52 SIE ADAMS ARCHIBALD ON 



serious mutiny had broken out in the garrison at Louisbourg, which had lasted all winter. 

 This was known in New England, where it was believed that the garrison would refuse 

 to fight, and that, therefore, the fort would yield on the first summons. But Duchambou, 

 on the first appearance of the fleet, called the soldiers together, and made a stirring speech 

 to them, pointing out the splendid opportunity the invasion gave them of wiping out the 

 offences of the winter, by returning loyally to their duty as soldiers, and manfully fighting 

 the enemies of their king and country. 



The soldiers responded at once to the appeal, returned to their duty, and proved loyal 

 to their flag throughout the siege. Still, however, the officers continued to mistrust them, 

 and did not feel safe in allowing the men to sally forth against the enemy in the trenches. 

 Sallies, from time to time, by veteran soldiers against raw recruits, at work in dangerous 

 services, quite new to them, could not have failed of some success, and would, certainly, 

 have retarded the progress of the besiegers. The conduct of the garrison during the siege 

 leaves no room to suppose they could not have been trusted beyond the walls, but the fear 

 of the officers, in effect, allowed the siege operations to be carried on without interruption, 

 except so far as they were obstructed by cannonades from the fort. If, therefore, the 

 besieo-ers did not derive benefit, in the form they expected, from the disaffection of the 

 garrison, they had ample compensation for it in a form they did not count upon. 



We think, therefore, we have made it clear that the success of the New England 

 expedition, if not miraculous, was, at all events, accompanied by a series of happy occur- 

 rences, which no sagacity could have foreseen. The result of the expedition had, we 

 believe, much to do with shaping the future of this continent. Had it failed, it would 

 have entailed disastrous results on all the British provinces. In that case, posterity 

 would have denounced it as a mad adventure. But nothing succeeds like success. On 

 the strength of the result, Old England went wild. Nor was New England less ecstatic 

 in its joy. The provincials felt themselves no longer on a plane inferior to that of English- 

 men. They rose in their own estimation. They began to feel that in vigor and pluck, 

 in hardihood and energy, they were quite the equal of the English, and they knew 

 that in education and intelligence, and in the peculiarly American quality of versatility, 

 they possessed a marked superiority over their English brethren. They felt that they 

 might rely in the future on the same measure of success which had attended their first 

 great enterprise. Therefore, though for the time their warlike exploit was ineffective, the 

 British having, at the close of the war, ignominously handed back Louisbourg to the 

 French, still the provincials cherished the memory of the siege, and of its incidents, and 

 were ready for like exploits when the occasion should offer. "We have little doubt that 

 the spirit, thus created, fostered by subsequent warlike exploits in company with English 

 troops, was a powerful factor in shaping the future destiny of the continent. 



The first siege of Louisbourg naturally suggested the second, in which imperial and 

 colonial forces were again mingled. The second capture of the Cape Breton stronghold, in 

 1758, naturally led to the siege of Quebec in the following year, and the fall of that great 

 fortress was the end of French power in America. 



So long as the provinces needed the aid of England to repel French aggression, the 

 English monarch could count on the allegiance of his colonial subjects. But when these 

 no longer needed imperial assistance, the warlike spirit, bred of participation in contests 



