They admired the different spirit of the French, and warriors from more than thirty "nations" were at Montreal at the beginning of the summer of 1757. Governor Vaudreuil told them of glory and plunder surely won by an alliance with the French. Montcalm still danced their wild wardances with them; he still sang their fiercest war songs, until their affection for him and enthusiasm for the cause of the French became intense and they were ready to follow wherever he might lead. He ordered them to meet his regulars and Canadians at St. John's on the Sorel for a voyage over the lake. Their march to Montreal was wild and tumultuous. They were accompanied by priests who chanted hymns and anthems. In canoes and bateaux, the motley army, led by Montcalm, went up Lake Champlain and landed at Ticonderoga one hot July day. Under a wide-spreading oak, high mass was celebrated, and voices chanting sacred hymns were mingled of French instruments. turned with fresh scalps. destroyed the hamlet of before, came back from the hills near Fort Edward, and pointed to his canoe moored at the shore, in which lay a solitary prisoner and more than forty scalps, the savages set up a yell of exultation that awakened the echoes of Mount Defiance and Mount

with the martial music Scouts went out and re

When Marin, who had Saratoga a dozen years

Independence, then bearing Algonquin names. Very soon the whole body of Montcalm's force. moved to the foot of Lake George, for their des tination was Fort William Henry, at the head of the lake.

During the winter previous, an attempt had been made by the French against the fort and, but for the prompt action of Putnam, Stark, and other provincials, would have been successful.

On July 31st, the garrison at Fort William Henry was composed of less than five hundred men under the brave Colonel Monro. A short distance from the fort, on a rocky eminence, seventeen hundred men lay entrenched. A little more than a dozen miles distant was Fort Edward, where lay the timid General Webb, with about four thousand troops. At the same time, Montcalm was at the foot of Lake George with six thousand French and Canadians and about seventeen hundred Indians. After holding a grand council, he moved over the waters along the western shore of Lake George. In a skirmish on the lake, a great Indian warrior was killed and his body was carried away by his companions.

Montcalm, who had passed up the lake with the main army in bateaux, on the 2d of August, landed with a heavy train of artillery, not far from the village of Caldwell, and at once constructed

siege batteries. La Corne, with Canadians, had landed on the east side of the lake and taken position across the road leading to Fort Edward, and De Levi, with French and Canadians, formed a camp northwest of La Corne.

While Montcalm was lying in camp, preparing for the attack on Fort William Henry, one evening some Indian scouts brought in a prisoner.

"Are you an Englishman?" Montcalm asked. "No, monsieur, I am an Acadian."

"What is your name and what part of Acadia are you from?" asked the French commander.

"My name is Jean Baptiste De Barre," the wildeyed, haggard Jean answered. "I once lived at Grand Pre and was to wed Adrianne Blanc; but the accursed English under Winslow came and drove me away. When I would have resisted, one struck me a blow with the butt of his gun, and ever since I have been wrong in my head." Here the speaker paused and pressed his hand on his temple and stared about him in strange bewilderment. Yes, we were to be wed," he added after a few moments' silence; "but when the day came I was torn away and carried to New York. Since then I have searched for her.

(6 Have you never found her?”

"No; her mother died next day, and she, frightened at Captain Winslow, fled."

"Whither?"

Alas, I know not," the wanderer answered. "I have sought her in the far north and farther south, among the hills and in the valleys, where the pine trees rustle in the breeze and where the deer reposes on the soft, green grass of the valley. I have searched and searched for her, but, alas, in vain. I am weary and can do naught but die.

Like most brave men, Montcalm had a warm, sympathetic heart in his body, and the story of the unfortunate Acadian moved him.

Alas, poor fellow, we sympathize with you and shall avenge your wrongs. Go whithersoever you will; but do not fall into the hands of the enemy, or you may be hung for a spy.

Jean remembered now how nearly he had come to being hung for a spy while at Halifax, and he stole away into the forest and was seen no more by

Montcalm for several months.

The sudden appearance of so large a force before Fort William Henry was a surprise to the commander of the garrison. General Webb had come up from Fort Edward a day or two before, under an escort of rangers led by Major Israel Putnam. He examined the fort and the entrenched camp, and sent Putnam on a scout down the lake, who discovered a large force of French and Indians preparing to move on the fort. This fact Webb con

cealed from Colonel Monro, and immediately returned to Fort Edward with the same scout. Not doubting the intention of his superior to give him all the aid in his power, the veteran, when, on the 4th of August, Montcalm demanded an instantaneous surrender of the fort, in a defiant tone refused compliance.

The siege was at once commenced and prosecuted with the utmost vigor; but Monro held out, in continual expectation of aid from General Webb. Express after express was sent through by-ways to Fort Edward, imploring aid; but Webb, fearing an attack on that post, would not spare a man. Finally, when Sir William Johnston was allowed to march with Putnam, his rangers and some provincials to the relief of Monro, the whole force was recalled when within two or three miles of Fort William Henry. Instead of forwarding relief to the beleaguered garrison, Webb sent a letter to their commander, in which he gave an exaggerated estimate of the numbers of the French and Indians and advised him to surrender to prevent a massacre.

Montcalm was on the point of raising the siege, when some of his scouts intercepted the letter. His ammunition and provisions were running short, and he was on the point of returning to TiconderThe letter once more revived hope in his

oga. *

* An Indian word meaning "Sounding Water."