In the mean time the attack upon Fort Carillon by General Abercromby, with a strong army, had proved a complete failure. The French, although few, desperately met the repeated assaults made during half a day, and Abercromby, cut up and ashamed, was forced to relinquish the matter. This battle was fought July 8th, in which 3,600 men struggled successfully for six hours against 15,000 picked soldiers. (_Garneau._) De Lévis, who had been in command at Fort Frontenac, was called by Montcalm to take part in the defence of Carillon. This left Fort Frontenac comparatively weak, and Abercromby, having learned the fact, despatched Colonel Bradstreet, who had taken an active part in the battle, to capture the Fort. Bradstreet set out with 3,000 men, 11 guns and mortars. The invading force reached its destination August 25. The Fort had been left with 70 men under the command of M. de Noyan, notwithstanding, the Fort was bravely defended for a time. “The victors captured many cannons, quantities of small arms, boats of provisions and nine newly armed barques,—part of the trophies brought from Oswego when captured. After loading his barges to the waters-edge, Bradstreet released his prisoners on parole, burnt the Fort, also seven of the barks, and returned to his country.” (_Garneau._) This was a severe blow to the struggling Canadians. The Governor had ordered the farmers from the field, and all the savages he could command, to march to the assistance of Fort Frontenac; but when the party reached Fort Présentation, (Ogdensburg), it was learned that Frontenac was already destroyed. To add to the misfortune of the French, the same autumn, General Forbes, notwithstanding a part of his force had been previously defeated, secured the destruction of Fort Duquesne on the Ohio. This closed the engagements for the year 1748, and everything looked for the French, most discouraging. The winter was spent by the English in preparing for a still more determined continuation of the war; while the French wasted their energies in domestic dissention. The Governor M. de Vaudreuil and Montcalm ceased not to quarrel, and to charge each other with incompetency, and even crimes. At the same time the means of the country was absorbed by unpatriotic merchants, who availed themselves of the circumstances of the country to amass fortunes by illegal traffic in furs with the Indians.