[501] Its various members bivouacked together
at the camp by the lake, and by their carelessness soon set it on fire;
whence the place became known as the Burned Camp. Those from the
missions confessed their sins all day; while their heathen brothers hung
an old coat and a pair of leggings on a pole as tribute to the Manitou.
This greatly embarrassed the three priests, who were about to say Mass,
but doubted whether they ought to say it in presence of a sacrifice to
the devil. Hereupon they took counsel of Montcalm. "Better say it so
than not at all," replied the military casuist. Brandy being prudently
denied them, the allies grew restless; and the greater part paddled up
the lake to a spot near the place where Parker had been defeated. Here
they encamped to wait the arrival of the army, and amused themselves
meantime with killing rattlesnakes, there being a populous "den" of
those reptiles among the neighboring rocks.
[Footnote 501: Bougainville, _Journal_.]
Montcalm sent a circular letter to the regular officers, urging them to
dispense for a while with luxuries, and even comforts. "We have but few
bateaux, and these are so filled with stores that a large division of
the army must go by land;" and he directed that everything not
absolutely necessary should be left behind, and that a canvas shelter to
every two officers should serve them for a tent, and a bearskin for a
bed. "Yet I do not forbid a mattress," he adds.
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