* * * * *

Meanwhile Langy saluted Montcalm with the great respect that his successes had won from all the French.  When the Marquis turned his keen eye upon him he knew at once that his message, whatever it might be, was of supreme importance.

“What is it, Monsieur Langy?”

“A report on the movements of the enemy.”

“Come to my tent and tell me of it fully, and do you, St. Luc and Bourlamaque, come with me also.  You should hear everything.”

They went into the tent and all sat down.  St. Luc’s eyes never left the partisan, Langy.  He saw that the man was full of his news, eager to tell it, and was impressed with its importance.  He knew Langy even better than Montcalm did.  Few were more skillful in the forest, and he had a true sense of proportion that did not desert him under stress.  His eyes traveled over the partisan’s attire, and there his own great skill as a ranger told him much.  His garments were disarranged.  Burrs and one or two little twigs were clinging to them.  Obviously he had come far and in haste.  The thoughts of St. Luc, and, in truth, the thoughts of all of them, went to the Anglo-American army.

“Speak, Monsieur Langy,” said Montcalm.  “I can see that you have come swiftly, and you would not come so without due cause.”

“I wish to report to you, sir,” said Langy, “that the entire army of the enemy is now embarked on the Lake of the Holy Sacrament, and is advancing against us.”

Montcalm’s eyes sparkled.  His warlike soul leaped up at the thought of speedy battle that was being offered.  A flame was lighted also in St. Luc’s blood, and Bourlamaque was no less eager.  It was no lack of valor and enterprise that caused the French to lose their colonies in North America.

“You know this positively?” asked the commander-in-chief.

“I have seen it with my own eyes.”

“Tell it as you saw it.”

“I lay in the woods above the lake with my men, and I saw the British and Americans go into their boats, a vast flock of them.  They are all afloat on the lake at this moment, and are coming against us.”

“Could you make a fair estimate of their numbers?”

“I obtained the figures with much exactitude from one or two stragglers that we captured on the land.  My eyes confirm these figures.  There are about seven thousand of the English regulars, and about nine thousand of the American colonials.”

“So many as that!  Five to one!”

“You tell us they are all in boats,” said St. Luc.  “How many of these boats contain their artillery?”

“They have not yet embarked the cannon.  As nearly as we can gather, the guns will not come until the army is at Ticonderoga.”

“What?”

“It is as I tell you,” replied Langy to St. Luc.  “The guns cannot come up the lake until a day or two after the army is landed.  Their force is so great that they do not seem to think they will need the artillery.”