the country, and that they had also thrown up works and batteries at the points where a successful debarkation seemed most probable. The next morning the sea had not abated, and for six successive days the heavy roll of the ocean broke with undiminished violence upon the rugged shore. During this interval the enemy toiled day and night to strengthen their position, and lost no opportunity of opening fire with guns and mortars upon the ships.

On the 8th the sea subsided into calm, and the fog vanished from the shore. Before daybreak the troops were assembled in boats, formed in three divisions; at dawn Commodore Durell examined the coast, and declared that the landing was now practicable. When his report was received, seven of the smaller vessels at once opened fire, and in about a quarter of an hour the boats of the left division began to row in towards the shore; in them were embarked twelve companies of grenadiers, 550 light infantry men, with the Highlanders and a body of Provincial Rangers; Brigadier-General Wolfe was their chief. The right and centre brigades, under Whitmore and Lawrence, moved at the same time towards other parts of the shore, and three sloops were sent past the mouth of the harbour to distract the attention of the enemy.

The left division was the first to reach the beach at a point a little eastward of Freshwater Cove, and four miles from the town. The French stood firm,

5

5 The place where the British troops landed near Freshwater Cove, before the successful siege of Louisburg, was called Cormoran Creek,

and held their fire till the assailants were close in shore; then, as the boats rose on the dangerous surf, they poured in a rattling volley from every gun and musket that could be brought to bear. Many of the British troops were struck down, but not a shot was returned. Wolfe's flag-staff was shivered by a bar-shot, and many boats badly damaged, still with ardent valour the sailors forced their way through the surging waves, and in very few minutes the whole division was ashore, and the enemy flying in disorder from all his entrenchments. The victors pressed on rapidly in pursuit, and despite the rugged and difficult country, inflicted a heavy loss on the fugitives, and took seventy prisoners. At length the cannon of the ramparts of Louisburg checked their further advance. In the meantime the remaining British divisions had landed, but not without losing nearly 100 boats and many men from the increasing violence of the sea.

During the two following days the fury of the waves forbade all attempts to land the artillery, and the necessary stores for the attack of the hostile stronghold; on the 11th, however, the weather began to clear and some progress was made in the preparations. Hitherto the troops had suffered much from want of provisions and tents; now their situation was somewhat improved.

Louisburg is a noble harbour: within is ample shelter for the largest fleets England or France have ever sent from their shores. A rugged promontory, on which stood the town and somewhat dilapidated

fortifications, protects it from the south-west wind; another far larger arm of the land is its shelter to the south-east. About midway across the entrance of this land-locked bay stands Goat Island, which at that time was defended by some works, with a formidable array of guns; a range of impassable rocks extends thence to the town. From an elevation to the north-west of the harbour, the grand battery showed a threatening front to those who might seek to force the entrance of the Sound. For the defence of this important position, M. de Drucour, the French chief, had at his disposal six line-of-battle ships; five frigates, three of which he sank, to impede the entrance of the harbour; 3000 regular troops and burgher militia, with 350 Canadians and Indians.

On the 12th the French withdrew all their outposts, and even destroyed the Grand Battery that commanded the entrance of the harbour, concentrating their whole power upon the defence of the town. Wolfe's active light troops soon gave intelligence of these movements, and the following day the brigadier pushed on his advance round the northern and eastern shores of the bay, till they gained the high lands opposite Goat Island with little opposition; there, as soon as the perversity of the weather would permit, he mounted some heavy artillery, but it was not till the 20th that he was enabled to open fire upon the ships and the land defences. On the 25th the formidable French guns on Goat Island were silenced. Wolfe then left a

detachment in his battery, and hastened round with his main force to a position close to the town, where he erected works, and from them assailed the ramparts and the shipping.

For many days the slow and monotonous operations of the siege continued, under great difficulties to the assailants, the marshy nature of the ground rendering the movement of artillery very tedious. The rain poured down in torrents, swamping the labours of the engineers; the surf still foamed furiously upon the shore, embarrassing the landing of the necessary materiel and impeding the communication with the fleet. On the night of the 9th of July, the progress of the besiegers was somewhat interrupted by a fierce and sudden sally; five companies of light troops, supported by 600 men, burst upon a small English work during the silence of the night, surprising and overwhelming the defenders. The young Earl of Dundonald, commanding the grenadiers of the 17th, who held the post, paid for this want of vigilance with his life; his lieutenant was wounded and taken, and his men struck down, captured, or dispersed. Major Murray, however, with the grenadiers of the 22d and 28th, arrived ere long, and restored the fight. After a time, the French again betook themselves to the shelter of their walls, having left twenty of their men dead upon the scene of strife, and eighty more wounded or prisoners in the hands of the besicgers.

Meanwhile the British generals pushed on the siege

with unwearied zeal, and, at the same time, with prudent caution secured their own camp by redoubts. Day and night the batteries 6 poured their ruinous shower upon the ramparts, the citadel, and shipping. On the 21st, three large vessels of war took fire in the harbour, from a live shell, and the English gunners dealt death to those who sought to extinguish the flames. The next day the citadel was in a blaze; the next, the barracks were burned to the ground; and Wolfe's trenches were pushed up to the very defences of the town. The French could no longer stand to their guns. On the night of the 25th two young captains, La Forey and Balfour, with the boats of the fleet, rowed into the harbour under a furious fire, boarded the two remaining vessels of war, and thus destroyed the last serious obstacle to British triumph.7 The following morning, M. de Drucour surrendered at discretion.

In those days, the taking of Louisburg was a

"It may not be amiss to observe, that a cavalier which Admiral Knowles had built at enormous expense to the nation, while Louisburg remained in the hands of the English during the last war, was in the course of this siege entirely demolished by two or three shots from one of the British batteries; so admirably had this piece of fortification been contrived and executed, under the eye of that profound engineer."-Smollett, vol. iv., p. 303.

7 "The renowned Captain Cook, then serving as a petty officer on board of a British ship of war, co-operated in this exploit, and wrote an account of it to a friend in England. That he had honourably distinguished himself may be inferred from his promotion to the rank of lieutenant in the royal navy, which took place immediately after." -Graham's United States, vol. iv., p. 28.