General Abercrombie might have likewise penetrated easily at the hollow, which I had not the time to intrench, where I had placed two companies of volunteers; and this would have had equally fatal consequences for me, as the third column might have been on the other side of the height, the ascent there not being steep or of difficult access. But his attacks were always obstinately directed at the most difficult places of the height, as if there had been a cloud before his eyes to hinder him from seeing to his right and left what was visible to the most ignorant officer. WOLFE:--That was a most glorious day for you, sir,--worthy of the ambition of a great man. Our columns were only at ten steps distance from your intrenchments, and all our army saw you perfectly well, constantly at work encouraging and exciting the ardour of your soldiers, hurrying over your lines perpetually some paces from your trenches; exposing your person too rashly compared to the custom of our army, your eye glancing over the whole, with the attitude of a lion. General Abercrombie perceived, clearly, the disorder upon your right when the regiment of Berry was about to retire, and redoubled his efforts to profit by it. But you were everywhere, travelling from place to place with the swiftness of the eagle; never at a loss; reforming the smallest disorder so soon as it was visible, and preventing it from spreading, as it generally does, like a flash of lightning. This affair won you so great a reputation in England for capacity and talent, that I own to you, sir, the idea of having an antagonist of your knowledge and merit, made me during the campaign always irresolute, vacillating in my opinions and undecided in my projects. I cannot condemn my predecessors who had the command of the English armies in Canada. The way of fighting of the Canadians and Indians in the woods is so different from that practised in Europe, that I readily believe the most able General, with an army of the best disciplined troops, in following exactly the rules of the art of war,--whose principles are sure, fixed and demonstrable in European warfare,--may be easily cut to pieces in those vast forests by a very few Indians. There was an outcry in England against General Braddock, for allowing his army of four thousand men to be cut to pieces at the river Ohio,[F] in the year 1755, by six hundred and fifty Canadians and Indians only, much more than they blame General Abercrombie.