solicitation of Shirley to the home authorities, had been ordered to coöperate with the colonial forces.* In command of the New England armament was William Pepperell, a wealthy merchant of Maine, who had had no actual training in warfare and no military service whatever, except in commanding a small small body of militia. On the last day of April the squadron arrived off Louisburg, and in spite of all opposition the troops were landed and the siege begun. Though the troops were inexperienced and had had no training whatever in the art of war, the siege was conducted with enthusiasm, cannon being dragged through marshes and over rocky hills, and batteries being established in a very irregular man

ner.

For some time the continued battering of the fort by the colonial cannon made no impression upon the stronghold, and after the first outburst of enthusiasm, even the most sanguine were compelled to admit that Louisburg was almost impregnable and that the siege would be long and arduous. But the French commander had neglected to supply the garrison with a stock of provisions necessary to withstand a long siege, and the English succeeded in cutting off the supplies. In addition, as before stated, the garrison was much disaffected, and finally, to add to the discomfit of the garrison, the English succeeded in capturing a vessel under

the very walls of the fort which had been sent to the relief of the garrison.* Consequently, as the provisions and ammunition were running low, the commander deemed further resistance impossible, and on June 17 he surrendered the fort. Needless to say, this capture was a source of great rejoicing to the Boston people, particularly as the enterprise had been chiefly their own, for though aided by some reinforcements from England, the operations against the fort and its subsequent capture had been due almost entirely to their own efforts. As a reward for the capture, Pepperell was made a baronet (being the only native American who ever attained that rank), and both he and Shirley were given commissions as colonels in the British Army. Warren was made rear admiral.+ In 1746 the French made an attempt to retake Louisburg, but the fleet under Duke D'Anville, D'Anville, carrying 7,000 veteran troops, was defeated in its project by storms and by sickness among the soldiers. Nevertheless, when the

Doyle, Colonies under Hanover, p. 417.

For details see Parkman, Half-Century of Conflict, vol. ii., pp. 83-161, 288 et seq., and authori ties cited; ibid., The Capture of Louisburg in the Atlantic Monthly (1891); Parsons, Life of Wil liam Pepperell; Fiske, New France and New England, pp. 248-257; Gibson, Journal of the Siege of Louisburg; S. A. Drake, The Taking of Louisburg; the Journal and Letters of Samuel Curwen, ed. by George A. Ward, extracts from which are in Hart's American History Told by Contemporaries, vol. ii., pp. 346-349; histories of Canada by Miles, pp. 277-278; Roberts, pp. 115-119; MeMullen, 99-101.

For details see Parkman, Half Century of Conflict, vol. ii., pp. 162–185.

town meeting, at which their determination was expressed to stand by the governor and executive, though they said that they yielded to none in their sense of the enormous outrage committed by Knowles. Meanwhile, at the earnest solicitation of the governor, Knowles decided to release the men he had imprisoned, and shortly afterward departed from the harbor. Shirley then returned to the town. under the escort of the same militia

who had a day or two previously refused to obey his orders. In his report to the Board of Trade on this occurrence Shirley says that the constitution was responsible for the "mobbish turn of a town inhabited by twenty thousand people " because the management of affairs was given into the hands of the "populace assembled in their town meetings.”*

Ibid, pp. 424-425.

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