THE SIEGE OF LOUISBOURG. 51 



The fatuity which induced the garrison of the grand battery to abandon their strong- 

 hold without firing a gun, within twenty-four hours of the landing of the expedition, and 

 that too, without seeing an enemy, was one of the wonders of the siege. This battery 

 should have defied for weeks any attempt to take it. Its retention would hare retarded 

 indefinitely the advance of the fascine batteries towards the west gate, while its surren- 

 der opened the town to a most destructive plunging fire from guns heavier than any 

 previously in possession of the besieging force. If the defence of the battery could have 

 been prolonged, a powerful French fleet, then on its way across the Atlantic, might have 

 reached Louisbourg in time to take part in the conflict. That fleet had already come half 

 way across, when it received news of the surrender of the fort, and returned to France. 



Had Marin and his party not been detained by a series of adverse accidents, the 

 surrender might probably have been postponed. Their being at Annapolis, when they 

 were supposed to be at Minas, the loss of time in finding the means of transport, and when 

 these, insufficient as they were, had been found, the further delay arising from the capture 

 of the vessel, and the dispersion of the canoes, which prevented arrival in time to be 

 of any use, were unfortunate events for Duchambou, while Marin's obedience to his 

 summons probably saved Annapolis from capture. 



The only hope for Louisbourg was in the protraction of the siege. If the surrender 

 could have been postponed, succour was on the way. 



There was, indeed, an element of protection for the besieged and of danger to the 

 besiegers, that neither of them thought of, but which might have seriously affected the 

 result. From the day the invaders landed on the shore of Grabarus Bay, to the day of the 

 surrender of the fort, there was an unbroken spell of fine weather, and the provincials, 

 though exposed to unusual toil and fatigue, with little shelter, were free from illness of 

 any kind. But immediately after June 16th, there was a change. A season of rain, 

 wind and foul weather set in, which lasted for weeks. Had the provincials, with their 

 insufficient shelter, been exposed to this, it would certainly have greatly hindered their 

 progress, and probably brought on the diseases which always accompany siege opera- 

 tions in foul weather. Happily for the provincials, the surrender of the fort came oppor- 

 tunely for them. It put an end to their toil, and furnished the shelter which the fort 

 afforded. But even then the effects of the weather were severely felt. Putrid fever and 

 dysentery broke out among them. Seven hundred of their number, sick or unfit for duty, 

 were sent home, and their place supplied by fresh recruits from the provinces. The 

 New England regiments were relieved in the spring by regulars from G-ibraltar, but 

 before that time came round, some hundreds of the men found their last resting place 

 under the green sward of Point Eochefort — a tract of low ground at the left of the 

 entrance of the harbour, a continuation, in fact, on the mainland, of the belt of low islets, 

 already referred to. What would have been the result had the weather changed some 

 weeks earlier, and disease set in while the men were toiling in the trenches and erecting 

 batteries, we can hardly say, but it does not admit of a doubt, that in such a case, the 

 surrender would have been deferred, and in delay the only hope of Louisbourg was to 

 be found. 



Another thing on which the provincials had some reason to count — and on which it 

 appears they did count — remains to be mentioned. It seems that in December preceding, 

 a month or two after Duchambon had declined Beauharnois' offer of additional men, a 



