Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/166

134 The attack on Ticonderoga. [nss the captured standards were carried in solemn procession to St Paul's, for it was the first great success in America. Louisbourg was soon afterwards levelled to the ground at enormous labour and cost. Its pride and power became but a memory, now this long time a faint one. The lines of its streets may even yet be traced upon the turf of the lonely promontory ; and fragments of massive masonry may be still seen half buried beneath the verdure of more than a century's growth. There were now some thoughts of moving on Quebec, but the season seemed too short for so formidable a venture, and in the meantime came news of a great disaster on Lake George which hurried Amherst to New York with all his available forces. Even the colonial legislatures this year had caught some sparks of Pitt's enthusiasm. He had called on them to furnish, clothe and pay 20,000 men, a force almost as large as the whole British army of a few years back. They had nobly responded, Massachusetts, seconded by Connecticut, bearing more than half the burden. With some 10,000 provincials and 6000 regulars, Abercrombie, after a month in camp, moved on to what was regarded as the certain destruction of Ticonderoga. Never had an American summer sun shone on a more brilliant and martial spectacle than the vast flotilla which drifted up the shining surface of the most beautiful of American lakes to disaster undreamed of. Borne in more than a thousand boats and propelled by ten thousand glinting oar blades, went redcoats, plaided highlanders, and blue-coated provincials, with arms shining and banners flaunting in all the pride and panoply of war, while the still morning air was filled with the sound of martial music and the stirring calls of trumpet and bugle made wild echoes in the mountain glens. Many of those who saw it have left us their impressions of that memorable scene: seldom perhaps has such a picture been set in such a frame. Abercrombie was past fifty. If his lack of ability was suspected, it was in part counteracted by the presence of his brigadier, Lord Howe. The latter was now thirty -four. He was a promising officer, and beloved by the Americans. "The noblest Englishman that has appeared in my time and the best soldier in the British Army," wrote Wolfe, who knew him well. Montcalm, with somewhat over 3000 men, all good regular troops, but with no chance of timely succour, waited at Ticonderoga, halting, as well he may have done, between many plans. The one adopted was a bold one and a sudden thought. The fort, for various reasons, did not commend itself as a point of resistance. Half a mile distant, some rising ground seemed much more suitable. This elevation his whole army toiled day and night to intrench. The trees, for a musket-shot round, were felled and left lying with their branches pointing outwards. A barricade of logs, eight feet high, was erected in a rude circle, while outside the barricade an almost impenetrable frieze of branches placed in layers with their points sharpened made access, even without opposition,