e of
this country that they could have taken all Canada if they had not been
prevented by the King's servants." Winslow tried to console himself for
the failure of the campaign, and wrote in his odd English to Shirley:
"Am sorry that this years' performance has not succeeded as was
intended; have only to say I pushed things to the utmost of my power to
have been sooner in motion, which was the only thing that should have
carried us to Crown Point; and though I am sensible that we are doing
our duty in acting on the defensive, yet it makes no _eclate_ [_sic_],
and answers to little purpose in the eyes of my constituents."

On the first of the month the French began to move off towards Canada,
and before many days Ticonderoga was left in the keeping of five or six
companies.[464] Winslow's men followed their example. Major Eyre, with
four hundred regulars, took possession of Fort William Henry, and the
provincials marched for home, their ranks thinned by camp diseases and
small-pox.[465] In Canada the regulars were quartered on the
inhabitants, who took the infliction as a matter of course. In the
English provinces the question was not so simple. Most of the British
troops were assigned to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston; and Loudon
demanded free quarters for them, according to usage then prevailing in
England during war. Nor was the demand in itself unreasonable, seeing
that the troops were sent over to fight the battles of the colonies. In
Philadelphia lodgings were given them in the public-houses, which,
however, could not hold them all. A long dispute followed between the
Governor, who seconded Loudon's demand, and the Assembly, during which
about half the soldiers lay on straw in outhouses and sheds till near
midwinter, many sickening, and some dying from exposure. Loudon grew
furious, and threatened, if shelter were not provided, to send Webb with
another regiment and billet the whole on the inhabitants; on which the
Assembly yielded, and quarters were found.[466]

[Footnote 464: Bougainville, _Journal_. Malartic, _Journal_.]

[Footnote 465: _Letter and Order Books of Winslow. Winslow to Halifax,
30 Dec. 1756._]

[Footnote 466: _Loudon to Denny, 28 Oct. 1756. Colonial Records of Pa_.,
VII. 358-380. _Loudon to Pitt, 10 March, 1757. Notice of Colonel
Bouquet_, in _Pennsylvania Magazine_, III. 124. _The Conduct of a Noble
Commander in America impartially reviewed_ (1758).]

In New York the privates were quarter