n building or in
reducing them. But he had two very good reasons for pausing before
Fort Amitie; he did not know the strength of its defenders, and he
wanted pilots to guide his boats down the rapids below.

Therefore he landed and sent an officer forward to summon the
garrison.

The officer presented himself at the river-gate, and having politely
suffered Sergeant Bedard to blindfold him, was led to the
Commandant's quarters. A good hour passed before he reappeared, the
Commandant himself conducting him; and meantime the garrison amused
itself with wagering on the terms of capitulation.

At the gate the Englishman's bandage was removed. He saluted, and
was saluted, with extreme ceremony. The Commandant watched him out
of earshot, and then, rubbing his hands, turned with a happy smile.

"To your guns, my children!"

They obeyed him, while they wondered. He seemed to take for granted
that they must feel the compliment paid them by a siege in form.

The day was now well advanced, and it seemed at first
that the British meant to let it pass without a demonstration.
Toward nightfall, however, four gunboats descended the river,
anchored and dropped down the current, paying out their hawsers and
feeling their way into range. But the Fort was ready for them,
and opened fire before they could train their guns; a lucky shot
cut the moorings of one clean and close by the stem; and, the
current carrying her inshore, she was hulled twice as she drifted
down-stream. The other three essayed a few shots without effect in
the dusk, warped back out of range, and waited for daylight to
improve their marksmanship.

And with daylight began one of the strangest of sieges, between an
assailant who knew only that he had to deal with stout walls, and a
defender who dared not attempt even a show of a sortie for fear of
exposing the weakness of his garrison. The French had ammunition
enough to last for a month, and cannon enough to keep two hundred men
busy; and ran from one gun to another, keeping up pretences but doing
little damage in their hurry. Their lucky opening shots had
impressed Amherst, and he was one to cling to a notion of his enemy's
strength. He solemnly effected a new landing at six hundred yards'
distance, opened his lines across the north-western corner of the
fort, kept his men entrenching for two days and two nights, brought
up thirty guns, and, advancing them within two hundred yards, began
at his leisur