The fort only mounted, in all, seventeen cannon, for the most part small, and, as some of them were upon the other faces, the English fire, although kept up with spirit, could reply but weakly to that of the French.  The fort was composed of embankments of gravel, surmounted by a rampart of heavy logs, laid in tiers, crossing each other, the interstices filled with earth; and this could ill support the heavy cannonade to which it was exposed.  The roar of the distant artillery continuing day after day was plainly audible at Fort Edward; but although Monro had, at the commencement of the attack, sent off several messengers asking for reinforcements, Webb did not move.

On the third day of the siege he had received 2000 men from New York, and, by stripping all the forts below, he could have advanced with 4500 men, but some deserters from the French told him that Montcalm had 12,000 men, and Webb considered the task of advancing, through the intervening forests and defiles between him and Fort Henry, far too dangerous an operation to be attempted.  Undoubtedly it would have been a dangerous one, for the Indians pervaded the woods as far as Fort Edward.  No messenger could have got through to inform Monro of his coming, and Montcalm could therefore have attacked him, on the march, with the greater part of his force.  Still, a brave and determined general would have made the attempt.  Webb did not do so, but left Monro to his fate.

He even added to its certainty by sending off a letter to him, telling him that he could do nothing to assist him, and advising him to surrender at once.  The messenger was killed by the Indians in the forest, and the note taken to Montcalm, who, learning that Webb did not intend to advance, was able to devote his whole attention to the fort.  Montcalm kept the letter for several days, till the English rampart was half battered down, and then sent it in by an officer to Monro, hoping that it would induce the latter to surrender.  The old soldier, however, remained firm in his determination to hold out, even though his position was now absolutely hopeless.  The trenches had been pushed forward until within 250 yards of the fort, and the Indians crept up almost to the wall on this side.

Two sorties were made—­one from the fort, the other from the intrenched camp; but both were repulsed with loss.  More than 300 of the defenders had been killed and wounded.  Smallpox was raging, and the casemates were crowded with sick.  All their large cannon had been burst or disabled, and only seven small pieces were fit for service.  The French battery in the foremost trench was almost completed, and, when this was done, the whole of Montcalm’s thirty-one cannon and fifteen mortars would open fire, and, as a breach had already been effected in the wall, further resistance would have been madness.

On the night of the 8th, it was known in the fort that a council of war would be held in the morning, and that, undoubtedly, the fort would surrender.