- Epigraph from Henry V.
- We open with a description of the current state of affairs. Munro and his men are holding up well under siege at William Henry, while General Webb at Fort Edward appears to ignore all calls for aid.
- Montcalm is the French guy commanding the siege, and it would have been smarter for him to also take the adjacent mountains.
- It is a beautiful, calm evening on the fifth day of the siege. (And Day Four of Hawkeye's participation in it.)
- The French and British camps are having a parley, whereby they cease fire for a bit and try a little diplomacy. (They were big on parleys in The Pirates of The Caribbean, too.)
- Heyward is checking out the scene when some Frenchmen drag Hawkeye out as a prisoner. Heyward is taken aback and moves toward his friend.
- He is momentarily distracted, however, by the arrival of the two sisters. They look fresh and beautiful. He has eyes only for Alice, who immediately berates him for hiding from them since they reached the fort.
- Cora apologizes on her sister's behalf, telling Heyward that he will always have their gratitude.
- Heyward says some sweet good-byes to the two young ladies, then goes to meet with Munro.
- Hawkeye has been captured, this much is clear, but Munro reveals that the woodsman had been sent on a mission to General Webb. He is bearing a letter; Montcalm has intercepted the letter, but Munro needs to know what it says. He is appointing Heyward to meet with Montcalm and try to extract information. He assumes that if the message is bad (i.e. You're on your own to fight Montcalm, I'm not sending reinforcements), Montcalm will reveal that in some way.
- Montcalm has decided to keep the letter and release Hawkeye, who has no valuable information for the besieged.
- Heyward confesses that they are running low on supplies and soon will not be able to the hold the fort.
- Munro tells him that's obvious.
- Heyward agrees to meet with Montcalm on behalf of Munro and gets some additional advice before going off.
- When the two men meet, Montcalm at first wonders whether they need a translator, but he is soon satisfied that Heyward's French is good enough.
- Montcalm keeps trying to propose the terms of Munro's surrender. Heyward tries to figure out what was in the letter.
- The two men do a little give and take on troop numbers. Apparently Montcalm has something like twenty thousand, while Fort Edward has about eight thousand men. (This number was suggested by Montcalm, but we know Edward really has only about five thousand.)
- The two men finally separate. Montcalm extends an invitation for Munro to also meet with him.
- Heyward goes straight to Munro's tent.