[Footnote 618:  Abercromby to Pitt, 12 July, 1758.]

Montcalm with his main force had held this position at the Falls through most of the preceding day, doubtful, it seems, to the last whether he should not make his final stand there.  Bourlamaque was for doing so; but two old officers, Bernes and Montguy, pointed out the danger that the English would occupy the neighboring heights;[619] whereupon Montcalm at length resolved to fall back.  The camp was broken up at five o’clock.  Some of the troops embarked in bateaux, while others marched a mile and a half along the forest road, passed the place where the battalion of Berry was still at work on the breastwork begun in the morning, and made their bivouac a little farther on, upon the cleared ground that surrounded the fort.

[Footnote 619:  Pouchot, I. 145.]

The peninsula of Ticonderoga consists of a rocky plateau, with low grounds on each side, bordering Lake Champlain on the one hand, and the outlet of Lake George on the other.  The fort stood near the end of the peninsula, which points towards the southeast.  Thence, as one goes westward, the ground declines a little, and then slowly rises, till, about half a mile from the fort, it reaches its greatest elevation, and begins still more gradually to decline again.  Thus a ridge is formed across the plateau between the steep declivities that sink to the low grounds on right and left.  Some weeks before, a French officer named Hugues had suggested the defence of this ridge by means of an abattis.[620] Montcalm approved his plan; and now, at the eleventh hour, he resolved to make his stand here.  The two engineers, Pontleroy and Desandrouin, had already traced the outline of the works, and the soldiers of the battalion of Berry had made some progress in constructing them.  At dawn of the seventh, while Abercromby, fortunately for his enemy, was drawing his troops back to the landing-place, the whole French army fell to their task.

[Footnote 620:  N.Y.  Col.  Docs., X. 708.]

The regimental colors were planted along the line, and the officers, stripped to the shirt, took axe in hand and labored with their men.  The trees that covered the ground were hewn down by thousands, the tops lopped off, and the trunks piled one upon another to form a massive breastwork.  The line followed the top of the ridge, along which it zig-zagged in such a manner that the whole front could be swept by flank-fires of musketry and grape.  Abercromby describes the wall of logs as between eight and nine feet high;[621] in which case there must have been a rude banquette, or platform to fire from, on the inner side.  It was certainly so high that nothing could be seen over it but the crowns of the soldiers’ hats.  The upper tier was formed of single logs, in which notches were cut to serve as loopholes; and in some places sods and bags of sand were piled along the top, with narrow spaces to fire through.[622] From the central part of the line