Montcalm and he left Montreal on the twenty-first, and reached Fort Frontenac in eight days.  Rigaud, brother of the Governor, had gone thither some time before, and crossed with seven hundred Canadians to the south side of the lake, where Villiers was encamped at Niaoure Bay, now Sackett’s Harbor, with such of his detachment as war and disease had spared.  Rigaud relieved him, and took command of the united bands.  With their aid the engineer, Descombles, reconnoitred the English forts, and came back with the report that success was certain.[427] It was but a confirmation of what had already been learned from deserters and prisoners, who declared that the main fort was but a loopholed wall held by six or seven hundred men, ill fed, discontented, and mutinous.[428] Others said that they had been driven to desert by the want of good food, and that within a year twelve hundred men had died of disease at Oswego.[429]

[Footnote 427:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 4 Aout, 1756.  Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque, Juin, 1756.]

[Footnote 428:  Bougainville, Journal.]

[Footnote 429:  Vaudreuil au Ministre, 10 Juillet, 1756.  Resume des Nouvelles du Canada, Sept. 1756.]

The battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and Bearn, with the colony regulars, a body of Canadians, and about two hundred and fifty Indians, were destined for the enterprise.  The whole force was a little above three thousand, abundantly supplied with artillery.  La Sarre and Guienne were already at Fort Frontenac.  Bearn was at Niagara, whence it arrived in a few days, much buffeted by the storms of Lake Ontario.  On the fourth of August all was ready.  Montcalm embarked at night with the first division, crossed in darkness to Wolf Island, lay there hidden all day, and embarking again in the evening, joined Rigaud at Niaoure Bay at seven o’clock in the morning of the sixth.  The second division followed, with provisions, hospital train, and eighty artillery boats; and on the eighth all were united at the bay.  On the ninth Rigaud, covered by the universal forest, marched in advance to protect the landing of the troops.  Montcalm followed with the first division; and, coasting the shore in bateaux, landed at midnight of the tenth within half a league of the first English fort.  Four cannon were planted in battery upon the strand, and the men bivouacked by their boats.  So skilful were the assailants and so careless the assailed that the English knew nothing of their danger, till in the morning, a reconnoitring canoe discovered the invaders.  Two armed vessels soon came to cannonade them; but their light guns were no match for the heavy artillery of the French, and they were forced to keep the offing.