The capture of Niagara was an important stroke.  Thenceforth Detroit, Michillimackinac, the Illinois, and all the other French interior posts, were severed from Canada, and left in helpless isolation; but Amherst was not yet satisfied.  On hearing of Prideaux’s death he sent Brigadier Gage to supersede Johnson and take command on Lake Ontario, directing him to descend the St. Lawrence, attack the French posts at the head of the rapids, and hold them if possible for the winter.  The attempt was difficult; for the French force on the St. Lawrence was now greater than that which Gage could bring against it, after providing for the safety of Oswego and Niagara.  Nor was he by nature prone to dashing and doubtful enterprise.  He reported that the movement was impossible, much to the disappointment of Amherst, who seemed to expect from subordinates an activity greater than his own.[744]

[Footnote 744:  Amherst to Gage, 28 July, 1 Aug., 14 Aug., 11 Sept. 1759.  Diary of Sir William Johnson, in Stone, Life of Johnson, II. 394-429.]

He, meanwhile, was working at his fort at Crown Point, while the season crept away, and Bourlamaque lay ready to receive him at Isle-aux-Noix.  “I wait his coming with impatience,” writes the French commander, “though I doubt if he will venture to attack a post where we are intrenched to the teeth, and armed with a hundred pieces of cannon."[745] Bourlamaque now had with him thirty-five hundred men, in a position of great strength.  Isle-aux-Noix, planted in mid-channel of the Richelieu soon after it issues from Lake Champlain, had been diligently fortified since the spring.  On each side of it was an arm of the river, closed against an enemy with chevaux-de-frise.  To attack it in front in the face of its formidable artillery would be a hazardous attempt, and the task of reducing it was likely to be a long one.  The French force in these parts had lately received accessions.  After the fall of Niagara the danger seemed so great, both in the direction of Lake Ontario and that of Lake Champlain, that Levis had been sent up from Quebec with eight hundred men to command the whole department of Montreal.[746] A body of troops and militia was encamped opposite that town, ready to march towards either quarter, as need might be, while the abundant crops of the neighboring parishes were harvested by armed bands, ready at a word to drop the sickle for the gun.

[Footnote 745:  Bourlamaque a (Bernetz?), 22 Sept. 1759.]

[Footnote 746:  Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 9 Aout, 1759.  Rigaud a Bourlamaque, 14 Aout, 1759.  Levis a Bourlamaque, 25 Aout, 1759.]