The Public
Record Office, _America and West Indies_, has also furnished much
material, including the official letters of Forbes. The _Writings of
Washington_, the _Archives_ and _Colonial Records_ of Pennsylvania, and
the magazines and newspapers of the time may be mentioned among the
sources of information, along with a variety of miscellaneous
contemporary letters. The Journals of Christian Frederic Post are
printed in full in the _Olden Time_ and elsewhere.
Chapter 23
1758, 1759
The Brink of Ruin
"Never was general in a more critical position than I was: God has
delivered me; his be the praise! He gives me health, though I am worn
out with labor, fatigue, and miserable dissensions that have determined
me to ask for my recall. Heaven grant that I may get it!"
Thus wrote Montcalm to his mother after his triumph at Ticonderoga. That
great exploit had entailed a train of vexations, for it stirred the envy
of Vaudreuil, more especially as it was due to the troops of the line,
with no help from Indians, and very little from Canadians. The Governor
assured the Colonial Minister that the victory would have bad results,
though he gives no hint what these might be; that Montcalm had
mismanaged the whole affair; that he would have been beaten but for the
manifest interposition of Heaven;[670] and, finally, that he had failed
to follow his (Vaudreuil's) directions, and had therefore enabled the
English to escape.
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