Ticonderoga: I Swear on my Dirk!

After reading the book below over the past few days, I have added Fort Ticonderoga in upstate NY to my "must visit soon" short list. And since there's a pretty big lake thereabouts, looks like I'll be taking my kayak along to approach and view the fort from water's edge. 

 

I plan to visit Fort Ticonderoga not because of what is there now, but because of what happened there on 08 July 1758.  Being descended from the Stewart clan...I have no choice in the matter:

I am being summoned. 

 

 

 

I found this book about an incredible piece of history to be a quick and easy read.

 

Oh, just in case:

 

DIRK: The Scottish dirk (also "Highland dirk": Biodag) is the traditional and ceremonial sidearm of the officers of Scottish Highland regiments.

And if/when you read this book, you'll understand the historical significance of the title of this post and its connection to the RLS ballad below.
 

 

 

 

TICONDEROGA

 

This is the tale of the man
Who heard a word in the night
In the land of the heathery hills,
In the days of the feud and the fight.
By the sides of the rainy sea,
Where never a stranger came,
On the awful lips of the dead,
He heard the outlandish name.
It sang in his sleeping ears,
It hummed in his waking head:
The name--Ticonderoga,
The utterance of the dead.

 

by Robert Louis Stevenson