t himself,
and by all possible means to avoid a battle. But instead of conducting
the expedition with silence and circumspection, he marched along in so
open and boisterous a manner as made it appear he meant to give the
enemy timely notice of his coming, and bully him into an attack even
while yet on the way. The French, keeping themselves well-informed by
their spies of his every movement, suffered him to approach almost to
their very gates without molestation. When he got in the neighborhood of
the fort, he posted himself on a hill overlooking it, and began throwing
up intrenchments in full view of the garrison. As if all this were not
imprudence enough, and as if bent on provoking the enemy to come out and
give him battle on the instant, whether or no, he sent down a party of
observation to spy out yet more narrowly the inside plan and defences of
the fort, who were suffered not only to do this, but even to burn a
house just outside the walls, and then return to their intrenchments
without a hostile sign betokening the unseen foe so silent, yet
watchful, within.

"Early the next morning, as if to give the enemy warning of the
threatened danger, the drums of the regulars beat the _reveille_, and
the bag-pipes of the Highlanders woke the forest-echoes far and wide
with their wild and shrilly din."

During all this time there was silence in the fort, and no sign of the
enemy anywhere around.

"No enemy is here; they have fled before us," said Major Grant to
General Forbes. "The English regulars have frightened them out of their
wits, and they have taken leg-bail."

"An illustration of the old adage, 'discretion is the better part of
valor,'" answered Forbes.

"And these are the heroic French and terrible savages of which that
young American colonel tells so much!" continued Major Grant in a
derisive manner. "All I regret is, that they did not stay to fight."

"It is too serious a joke to fit out this expedition and march through
this wilderness for nothing," added General Forbes. "We ought to have
one chance at the foe, if nothing more."

"Well, I am not disappointed in the least," responded Grant. "All this
talk about the bravery of the French and the savagery of Indians is
buncomb, and that is all. I will raise the English flag over the fort
without a drop of blood being shed. Let me advance with the regulars;
and Captain Lewis, with his Americans, remain behind with the baggage.
We will show you how a fort