Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/263

] was exhausted  and as Webb gave no relief, Monro was compelled to surrender. The garrison was to be allowed to march out with the honors of war, and they and their baggage to be protected as far as Fort Edward. The Indian allies with Montcalm were greatly displeased at these terms, and greedy of the plunder, they fell upon the unarmed and retreating troops. It must always remain doubtful how far Montcalm was able or willing to restrain the savages in their detestable act of treachery, when hundreds fell victims to the fury of the red men. "The fort," says Israel Putnam, in speaking of this dreadful scene, "was entirely demolished, the barracks, and outhouses, and buildings, were a heap of ruins; the cannon, stores, boats, and vessels, were all carried away. The fires were still burning; the smoke and stench offensive and suffocating. Innumerable fragments, human skulls, and bones, and carcasses, half consumed, were still frying and broiling in the decaying fires. Dead bodies, mangled with scalping knives and tomahawks, in all the wantonness of Indian fierceness and barbarity, were everywhere to be seen. More than one hundred women, butchered, and shockingly mangled, lay upon the ground, still weltering in their gore. Devastation, barbarity, and horror, everywhere appeared, and the spectacle presented was too diabolical and awful either to be endured or described." The fall of Fort William Henry caused great alarm in the colonies. Twenty thousand militia were ordered out in Massachusetts; but Montcalm, satisfied with his present success, retired to Canada without further trial of strength with his enemies.

Thus, after three campaigns, and large efforts on the part of the colonists, the French were still masters. Louisburg, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, Frontenac, and Niagara, and the chain of posts thence to the Ohio, were still in their hands. They had destroyed the forts at Oswego, and, compelling the Six Nations to neutrality, were able to keep up a devastating warfare all along the frontiers. No wonder that discontent prevailed everywhere; no wonder that it was deemed high time for new counsels, and more vigorous measures to be adopted.

It was at this time that William Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, was called, more through popular urgency, than from any liking of George II., to the entire control of foreign and colonial affairs. Conscious that he, if any man, was able to save the country, his measures were characterized with a vigor commensurate with the necessity, while the agents appointed to carry them into execution were selected with wise discrimination. His plans for the conquest of Canada infused new life into the colonists, and as they were besides to be repaid for the expense of their levies, large forces of provincials were very soon collected, while, by the arrival of fresh