not prevent him from thinking of the
ludicrous figure he made in the hands of the tawny Philistines.

On the next night, after a painful march, he reached Ticonderoga, where
he was questioned by Montcalm, and afterwards sent to Montreal in charge
of a French officer, who showed him the utmost kindness. On arriving,
wofully tattered, bruised, scorched, and torn, he found a friend in
Colonel Schuyler, himself a prisoner on parole, who helped him in his
need, and through whose good offices the future major-general of the
Continental Army was included in the next exchange of prisoners.[645]

[Footnote 645: On Putnam's adventures, Humphreys, 57 (1818). He had the
story from Putnam himself, and seems to give it with substantial
correctness, though his account of the battle is at several points
erroneous. The "Molang" of his account is Marin. On the battle, besides
authorities already cited, _Recollections of Thomson Maxwell_, a soldier
present (_Essex Institute_, VII. 97). Rogers, _Journals_, 117. Letter
from camp in _Boston Gazette_, no. 117. Another in _New Hampshire
Gazette_, no. 104. _Gentleman's Magazine, 1758_, p. 498. Malartic,
_Journal du Regiment de Bearn_. Levis, _Journal de la Guerre en Canada_.
The French notices of the affair are few and brief. They admit a
defeat, but exaggerate the force and the losses of the English, and
underrate their own. Malartic, however, says that Marin set out with
four hundred men, and was soon after joined by an additional number of
Indians; which nearly answers to the best English accounts.]

The petty victory over Marin was followed by a more substantial success.
Early in September Abercromby's melancholy camp was cheered with the
tidings that the important French post of Fort Frontenac, which
controlled Lake Ontario, which had baffled Shirley in his attempt
against Niagara, and given Montcalm the means of conquering Oswego, had
fallen into British hands. "This is a glorious piece of news, and may
God have all the glory of the same!" writes Chaplain Cleaveland in his
Diary. Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet had planned the stroke long before,
and proposed it first to Loudon, and then to Abercromby. Loudon accepted
it; but his successor received it coldly, though Lord Howe was warm in
its favor. At length, under the pressure of a council of war, Abercromby
consented that the attempt should be made, and gave Bradstreet three
thousand men, nearly all provincials. With these he made his wa