bany, a small
detachment being left to hold the fort by the lake. This was now
christened Fort William Henry.

The victory was due principally to the gallantry and coolness of Lyman;
but Johnson, in his report of the battle, made no mention of that
officer's name, and took all the credit to himself. He was rewarded by
being made a baronet, and by being voted a pension, by parliament, of
five thousand a year.

James Walsham, having no duties during the fight at the camp, had taken
a musket and lain down behind the logs with the soldiers, and had, all
the afternoon, kept up a fire at the trees and bushes behind which the
enemy were hiding. After the battle, he had volunteered to assist the
over-worked surgeons, whose labours lasted through the night. When he
found that no forward movement was likely to take place, he determined
to leave the camp. He therefore asked Captain Rogers, who was the
leader of a band of scouts, and a man of extraordinary energy and
enterprise, to allow him to accompany him on a scouting expedition
towards Ticonderoga.

"I shall be glad to have you with me," Rogers replied; "but you know it
is a service of danger. It is not like work with regular troops, where
all march, fight, stand, or fall together. Here each man fights for
himself. Mind, there is not a man among my band who would not risk his
life for the rest; but, scattered through the woods as each man is,
each must perforce rely principally on himself. The woods near
Ticonderoga will be full of lurking redskins, and a man may be brained
and scalped without his fellow, a few yards away, hearing a sound. I
only say this that you may feel that you must take your chances. The
men under me are, every one, old hunters and Indian fighters, and are a
match for the redskin in every move of forest war. They are true grit
to the backbone, but they are rough outspoken men, and, on a service
when a foot carelessly placed on a dried twig, or a word spoken above a
whisper, may bring a crowd of yelping redskins upon us, and cost every
man his scalp, they would speak sharply to the king himself, if he were
on the scout with them, and you must not take offence at any rough word
that may be said."

James laughed, and said that he should not care how much he was blown
up, and that he should thankfully receive any lessons from such masters
of forest craft.

"Very well," Captain Rogers said. "In that case, it is settled. I will
let you have a pair of moc