fternoon they reached the
place where the Indians, having finished their rattlesnake hunt, were
smoking their pipes and waiting for the army. The red warriors embarked,
and joined the French flotilla; and now, as evening drew near, was seen
one of those wild pageantries of war which Lake George has often
witnessed. A restless multitude of birch canoes, filled with painted
savages, glided by shores and islands, like troops of swimming
water-fowl. Two hundred and fifty bateaux came next, moved by sail and
oar, some bearing the Canadian militia, and some the battalions of Old
France in trim and gay attire: first, La Reine and Languedoc; then the
colony regulars; then La Sarre and Guienne; then the Canadian brigade of
Courtemanche; then the cannon and mortars, each on a platform sustained
by two bateaux lashed side by side, and rowed by the militia of
Saint-Ours; then the battalions of Bearn and Royal Roussillon; then the
Canadians of Gaspe, with the provision-bateaux and the field-hospital;
and, lastly, a rear guard of regulars closed the line. So, under the
flush of sunset, they held their course along the romantic lake, to play
their part in the historic drama that lends a stern enchantment to its
fascinating scenery. They passed the Narrows in mist and darkness; and
when, a little before dawn, they rounded the high promontory of Tongue
Mountain, they saw, far on the right, three fiery sparks shining through
the gloom. These were the signal-fires of Levis, to tell them that he
had reached the appointed spot.[505]

[Footnote 504: _Etat de l'Armee Francaise devant le Fort George,
autrement Guillaume-Henri, le 3 Aout, 1757. Tableau des Sauvages qui se
trouvent a l'Armee du Marquis de Montcalm, le 28 Juillet, 1757_. This
gives a total of 1,799 Indians, of whom some afterwards left the army.
_Etat de l'Armee du Roi en Canada, sur le Lac St. Sacrement et dans les
Camps de Carillon, le 29 Juillet, 1757_. This gives a total of 8,019
men, of whom about four hundred were left in garrison at Ticonderoga.]

[Footnote 505: The site of the present village of Bolton.]

Levis had arrived the evening before, after his hard march through the
sultry midsummer forest. His men had now rested for a night, and at ten
in the morning he marched again. Montcalm followed at noon, and coasted
the western shore, till, towards evening, he found Levis waiting for him
by the margin of a small bay not far from the English fort, though
hidden from it b