o’clock, when the Royals were relieved by the Highlanders; and the French, dismayed by the sanguinary tenacity of the defence, retreated.” Ultimately the fort, rendered untenable, was abandoned. In 1749, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war, when the battalion returning home, was stationed in Ireland. CHAPTER X. “For pleas of right let statesmen vex their head, Battle’s my business, and my guerdon bread; And with the sworded Switzer I can say, ‘The best of causes is the best of pay.’” AMERICAN WARS—WEST INDIES—FRENCH REVOLUTION—1755–1804. The ancient rivalries subsisting between Britain and France, and which had begotten so many fierce and sanguinary wars upon the European continent, were now about to be displayed with even a more exceeding bitterness among the colonists of the two nations in the New World of America. Disputes arising as to the boundary line of what they severally claimed as their territory, the _might_ of France assumed to decide the _right_. To maintain and defend British interests, an army, comprising the second battalion of the Royals, and the two newly-raised regiments of Fraser’s and Montgomery’s Highlanders, was sent across the Atlantic in 1757. The first attack of this expedition was made upon the French island of Cape Breton, which, with its capital, Louisburg, was speedily reduced. In the following year the Royals were engaged upon the American continent in a series of actions around the shores of Lake Champlain, which resulted in the capture of the strong forts of Ticonderago, Crown Point, and ultimately the Isle aux Noix. Several of the Indian tribes taking advantage of our apparent embarrassments at this period, instigated by, and in some cases allied with, the French, threw off the British yoke, strove to recover their fatherland, or were encouraged, by hope of plunder, to assail our colonial settlements. Against the most powerful of these foes—the Cherokees—a few companies of the Royals, with Montgomery’s Highlanders and other corps, were detached from the army, and proceeded to South Carolina. After repeated incursions into the country of the Cherokees, in which the foe was rarely seen, or when the Indian army of sable warriors did appear, our troops achieved an easy and ofttimes a bloodless victory. Still was our advance characterised by cruel and uncalled-for severities, and marked by the melancholy spectacle of burning villages, in which lay “the little all” of these poor creatures. Unable to withstand our onset, with ruined homesteads, and threatened with all the miseries of want, their necessities impelled the Cherokees to sue for peace, which was readily granted.