le, Montcalm and his men h

wept by the river which the British had been trying to follow, and which here, its rapids passed, disembogues in a smooth strong flood. It stood high, too, over th

ghter, posted with the regiments of La Reine, Béarn, and Guienne, and a few Canadian regulars and militia. He himself had bro

and here Montcalm had crossed and taken up his quarters, pushing forward Bourlamaque to guard the upper end of the r

de, Montcalm perceived that the river could not be held; and, having recalled Bourlamaque and broken down the bridges above and belo

. This ridge ran inland, its slope narrowed on either side between the river and the lake by swamps, and approachable only from landward over the col, where it broadened and dipped to the foothills. Here, at the entrance to the ridge, and half a mile from his fort, he commanded his men to throw up an entrenchment and cut down trees; and while the sappers fell to work he traced out the lines of a rude star-fort, with curtains

watching it with Montcalm, shook his head, hunched his shoulders, and jerked a thumb t

isk it. Those English Gen

cannon

or what his soldiers won't. Pile the trees higher, my braves-more than breast-high- mountain-high

n, I would still re

I feel sure that notion will exclude all others. We sha

long breath and emitte

orbid! I once imagined myself in his predecessor's place, the Earl of Loudon

at might pass for his adversary's mind, he hoped to snatch a success against odds. But what avails it to administer drubbings which but leave your foe the more stubbornly aggressive? British Generals blundered; but always the British armies came on. War had been declared three years ago; actually it had laste

mon sense after the loss of a precious day, was now resolved to try the short and beaten path by which Montcalm had retreated. It formed a four-mil

ly. This seemed to him the way for a young soldier to learn his calling; for the rest, war was a game of valour and would give him his opportunity. Theoretically he knew the uses of artillery, but he was not an artilleryman; nor had he ever felt the temptation to teach his grandmother to suck eggs. His cousin Dick's free comments upon white-headed Generals of division and brigade he let pass with a

m, and he wondered what had provoked the grumbling. A minute later he had forgotten it. The column crawled forward sulkily. The shadow of Howe's loss lay heavy on it, and a sense that his life had been flung away

r a long while awake and staring up at the high eastern ridges, black as ink against the radiance of a climbing moon. In the intervals of hammering, the swirl of the river kept tune in his ears with the whir-r-r of a saw in the rear of the mill, slicing up the last planks for the bridge. There was a mill in the valley at home, and he had heard it a hundred times making just such music with the stream that ran down from Dartmoor and past Cleeve Court. His thoug

and overruling Power, at any rate. A Power that had made the mountains yonder? Yes, he supposed so. A loving Power-an intimate counsellor-a Father attending all his steps? Well, perhaps; and if so, a Father to be answered with all a man's love: but, before answering, he honestly needed more assurance. As for another world and a continuing life there, should he happen to fall to-morrow, John searched his heart and decided that he asked for nothing of the sort. Such promises struck him as unworthy bribes, belittling the sacrifice he came prepared to make. He despised men who bargained with them. Here was he, young, abounding in life, ready to risk extinction. Why?