Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1931-04-17
CHAPTER xII-Continued


knew his story. An officer found he
was acquainted with the country, and
he was made Lake George scout In
time to be captured by Rogers and his
rangers on Christmas eve of 1855. He
escaped in January and was back at
Fort Carlton early in February, when
he learned that Paul Tache had been
one of the French officers at Oswego.
and that he had been killed. Jeems
felt a pang Of regret. Lately he had
been thinking Of Paul Tache and of
Toinette's mother, wondering what
their attitude would be when some day
he told them what had happened after
the massacre at Tonteur manor.
There is no letter Of information
which covers the lapse in Jeems' mill
tary history between February and
August Of 1857. at which time he was
present at the capture Of Fort Will
liam Henry, or Fort George, and wit
messed the massacre Of its English
garrison by uncomfortable French In
dams led by the Abenakis. Here
Jeems must have experienced an un-
usual shock, for soon after the killing,
when in their madness some of the In
dams were cooking English flesh on
splits and in kettles, he came upon the
black-frocked priest who had accom-
panied the Abenakis and found him to
be the Jesuit, Pierre Roubaud, who
had made Toinette his wife at Chenuf-
sic. Father Roubaud was even then
preparing that eyewitness document
which was destined to become a valu-
able part Of Jesuit and French Eng
lish history, and whose hundred or
more age-yellowed pages, written most
ly by torchlight amid scenes of hor-
ror, one may read in the Jesuit
archives at Quebec. The priest saw
Jeems, but so intent was he upon his
task and so great were the changes
wrought by sixteen months that he
did not recognize him, and Jeems left
his presence without making himself
known.
After Fort William Henry and the
SuOCCSSCS Which,
ceded it, Jeems began to feel the in
evitable pressure which is bound to
crush the life from country that is
enormously outweighed by its antag-
onist. The English colonies had put
an end to quarrels among themselves.
and a million and half people were
set in motion against the eighty thou
sand in New France, and behind this
inundating force were powerful Eng
fish armies and still more powerful
English navy already inspired by Pitt
and Wolfe AS TIE Deums were sung
because of his victories, Montcalm knew
that New France was lowering at the
brink of ruin, but at no time did the
outcome Of his heroic contest press
with greater certainty upon himself
than upon Jeems.
As the captured cannon were rushed
from Fort William Henry to Ticon-
deroga, Jeems surrendered himself, as
Montcalm was doing in another way,
to the last chapter in his fate. There
was no goal at which he could aim,
nothing for which he could play; win
ming for Canada, should the miracle
Of ultimate victory come, could hold
no more Of solace and happiness for
him than defeat at the hands of the
English. There were times when his
French and English body was divided
against itself, when his mother and
nj OF
for looked upon him questioningly
from out of the past as If he had
turned traitor to some precious part
of them, yet in such way that they
could not condemn him. In hours like
these, the spirit of Toinette came to
his side and placed her hand in his,
and he knew it was for her he was
fighting, for the home which would
have been theirs, for the country she
would have made paradise for him.
She grew nearer as the sureness of an
approaching end crept upon him, and
he felt the beginning of a comfort he
had not known before. 1t was the
consolation of something about to hap
pen. oOuIclulHS lilul was TREMENDOUS
and final. Something that would have
to do with her and with him. He
knew what it was and waited pa
tiently for it as another year passed.
Then came Ticonderoga. that July
8. 1853, when over a space Of a hun
dred acres one could not walk with
out staining the soles of his shoes
with French or English blood-that
red day in history and heroism when
three thousand toil-worn, harassed
soldiers of New France faced six
thousand British regulars and nine
thousand American militiamen; the
day on which Jeems and his comrades
drove back the waves Of scarlet and
gold and a thousand Killed Highland
ers of the Black Watch led by Dun
can Campbell of Inverawe, until, as
Montcalm wrote to his wife, even the
buIlet-scarred trees seemed to be drip
ping blood. Through hours Of tumult
and death, Jeems loaded and fred, and
stabbed with his bayonet, and the
thing for which he was waiting did not
come. Men fell around him. tens and
scores and hundreds of them, as the
day wore on. He saw whole ranks