Montcalm struck his next blow at the English on Lake Champlain.
In July, 1757, he had eight thousand men at Ticonderoga, at the northern end of Lake George.Two thousand of these were savages drawn from more than forty different tribes--a lawless horde whom the French could not control.A Jesuit priest saw a party of them squatting round a fire in the French camp roasting meat on the end of sticks and found that the meat was the flesh of an Englishman.English prisoners, sick with horror, were forced to watch this feast.The priest's protest was dismissed with anger:
the savages would follow their own customs; let the French follow theirs.The truth is that the French had been only too successful in drawing the savages to them as allies.They formed now one-quarter of the whole French army.They were of little use as fighters and probably, in the long run, the French would have been better off without them.If, however, Montcalm had caused them to go, Vaudreuil would have made frantic protests, so that Montcalm accepted the necessity of such allies.
Each success, however, brought some new horrors at the hands of the Indians.Montcalm captured Fort William Henry, at the southern end of Lake George, in August, a year after the taking of Oswego.Fort William Henry was the most advanced English post in the direction of Canada.The place had been left weak, for the Earl of Loudoun, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in America, was using his resources for an expedition against Louisbourg, which wholly failed.Colonel Monro, the brave officer in command at Fort William Henry, made a strong defense, but was forced to surrender.The terms were that he should march out with his soldiers and the civilians of the place, and should be escorted in safety to Fort Edward, about eighteen miles to the south.This time the savages surpassed themselves in treachery and savagery.They had formally approved of the terms of surrender, but they attacked the long line of defeated English as they set out on the march, butchered some of their wounded, and seized hundreds of others as prisoners.Montcalm did what he could and even risked his life to check the savages.But some fifty English lay dead and the whole savage horde decamped for Montreal carrying with them two hundred prisoners.
