Posted by Gayle on April 22, 2000 at 10:33:03:
Just a thought to take with you when you all gather in North Carolina in the year 2000 to share the wonder of LOTM:
"[The Massacre of William Henry] so far deepened the stain which a previous and very similar event had left upon the reputation of the French commander that it was not entirely erased by his early and glorious death. It is now becoming obscured by time; and thousands who know that Montcalm died like a hero on the plains of Abraham, have yet to learn how much he was deficient in that moral courage without which no man can be truly great. Pages might be written to prove, from this illustrious example, the defects of human excellence; to show how easy it is for generous sentiments, high courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influences beneath the chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the minor attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it became necesssary to prove how much principle is superior to policy. But the task would exceed our prerogative; and, as history, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness, it is probable that Louis de Saint Veran will be viewed by posterity only as the gallant defender of his country, while his cruel apathy on the shores of the Oswego and of the Horican willl be forgotten."
James Fenimore Cooper - The Last of The Mohicans, 1826. A.L.Burt, Publisher, pp. 187, 188