landing, and the strong-hold of the French, as he had marched over the ground twice to within one mile and a half of their lines, and reconnoitered the whole distance, which is four miles. Knowing that the most considerable force of the enemy, under Montcalm, at the SawMills, (site of the present villlage of Ticonderoga,) had not been engaged in the fight of the day before, he determined to dislodge them, and bring them to combat before they could join the stronger body on the plain before the fort.

e;

Seven thousand, nearly one half of the army under General Bradstreet, at eleven o'clock marched to the attack. The force consisted of the batteau men, rangers under Captain John Stark, provincials, and the forty-fourth regiment and six battalions of the best disciplined regulars. Arriving at the first falls, the location overlooking the site of the enemy's encampment, it was believed to be in flames, and hurrying on, the bridge spanning the stream was found destroyed. Here the versatile mechanism of Stark, the rangers and provincials, was available the bridge was rebuilt, and the troops immediately occupied the position which Montcalm, with his fifteen hundred men, had escaped from during the march and consequent delay of Abercrombie in returning to the landing. At three o'clock General Bradstreet sent information to Abercrombie of his position; and that night the whole army, excepting a few left at the landing to guard the stores, etc., and the four hundred and fifty rangers under Rogers, who were ordered to occupy the battle ground of the previous day, encamped on the spot where the French general had been securely posted during the day and night, within scarcely twenty minutes' march.

I digress. Eighty-one years had passed; thousands from the old and new world had visited this spot, the tent-ground of Montcalm, Abercrombie, and the marshalled chivalry of their time; when came the great republican statesman, the William Pitt of our time- Henry Clay. It was near the anniversary of the greatest battle in the colonial history of America. In his northern tour in 1839 from the lakes, following the St. Lawrence and the waters of Champlain, hundreds had interrupted his progress, and hither hundreds had assembled to meet him. He had examined minutely the ruined battlements of the old fort and of the French lines, and now across the portage, by stage of four miles, he was en route to take the little steamer through Lake George. Here at the small tavern, half way, the hardy yeomanry thronged to greet him, and he gave that hearty and cordial recognition, peculiarly his own, to all who pressed in his way.

At length the name of Apollos Austin, a soldier of the Revolution,' was pronounced, and an old gentleman far advanced in years took Mr. Clay's hand. 'Apollos,' said the latter, pleasantly, is a Bible name, and I suppose he is doing its good commands now while 'Paul may plant;' for happily we trust we need fight no more.' 'No, no,' said the other; 'but for all that I am a 'Green Mountain Boy,' and could fight as well now as ever in my life, if it need be. I have come a good many miles to-day to see one whom I have longed to see for more than forty years; and since I have seen HENRY CLAY, and shaken his honest hand, I must say this is the proudest and happiest day I have ever

lived. I feel,' he continued, good humoredly, 'like Simeon of old when he said: 'O LORD, let now thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!'' At this moment the cheers of the crowd shook the little inn, and Mr. Clay attempted to interrupt a speech which was becoming a little too adulatory; but the old veteran continued: You have spent your whole life in the service of your country; you have been its salvation twice, if not thrice; I shall die before you, but you may yet live to save it again, if it should be in danger. I know you will save it always while you do live, and that will be forever, for your example and self-sacrifice will live always in our hearts and in history. You see the green hills yonder- there live the Green Mountain boys: true as steel, they honor and love Henry Clay!'

The statesman could not be diverted in his second attempt to interrupt the harangue, and rising with the dignity naturally inspired by the spot itself, yet simple in his reply, he said: FATHER AUSTIN, you have done me quite too much honor. It is true I love my country, and have endeavored to serve it in my day; but my services have been feeble. Yours commenced earlier. At that time doubts and uncertainties, and the severest trials, hardships, fatigues, privation and sufferings, attended all your struggles for freedom. If I have ever done any thing toward sustaining my country, you have done infinitely more than I, for you helped to form it. It was not completely a free and independent country until your services, and the services of such as you, made the world acknowledge its independence. These then have been greater than mine; and your hardships and battles were never mine to endure. You perhaps have camped here upon this very ground; have marched in the winter over these hills with unshod and bleeding feet. This has never been my fortune. My services have been small and my com

forts many.'

By this time the venerable soldier had become engrossed with the remarks of the statesman, and he was silent. Mr. Clay was in the mean time often interrupted by the cheers of the numbers around, who crowded about him, shouting 'Go on! go on!' He continued: 'Gentleman, I thank you. I thank you for this cordial and hearty evidence of your friendship. When I see your great hills in all their primitive strength and beauty, I am impelled to consider the inhabitants of such a region firm and true. To me you are only too generous, for your kind feelings seem to flow as freely as the pure waters of your beautiful Lake George, of which I learn this is the hurrying outlet.

'One says he has come some twelve miles to see me; I may say I have come as many hundred to see you; to see what I might see; the country and its inhabitants, with its vast rivers and mountains and lakes, the inland seas of the west, which border a large extent of our country on the north. There among our neighbors in Canada I was taught the value of our citizenship, and of the name of American citizen.' For there civilities were extended me, marked and cordial, from a people but yesterday our enemies, with whom we were battling for the possession of this very spot and of yonder old fort. Now a great and powerful nation are happy and proud to be our friends. For no kingdom is too mighty or too remote to respect and honor the name, 'American citizen.'

'You, gentlemen, fathers, (I understand there are others present beside Mr. Austin,) have fought to make that name. I honor you, our country honors you, the world honors you! You have told me that you are Green Mountain boys; though your faces may be strange, I know you all. Your abodes are the dwellings of freedom. For more than a thousand years the spirit of liberty has made the hills and mountain fastnesses its unconquered home. From there it has never been driven or exterminated.

'From the green hills of the Tyrol, the Grampians of Scotland, the highest mountain peaks of Switzerland, the voice of liberty undismayed has been heard in its majesty, causing despotism to fear and tremble. And living on through ages of tyranny and oppression, its valiant deeds have been echoed from your own Green Mountains, at the sight of which our hearts warm with pride for the patriotism of those men of yore called Green Mountain Boys! Let us consider those mountains, which delight the eye of every traveller and the heart of every freeman, as great watch-towers to guard our liberty, and as everlasting monuments of our early chivalry and fame.

'No portion of my journey has interested me more than this: the natural grandeur of the scenery, both mountain and water, the battlegrounds and the crumbling ruins of the old fort, the most extensive in our country, and once the mighty fortress of contending kingdoms. Your agricultural industry is manifested by your rich valleys and well cultivated hills; your shepherds are more than princes; and the free air of heaven, nowhere purer than here, has given you health and energy and a green old age. They who once made their foot-prints here, and left the track of their snow-shoes where we stand, and glided over these waters in their canoes, doing valiant and chivalric service, are silent now. But few of that race of men are left. The gratitude of a free country attends them; new honors every year cluster about them. You have honored me, fellow citizens, by your presence, and by your cordial and hearty greetings. Grateful for that honor, in the fulness of my heart, again I thank you.'

The distinguished traveller hurriedly resumed his seat in the stagecoach, amid the echoing huzzas of the young yeomanry, and the tearful joy of the old. The statesman was doubtless alive to these manifestations; he had really contributed to the patriotic pride of all, and made the heart of many an old man happy. But to return.

Before day-break, on the morning of the fatal eighth, the commander-in-chief sent Colonel Clark, chief engineer, and Captain Abercrombie, with Stark and one or two other rangers, to reconoitre the position and strength of the enemy. They took observation from nearly the summit of Mount Defiance, which overlooked the Fort, the grounds, and newlymade entrenchments, and reported it practicable to carry those works if attacked immediately, as the lines appeared unfinished, and the breastwork of much less height than, unfortunately, they proved to be when the army marched to the assault.

Ticonderoga that part which includes the military grounds as they appeared at that time, and just as they appear now, except that the fort is in ruins -extends from the point of land made by the joining

waters of the two lakes; and running back, on the shore of each, near one mile, it forms that peninsula; and here, at this distance from the point, the first wall of the fort—the old French lines' as they are now called extended entirely across from Lake George outlet to Lake Champlain, three-fourths of a mile. In this triangular form, within their strong entrenchment, lay the whole French army.

At sunrise, four hundred and fifty Indians, under their favorite commander, Sir William Johnson, arrived and joined Abercrombie. And now, with the entire strength of the army - in the belief deduced from the engineer's report, together with the unanimous statement of the prisoners, that a large reinforcement of three thousand Canadians, under M. de Levi, which had been designed for attack on the British and Indians on the Mohawk river, would soon arrive the English General determined on making the attack at once; and the army was again put in motion. The French scouts outside the lines, from their elevated positions-at one time in the tops of trees reported to Montcalm their approach, and the main strength of the French was soon brought to the entrenchments from their various positions between the garrison and the breast-work. The information given by the prisoners, whether designed or not, was incorrect; the force under De Levi were only eight hundred, and had been with the garrison several days. In fact, the entire numbers of the French did not exceed three thousand, and they often reported much less.

The great strength of the breast-work and entrenchment was in the centre; while the extremes, near the waters on each side, the breast-work, of much less height, and made up of a few trees, was comparatively easy of assault. In the centre, the idol of the army, the brave Montcalm, brought up his most reliable and chivalric troops, consisting of Royal Roussellon and other sharp-shooters; and the position, it is said, he did not change during the entire seige. To this day the spot is plainly identified. being but ninety yards north of the travelled road, just a few yards in the rear of the old lines.

On the right, M. de Levi, held his command, consisting of the regiments, La Reine, Bearne, and Guienne; while the left was occupied by M. de Bourlemaque, commanding other strong forces, determined, as he said, to avenge his defeat in the woods on the sixth; and the provincials, Canadian militia and Indians, were stationed within and behind those military works which then flanked the strongest part of the lines, and which show now, though in ruins, the extensive fortifications on the plain. They were designed to mount powerful batteries, and will interest the visitor while they last, and the history of this affair is not forgotten. But the most formidable auxiliary to the defences of the French, was an immense forest of oak-trees felled in front of the lines for one hundred yards, the branches sharpened and pointing outward. This, together with the natural slope of the ground, from the works all the way to the now approaching English army, was regarded as an impassable barrier to its advance upon the breast-work. The primitive growth of the oak forests at that time, and its denseness on that peninsula, can scarcely be imagined. But the French army was composed of men suited to the times—they were woodsmen as well as soldiers;

and no military barricade, so much the birth of instant exigencies, in our country has equalled it, save perhaps the cotton bales at New Orleans.

The English army having advanced to within half a mile of the entrenchments, orders were passed, and the positions of the vast force defined. On the left, the American rangers; in the centre, the batteaumen of Bradstreet; on the right, the light infantry, to no more than three yards distance from the breast-work, and in a line; and in the rear of these on the left, the first battalion of the New-York regiment; and on the right, the six Massachusetts regiments. These were to support the regiments of the regulars in case they should be forced to retire, and they were to be reinforced by the Connecticut and New-Jersey troops bringing up the whole. The provincials near and outside the breast-work extended on either side from Lake Champlain to Lake George outlet, excepting a space directly in front of Montcalm. This was reserved open for the ready march of the regulars for the storming of this the strongest position.

A lieutenant of the New-Hampshire rangers led the advance guard, when, being met by a body in ambush, within three hundred yards of the entrenchments, and fired upon, he halted and made a return, which for a moment disordered the order of the columns. Rogers, with the advancing rangers, immediately forming a front, maintained the ground, while the army was marching up to their positions. So far the fire of the French had not killed one man. Aware of the disorder which another discharge would create, the French again made a scathing fire without the breast-work. Impetuous and regardless of orders, the rangers diverged, and instead of taking the position contemplated in their orders, commenced firing on the enemy on the right. By this means Colonel Delancy's New-York force, which was to have taken post in the rear, was surprised by the French, and suffered their fire for nearly an hour with some loss, when the enemy were driven within their breast-work. This skirmishing and bush-fighting continued from halfpast ten till nearly one o'clock, the places of action changing but little in the time.

The formidable defences were now distinctly revealed to the English army; they saw the abattis of felled trees, and the breast-work of earth, nine feet in height; and in one account of the affair, the narrator says, 'the Indians all went off.' The battery commenced its destructive fire on the centre of the army, and at one o'clock, under the most scorching rays of the July sun, the order was given for the attack by the regulars. They were directed on their peril, not to fire till they were within the breast-work; the grenadiers, with unfaltering steps, led the way; and invincible only by fatal shots, they steadily marched up to the tangled abattis; and then, their shattered columns, fearfully thinned, pressed onward, unfaltering, through the one hundred yards of felled trees, to the trenches in front of the breast-work, which they found to be nearly twenty feet wide. They were closely followed by the fifty-fifth regiment Lord Howe's, which had been so faithfully trained by him-considered the flower of the British army, and—following others of the regulars—one battalion of the Royal Americans.