and he himself had survived to transmit to posterity a rather egotistical
account of the affair. M. Ricot had been reading those "Commentaries"
all his life--reading them, as he supposed, critically--but he had never
lighted upon the discovery which his present pupil had made upon a first
perusal. Well might he exclaim, "Go to; the boy is a born generalissimo,
and is destined to be a marshal of France."

Such is the anecdote--preserved in an old volume of French memoirs--of the
childhood of him who subsequently became famous on two continents, and
who for more than a hundred years past has been accounted one of the most
redoubtable commanders of his age. If the story is true, certainly the
Marquis de Montcalm did not carry out the splendid promise of his boyhood.
He lived to fight the battles of his country with unflinching courage, with
a tolerable amount of military skill, and with a tenacity of purpose that
often achieved success against tremendous odds. But, unlike the great
general to whom, during the last few weeks of his life, it was his fortune
to be opposed, he never gave any evidence of possessing an original
military genius--such a genius as would seem to have been possessed by the
youth who figures in the foregoing anecdote. His chivalrous bravery, his
high-bred courtesy, and, more than all, his untimely death, have done much
to make his name famous in history, and to obscure certain features of
character which we are not usually accustomed to associate with greatness.
"History," says Cooper, "is like love, and is 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 the Horican
will be forgotten."

He was descended from a noble French family, and was born at the Chateau of
Candiac, near Nismes, in southern France, on the 28th of February, 1712.