George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition.

[212] of the French the loss was not much greater. Towards

chap. IX.} 1755.

sunset, a party of three hundred French, who had rallied, and were retreating in a body, at two miles from the lake, were attacked by McGinnes, of New Hampshire, who, with two hundred men of that colony, was marching across the portage from Fort Edward. Panic-stricken by the well concerted movement, the enemy fled, leaving their baggage; but the brave McGinnes was mortally wounded.

The disasters of the year led the English ministry to exult in the defeat and repulse of Dieskau. The House of Lords, in an elegant address, praised the colonists as ‘brave and faithful;’ Johnson became a baronet, and received a gratuity of five thousand pounds. But he did little to gain the victory, which was due to the enthusiasm of the New England men. ‘Our all,’ they cried, ‘depends on the success of this expedition.’ ‘Come,’ said Pomeroy, of Massachusetts, to his friends at home, ‘come to the help of the Lord against the mighty; you that value our holy religion and our liberties will spare nothing, even to the one half of your estate.’ And in all the villages ‘the prayers of God's people’ went up, that ‘they might be crowned with victory to the glory of God;’ for the war with France seemed a war for Protestantism and freedom.

But Johnson knew not how to profit by success; with a busy air, he kept the men all day on their arms, and at night, ‘half of the whole were on guard.’ Shirley and the New England provinces, and his own council of war, urged him to advance; but while the ever active French took post at Ticonderoga, as Duquesne had advised, he loitered away the autumn, ‘expecting very shortly a more formidable ’