[Footnote 631:  Letter from Saratoga, 12 July, 1758, in New Hampshire Gazette.  Compare Pennsylvania Archives, III. 474.]

[Footnote 632:  Letter from Lake George, 26 July, 1758, in Boston Gazette.  The story is given, without much variation, in several other letters.]

Toward five o’clock two English columns joined in a most determined assault on the extreme right of the French, defended by the battalions of Guienne and Bearn.  The danger for a time was imminent.  Montcalm hastened to the spot with the reserves.  The assailants hewed their way to the foot of the breastwork; and though again and again repulsed, they again and again renewed the attack.  The Highlanders fought with stubborn and unconquerable fury.  “Even those who were mortally wounded,” writes one of their lieutenants, “cried to their companions not to lose a thought upon them, but to follow their officers and mind the honor of their country.  Their ardor was such that it was difficult to bring them off."[633] Their major, Campbell of Inverawe, found his foreboding true.  He received a mortal shot, and his clansmen bore him from the field.  Twenty-five of their officers were killed or wounded, and half the men fell under the deadly fire that poured from the loopholes.  Captain John Campbell and a few followers tore their way through the abattis, climbed the breastwork, leaped down among the French, and were bayoneted there.[634]

[Footnote 633:  Letter of Lieutenant William Grant, in Maclachlan’s Highlands, II. 340 (ed. 1875).]

[Footnote 634:  Ibid., II. 339.]

As the colony troops and Canadians on the low ground were left undisturbed, Levis sent them an order to make a sortie and attack the left flank of the charging columns.  They accordingly posted themselves among the trees along the declivity, and fired upwards at the enemy, who presently shifted their position to the right, out of the line of shot.  The assault still continued, but in vain; and at six there was another effort, equally fruitless.  From this time till half-past seven a lingering fight was kept up by the rangers and other provincials, firing from the edge of the woods and from behind the stumps, bushes, and fallen trees in front of the lines.  Its only objects were to cover their comrades, who were collecting and bringing off the wounded, and to protect the retreat of the regulars, who fell back in disorder to the Falls.  As twilight came on, the last combatant withdrew, and none were left but the dead.  Abercromby had lost in killed, wounded, and missing, nineteen hundred and forty-four officers and men.[635] The loss of the French, not counting that of Langy’s detachment, was three hundred and seventy-seven.  Bourlamaque was dangerously wounded; Bougainville slightly; and the hat of Levis was twice shot through.[636]

[Footnote 635:  See Appendix G.]

[Footnote 636:  Levis au Ministre, 13 Juillet, 1758.]