was a splendid
comrade and Ranger, full of courage, the hardiest of the hardy,
never failing in spirits whatever were the hardships of the life,
and showing such aptitude for generalship and command that already
he had made his mark amongst the hardy Rangers, and was entrusted
with enterprises of difficulty and danger.

It was not much that could be done against the foe with the
inclement winter season approaching. The snow fell early. The
Canadians and regulars had gone into winter quarters; but there was
still a garrison in Ticonderoga, and to harass and despoil that
garrison was the pastime of the Rangers. They stole beneath the
walls upon the frozen lake. They carried off cattle, and made
banquets off their carcasses. If they could not do with all the
meat themselves, they would leave the carcasses at the foot of the
walls, sometimes with mocking letters attached to the horns.

Thus, after a more than usually successful raid, when they had
taken two prisoners and driven off a number of head of cattle, they
tied to the horns of one of the slain beasts the following words,
written large for all to read.

"I am obliged to you, sir, for the rest you have allowed me to
take, and for the fresh meat you have supplied me with. I shall
take good care of my prisoners. My compliments to the Marquis de
Montcalm.

"--(Signed)

"ROGERS."

But in spite of these successful raids, a misfortune was in store
for the gallant Rangers in the early spring which broke up and
scattered their band for that season, and spread throughout the
district the false report of Rogers' death.

Captain Hebecourt was commanding the French at Ticonderoga, and in
March he received large reinforcements of Canadians and Indians,
and the latter instantly detected recent marks of snowshoes in the
vicinity betraying the neighbourhood of white men. An attack was
therefore organized to try to rid the place of the pestilent
Rangers, as the French called them; whilst, as it so happened, the
Rangers had no knowledge of the reinforcements which had come in to
the fort.

Rogers' fault was ever a daring rashness, and when one day he and
his little band saw the advance of a party of Indians, he drew his
men under cover and greeted them with a hot and fatal fire.

But this was only the advance guard. Unknown and unguessed at by
Rogers, the large body behind was approaching, and the next moment
the whole place was echoing with triumphant yells, as the purs