1758.] ATTACK ON TICONDEROGA. 123 



street. These achievements were counterbalanced 

 by a great disaster. Lord Abercrombie, with an 

 army of sixteen thousand men, advanced to the 

 head of Lake George, the place made memorable 

 by Dieskau's defeat and the loss of Fort William 

 Henry. On a brilliant July morning, he embarked 

 his whole force for an attack on Ticonderoga. 

 Many of those present have recorded with admi- 

 ration the beauty of the spectacle, the lines of 

 boats filled with troops stretching far down the 

 lake, the flashing of oars, the glitter of weapons, 

 and the music ringing back from crags and rocks, 

 or dying in mellowed strains among the distant 

 mountains. At night, the army landed, and, driv- 

 ing in the French outposts, marched through the 

 woods towards Ticonderoga. One of their col- 

 umns, losing its way in the forest, fell in with a 

 body of the retreating French ; and in the conflict 

 that ensued, Lord Howe, the favorite of the army, 

 was shot dead. On the eighth of July, they pre- 

 pared to storm the lines which Montcalm had 

 drawn across the peninsula in front of the fortress. 

 Advancing to the attack, they saw before them a 

 breastwork of uncommon height and thickness. 

 The French army were drawn up behind it, their 

 heads alone visible, as they levelled their muskets 

 against the assailants, while, for a hundred yards in 

 front of the work, the ground was covered with 

 felled trees, with sharpened branches pointing out- 

 ward. The signal of assault was given. In vain 

 the Highlanders, screaming with rage, hewed with 

 their broadswords among the branches, struggling 



