ric or
Crown Point, where all was activity and bustle, and reached Ticonderoga
at the end of June. They found the fort, on which Lotbiniere had been at
work all winter, advanced towards completion. It stood on the crown of
the promontory, and was a square with four bastions, a ditch, blown in
some parts out of the solid rock, bomb-proofs, barracks of stone, and a
system of exterior defences as yet only begun. The rampart consisted of
two parallel walls ten feet apart, built of the trunks of trees, and
held together by transverse logs dovetailed at both ends, the space
between being filled with earth and gravel well packed.[383] Such was
the first Fort Ticonderoga, or Carillon,--a structure quite distinct
from the later fort of which the ruins still stand on the same spot. The
forest had been hewn away for some distance around, and the tents of the
regulars and huts of the Canadians had taken its place; innumerable bark
canoes lay along the strand, and gangs of men toiled at the unfinished
works.

[Footnote 382: _Montcalm au Ministre, 26 Juin, 1756. Detail de ce qui
s'est passe, Oct. 1755 Juin, 1756._]

[Footnote 383: _Lotbiniere au Ministre, 31 Oct. 1756. Montcalm au
Ministre, 20 Juillet, 1756._]

Ticonderoga was now the most advanced position of the French, and Crown
Point, which had before held that perilous honor, was in the second
line. Levis, to whom had been assigned the permanent command of this
post of danger, set out on foot to explore the neighboring woods and
mountains, and slept out several nights before he reappeared at the
camp. "I do not think," says Montcalm, "that many high officers in
Europe would have occasion to take such tramps as this. I cannot speak
too well of him. Without being a man of brilliant parts, he has good
experience, good sense, and a quick eye; and, though I had served with
him before, I never should have thought that he had such promptness and
efficiency. He has turned his campaigns to good account."[384] Levis
writes of his chief with equal warmth. "I do not know if the Marquis de
Montcalm is pleased with me, but I am sure that I am very much so with
him, and shall always be charmed to serve under his orders. It is not
for me, Monseigneur, to speak to you of his merit and his talents. You
know him better than anybody else; but I may have the honor of assuring
you that he has pleased everybody in this colony, and manages affairs
with the Indians extremely well."[385]

[Footnote