Montcalm at Montreal had more visits than he liked from his red allies.  “They are vilains messieurs,” he informs his mother, “even when fresh from their toilet, at which they pass their lives.  You would not believe it, but the men always carry to war, along with their tomahawk and gun, a mirror to daub their faces with various colors, and arrange feathers on their heads and rings in their ears and noses.  They think it a great beauty to cut the rim of the ear and stretch it till it reaches the shoulder.  Often they wear a laced coat, with no shirt at all.  You would take them for so many masqueraders or devils.  One needs the patience of an angel to get on with them.  Ever since I have been here, I have had nothing but visits, harangues, and deputations of these gentry.  The Iroquois ladies, who always take part in their government, came also, and did me the honor to bring me belts of wampum, which will oblige me to go to their village and sing the war-song.  They are only a little way off.  Yesterday we had eighty-three warriors here, who have gone out to fight.  They make war with astounding cruelty, sparing neither men, women, nor children, and take off your scalp very neatly,—­an operation which generally kills you.”

“Everything is horribly dear in this country; and I shall find it hard to make the two ends of the year meet, with the twenty-five thousand francs the King gives me.  The Chevalier de Levis did not join me till yesterday.  His health is excellent.  In a few days I shall send him to one camp, and M. de Bourlamaque to another; for we have three of them:  one at Carillon, eighty leagues from here, towards the place where M. de Dieskau had his affair last year; another at Frontenac, sixty leagues; and the third at Niagara, a hundred and forty leagues.  I don’t know when or whither I shall go myself; that depends on the movements of the enemy.  It seems to me that things move slowly in this new world; and I shall have to moderate my activity accordingly.  Nothing but the King’s service and the wish to make a career for my son could prevent me from thinking too much of my expatriation, my distance from you, and the dull existence here, which would be duller still if I did not manage to keep some little of my natural gayety.”

The military situation was somewhat perplexing.  Iroquois spies had brought reports of great preparations on the part of the English.  As neither party dared offend these wavering tribes, their warriors could pass with impunity from one to the other, and were paid by each for bringing information, not always trustworthy.  They declared that the English were gathering in force to renew the attempt made by Johnson the year before against Crown Point and Ticonderoga, as well as that made by Shirley against forts Frontenac and Niagara.  Vaudreuil had spared no effort to meet the double danger.  Lotbiniere, a Canadian engineer, had been busied during the winter in fortifying Ticonderoga, while Pouchot, a captain in the battalion of Bearn, had rebuilt Niagara, and two French engineers were at work in strengthening the defences of Frontenac.  The Governor even hoped to take the offensive, anticipate the movements of the English, capture Oswego, and obtain the complete command of Lake Ontario.  Early in the spring a blow had been struck which materially aided these schemes.