The deepening shades of evening prevented the English from seeing the catastrophe of the enemy's squadron, and rendered it difficult or impossible for them to pursue into the rocky shallows; they therefore prepared as they best could to brave out the stormy night, and cast anchor at the entrance of the bay. When daylight came they saw the abandoned vessels; the French schooner, however, had escaped. Captain Loring left Lieutenant Grant with the sloop to endeavor to save the stranded vessel, with her guns, stores, and rigging; he himself again put out into the lake in pursuit of the only hostile sail now left upon the waters. The storm continued to the 15th of October; on the 16th there was frost; on the 17th a contrary wind again rose. During all this time General Amherst was forced to remain inactive. Every hour was precious; the fate of the campaign, his fame and England's interests might have hung upon his movements, and he did not stir. By flags of truce and letters of ceremony from the hostile chief, he had received information, vaguely, that a British fleet lay before Quebec; that combats had been fought, and blood had freely flowed; and while the balance of victory trembled under the walls of the great stronghold, he, with his overwhelming power, lay helpless, as in a nightmare, on the banks of the stormy lake.[170] On the 18th the waters became somewhat calmer, and a south wind blew gently up Lake Champlain. Amherst made one other effort; the troops were once more hurried into the bateaux, and the expedition pushed on to the north. They reached in a few hours the bay where the French vessels had been driven ashore a few days previously; there again, however, the uncertain winds veered round; the clouds darkened in the north, and a chill blast swept down the lake, plowing the angry waters. The British general was now finally baffled; winter had almost commenced; he had no hope of grappling with the enemy before the season closed; the fate of Quebec must, ere then, have been decided; there was much to risk and little to gain by another effort upon the lakes. Nothing was left but to prepare for the inglorious step of disposing his army in winter quarters. Amherst therefore fell back upon Crown Point on the 21st, directed the completion of the defenses, made roads and bridges, and nursed the Provincials, who had become uncommonly sickly. Thus ended his campaign. [Footnote 166: This is the Fort George marked in modern maps, nearly on the same spot where Fort William Henry formerly stood.]