. It so far deepened the stain which a previous and very similar event had left upon the reputation
of the French commander that it was not entirely erased by his early and glorious death. It is now becoming
obscured by time; and thousands, who know that Montcalm died like a hero on the plains of Abraham,
have yet to learn how much he was deficient in that moral courage without which no man can be truly
great. Pages might be written to prove, from this illustrious example, the defects of human excellence; to
show how easy it is for generous sentiments, high courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influence
beneath the chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the minor
attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it became necessary to prove how much principle
is superior to policy. But the task would exceed our prerogatives; and, as history, like love, is so apt to
surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness, it is probable that Louis de Saint Vèran
will be viewed by posterity only as the gallant defender of his country, while his cruel apathy on the shores
of the Oswego and of the Horican will be forgotten. Deeply regretting this weakness on the part of a
sister muse, we shall at once retire from her sacred precincts, within the proper limits of our own humble
vocation. The third day from the capture of the fort was drawing to a close, but the business of the narrative must
still detain the reader on the shores of the holy lake. When last seen, the environs of the works were
filled with violence and uproar. They were now possessed by stillness and death. The blood-stained
conquerors had departed; and their camp, which had so lately rung with the merry rejoicings of a victorious
army, lay a silent and deserted city of huts. The fortress was a smoldering ruin; charred rafters, fragments
of exploded artillery, and rent mason-work covering its earthen mounds in confused disorder.
A frightful change had also occurred in the season. The sun had hid its warmth behind an impenetrable
mass of vapor, and hundreds of human forms, which had blackened beneath the fierce heats of August,
were stiffening in their deformity before the blasts of a premature November. The curling and spotless
mists, which had been seen sailing above the hills toward the north, were now returning in an interminable
dusky sheet, that was urged along by the fury of a tempest. The crowded mirror of the Horican was
gone; and, in its place, the green and angry waters lashed the shores, as if indignantly casting back
its impurities to the polluted strand. Still the clear fountain retained a portion of its charmed influence,
but it reflected only the somber gloom that fell from the impending heavens. That humid and congenial
atmosphere which commonly adorned the view, veiling its harshness, and softening its asperities, had
disappeared, the northern air poured across the waste of water so harsh and unmingled, that nothing
was left to be conjectured by the eye, or fashioned by the fancy.
The fiercer element had cropped the verdure of the plain, which looked as though it were scathed by
the consuming lightning. But, here and there, a dark green tuft rose in the midst of the desolation; the
earliest fruits of a soil that had been fattened with human blood. The whole landscape, which, seen by
a favoring light, and in a genial temperature, had been found so lovely, appeared now like some pictured
allegory of life, in which objects were arrayed in their harshest but truest colors, and without the relief of
any shadowing.
The solitary and arid blades of grass arose from the passing gusts fearfully perceptible; the bold and
rocky mountains were too distinct in their barrenness, and the eye even sought relief, in vain, by attempting
to pierce the illimitable void of heaven, which was shut to its gaze by the dusky sheet of ragged and
driving vapor.
The wind blew unequally; sometimes sweeping heavily along the ground, seeming to whisper its moanings
in the cold ears of the dead, then rising in a shrill and mournful whistling, it entered the forest with a
rush that filled the air with the leaves and branches it scattered in its path. Amid the unnatural shower, a