The trenches had been pushed
forward until within 250 yards of the fort, and the Indians crept up
almost to the wall on this side.

Two sorties were made--one from the fort, the other from the intrenched
camp; but both were repulsed with loss. More than 300 of the defenders
had been killed and wounded. Smallpox was raging, and the casemates
were crowded with sick. All their large cannon had been burst or
disabled, and only seven small pieces were fit for service. The French
battery in the foremost trench was almost completed, and, when this was
done, the whole of Montcalm's thirty-one cannon and fifteen mortars
would open fire, and, as a breach had already been effected in the
wall, further resistance would have been madness.

On the night of the 8th, it was known in the fort that a council of war
would be held in the morning, and that, undoubtedly, the fort would
surrender.

James, with his company, had, after escorting the cattle to the fort,
crossed the marsh to the intrenched camp, as the fort was already
crowded with troops. The company therefore avoided the horrors of the
siege. When the report circulated that a surrender would probably be
made the next morning, Nat went to James.

"What are you going to do, captain?"

"Do, Nat? Why, I have nothing to do. If Monro and his council decide to
surrender, there is an end of it. You don't propose that our company is
to fight Montcalm's army alone, do you?"

"No, I don't," Nat said, testily; "there has been a deal too much
fighting already. I understand holding out till the last, when there's
a hope of somebody coming to relieve you; but what's the use of
fighting, and getting a lot of your men killed, and raising the blood
of those redskin devils to boiling point? If the colonel had given up
the place at once, we should have saved a loss of 300 men, and Montcalm
would have been glad enough to let us march off to Fort Edward."

"But probably he will agree to let us do that now," James said.

"He may agree," Nat said, contemptuously; "but how about the redskins?
Do you think that, after losing a lot of their braves, they are going
to see us march quietly away, and go home without a scalp? I tell you,
captain, I know redskin nature, and, as sure as the sun rises tomorrow,
there will be a massacre; and I, for one, ain't going to lay down my
rifle, and let the first redskin, as takes a fancy to my scalp,
tomahawk me."

"Well, but what do you propose, Nat?"

"Wel