y could throw an army
into the field which must overpower any the French could mass.

But the weakness of the provinces hitherto had been this lack of
harmony. They would not act in concert. They were forever
disputing, one province with another, and each at home with its
governor. The home ministry sent out men unfit for the work of
command. Military disasters followed one after the other.
Washington and Braddock had both been overthrown in successive
attempts upon Fort Duquesne; and now the English Fort of Oswego,
their outpost at Lake Ontario, was lost through mismanagement and
bad generalship.

Canada owned a centralized government. She could send out her men
by the various routes to the points of vantage where the struggle
lay. England had an enormous border to protect, and no one centre
of operations to work from. She was hampered at every turn by
internal jealousies, and by incompetent commanders. Braddock had
been a good soldier, but he could not understand forest fighting,
and had raged against the Virginian men, who were doing excellent
work firing at the Indians from behind trees, and meeting their
tactics by like ones. Braddock had driven them into rank by beating
them with the flat of his sword, only to see them shot down like
sheep. Blunders such as this had marked the whole course of the
war; and misfortune after misfortune had attended the English arms
upon the mainland, although in Acadia they had been more
successful.

These things Stark and his little band heard from the Dutch of
Albany; they also heard that the English were encamped at the
southern end of Lake George, at Forts Edward and William Henry,
their commander being John Winslow, whose name was becoming known
and respected as that of a brave and humane soldier, who had
carried through a difficult piece of business in Acadia with as
much consideration and kindliness as possible.

Now he was in command of the English force watching the movements
of the French at Ticonderoga; here also were Rogers and his Rangers
to be found. They had marched into Winslow's camp, it was said,
some few months earlier, proffering their services; and there they
had since remained, scouting up and down the lake upon skates or
snowshoes, snatching away prisoners from the Indian allies, or from
the very walls of the fort itself, and intercepting provisions sent
down Lake Champlain for the use of the French.

Details of these escapades on the part of the Ranger