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 followers tore their way through the abattis, climbed the breastwork, leaped down among the French, and were bayoneted there.2 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 upwards 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 disorder to the Falls. As twilight came on, the 1 Letter of Lieutenant William Grant, in Maclachlan's Highlands, ii. 340 (ed. 1875). 2 Ibid., ii. 339. last combatant withdrew, and none were left but the dead. Abercrombie 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 mighty 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. Abercrombie 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 marshy place that they had crossed was found a considerable number of their 1 See Appendix G. 2 Lévis au Ministre, 13 Juillet, 1758. 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 gallant army was sacrificed by the blunders of its chief. 66 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 precipitately, 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 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?" you." On the morrow of his victory he caused a great cross to be planted on the battle-field, inscribed with these lines, composed by the soldier-scholar himself, "Quid dux? quid miles? quid strata ingentia ligna ? "Soldier and chief and rampart's strength are nought; 1 Along with the above paraphrase I may give that of Montcalm himself, which was also inscribed on the cross : "Chrétien! ce ne fut point Montcalm et la prudence, C'est le bras de ton Dieu, vainqueur sur cette croix." In the same letter in which Montcalm sent these lines to his mother he says: "Je vous envoie, pour vous amuser, deux chansons sur le combat du 8 Juillet, dont l'une est en style des poissardes de Paris." One of these songs, which were written by soldiers after the battle, begins, " "Je chante des François "Mars, qui les engendra Pour l'honneur de la France, De sa haute vaillance, Et les transporta Dans ie Canada, Où l'on voit les François Culbuter les Anglois." The other effusion of the military muse is in a different strain, en style des poissardes de Paris." The following is a specimen, given literatim: "L'aumônier fit l'exhortation, Puis il donnit l'absolution; Enfants, dit-il, animez-vous! L'bon Dieu, sa mère, tout est pour vous. S-é! j'sommes catholiques. Les Anglois sont des hérétiques. "Ce sont des chiens; à coups d'pieds, a coups d'poings faut leur casser la gueule et la mâchoire. " "Soldats, officiers, généraux, Chacun en ce jour fut héros. Montcalm, comme défunt Annibal, S'montroit soldat et général. 8! sil y avoit quelqu'un qui ne l'aimít point! Je veux être un chien; à coups d'pieds, a coups d'poings, j'lut cass'rai la gueule et la mâchoire." This is an allusion to Vaudreuil. On the battle of Ticonderoga, see Appendix G. |