Next day Lake George saw another strange
spectacle--a British army of thirteen thousand men, the finest
ever seen hitherto in America, retreating in a panic, with no
enemy in pursuit. Nearly two thousand English had fallen, while
Montcalm's loss was less than four hundred. He planted a great
cross on the scene of the fight with an inscription in Latin that
it was God who had wrought the victory. All Canada had a brief
period of rejoicing before the gloom of final defeat settled down
upon the country.
CHAPTER IX. Montcalm At Quebec
The rejoicing in Canada was brief. Before the end of the year the
British were victorious at both the eastern and western ends of
the long battle-line. Louisbourg had fallen in July; Fort
Duquesne, in November. Fort Frontenac--giving command of Lake
Ontario and, with it, the West--had surrendered to Bradstreet in
August just after Montcalm's victory at Ticonderoga. The Ohio was
gone. The great fortress guarding the gateway to the Gulf was
gone. The next English attack would fall on Quebec. Montcalm had
told Vaudreuil in the autumn, with vigorous precision, that the
period of petty warfare, for taking scalps and burning houses,
was past.
Pages:
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226