Schuyler hastened back to
Ticonderoga. Before he reached there, Montgomery had received
intelligence that Carleton had completed his armed vessels at St.
Johns, and was about to send them into Lake Champlain by the Sorel
River. No time, therefore, was to be lost in getting possession of the
Isle aux Noix, which commanded the entrance to that river. Montgomery
hastened, therefore, to embark with about a thousand men, which were
as many as the boats now ready could hold, taking with him two pieces
of artillery; with this force he set off down the lake. A letter to
General Schuyler explained the cause of his sudden departure, and
entreated him to follow on in a whale-boat, leaving the residue of the
artillery to come on as soon as conveyances could be procured.

Schuyler arrived at Ticonderoga on the night of the 30th of August,
but too ill of a bilious fever to push on in a whale-boat. He caused,
however, a bed to be prepared for him in a covered bateau, and, ill as
he was, continued forward on the following day. On the 4th of
September he overtook Montgomery at the Isle la Motte, where he had
been detained by contrary weather, and assuming command of the little
army, kept on the same day to the Isle aux Noix, about twelve miles
south of St. Johns.

The siege of Boston had been kept up for several weeks without any
remarkable occurrence. The British remained within their lines,
diligently strengthening them; the besiegers having received further
supplies of ammunition, were growing impatient of a state of
inactivity. Towards the latter part of August there were rumors from
Boston that the enemy were preparing for a sortie. Washington was
resolved to provoke it by a kind of challenge. He accordingly detached
fourteen hundred men to seize at night upon a height within musket
shot of the enemy's line on Charlestown Neck, presuming that the
latter would sally forth on the following day to dispute possession of
it, and thus be drawn into a general battle. The task was executed
with silence and celerity, and by daybreak the hill presented to the
astonished foe the aspect of a fortified post.

The challenge was not accepted. The British opened a heavy cannonade
from Bunker's Hill, but kept within their works. The Americans, scant
of ammunition, could only reply with a single nine-pounder; this
however sank one of the floating batteries which guarded the neck. The
evident unwillingness of the British to come forth was perplexi