St. Luc, his face glowing, turned to Montcalm.

“Sir,” he said, “I made to you the prophecy that some chance, some glorious chance, would yet help us, and that chance has come.  Their very strength has betrayed them into an error that may prove fatal.  Despising us, they give us our opportunity.  No matter how great the odds, we can hold earthworks and abattis against them, unless they bring cannon, or, at least we may make a great attempt at it.”

The swarthy face of Montcalm was illumined by the light from his eyes.

“I verily believe that your gallant soul speaks truth, Chevalier de St. Luc!” he exclaimed.  “I said once that we would stand and I say it again.  We’ll put all to the hazard.  Since they come without cannon we do have our chance.  Go, Langy, and take your needed rest.  You have served us well.  And now we’ll have the others here and talk over our preparations.”

The engineers Lotbiniere and Le Mercier were, as before, zealous for battle at Ticonderoga, and their opinion counted for much with Montcalm.  De Levis, held back by the vacillating Vaudreuil, had not yet come from Montreal, and the swiftest of the Canadian paddlers was sent down Lake Ticonderoga in a canoe to hurry him on.  Then the entire battalion of Berry went to work at once with spade and pick and ax to prepare a breastwork and abattis, stretching a line of defense in front of the fort, and not using the fort itself.

* * * * *

Robert saw the Frenchmen attack the trees with their axes and the earth with their spades, and he divined at once the news that Langy had brought.  The Anglo-American army was advancing.  His heart throbbed.  Victory and rescue were at hand.

“Mr. Tilden,” he said to the hunter, “listen to the ring of the ax and the thud of the spade!”

“Aye, I hear ’em,” was the apathetic reply; “but they don’t interest me.  I’m a prisoner.”

“But it may mean that you won’t be a prisoner much longer.  The French are fortifying, and they’ve gone to work with so much haste and energy that it shows an imminent need.  There’s only one conclusion to be drawn from it.  They’re expecting our army and a prompt attack.”

Tilden began to show interest.

“On my life, I think you’re right,” he said.

And yet Montcalm changed his mind again at the last moment.  Two veteran officers, Montguy and Bernes, pointed out to him that his present position was dominated by the adjacent heights, and in order to escape that danger he resolved to retreat a little.  He broke up his camp late in the afternoon of the next day, part of the army fell back through the woods more than a mile, and the rest of it withdrew in boats on the lake to the same point.

Robert and his comrades were carried with the army on land to the fort.  There he became separated from the others, and remained in the rear, but luckily for his wishes, on a mount where he could see most that was passing, though his chance of escape was as remote as ever.