dispensable for his vigor and
executive skill; Bougainville, who had disarmed the jealousy of
Vaudreuil, and now stood high in his good graces; and the
Adjutant-General, Montreuil, clearly a vain and pragmatic personage,
who, having come to Canada with Dieskau the year before, thought it
behooved him to give the General the advantage of his experience. "I
like M. de Montcalm very much," he writes to the minister, "and will do
the impossible to deserve his confidence. I have spoken to him in the
same terms as to M. Dieskau; thus: 'Trust only the French regulars for
an expedition, but use the Canadians and Indians to harass the enemy.
Don't expose yourself; send me to carry your orders to points of
danger.' The colony officers do not like those from France. The
Canadians are independent, spiteful, lying, boastful; very good for
skirmishing, very brave behind a tree, and very timid when not under
cover. I think both sides will stand on the defensive. It does not seem
to me that M. de Montcalm means to attack the enemy; and I think he is
right. In this country a thousand men could stop three thousand."[379]

[Footnote 378: _Correspondance de Montcalm, Vaudreuil, et Levis._]

[Footnote 379: _Montreuil au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756_. The original is
in cipher.] "M. de Vaudreuil overwhelms me with civilities," Montcalm
writes to the Minister of War. "I think that he is pleased with my
conduct towards him, and that it persuades him there are general
officers in France who can act under his orders without prejudice or
ill-humor."[380] "I am on good terms with him," he says again; "but not
in his confidence, which he never gives to anybody from France. His
intentions are good, but he is slow and irresolute."[381]

[Footnote 380: _Montcalm au Ministre, 12 Juin, 1756._]

[Footnote 381: _Ibid., 19 Juin, 1756._ "Je suis bien avec luy, sans sa
confiance, qu'il ne donne jamais a personne de la France." Erroneously
rendered in _N.Y. Col. Docs._, X. 421.]

Indians presently brought word that ten thousand English were coming to
attack Ticonderoga. A reinforcement of colony regulars was at once
despatched to join the two battalions already there; a third battalion,
Royal Roussillon, was sent after them. The militia were called out and
ordered to follow with all speed, while both Montcalm and Levis hastened
to the supposed scene of danger.[382] They embarked in canoes on the
Richelieu, coasted the shore of Lake Champlain, passed Fort Frede