OlSr CAPE BRETON. 211 



at Antigua he had refused to give auy aid to Shirley without orders from England, and 

 it was with some dismay that the colonial commanders heard the news on the eve of the 

 sailing. They had determined to keep it secret from their troops until they had reached 

 Louisbourg. Happily, however, the expedition was not put to this trying test, for it 

 appears that as soon as the Duke of Newcastle had received Grovernor Shirley's letter 

 informing him of the necessity for protecting the English fisheries, he sent orders to Com- 

 modore Warren to sail at once for Boston and arrange measures " for the annoyance of 

 the enemy and his Majesty's service in North America " While Warren was on his way 

 to the colonial town he intercepted a Boston schooner and heard the news of the departure 

 of the expedition. Thereupon he changed his course for Causeau. 



It was the intention of Shirley that the expedition should arrive off Louisbourg at 

 night, that the troops should land, march silently over the rocky, mossy ground, creep in 

 some mysterious way up walls at least thirty-six feet high, and then surprise the sleep- 

 ing and unsuspicious garrison. All the elements were to combine to ensure the success 

 of this absurd project, which was conceived in the same imaginative vein that originated 

 the genii of the Arabian tales. The surf was to cease to roll on the beach of Gabarus Bay, 

 and the darkness of the night was to be the means of enabling the troops to perform a 

 marvellous march over an unknown and dangerous tract of country. Shirley, however, 

 was not alone in suggesting wondrous agencies for the surprise of the town. One 

 ingenious person proposed a flying machine that would enable the troops to scale the 

 walls before a bridge was made. Vaughan had proposed an ec[ually easy plan of march- 

 ing on snowshoes over the drifts that in the winter were frequently, according to him, 

 level with the ramparts of the fortress. These very schemes of the fertile New England 

 intellect were so many evidences of the prevailing opinion that the enterprise was very 

 hazardous and not likely to be accomplished by the ordinary means at the command of 

 the expedition As it happened, however, the garrison at Louisbourg was to a great 

 extent practically taken by surprise. One of the inhabitants' of Louisbourg has given us 

 the testimony that the authorities, " though informed of the preparations [in New Eng- 

 land] from the first, lost precious moments in useless deliberation." It appears, however, 

 that " nothing to the purpose was done, so that we were as much taken by surprise as if 

 the enemy had pounced upon us unawares." Grovernor Duchambon," by some strange 

 fatuity, had not taken the most ordinary precautious to keep himself thoroughly informed 

 of every movement on the coast which might indicate the approach of an enemy. In his 



• "Lettre d'un Habitant de Loui.sbourg," etc., cited by Parkman, 'Atlantic Monthly' for March, 1891. See 

 App. X to this -work. 



- M. Duchambon appears to liave been king's lieutenant (" Can. Archives," 1887, cccxiiii), and took command 

 of the fortress on the death of M. Duquesnel in the autumn of 1714, but it is not certain that he had received his 

 commission as governor when the siege of 174.5 ended in the loss of Cape Breton to the French. His son, Ducham- 

 bon de Vergor commanded at Fort Beauséjour in 17-55, when taken by the English. M. Marniette comments in 

 this sarcastic vein on the application made in 1701 by the latter for the cross of St. Louis ("Can. Archives," 1887, 

 cclix) as a reward for his services: "Doubtless because he was to surrender on the 16th June the fort of Beau- 

 séjour, almost without striking a blow, after a mere shadow of a siege, which evil-minded people designated by the 

 humorous appellation of 'siège de velours.' And, again, this is the person who, when commanding the fort at the 

 Coves, allowed himself to be captured in his bed, and gave so easy an entrance to the English troops to the Plains 

 of Abraham on the loth September, 1759. It was not the cross, but rather the hangman's rope which these two 

 scandalous affairs ought to have gained for him." Both son and father are clearly for sufficient reasons not popu- 

 lar in France or French Canada. 



