he rangers, who maintained the fight alone till the rest came back
to their senses. Rogers, with his reconnoitring party, and the regiments
of Fitch and Lyman, were at no great distance in front. They all turned
on hearing the musketry, and thus the French were caught between two
fires. They fought with desperation. About fifty of them at length
escaped; a hundred and forty-eight were captured, and the rest killed or
drowned in trying to cross the rapids. The loss of the English was small
in numbers, but immeasurable in the death of Howe. "The fall of this
noble and brave officer," says Rogers, "seemed to produce an almost
general languor and consternation through the whole army." "In Lord
Howe," writes another contemporary, Major Thomas Mante, "the soul of
General Abercromby's army seemed to expire. From the unhappy moment the
General was deprived of his advice, neither order nor discipline was
observed, and a strange kind of infatuation usurped the place of
resolution." The death of one man was the ruin of fifteen thousand.

The evil news was despatched to Albany, and in two or three days the
messenger who bore it passed the house of Mrs. Schuyler on the meadows
above the town. "In the afternoon," says her biographer, "a man was seen
coming from the north galloping violently without his hat. Pedrom, as he
was familiarly called, Colonel Schuyler's only surviving brother, was
with her, and ran instantly to inquire, well knowing that he rode
express. The man galloped on, crying out that Lord Howe was killed. The
mind of our good aunt had been so engrossed by her anxiety and fears for
the event impending, and so impressed with the merit and magnanimity of
her favorite hero, that her wonted firmness sank under the stroke, and
she broke out into bitter lamentations. This had such an effect on her
friends and domestics that shrieks and sobs of anguish echoed through
every part of the house."

The effect of the loss was seen at once. The army was needlessly kept
under arms all night in the forest, and in the morning was ordered back
to the landing whence it came.[618] Towards noon, however, Bradstreet
was sent with a detachment of regulars and provincials to take
possession of the saw-mill at the Falls, which Montcalm had abandoned
the evening before. Bradstreet rebuilt the bridges destroyed by the
retiring enemy, and sent word to his commander that the way was open; on
which Abercromby again put his army in motion, reached t