[Footnote 492:  Despatches of Loudon, Feb. to Aug. 1757.  Knox, Campaigns in North America, I. 6-28.  Knox was in the expedition. Review of Mr. Pitt’s Administration (London, 1763). The Conduct of a Noble Commander in America impartially reviewed (London, 1758).  Beatson, Naval and Military Memoirs, II. 49-59. Answer to the Letter to two Great Men (London, 1760).  Entick, II. 168, 169. Holbourne to Loudon, 4 Aug. 1757. Holbourne to Pitt, 29 Sept. 1757. Ibid., 30 Sept. 1757. Holbourne to Pownall, 2 Nov. 1757.  Mante, 86, 97. Relation du Desastre arrive a la Flotte Anglaise commandee par l’Amiral Holbourne.  Chevalier Johnstone, Campaign of Louisbourg.  London Magazine, 1757, 514. Gentleman’s Magazine, 1757, 463, 476. Ibid., 1758, 168-173.

It has been said that Loudon was scared from his task by false reports of the strength of the French at Louisbourg.  This was not the case.  The Gazette de France, 621, says that La Motte had twenty-four ships of war.  Bougainville says that as early as the ninth of June there were twenty-one ships of war, including five frigates, at Louisbourg.  To this the list given by Knox closely answers.]

Chapter 15

1757

Fort William Henry

“I am going on the ninth to sing the war-song at the Lake of Two Mountains, and on the next day at Saut St. Louis,—­a long, tiresome, ceremony.  On the twelfth I am off; and I count on having news to tell you by the end of this month or the beginning of next.”  Thus Montcalm wrote to his wife from Montreal early in July.  All doubts had been solved.  Prisoners taken on the Hudson and despatches from Versailles had made it certain that Loudon was bound to Louisbourg, carrying with him the best of the troops that had guarded the New York frontier.  The time was come, not only to strike the English on Lake George, but perhaps to seize Fort Edward and carry terror to Albany itself.  Only one difficulty remained, the want of provisions.  Agents were sent to collect corn and bacon among the inhabitants; the cures and militia captains were ordered to aid in the work; and enough was presently found to feed twelve thousand men for a month.[493]

[Footnote 493:  Vaudreuil, Lettres circulates aux Cures et aux Capitaines de Milice des Paroisses du Gouvernement de Montreal, 16 Juin, 1757.]

The emissaries of the Governor had been busy all winter among the tribes of the West and North; and more than a thousand savages, lured by prospect of gifts, scalps, and plunder, were now encamped at Montreal.  Many of them had never visited a French settlement before.  All were eager to see Montcalm, whose exploit in taking Oswego had inflamed their imagination; and one day, on a visit of ceremony, an orator from Michillimackinac addressed the General thus:  “We wanted to see this famous man who tramples the English under his feet.  We thought we should find him so tall that his head would be lost in the clouds.  But you are a little man, my Father.  It is when we look into your eyes that we see the greatness of the pine-tree and the fire of the eagle."[494]