[539]
[Footnote 539: Bougainville, _Journal. Montcalm a Mirepoix, 20 Avril,
1758_. Levis, _Journal de la Guerre du Canada_.]
The prospects of the next campaign began to open. Captain Pouchot had
written from Niagara that three thousand savages were waiting to be let
loose against the English borders. "What a scourge!" exclaims
Bougainville. "Humanity groans at being forced to use such monsters.
What can be done against an invisible enemy, who strikes and vanishes,
swift as the lightning? It is the destroying angel." Captain Hebecourt
kept watch and ward at Ticonderoga, begirt with snow and ice, and much
plagued by English rangers, who sometimes got into the ditch
itself.[540] This was to reconnoitre the place in preparation for a
winter attack which Loudon had planned, but which, like the rest of his
schemes, fell to the ground.[541] Towards midwinter a band of these
intruders captured two soldiers and butchered some fifteen cattle close
to the fort, leaving tied to the horns of one of them a note addressed
to the commandant in these terms: "I am obliged to you, sir, for the
rest you have allowed me to take and the fresh meat you have sent me. I
shall take good care of my prisoners. My compliments to the Marquis of
Montcalm." Signed, Rogers.[542]
[Footnote 540: _Montcalm a Bourlamaque, 28 Mars, 1758_.]
[Footnote 541: _Loudon to Pitt, 14 Feb. 1758_.]
[Footnote 542: _Journal de ce qui s'est passe en Canada, 1757, 1758_.
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