[Footnote 501:  Bougainville, Journal.]

Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular officers, urging them to dispense for a while with luxuries, and even comforts.  “We have but few bateaux, and these are so filled with stores that a large division of the army must go by land;” and he directed that everything not absolutely necessary should be left behind, and that a canvas shelter to every two officers should serve them for a tent, and a bearskin for a bed.  “Yet I do not forbid a mattress,” he adds.  “Age and infirmities may make it necessary to some; but I shall not have one myself, and make no doubt that all who can will willingly imitate me."[502]

[Footnote 502:  Circulaire du Marquis de Montcalm, 25 Juillet, 1757.]

The bateaux lay ready by the shore, but could not carry the whole force; and Levis received orders to march by the side of the lake with twenty-five hundred men, Canadians, regulars, and Iroquois.  He set out at daybreak of the thirtieth of July, his men carrying nothing but their knapsacks, blankets, and weapons.  Guided by the unerring Indians, they climbed the steep gorge at the side of Rogers Rock, gained the valley beyond, and marched southward along a Mohawk trail which threaded the forest in a course parallel to the lake.  The way was of the roughest; many straggled from the line, and two officers completely broke down.  The first destination of the party was the mouth of Ganouskie Bay, now called Northwest Bay, where they were to wait for Montcalm, and kindle three fires as a signal that they had reached the rendezvous.[503]

[Footnote 503:  Guerre du Canada, par le Chevalier de Levis.  This manuscript of Levis is largely in the nature of a journal.]

Montcalm left a detachment to hold Ticonderoga; and then, on the first of August, at two in the afternoon, he embarked at the Burned Camp with all his remaining force.  Including those with Levis, the expedition counted about seven thousand six hundred men, of whom more than sixteen hundred were Indians.[504] At five in the afternoon they reached the place where the Indians, having finished their rattlesnake hunt, were smoking their pipes and waiting for the army.  The red warriors embarked, and joined the French flotilla; and now, as evening drew near, was seen one of those wild pageantries of war which Lake George has often witnessed.  A restless multitude of birch canoes, filled with painted savages, glided by shores and islands, like troops of swimming water-fowl.  Two hundred and fifty bateaux came next, moved by sail and oar, some bearing the Canadian militia, and some the battalions of Old France in trim and gay attire:  first, La Reine and Languedoc; then the colony regulars; then La Sarre and Guienne; then the Canadian brigade of Courtemanche; then the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustained by two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by the militia of Saint-Ours; then the battalions of Bearn and Royal Roussillon; then