this fort, guarding the route to Lake George, he could easily
reach the Hudson.

In command at Fort Ticonderoga was General St. Clair, with about
thirty-five hundred men. He had long notice of the siege, for the
expedition of Burgoyne had been the open talk of Montreal and the
surrounding country during many months. He had built Fort Independence,
on the east shore of Lake Champlain, and with a great expenditure of
labor had sunk twenty-two piers across the lake and stretched in front
of them a boom to protect the two forts. But he had neglected to defend
Sugar Hill in front of Fort Ticonderoga, and commanding the American
works. It took only three or four days for the British to drag cannon to
the top, erect a battery and prepare to open fire. On the 5th of July,
St. Clair had to face a bitter necessity. He abandoned the untenable
forts and retired southward to Fort Edward by way of the difficult Green
Mountains. The British took one hundred and twenty-eight guns.

These successes led the British to think that within a few days they
would be in Albany. We have an amusing picture of the effect on George
III of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. The place had been much discussed.
It had been the first British fort to fall to the Americans when the
Revolution began, and Carleton's failure to take it in the autumn of
1776 had been the cause of acute heartburning in London. Now, when the
news of its fall reached England, George III burst into the Queen's
room with the glad cry, "I have beat them, I have beat the Americans."
Washington's depression was not as great as the King's elation; he had
a better sense of values; but he had intended that the fort should hold
Burgoyne, and its fall was a disastrous blow. The Americans showed skill
and good soldierly quality in the retreat from Ticonderoga, and Burgoyne
in following and harassing them was led into hard fighting in the woods.
The easier route by way of Lake George was open but Burgoyne hoped to
destroy his enemy by direct pursuit through the forest. It took him
twenty days to hew his way twenty miles, to the upper waters of
the Hudson near Fort Edward. When there on the 30th of July he had
communications open from the Hudson to the St. Lawrence.

Fortune seemed to smile on Burgoyne. He had taken many guns and he had
proved the fighting quality of his men. But his cheerful elation had, in
truth, no sound basis. Never during the two and a half months of bitter
struggle which