and are cut up before they can get out of it.  I am not one to cheapen the valor of British and British Colonials.  It has been proved too often on desperate fields, but in the kind of war we must wage here deep in the wilds of North America, valor is often unavailing, and I think, sir, that we can rely upon one fact.  The enemy will take us too lightly.  He is sure to do something that will keep him from using his whole force at the right moment against us.  Our forest knowledge will work all the time in our behalf.  I entreat you, sir, to keep the army here at Ticonderoga and await the attack.”

St. Luc spoke with intense earnestness, and his words had all the ring of conviction.  Montcalm’s dark face was illumined.  Again he walked back and forth, in deep thought.

“The engineer, Lotbiniere, a man whose opinion I respect, is of your mind,” he said at last.  “He says that whether Crown Point or Ticonderoga, it’s merely either horn of the dilemma, and naturally, if the dangers of the two places are even, we prefer Ticonderoga and no retreat.  The Marquis de Vaudreuil had a plan to save Ticonderoga by means of a diversion with a heavy force under Bourlamaque, De Levis and Longueuil into the Mohawk Valley.  But some American rangers taken near Lake George by Langy told him that Abercrombie already had thirty thousand men at the head of George and the Marquis at once abandoned the scheme.  It was lucky for us the rangers exaggerated so much that the plan was destined to failure, as we needed here the men who were sent on it.  We save or lose Ticonderoga by fighting at Ticonderoga itself and by nothing else.  I thank you, Colonel de St. Luc, for your gallant and timely words, I have been wavering and they have decided me.  We stay here and await the Anglo-American army.”

“And the star of France will not fail us,” said St Luc, with intense conviction.

“I trust not.  I feel more confidence since I have decided, and I do know this:  the young men who are my lieutenants are as brave and skillful leaders as any chief could desire.  And the troops will fight even ten to one, if I ask it of them.  It is a pleasure and a glory to command troops of such incomparable bravery as the French.  But we must try to keep the Indians with us.  I confess that I know little about dealing with them.  Has this savage chief, Tandakora, come back to Ticonderoga?”

“I think he is here, sir.  Do you wish me to talk with him?”

“I do.  I wish it very much.”

“He is very sullen, sir.  He holds that the Indians have received no rewards for their services.”

“We have given them blankets and food and muskets and ammunition.”

“He takes those as a matter of course.  But he means something else.  To tell you the truth, sir, the savages want us to give prisoners to them.”

Montcalm’s face clouded again.

“To burn at the stake, or to torture to death otherwise!” he exclaimed.  “My reputation and what is more, the reputation of France, suffers already from the massacre at William Henry, though God knows I would have prevented it if I could.  It happened so suddenly and so unexpectedly that I could not stop it, until the harm was done.  But never, St. Luc, never will I give up a prisoner to them for their tortures, though every savage in our armies desert us!”