oudon's diversion towards Louisbourg,
he now resolved upon attacking Fort William Henry, strongly held by
over two thousand English troops. Moving out of his intrenchments at
Carillon, therefore, and supported by Levis and Bougainville, he
advanced up the valley with six thousand soldiers and over a thousand
Indians. Monro, the British commandant, sharply rejected the summons
to surrender, and Montcalm began the investment of the fort.

Fourteen miles away, General Webb lay encamped at Fort Edward with
twenty-six hundred men, and to him Monro sent for assistance. But the
timorous Webb had no stomach for a fight. Huddling behind his
breastworks, he listened to the booming of the fierce cannonade across
the hills, but made no move to save Fort William Henry. Monro, seeing
himself thus abandoned, his powder gone, his ramparts and bastions
shattered by Montcalm's heavy artillery, at length asked for terms.
Surrendering their arms, the garrison marched out with the honours of
war, drums beating; but they also marched into one of the most
shameful disasters recorded in American history.

[Illustration: DE LEVIS]

Frenzied by the protracted siege, and burning with vengeance for
their slain in the trenches, the savage allies of the French burst all
restraint and fell upon the disarmed garrison. In vain Montcalm,
Levis, and Bourlamaque begged, threatened, and even interposed their
own bodies to prevent a massacre. Defenceless men, women, and children
were tomahawked in cold blood, or reserved for more leisurely
torment. Some of the poor fugitives, fleeing at the first war-whoop,
reached Fort Edward through the woods. Four hundred of the captives
were eventually rescued by the French, while the Indians, decamping
after their carnival of blood, carried two hundred wretched victims
back to their lodges. Then followed the work of demolishing Fort
William Henry, and soon its blazing ruins, a funeral pyre for the
slaughtered garrison, lit up the summer night, and cast a lurid flame
soon to kindle the avenging wrath of England.

To these ill-boding events, moreover, the loss of Minorca was now
added, until England at last refused to endure longer the incapacity
of Newcastle, and clamoured for the appointment of Pitt. "England has
long been in labour," commented Frederick of Prussia, "and at last she
has brought forth a man." From that moment the fortune of war was
changed. Corruption and divided counsels no longer paralysed the
go