Project Gutenberg EBook, Old Ticonderoga, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
From "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales"
#69 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers*****
Title: Old Ticonderoga, A Picture of The Past
(From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales")
Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Release Date: Nov, 2005 [EBook #9242]
[This file was first posted on September 18, 2003]
[Last updated on February 6, 2007]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, OLD TICONDEROGA ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger
THE SNOW-IMAGE
AND
OTHER TWICE-TOLD TALES
OLD TICONDEROGA
A PICTURE OF THE PAST
By
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The greatest attraction, in this vicinity, is the famous old fortress of
Ticonderoga, the remains of which are visible from the piazza of the
tavern, on a swell of land that shuts in the prospect of the lake. Those
celebrated heights, Mount Defiance and Mount Independence, familiar to
all Americans in history, stand too prominent not to be recognized,
though neither of them precisely corresponds to the images excited by
their names. In truth, the whole scene, except the interior of the
fortress, disappointed me. Mount Defiance, which one pictures as a
steep, lofty, and rugged hill, of most formidable aspect, frowning down
with the grim visage of a precipice on old Ticonderoga, is merely a long
and wooded ridge; and bore, at some former period, the gentle name of
Sugar Hill. The brow is certainly difficult to climb, and high enough to
look into every corner of the fortress. St. Clair's most probable
reason, however, for neglecting to occupy it, was the deficiency of
troops to man the works already constructed, rather than the supposed
inaccessibility of Mount Defiance. It is singular that the French never
fortified this height, standing, as it does, in the quarter whence they
must have looked for the advance of a British army.
In my first view of the ruins, I was favored with the scientific guidance
of a young lieutenant of engineers, recently from West Point, where he
had gained credit for great military genius. I saw nothing but confusion
in what chiefly interested him; straight lines and zigzags, defence
within defence, wall opposed to wall, and ditch intersecting ditch;
oblong squares of masonry below the surface of the earth, and huge
mounds, or turf-covered hills of stone, above it. On one of these
artificial hillocks, a pine-tree has rooted itself, and grown tall and
strong, since the banner-staff was levelled. But where my unmilitary
glance could trace no regularity, the young lieutenant was perfectly at
home. He fathomed the meaning of every ditch, and formed an entire plan
of the fortress from its half-obliterated lines. His description of
Ticonderoga would be as accurate as a geometrical theorem, and as barren
of the poetry that has clustered round its decay. I viewed Ticonderoga
as a place of ancient strength, in ruins for half a century: where the
flags of three nations had successively waved, and none waved now; where
armies had struggled, so long ago that the bones of the slain were
mouldered; where Peace had found a heritage in the forsaken haunts of
War. Now the young West-Pointer, with his lectures on ravelins,
counterscarps, angles, and covered ways, made it an affair of brick and
mortar and hewn stone, arranged on certain regular principles, having a
good deal to do with mathematics, but nothing at all with poetry.
I should have been glad of a hoary veteran to totter by my side, and tell
me, perhaps, of the French garrisons and their Indian allies,--of
Abercrombie, Lord Howe, and Amherst,--of Ethan Allen's triumph and St.
Clair's surrender. The old soldier and the old fortress would be emblems
of each other. His reminiscences, though vivid as the image of
Ticonderoga in the lake, would harmonize with the gray influence of the
scene. A survivor of the long-disbanded garrisons, though but a private
soldier, might have mustered his dead chiefs and comrades,--some from
Westminster Abbey, and English churchyards, and battle-fields in Europe,
--others from their graves here in America,--others, not a few, who lie
sleeping round the fortress; he might have mustered them all, and bid
them march through the ruined gateway, turning their old historic faces
on me, as they passed. Next to such a companion, the best is one's own
fancy.
At another visit I was alone, and, after rambling all over the ramparts,
sat down to rest myself in one of the roofless barracks. These are old
French structures, and appear to have occupied three sides of a large
area, now overgrown with grass, nettles, and thistles. The one in which
I sat was long and narrow, as all the rest had been, with peaked gables.
The exterior walls were nearly entire, constructed of gray, flat,
unpicked stones, the aged strength of which promised long to resist the
elements, if no other violence should precipitate their fall.--The roof,
floors, partitions, and the rest of the wood-work had probably been
burnt, except some bars of stanch old oak, which were blackened with
fire, but still remained imbedded into the window-sills and over the
doors. There were a few particles of plastering near the chimney,
scratched with rude figures, perhaps by a soldier's hand. A most
luxuriant crop of weeds had sprung up within the edifice, and hid the
scattered fragments of the wall. Grass and weeds grew in the windows,
and in all the crevices of the stone, climbing, step by step, till a tuft
of yellow flowers was waving on the highest peak of the gable. Some
spicy herb diffused a pleasant odor through the ruin. A verdant heap of
vegetation had covered the hearth of the second floor, clustering on the
very spot where the huge logs had mouldered to glowing coals, and
flourished beneath the broad flue, which had so often puffed the smoke
over a circle of French or English soldiers. I felt that there was no
other token of decay so impressive as that bed of weeds in the place of
the backlog.
Here I sat, with those roofless walls about me, the clear sky over my
head, and the afternoon sunshine falling gently bright through the
window-frames and doorway. I heard the tinkling of a cow-bell, the
twittering of birds, and the pleasant hum of insects. Once a gay
butterfly, with four gold-speckled wings, came and fluttered about my
head, then flew up and lighted on the highest tuft of yellow flowers, and
at last took wing across the lake. Next a bee buzzed through the
sunshine, and found much sweetness among the weeds. After watching him
till he went off to his distant hive, I closed my eyes on Ticonderoga in
ruins, and cast a dream-like glance over pictures of the past, and scenes
of which this spot had been the theatre.
At first, my fancy saw only the stern hills, lonely lakes, and venerable
woods. Not a tree, since their seeds were first scattered over the
infant soil, had felt the axe, but had grown up and flourished through
its long generation, had fallen beneath the weight of years, been buried
in green moss, and nourished the roots of others as gigantic. Hark! A
light paddle dips into the lake, a birch canoe glides round the point,
and an Indian chief has passed, painted and feather-crested, armed with a
bow of hickory, a stone tomahawk, and flint-headed arrows. But the
ripple had hardly vanished from the water, when a white flag caught the
breeze, over a castle in the wilderness, with frowning ramparts and a
hundred cannon. There stood a French chevalier, commandant of the
fortress, paying court to a copper-colored lady, the princess of the
land, and winning her wild love by the arts which had been successful
with Parisian dames. A war-party of French and Indians were issuing from
the gate to lay waste some village of New England. Near the fortress
there was a group of dancers. The merry soldiers footing it with the
swart savage maids; deeper in the wood, some red men were growing frantic
around a keg of the fire-water; and elsewhere a Jesuit preached the faith
of high cathedrals beneath a canopy of forest boughs, and distributed
crucifixes to be worn beside English scalps.
I tried to make a series of pictures from the old French war, when fleets
were on the lake and armies in the woods, and especially of Abercrombie's
disastrous repulse, where thousands of lives were utterly thrown away;
but, being at a loss how to order the battle, I chose an evening scene in
the barracks, after the fortress had surrendered to Sir Jeffrey Amherst.
What an immense fire blazes on that hearth, gleaming on swords, bayonets,
and musket-barrels, and blending with the hue of the scarlet coats till
the whole barrack-room is quivering with ruddy light! One soldier has
thrown himself down to rest, after a deer-hunt, or perhaps a long run
through the woods with Indians on his trail. Two stand up to wrestle,
and are on the point of coming to blows. A fifer plays a shrill
accompaniment to a drummer's song,--a strain of light love and bloody
war, with a chorus thundered forth by twenty voices. Meantime, a veteran
in the corner is prosing about Dettingen and Fontenoy, and relates camp-
traditions of Marlborough's battles, till his pipe, having been roguishly
charged with gunpowder, makes a terrible explosion under his nose. And
now they all vanish in a puff of smoke from the chimney.
I merely glanced at the ensuing twenty years, which glided peacefully
over the frontier fortress, till Ethan Allen's shout was heard, summoning
it to surrender "in the name of the great Jehovah and of the Continental
Congress." Strange allies! thought the British captain. Next came the
hurried muster of the soldiers of liberty, when the cannon of Burgoyne,
pointing down upon their stronghold from the brow of Mount Defiance,
announced a new conqueror of Ticonderoga. No virgin fortress, this!
Forth rushed the motley throng from the barracks, one man wearing the
blue and buff of the Union, another the red coat of Britain, a third a
dragoon's jacket, and a fourth a cotton frock; here was a pair of leather
breeches, and striped trousers there; a grenadier's cap on one head, and
a broad-brimmed hat, with a tall feather, on the next; this fellow
shouldering a king's arm, that might throw a bullet to Crown Point, and
his comrade a long fowling-piece, admirable to shoot ducks on the lake.
In the midst of the bustle, when the fortress was all alive with its last
warlike scene, the ringing of a bell on the lake made me suddenly unclose
my eyes, and behold only the gray and weed-grown ruins. They were as
peaceful in the sun as a warrior's grave.
Hastening to the rampart, I perceived that the signal had been given by
the steamboat Franklin, which landed a passenger from Whitehall at the
tavern, and resumed its progress northward, to reach Canada the next
morning. A sloop was pursuing the same track; a little skiff had just
crossed the ferry; while a scow, laden with lumber, spread its huge
square sail, and went up the lake. The whole country was a cultivated
farm. Within musket-shot of the ramparts lay the neat villa of Mr. Pell,
who, since the Revolution, has become proprietor of a spot for which
France, England, and America have so often struggled. How forcibly the
lapse of time and change of circumstances came home to my apprehension!
Banner would never wave again, nor cannon roar, nor blood be shed, nor
trumpet stir up a soldier's heart, in this old fort of Ticonderoga. Tall
trees have grown upon its ramparts, since the last garrison marched out,
to return no more, or only at some dreamer's summons, gliding from the
twilight past to vanish among realities.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, OLD TICONDEROGA ***
By Nathaniel Hawthorne
** This file should be named haw6910.txt or haw6910.zip ***
Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, haw6911.txt
VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, haw6910a.txt
This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net]
Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
even years after the official publication date.
Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A
preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
and editing by those who wish to do so.
Most people start at our Web sites at:
http://gutenberg.net or
http://promo.net/pg
These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is
also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03
Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90
Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
as it appears in our Newsletters.
Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The
time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our
projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value
per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
eBooks Year Month
1 1971 July
10 1991 January
100 1994 January
1000 1997 August
1500 1998 October
2000 1999 December
2500 2000 December
3000 2001 November
4000 2001 October/November
6000 2002 December*
9000 2003 November*
10000 2004 January*
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
We need your donations more than ever!
As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
that have responded.
As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
In answer to various questions we have received on this:
We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and
you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
just ask.
While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
donate.
International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
ways.
Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
PMB 113
1739 University Ave.
Oxford, MS 38655-4109
Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
method other than by check or money order.
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are
tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising
requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
We need your donations more than ever!
You can get up to date donation information online at:
http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
***
If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
you can always email directly to:
Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
We would prefer to send you information by email.
**The Legal Small Print**
(Three Pages)
***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
distribute it in the United States without permission and
without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
any commercial products without permission.
To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
time to the person you received it from. If you received it
on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
receive it electronically.
THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
may have other legal rights.
INDEMNITY
You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook,
[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
or [3] any Defect.
DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
or:
[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this
requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however,
if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
including any form resulting from conversion by word
processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
*EITHER*:
[*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
does *not* contain characters other than those
intended by the author of the work, although tilde
(~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
be used to convey punctuation intended by the
author, and additional characters may be used to
indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
the case, for instance, with most word processors);
OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
"Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you
don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are
payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to
let us know your plans and to work out the details.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
in machine readable form.
The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
Money should be paid to the:
"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
hart@pobox.com
[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
they hardware or software or any other related product without
express permission.]
*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*