through the ice, much before the season at
which the river is usually open. His appearance drove the besiegers to a
hasty flight, in which they suffered such extreme privations, especially
their sick and wounded, that General Carleton most humanely issued a
proclamation, in which he ordered them to be treated as fellow-creatures
in distress; and encouraged them to claim the offered hospitality, by
assuring them that they should be unconditionally liberated as soon as
they were able to return home. At the same time, with energy equal to
his humanity, he hastened to complete the deliverance of the province.
Additional reinforcements which reached him in the spring enabled him to
give the enemy a final defeat at Trois Rivieres in June, and then to
take measures for wresting from them the command of Lake Champlain; an
object essential to the security of Canada, as well as to prosecuting
offensive operations against the New England States.

Lake Champlain is a long narrow lake to the N.E. of Ontario,
communicating with the St. Lawrence a few miles below Montreal by the
river Chamblee, or Sorel. It is nowhere more than eighteen miles across,
and its average breadth does not exceed five. Below Crown Point it is a
mere channel for ten or twelve miles to its southern extremity at
Ticonderoga. Here it receives the waters from a small lake to the
southward, Lake George, but the communication, as well as that with the
St. Lawrence, is interrupted by shoals and rapids. From Lake George to
the Hudson is only six or eight miles, the sole interruption to a water
frontier from the St. Lawrence to New York, navigable for vessels of
burden for four-fifths of its length, and for bateaux nearly all the
way. The command of this line would enable the northern and southern
armies to co-operate effectually; to press on the New England States
along their whole border; to cut off all communication between them and
the rest of the Union, and to prevent any hostile attempt on Canada.

Measures were promptly taken to secure this important object.
Detachments from the King's ships at Quebec, with volunteers from the
transports, and a corps of artillery, in all, nearly 700 men, were sent
across to the Lake, there to construct, with timber felled by
themselves, and in the presence of a superior enemy, the vessels in
which they were to meet him. A party joined from the _Blonde_, under
Lieutenant Dacres, with Mr. Brown, one of the midshipmen. Mr. Pellew