June April 1 7 5 6 had been seized by the vicious viceroy, Surajah Dowlah, and the prisoners subjected to the horrors of the Black Hole. Yet more serious and far more galling to English pride was the loss of Minorca. Against this island, which for almost half a century had been in English hands, the French had sent a fleet under the Marquis de la Galissonière and a land force under the duke of Richelieu. To relieve the island, the English sent Admiral John Byng from Gibraltar, but, finding the French fleet slightly superior to his own, Byng withdrew after a partial engagement and left the island to its fate. The news aroused a terrible tempest of anger in England. Newcastle was driven out of office. Byng was tried by court-martial, condemned to death, and shot in the following March. "To encourage the others," was Voltaire's comment. It was thus established, once for all, that the odds must be tremendous to justify a British admiral in turning his back upon an enemy. November I William N his own inimitable style, Francis Parkman tells us Rigaud of the slow dragging away of the weary winter Attacks Fort until, in the cheerless season when clouds hang low Henry on the darkened mountains and cold mists entangle themselves in the tops of the pines, the Irish soldiers who formed a part of the garrison at Fort William Henry paid homage to their patron, Saint Patrick, in March 17, libations of New England rum. It was well that in the 1757 next twenty-four hours the revelers had time to rally from their pious carouse, for, in the night of the eighteenth and nineteenth of March, the French opened a new campaign by an attempt to surprise the fort. Vaudreuil had sent his brother, Rigaud, with sixteen hundred wellequipped regulars, militia, and Indians. They had marched along the ice on Lake Champlain to Ticonderoga where they rested and made ready for a week. Then they marched three days along Lake George to attack a garrison that consisted of not more than three hundred and fifty effective men. Their approach was detected and, as they neared the fort, they found the English gunners at their posts and received a warm welcome of grapeand round-shot from the cannon. The governor's disappointed brother withdrew his forces at daybreak. After lingering in the vicinity of the fort from Saturday until Wednesday, making various martial demonstrations, demanding a surrender with the alternative of a general assault and massacre, and burning several hundred scows 1 7 5 7 and whaleboats and a sloop, "a superb bonfire amid the wilderness of snow," Rigaud and his sixteen hundred took up their toiling homeward way on snow-shoes. When they came, the ice was bare; when they went, it was covered to a depth of three feet or more. The sun rose bright and many of the invaders, blinded by the insufferable glare, had to be led homeward by their comrades. In the preparations for this expedition and in the choice of its commander, Vaudreuil had overridden the wishes of Montcalm-not the first difference between the French versus Canadian two nor the last. Vaudreuil was colonial born, son of a former governor-general of New France; he had a prejudice in favor of everything colonial and a real or affected contempt for almost everything else. In his conversation and correspondence, he habitually disparaged Montcalm and his French officers and regulars, at the same time exalting the Canadians, the Indians, and himself. Montcalm was impetuous and free of speech, and between him and the jealous governor talebearers flitted to and fro. In time, the colony came to be divided into two factions, that of Vaudreuil and that of Montcalm. One man on each side was successful in avoiding a break with the other faction, Lévis, Montcalm's brave and brilliant lieutenant, who was disposed to be on good terms with everybody, and Bigot, the short, pimply-faced intendant, who was as adroit as he was ugly and corrupt. Reinforcements In spite of his dislike for everything not Canadian, 1 7 5 7 Vaudreuil had to ask for reinforcements from France. Vaudreuil The ministry sent twenty-four hundred regulars and Gets informed the governor that a formidable fleet was fitting out in British ports. Perhaps Quebec was to be attacked, perhaps Louisburg; if Quebec, all the troops in Canada would be needed for its protection; if Louisburg, a stronghold that was practically beyond the reach of aid from Montreal, help must be sent from France and the troops in Canada would be available for aggressive action. After the fall of Oswego, Lord Loudoun had recognized English Plans the necessity of a success of some kind; late in 1756, he and Politics proposed to the English government a scheme for the capture of Louisburg with an attack on Quebec as a remote possibility. The Newcastle ministry had been temporarily succeeded by one of which the duke of December, Devonshire was nominally premier, but of which William 1756 Pitt, secretary of state, was the actual head. Pitt approved the project and parliament voted the men; by the end of March, the city of Cork on the west coast of Ireland swarmed with thousands of soldiers and sailors who were enjoying the good will of the citizens and waiting for the fleet that was to carry them to Halifax. in early April, Pitt and his colleagues were dismissed from office. Newcastle, again summoned by the king, was unable to form a government, and England, in the midst of a disastrous war, was for eleven weeks without a ministry. Meanwhile an English spy in the service of France reported the preparations of an armament for America, and three French squadrons were promptly sent to Louisburg. Not until May did the English fleet under Admiral Holbourne sail for Halifax to meet Lord Loudoun and the army that he was to gather there. But Louisburg In January, Loudoun met the governors of the north- Loudoun has ern colonies at Boston; in March, he met those of the his Eye on southern colonies at Philadelphia. Pepperrell's success and glory had not been rubbed out of memory by the intervening dozen years and the scheme for a second capture of Louisburg was popular. New England 1757 furnished the four thousand asked for and New York and New Jersey added to the provincial contingent. Loudoun withdrew the best part of the troops from the northern frontier and gathered them at New York for embarkation. To insure a sufficient number of transports and perhaps to prevent the secret of his destination from being carried to the French, he induced the colonial governors from Massachusetts to Virginia to impose an embargo on all shipping. He was anxious to reach Halifax, but he had heard of a French fleet off the coast powerful enough to sink his transports and the weak escort that had been intrusted to the command of Sir Charles Hardy, who had resigned his governorship of New York to reënter the navy. After waiting in vain for news of Holbourne and his fleet, Loudoun and Hardy took their chances and, on the twentieth of June, sailed for Halifax. Luckily they made the run without interference and cast anchor at the rendezvous on the last day of the month. Holbourne and his fleet arrived a few days later. Loudoun Goes to Halifax Loudoun now had nearly twelve thousand troops, while in Halifax harbor rode men-of-war carrying nearly fourteen hundred guns. But weeks were spent in drilling troops, most of whom were regulars, and in planting vegetables. At New York, Loudoun had been compared to Saint George on a tavern sign-always on horseback but never going forward; now, an English officer was put under arrest for a witticism concerning the spending of the king's money in fighting sham battles and raising cabbages. In such manner things went on until the fourth of August when captured letters made it plain that the three French fleets were in the harbor of Louisburg under the guns of the strongest fortress on the continent, and that in the fortress itself was a garrison reported at seven thousand men. Loudoun and a council of war decided that a successful attack was impossible and that their costly enterprise would have to be abandoned. Loudoun Goes After a six weeks' stay in Nova Scotia and without seeing to New York an enemy, the crestfallen commander sailed with his |