Montcalm announced the victory thus to his wife: "Without Indians, almost without Canadian or colony troops—I had only 400—along with Lévis and Bourlamaque and the troops of the line, 3,100 fighting men,—I have beaten an army of 25,000 men." [209]
And he wrote to his friend Doreil: "What a day for France! If I had had two hundred Indians to send out at the head of a thousand picked men, under the Chevalier de Lévis, not many would have escaped. Ah, my dear Doreil, what soldiers are ours! Never saw I the like. Why were they not at Louisbourg?"
On the day of the victory he caused a great cross to be erected on the battlefield inscribed with these lines, attributing the victory to Divine interposition:
"Quid dux! Quid miles! Quid strata ingentia ligna!
En signum! En victor! Deus hic, Deus ipse triumphat."
"Soldier and chief and ramparts' strength are nought;
Behold the conquering cross! 'Tis God the triumph wrought."
It was a famous victory, on the height of Ticonderoga, and no sweeter name than Carillon falls from a French Canadian's lips to this day.
