Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/148

 116 The fall of Louisbourg. [1745-3 men, more than three-fourths of whom were furnished by Massachusetts alone, sailed out of Boston. They were well supplied with artillery and stores, and the force was commanded by a colonial soldier, William Pepperell. Arriving at Canso in Nova Scotia they awaited Admiral Warren, who shortly joined them with his squadron and proceeded to cruise off the coast and keep it clear of enemies. On April 30th the New England fleet was in front of Louisbourg, a town strong in its natural situation, and fortified with the care and skill that its high importance required. Some twenty-five hundred militia and regulars, together with the able-bodied men of a population of about similar strength, manned its walls and outlying batteries. The besiegers encountered a most difficult task in landing upon the surf-beaten, rocky coast. Everything had to be carried ashore on the men's backs, and it was a full fortnight before the New Englanders were ready to open their siege operations. Even then unsuspected difficulties were encountered, the chief of these being the marshy nature of the ground, which made the moving and mounting of guns, under the fire of the town, a most arduous proceeding. The energy and spirit however of the besiegers triumphed over all obstacles, including their own lack of discipline, which was not unnaturally conspicuous. Outlying batteries were silenced or carried one by one, sallies were repelled, and the town was reduced by degrees to a heap of ruins. The powder ran short on both sides, but, when that of the New Englanders had been replenished, the town at length surrendered after a five weeks' siege, and both garrison and inhabitants, to the number of over four thousand souls, were deported to France. The bugbear of all the sea-going and coast-dwelling folk of the northern and middle colonies was thus removed and the still graver danger to Nova Scotia averted, while the military prestige of New England received an impetus, the effects of which were considerable and enduring. The news of the fall of Louisbourg reached England when good news was sorely needed for the battle of Fontenoy had recently been lost, and Charles Edward had just landed in Scotland. It was greeted in London with loud acclamations, cannon-firing, bell-ringing and bonfires. The achievement stands by itself as the only considerable warlike enter- prise undertaken and carried through by the American colonists without the instigation, help or leadership of the mother-country, other than such assistance as Warren's ships rendered in keeping the coast clear. Shirley, the organiser of the expedition, and Pepperell, its commander, were rewarded with baronetcies ; and the cost was ultimately repaid by England. The value set upon Louisbourg by the French was sufficiently shown at the peace three years later, by the concessions they made in other continents for the sake of retaining it, while the chagrin felt at its restoration by the Americans and those concerned with America was not less marked.