in their boats, and that a match was burning
in the magazine to blow Ticonderoga to atoms. Amherst offered a hundred
guineas to any one of them who would point out the match, that it might
be cut; but they shrank from the perilous venture. All was silent till
eleven o'clock, when a broad, fierce glare burst on the night, and a
roaring explosion shook the promontory; then came a few breathless
moments, and then the fragments of Fort Ticonderoga fell with clatter
and splash on the water and the land. It was but one bastion, however,
that had been thus hurled skyward. The rest of the fort was little
hurt, though the barracks and other combustible parts were set on fire,
and by the light the French flag was seen still waving on the
rampart.[727] A sergeant of the light infantry, braving the risk of
other explosions, went and brought it off. Thus did this redoubted
stronghold of France fall at last into English hands, as in all
likelihood it would have done a year sooner, if Amherst had commanded in
Abercromby's place; for, with the deliberation that marked all his
proceedings, he would have sat down before Montcalm's wooden wall and
knocked it to splinters with his cannon.

[Footnote 727: _Journal of Colonel Amherst_ (brother of General
Amherst). _Vaudreuil au Ministre, 8 Nov. 1759. Amherst to Prideaux, 28
July, 1759. Amherst to Pitt, 27 July, 1759_. Mante, 213. Knox, I.,
397-403. _Vaudreuil a Bourlamaque, 19 Juin, 1759_.]

He now set about repairing the damaged works and making ready to advance
on Crown Point; when on the first of August his scouts told him that the
enemy had abandoned this place also, and retreated northward down the
lake.[728] Well pleased, he took possession of the deserted fort, and,
in the animation of success, thought for a moment of keeping the promise
he had given to Pitt "to make an irruption into Canada with the utmost
vigor and despatch."[729] Wolfe, his brother in arms and his friend, was
battling with the impossible under the rocks of Quebec, and every
motive, public and private, impelled Amherst to push to his relief, not
counting costs, or balancing risks too nicely. He was ready enough to
spur on others, for he wrote to Gage: "We must all be alert and active
day and night; if we all do our parts the French must fall;"[730] but,
far from doing his, he set the army to building a new fort at Crown
Point, telling them that it would "give plenty, peace, and quiet to His
Majesty's subjects for