long, and surrounded by high and verdant | was so pleased by his intrepid bearing, that mountains. That district, now so busy and he placed a purse in his hand, apologising populous, was then silent and savage. No for the smallness of the sum it contained; sound broke the stillness of the romantic" but we soldiers, mon camarade," continued scenery, or the depths of the American for- the Prince, "have the privilege to plead that est, but the British drum or Scottish pipe, as we are poor." the troops formed in four columns of attack, Next morning the young grenadier apand advanced against the Fort of Ticonder-peared at the tent of Conti, with two diamond rings, and a jewel of great value. oga. Our regiment, then styled "Lord John Murray's Highlanders," was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Grant; his second was Major Duncan Campbell of Inveraw, and never did two better or braver officers wear the tartan of the old 42nd. Viscount Howe, a brilliant officer of the old school of puffs, pigtails, kneebreeches, and Ramillie wigs, led the 55th. Ticonderago is situated on a tongue of land extending between Lake George and the narrow fall of water that pours with the roar of thunder into Lake Champlain, a hundred feet below. Its ramparts were thirty feet high, faced with stone, surrounded on three sides by water, and on the fourth by a dangerous morass that was swept by the range of its cannon and mortars. The approach to this morass-the only avenue to the fort was covered by a dense abattis of felled trees of enormous size, secured by stakes to the ground, and having all their branches pointed outward. The garrison, which consisted of eight battalions, was five thousand six hundred strong; and as the assailants advanced, it was the good fortune of our hero, Lieutenant White, to learn from an Indian scout that three thousand French, from the banks of the Mohawk river, were advancing to reinforce Ticonderoga. These tidings he at once communicated to General Abercrombie, and orders were given to push on without delay. The praise he obtained for his diligence made the breast of our poor "sub" expand with hope; and with a last glance at his relic of Lucy Fleming, he shouldered his spontoon, and hurried with his company into the matted jungle. The officer who commanded in Ticonderoga was brave, resolute, and determined. Twentyfour years before he had been a grenadier of the regiment de Normandie, and served with the army of the Rhine under the famous Marechal Duke of Berwick. At the siege of Philipsburg in 1734, the Prince of Conti 'Monseigneur le Prince," said he "the louis in your purse I presume you intended for me, and I have sent them to my mother, poor old woman! at Lillebonne; but these I bring back to you as having no claim to them." 66 "My noble comrade," replied the Prince, placing an epaulette on his left shoulder, you have doubly deserved them by your integrity, which equals your bravery-they are yours, with this commission in the Regiment de Conti, which, in the name of king Louis, I have the power to bestow." "Bravo, Prince, this is noble!" "Bravo! it equals anything in Scuderi!" exclaimed two officers who were at breakfast with the prince. The first of these was Maurice Count Saxe, general of the cavalry; the second was the famous Victor Marquis de Mirabeau, the future political economist, who was then a captain in the French line. In twenty-four years this grenadier became a general officer and a peer of France by the title of Comte de Montmorin; and in 1758, he commanded the French garrison in Ticonderoga, where he left nothing undone to render that post impregnable. Thus a desperate encounter was expected. Formed with the grenadiers in the reserve, the 42nd marched with muskets slung, and their thirteen pipers, led by Deors MacCrimmon their pipe-major, made the deep dark forests ring to that harsh but wild music, which speaks a language Scotsmen only feel; and the air they played was that old march, now so well known in Scotland as "The Black Watch;" and loudly it rang, rousing vast flocks of wild birds from the lakes and tarns, and scaring the red men from their wigwams and camps in the dense forests of pine that covered all the then unbroken wilderness. The day was hot-the sun being 960 in the shade; the shrubs were all in blossom, and the wild plumb and cherries grew in 1 masses and clusters in the jungle, through | sunrise, between the stems of the opening which the heavily laden columns of attack forest. Beyond rose the solid ramparts of forced a passage towards Ticonderoga, leav- that Ticonderoga which had proved so fatal ing their artillery in the rear, as the officer to the British arms in the last campaign, commanding the engineers had reported, that faced with polished stones, grim with shady without employing that arm, the works embrasures and pointed cannon, peering over might be carried by storm. trench and palisade; and over all waved slowly in the morning wind the white banner, with the three fleurs de lis of old France. While the reflection of all Lucy might suffer, should he fall, cost poor White a severe pang, he was the first man who sent his name to the brigade-major, as a volunteer to lead the escalade. 66 "But," thought he, "if successful, my promotion is insured; and if I miss death, I shall, at least, be one step nearer Lucy." Jack Oswald who volunteered next, consoled himself by some trite quotation from Bossuet (he was always quoting French writers), that he had not a relation to regret in the world. The country was thickly wooded, and the guide having lost the track through those hitherto almost untrodden wastes, the greatest confusion ensued. Brigadier-General Viscount Howe, who was at the head of the right centre column, suddenly came upon a French battalion led by the Marquis de Launay, who was in full retreat, and a severe conflict ensued. The Viscount, a young and gallant officer, whom Abercrombie styles "the Idol of the Soldiers," fell at the head of his own regiment, the 55th, as he was calling upon the French to surrender. A chevalier of St. Louis rushed forward and shot him by a pistol ball, which pierced his left breast. The chevalier was shot by Captain Monipennie, and received three musket balls as he fell. The French were routed; many were slain, and five officers with one hundred and fortyeight privates were taken. Meanwhile, the column of which the Black Watch formed a part, had been brought to a complete halt in a dense forest, where the rays of the sun were intercepted by the lofty trees; the guides had deserted, and the officer in command was at a loss whether to advance or retreat, when Adam White, who had been famous for beating the jungle and tiger-hunting in India, found a war-path, and boldly taking upon him the arduous and responsible office of guide, conducted the troops through the wilderness; and thus, on the morning of the 8th of July, the waters of Lake Champlain, long, deep, and narrow, appeared before them, shining in the clear Fire flashed from the massive bastion, and then the alarm-gun pealed across the water, waking a thousand echoes in the lonely woods; and the drum beat hoarsely and rapidly the call to arms, as the heads of the four British columns in scarlet, with colors waving and bayonets fixed, debouched in succession upon the margin of that beautiful lake; and there a second time Captain White of ours was warmly complimented by General Abercrombie for his skill in conducting his comrades through a country of which he was totally ignorant. "And if I live to escape the dangers of the assault, believe me, sir," continued the general, "this second service shall be recorded to your advantage and honor." But poor White thought only of his betrothed wife, and far away from the shores of that lone American lake, from its guarded fortress and woods, where the stealthy red man glided with his poisoned shafts, and from the columns of bronzed infantry wearied by toil and stained by travel, his memory wandered to that sweet sequestered valley, where the pastoral Tweed was brawling past the windows of the old manse; and to the honey-suckle-bower, where, at that moment perhaps, Lucy Fleming, with pretty foot and rapid hand, urged round her ivory-mounted spinning-wheel; for in those days of old simplicity every Scottish lady spun, like the stately Duchess of Lauderdale, so famous for her diamonds and her imperious beauty. But now the snapping of flints, the springing of iron ramrods that rang in the polished barrels, the opening of pouches and careful inspection of ammunition by companies at open order, gave token of the terrors about to ensue; and old friends as they passed to and fro with swords drawn to take their places in the ranks, shook each other warmly by the hand, or exchanged a kindly smile, for the hour had come when many were to part and many to take their last repose before the ramparts of Ticonderoga. Scots Royals fought well and valiently. At While the drums of the former beat the "point of war," and the pipes of the latter yelled an onset, the reserve column, led by Inveraw, rushed with a wild cheer to the assault, over ground encumbered by piles of dead and wounded men writhing and shriek "Stormers to the front!" was now the or- their remote antiquity and ancient spirit, the der that passed along the columns, as the arms were shouldered, and the companies closed up to half-distance, while the Grenadier companies of the different corps were . formed with the Highlanders as a reserve column of attack; for on them, more than all his other troops, did the general depend; and a fine looking body of men they were, those old British Grenadiers, whom Wolfe ever considered the flower of his army, though they wore those quaint sugar-loafing in the agonies of death and thirst. Prussian caps, which we adopted with the Impetuously the Grenadiers with levelled Prussian tactics, and though their heads bayonets, and the Black Watch claymore in were all floured and pomatumed, with a hand, broke through a bank of smoke, and smart pigtail trimmed straight to the seam of fell among the branches and bloody entanthe coat behind, their large-skirted coats glements of the fatal abattis. buttoned back for service and to display "Hew," cried White; "hew down the their white breeches and black leggings- branches with your swords, my lads, and we their officers with triple-cocked hats and will soon be close enough." sleeve ruffles, just as we see them in the old pictures of Oudenarde and Fontenoy. As Colonel Grant had been wounded by a random shot, Major Duncan Campbell of Inveraw, a veteran officer of great worth and bravery, led the regiment, and Adam White was by his side. The cracking roar of musketry, and the rapid boom-boom-booming of cannon, with the whistle and explosion of mortars, shook the echoes of the hitherto silent waste of wood and water, and pealed away with a thousand reverberations among the beautiful mountains that overlook lake Champlain, as the British columns rushed to the assault; but alas! the entrenchments of the French were soon found to be altogether impregnable. The first cannon-shot tore up the earth under the feet of Ensign Oswald and hurled him to the ground; but he rose unhurt, and rushed forward sword in hand. The leading files fell into the abattis before the breast-work, and on becoming entangled among the branches, were shot down from the glacis, which was lofty, and there perished helplessly in scores. "Shoulder to shoulder! Clann nan Gael an guillan a chiele," cried old Duncan of Inveraw; but at that instant a ball pierced his brain, he fell dead, and on White devolved the terrible task of conducting the final assault. Oswald was by his side, with the king's colors brandished aloft. Hewing a passage through the dense branches of the abattis by their broadswords the Black Watch made a gallant effort to cross the wet morass and storm the breastwork by climbing on each other's shoulders, and by placing their feet on bayonets and dirk blades inserted in the joints of the masonry. These brave men were totally unprovided with ladders. White was the first man on the parapet, and while exposed to a storm of whistling shot, he beat aside the muzzles of the nearest muskets with his claymore, and with his left hand assisted MacCrimmon the pipe-major, Captain John Campbell, and Ensign Oswald, to reach the summit; and there stood the resolute piper blowing the onset to encourage his comrades, till five or six balls pierced him, and he fell to rise no more. The Inniskillings, the East Essex, the A few more Highlanders reached the top 46th, the 55th, the 1st and 4th battalions of of the glacis, but they were all destroyed in the Royal Americans, and the provincial a moment. White fell among the French, corps, were fearfully cut up. Every regi- and was repeatedly stabbed by bayonets. ment successively fell back in disorder, And now the Grenadiers gave way; but still though their officers fought bravely to en- the infuriated Black Watch continued that courage them, waving their swords and spon-bloody conflict for several hours, and "the toons; but the French held the post with order to retire was three times repeated," desperate success. Proud of their name, says the historical record of the regiment, "before the highlanders withdrew from so unequal a contest." At last, however, they did fall back, leaving beside Adam White and Major Campbell of Inveraw, Captains Farquharson, Campbell (of the fated house of Glenlyon, who had been promoted for his valor at Fontenoy), Macpherson, Baillie, and Sutherland; Ensigns Rattray and Stewart of Banskied, with three hundred and six soldiers killed; Captains Graham, Gordon, Graham of Duchray, Campbell of Strachur, Murray, and Stewart of Urrard, with twelve subalterns, ten sergeants, and three hundred and six soldiers, wounded; making a frightful total of six hundred and forty-eight casualties in one regiment! Oswald received a ball through his sword arm, but brought off the colors, tradition says, in his teeth! The last he saw of his friend White was his body, still, motionless, and drenched in blood, under the muzzle of a French cannon, but whether he was then alive or dead it was impossible for him to say. Four hours the contest had continued, and then Abercrombie retired to the south side of Lake George, leaving two thousand soldiers and many brave officers lying dead before Ticonderoga. Return, return-alas, for ever! "On the ocean that chafes with a mournful wail, Like the cry of the Tar' Uise from wild Corriskain. Return, return, &c. "In Dunvegan thy pibroch so thrilling no more To return on no morrow, since thou art away! For many years after, this lament was used by the regiment as a dead march. "With a mixture of grief, esteem, and envy, I consider the great loss and immortal glory acquired by the Scots Highlanders in the late bloody affair," says a lieutenant of the 55th, in a letter dated from Lake George, July 10. "I cannot say for them what they really merit; but I shall ever fear the wrath, love the integrity, and admire the bravery of these Scotsmen. There is much harmony and good regulation amongst us; our men love and fear us, as we very justly do our superior officers; but we are in a most d-nable country, fit only for wolves and its native savages."-Caledonian Mercury, Sept 9, 1758. The regiment deplored this terrible slaughter, but the loss of none was so much regretted as Inveraw, Adam White, and old MacCrimmon the pipe-major; and as the shattered band retired through the woods towards a bivouac on the shore of Lake George, the pipers played and many of the For many a year after, Ticonderoga found men sang "MacCrimmon's Lament," which a terrible echo in the hearts of the Highhe had composed on the fall of his father landers; a cry for vengeance, as if it had Donald Bane, who had been piper to Mac-been a great national affront, went throughLeod of Dunvegan, and was killed in a skirmish with Lord Loudon's troops near Moyhall thirteen years before, in the dark epoch of Culloden; and the effect of this mournful Highland song, as it rose up sadly from the leafy dingles of the dense American forest, was never forgotten by the spiritbroken men who heard it :: out the glens, and in an incredibly short space of time more than a thousand clansmen volunteered to join the regiment. So the king's warrant came to form them into a second battalion; and it was further enacted that" from henceforth our said regiment be called and distinguished by the title and name of our 42nd, or Royal Highland Regiment "The white mountain-mist round Cuchullin is of Foot, in all commissions, orders, and driven, The spirit her dirge of wailing has given, And bright blue eyes in Dunvegan are weeping, writings. Given at our Court of Kensington, this 22nd day of July, 1758, in the thirty-second year of our reign." Blue fac For thou art away to the dark place of sleep-ings now replaced the buff, hitherto worn by ing. the corps. This warrant was issued while the survi-borne in the Army List; and by the slaughter vors of Ticonderoga were encamped on the of Ticonderoga he was gazetted to the rank southern shore of Lake George. of brevet-major, and Oswald to a lieutenancy. Then weeks and months slipped away, but In due time the tidings of this second repulse of the British troops before that fatal fortress, reached the secluded manse on Tweedside; and from the cold and conven- Every hope that inventive kindness could tional detail of operations, as given in the suggest, or the uncertainty of war, time, and official despatch of General Abercrombie, distance could supply, were advanced to poor Lucy turned, with a pale cheek and soothe the sufferer, who caught at them anxious and haggard eyes, to the list of fondly and prayerfully for a time; but suskilled and wounded; and the appalling cata-pense became sickening, and day by day logue that appeared under the head of these hopes grew fainter till they died away "Lord John Murray's Highlanders" struck at last. terror to her soul. Her heart beat wildly, and her eyes grew dim; but mastering her emotion the poor girl took in the fatal roll at a glance, and in a moment her eye caught the doubly distressing announcement "Wounded severely, and since missing, Captain Adam White." "God help me now, father,!" she exclaimed, and threw herself on the old man's breast; "he is gone for ever!" "Missing?" The colonel of the regiment, LieutenantGeneral Lord John Murray (son of John Duke of Athole, who, after the revolution, had been Lord High Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament), an officer who took a vivid interest in every thing connected with his regiment, spared no exertion or expense to discover the missing officer; but, after a long correspondence with the Marquis de Montcalm, who commanded the French in America, M. Bourlemaque, who commanded near Lake Champlain, and the Comte de Montmorin, commandant of Ticonderoga, no trace of poor White could be discovered, as all prisoners had long since been transmitted At Chelsea Lord John Murray appeared That term used in military returns and field reports to express the general absence of men dead or alive, struck a vague terror, mingled with hope, in the heart of Lucy Fleming. But then White was also wounded, to France. and the dread grew strong in her mind that he might have bled to death, unseen or un-in the dark kilt and scarlet uniform of the known, in some solitary place, with no kind hand near to soothe his dying agony or close his glazing eyes; and expiring thus miserably, have been left, like thousands of others, in that protracted war, unburied by the red Indians-a prey to wolves and ravens, with the autumn leaves falling, and the rank grass sprouting among his whitened bones. regiment to plead the cause of its noble These thoughts, and others such as these, filled Lucy with a horror over which she brooded day and night; and it was in vafn that her only surviving parent, the old min-noble Tullybardin, who unfurled the royal ister, "A father to the poor-a friend to all," sought to encourage her, by rehearsing innumerable stories of those who had returned, in those days of vague and uncertain intelligence, after being mourned for and given up, yea, forgotten by their dearest friends and nearest relatives; but in the first paroxysm of her grief and terror Lucy refused to be consoled. The name of the missing man was still standard in Glenfinnan-was long treasured But this tale, being a true narrative, though White's name disappeared from the lists at last; another filled his place in the ranks, and after a time even the regiment ceased to speak of him, in the excitement of the new campaign in the West Indies, where, in the following year 1759, the most of his friends |