Then there were great platforms bearing the heavy guns, and rowed by huge sweeps, as well as being assisted by the bateaux; whilst the blaze of colour formed by the uniforms of the various battalions formed in itself a picture which had seldom been seen in these savage solitudes.
"We shall have our work cut out to face such odds!" cried Fritz, as he turned to dash down the hill and regain his canoe.

But Roche laid a hand upon his arm, and pointed significantly in another direction.
Fritz looked, and a smothered exclamation, almost like a groan, broke from him.
Far away through the mazes of the forest, skirting round towards the doomed fort by a road parallel with the lake, was a large body of troops--how large the spectators could not guess, but they saw enough to tell them that it was a very considerable detachment.
Such an army as the one now marching upon Fort William Henry had not been seen there before.

To those who knew the weakness of the fort and of its garrison it seemed already as though the day were lost.
Moreover these men knew that the great Marquis de Montcalm himself was coming this time to take personal command, and his name inspired respect and a certain fear.

He was known to be a general of considerable distinction; it was felt that there would be no blundering when he was at the head of the expedition.
To fly back to the fort with these ominous tidings was but the work of a few short hours.

In a moment all was stir and bustle.