At one of their halts Seth asked the Major:
"If they leave us alone to-night, sir, do you think they're likely to follow us to-morrow? We'll be a good way from Ticonderoga by daybreak and maybe they'll not care to go very far in case we should get reinforced."
"If we can keep clear of the villains to-night we'll have no more trouble with them this time," responded the Major with a grim smile. "They'll not care to follow us any farther than they can help, I'm sure of that."
And as it turned out he was right in his surmise. Left unmolested all night, the Rangers neither saw nor heard anything of the enemy on the following day, and kept steadily on their way back to Fort William Henry, which they ultimately reached at cost of great exertion, but happily without having to leave behind any of their wounded.
Out of the seventy-five which had gone forth one week before, less than fifty returned uninjured, and six more wounded, the remainder having been either killed or taken prisoners.
It was the first severe loss the Rangers had sustained since their organization, and they felt it deeply, but it did not chill the enthusiasm of the survivors. On the contrary, it only inspired them to greater zeal, and so soon as their leader had recovered from his wounds, they would be ready for fresh service against the enemy, to whom they now owed a greater grudge than ever.
It chanced, however, that Major Rogers' wounds resulted in a serious illness, upon the head of which followed an attack of smallpox, and this led to a change in Seth's circumstances, as with a number of the Rangers he was assigned to strengthen the garrison at Fort William Henry. He did not like this, for the monotony of garrison life was irksome to one of his restless nature; but he had no option in the matter, and accepted the situation as cheerfully as possible.
If he had known what was in the mind of Vandreuil, the Governor of Canada, he would have been more content at the change, as the French commander-in-chief, having been apprised of the preparations the English were making all too deliberately for the assault and destruction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, resolved to anticipate their action by striking an unexpected blow, and accordingly set about getting ready at Montreal a strong force for the attack of Fort William Henry.
The work was well done, no pains or expense being spared in the equipment of the expedition, which comprised regular soldiers, Canadians, and Indians. They were provided with overcoats for the day and blankets and bearskins for the night, with ample supplies of spare moccasins and mittens, with kettles, axes, flints and steels, and many miscellaneous articles, together with twelve days' provision, the whole being packed on light Indian sledges, which were easily dragged along. No less than a million francs, equal in value to as many dollars of the present time, were spent upon their force, which reached Lake Champlain before the end of February.
At Ticonderoga they rested for a week, and made ready more than three hundred short scaling ladders, so constructed that two or more could be joined into one long one. Then marching for three days on the ice of Lake George they neared Fort William Henry on the evening of the 18th of March, and prepared for a general assault at break of day. They were sixteen hundred in all, and being pretty well informed of the strength of the English garrison, and knowing that they had no suspicion of their proximity, they felt perfectly confident of carrying all before them.