hot;
"je deteste ces fripons-la; on ne sait jamais sur quel pie on est avec
eux. Eh, bien! monsieur," he continued still speaking in French; "though
I should have been proud of receiving your commandant, I am very happy
that he has seen proper to employ an officer so distinguished, and who,
I am sure, is so amiable, as yourself."

Duncan bowed low, pleased with the compliment, in spite of a most heroic
determination to suffer no artifice to allure him into forgetfulness of
the interest of his prince; and Montcalm, after a pause of a moment, as
if to collect his thoughts, proceeded:

"Your commandant is a brave man, and well qualified to repel my
assault. Mais, monsieur, is it not time to begin to take more counsel
of humanity, and less of your courage? The one as strongly characterizes
the hero as the other."

"We consider the qualities as inseparable," returned Duncan, smiling;
"but while we find in the vigor of your excellency every motive to
stimulate the one, we can, as yet, see no particular call for the
exercise of the other."

Montcalm, in his turn, slightly bowed, but it was with the air of a
man too practised to remember the language of flattery. After musing a
moment, he added:

"It is possible my glasses have deceived me, and that your works resist
our cannon better than I had supposed. You know our force?"

"Our accounts vary," said Duncan, carelessly; "the highest, however, has
not exceeded twenty thousand men."

The Frenchman bit his lip, and fastened his eyes keenly on the other as
if to read his thoughts; then, with a readiness peculiar to himself, he
continued, as if assenting to the truth of an enumeration which quite
doubled his army:

"It is a poor compliment to the vigilance of us soldiers, monsieur,
that, do what we will, we never can conceal our numbers. If it were
to be done at all, one would believe it might succeed in these woods.
Though you think it too soon to listen to the calls of humanity," he
added, smiling archly, "I may be permitted to believe that gallantry
is not forgotten by one so young as yourself. The daughters of the
commandant, I learn, have passed into the fort since it was invested?"

"It is true, monsieur; but, so far from weakening our efforts, they
set us an example of courage in their own fortitude. Were nothing
but resolution necessary to repel so accomplished a soldier as M. de
Montcalm, I would gladly trust the defense of William Henry to the elder
of those