felt reluctant to follow. With loud protests, all disavowed 1757 any desire to take advantage of his offer. Changing his tone, the king then announced that any regiment that wavered before the enemy would lose its colors and be disgraced before the army; they would beat the Austrians never meet again. The army was aroused to an intense enthusiasm. Frederick's plan of battle was a A Military masterpiece; Napoleon said that it alone would entitle Masterpiece him to a place in the front rank of the world's greatest generals. The enemy were utterly routed at Leuthen. December 5 Frederick followed up the victory with great energy and Prince Charles escaped to Bohemia with scarce thirty thousand dispirited and worn-out troops. Meanwhile, the English had repudiated the convention of ClosterZeven, taken steps to put a more efficient army in the field, and given the command to Ferdinand of Brunswick. Throwing aside his old prejudices against subsidies, Pitt adopted a policy of conquering "America in Germany" and agreed to pay Frederick an annual grant of about April, 1758 seven hundred thousand pounds. For the time being Prussia was safe. Policy While these great events were taking place in Germany, Pitt's Pitt was adopting measures that were to put a new face American upon the situation in America. He ended the discrimination against provincial officers below the rank of brigadier and invited New England, New York, and New Jersey to raise at least twenty thousand men for an expedition against Canada, and Pennsylvania and the southern colonies to raise as many as they could for the conquest of the West. He promised that England would supply arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions and that he would recommend parliament to reimburse the colonies for the clothing and pay of the men. Equal consideration and fair treatment developed colonial enthusiasm. With a chance for honors as well as hardships, American soldiers and sailors responded to Pitt's appeal with unwonted alacrity. In one year of the war, the Massachusetts tax on personal estate was thirteen. shillings and fourpence on the pound of income; on an 1 7 5 7 income of two hundred pounds from real estate it was seventy-two pounds; to these were added various excises and a poll-tax of nineteen shillings on each male person more than sixteen years of age. In Connecticut the burden was as heavy. Pitt's Pitt's plan of campaign in America was much like Shirley's scheme of conquest. It contemplated three expeditions: Louisburg was to be taken as the prelude to the capture of Quebec; the French posts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point were to be removed from the way to Montreal; and a new expedition was to be sent against Fort Duquesne. Lord Loudoun was recalled. Jeffrey Amherst, "a stubborn colonel who had shown his metal in Germany," was made a major-general and sent to attack the great island stronghold. Under Amherst was Brigadier-general James Wolfe, a young officer, eighteen of whose thirty-one years had been spent in the army. Early in the season, Admiral Boscawen with his fleet set sail for Halifax, and Amherst, in the ship "Dublin," followed. Tames Abercromby Something, Sea Power Autograph of James Abercromby mistaken judgment, led to the retention of Abercromby as chief of the Crown Point campaign. Second in command under Abercromby was Viscount George Augustus Howe, the oldest of three brothers, a newly-made brigadier who was admired by his officers and idolized by his men. The command of the expedition against Fort Duquesne was given to Brigadier-general John Forbes, a Scotch physician who had abandoned medicine for military glory. Active measures were also taken to prevent the French from sending reinforcements and supplies to Canada. A fleet fitted out at Toulon was prevented by the vigilance of a superior English squadron under Admiral Osborn from leaving the Mediterranean. Another fleet of about forty transports, five ships of the line, and several frigates April 4, 1758 that had been assembled at Rochefort was attacked by Admiral Hawke off Isle D'Aix. Most of the French vessels were run upon the beach and many of them were 17 5 8 floated off only after their cargoes and guns had been thrown overboard. Of all the vessels fitted out this year for the destitute and hard-pressed colony, few arrived at their destination. Sea power, the decisive factor in many great conflicts, was beginning to turn the scale in this. The "Impregnable" Fortress Its Garrison CHAPTER IX THE CAMPAIGN OF I 758 THE CAPTURE OF LOUISBURG A FTER Louisburg had been restored to France by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, great sums were furnished by the French government for repairing and strengthening it. But much of the money was embezzled and the fortress, though the strongest in French or British North America, had decided weaknesses. The original plan had not been carried out; the circumference of the walls was so great that an enormous garrison was required to man them; there was high ground outside the walls and not far away; and the mortar used was so poor that the masonry crumbled under the action of frost and rain. In the spring of 1758, the commandant of the fortress was the Chevalier de Drucour, a brave officer whose patience had been sadly worn by the difficulties and vexations of the four years that he had spent there. The garrison consisted of four battalions of French regulars, twenty companies of Canadians, and two companies of artillery, aggregating about thirty-eight hundred men, of whom about twenty-nine hundred were able to bear arms. In addition to these were a body of armed inhabitants and a band of Indians, while in the harbor lay a fleet of five ships of the line and seven frigates carrying five hundred and forty-four guns, and about three thousand men. The fortress mounted two hundred and nineteen cannons and seventeen mortars and there were twoscore cannons in reserve. The presence of the four 17 5 8 thousand inhabitants, mostly fishermen, was a hindrance rather than a help to the defenders. In the spring, ships were seen off the fortress, usually The English appearing as mere specks upon the horizon but occasion- Fleet runners of a great armament. Late in May, Admiral Boscawen's fleet sailed from Halifax; on the second of June, it anchored in Gabarus Bay. It consisted of more Eff Ambert. than twoscore warships and more than a hun- harbor and exchanged occasional shots with the French On the night of the seventh, the sea was less rough |