air eyes was added the glow of exhilaration from
driving behind spirited horses in frosty air with the bells of a
hundred carryalls ringing across the snow. At seven was pause for
supper. High play followed till ten. Then early to bed and early to
rise and on the road again by seven in the morning! In Montreal was
one continual round of dinners and dances. Between times, appointments
were made to the military posts and trading stations of the Up-Country.
He who wanted a good post must pay his court to Madame Pean. No wonder
Montcalm breathed a sigh of relief when Lent put a stop to the gayeties
and he could quietly pass his evenings with the Sulpician priests.
{247} To break from Bigot's ring during the war was impossible.
Creatures of his choosing filled the army, handled the supplies,
controlled the Indians; and when the King's reproof became too sharp,
Bigot simply threatened to resign, which wrought consternation, for no
man of ability would attempt to unwind the tangle of Bigot's dishonesty
during a critical war. Montcalm wrote home complaints in cipher. The
French government bided its time, and Bigot tightened his vampire
suckers on the lifeblood of the dying nation. The whole era is a theme
for the allegory of artist or poet.

[Illustration: PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, OTTAWA]

[Illustration: QUEBEC, CHATEAU FRONTENAC AND THE CITADEL]

Montcalm had arrived in May of 1756. By midsummer he was leading three
thousand French artillerymen across Lake Ontario from Fort Frontenac
(Kingston), to attack the English post on the south side, Oswego.
Inside the fort walls were seven hundred raw English provincials, ill
of scurvy from lack of food. The result need scarcely be told. Seven
hundred ill men behind wooden walls had no chance against three
thousand soldiers in health with heavy artillery. To take the English
by surprise, Montcalm had crossed the lake on August 4 by night. Two
days later all the transport ships had landed the troops and the cannon
had actually been mounted before the English knew of the enemy's
presence. On the east side of the river was Fort Ontario, a barricade
of logs built in the shape of a star, housing an outguard of three
hundred and seventy men. On discovering the French, the sentry spiked
their cannon, threw their powder in the river, and retired at midnight
inside Oswego's walls. Working like beavers, Montcalm's men dragged
twenty cannon to a hill commanding the fort, known a