does. He is like St. George on a sign post, -always on horseback and never going forward."

During the year 1756, events equally disgraceful in England and America occurred. Quarrels, scandals, intrigues, corruptions, and imbecility marked the court and administration of the British monarch. The king's mistress governed the realm, and patriots trembled for the fate of their country. Caricature and satire assailed the governing ministers of England, and Hogarth the artist arose in reputation. The only redeeming feature of the administration was late in the year, when William Pitt, the great commoner, was raised to the dignity of Secretary of State. While the English aristocracy were against the untitled minister, the

great mass of English people, those who were the bone and sinew of the nation, were with him; but the aristocrats in power stood in the way of every wise and generous plan of Pitt. When he proposed to pursue a just and liberal course toward the American colonies, he was met by churlish cavils from the Lords of Trade and demands for the taxation of the Americans. The foolish royalists, or nobles, demanded a stamp tax on the American colonies, at which Pitt indignantly replied:

"With the enemy at their back and British bayonets at their breasts, in the day of their distress, perhaps the Americans may submit to the imposition." Pitt knew the Americans better and had a clearer conception of justice and its wise policy than any public man in England. Neither his country's persuasion nor the threats of the aristocracy could move him; he would not resign the office which he knew the great common people of England wished him to fill, and, in the spring of 1757, he was dismissed by the king with other good members of the cabinet. For several weeks the home government of England was in a state of anarchy, while Loudon was making infinite mischief in America.

At a council held in Boston, in 1757, Loudon determined, in spite of all counsel to the contrary,