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Page 37
Still was heard the beat of the drum--rub-a-dub-dub!--and now a host of
three or four thousand men had found their way to Boston. Little quiet
was there then! Forth scampered the school-boys, shouting behind the
drums. The whole town--the whole land--was on fire with war.
After the arrival of the troops, they were probably reviewed upon the
Common. We may imagine Governor Shirley and General Pepperell riding
slowly along the line, while the drummers beat strange old tunes, like
psalm-tunes, and all the officers and soldiers put on their most warlike
looks. It would have been a terrible sight for the Frenchmen, could they
but have witnessed it!
At length, on the twenty-fourth of March, 1745, the army gave a parting
shout, and set sail from Boston in ten or twelve vessels, which had been
hired by the governor. A few days afterwards, an English fleet,
commanded by Commodore Peter Warren, sailed also for Louisbourg, to
assist the provincial army. So, now, after all this bustle of
preparation, the town and province were left in stillness and repose.
But, stillness and repose, at such a time of anxious expectation, are
hard to bear. The hearts of the old people and women sunk within them,
when they reflected what perils they had sent their sons, and husbands,
and brothers, to encounter. The boys loitered heavily to school, missing
the rub-a-dub-dub, and the trampling march, in the rear of which they
had so lately run and shouted. All the ministers prayed earnestly, in
their pulpits, for a blessing on the army of New England. In every
family, when the good man lifted up his heart in domestic worship, the
burthen of his petition was for the safety of those dear ones, who were
fighting under the walls of Louisbourg.
Governor Shirley, all this time, was probably in an ecstasy of
impatience. He could not sit still a moment. He found no quiet, not even
in Grandfather's chair, but hurried to-and-fro, and up and down the
staircase of the Province House. Now, he mounted to the cupola, and
looked sea-ward, straining his eyes to discover if there were a sail
upon the horizon. Now, he hastened down the stairs, and stood beneath
the portal, on the red freestone steps, to receive some mud-bespattered
courtier, from whom he hoped to hear tidings of the army.
A few weeks after the departure of the troops, Commodore Warren sent a
small vessel to Boston, with two French prisoners. One of them was
Monsieur Bouladrie, who had been commander of a battery, outside of the
walls of Louisbourg. The other was the Marquis de la Maison Forte,
captain of a French frigate, which had been taken by Commodore Warren's
fleet. These prisoners assured Governor Shirley, that the fortifications
of Louisbourg were far too strong ever to be stormed by the provincial
army.
Day after day, and week after week, went on. The people grew almost
heart-sick with anxiety; for the flower of the country was at peril in
this adventurous expedition. It was now day-break, on the morning of the
third of July.
But, hark! what sound is this? The hurried clang of a bell! There is the
Old North, pealing suddenly out!--there, the Old South strikes in!--now,
the peal comes from the church in Brattle street!--the bells of nine or
ten steeples are all flinging their iron voices, at once, upon the
morning breeze! Is it joy or alarm? There goes the roar of a cannon,
too! A royal salute is thundered forth. And, now, we hear the loud
exulting shout of a multitude, assembled in the street. Huzza, Huzza!
Louisbourg has surrendered! Huzza!
* * * * *
"O Grandfather, how glad I should have been to live in those times!"
cried Charley. "And what reward did the king give to General Pepperell
and Governor Shirley?"
"He made Pepperell a baronet; so that he was now to be called Sir
William Pepperell," replied Grandfather. "He likewise appointed both
Pepperell and Shirley to be colonels in the royal army. These rewards,
and higher ones, were well deserved; for this was the greatest triumph
that the English met with, in the whole course of that war. General
Pepperell became a man of great fame. I have seen a full length portrait
of him, representing him in a splendid scarlet uniform, standing before
the walls of Louisbourg, while several bombs are falling through the
air."
"But, did the country gain any real good by the conquest of Louisbourg?"
asked Laurence. "Or was all the benefit reaped by Pepperell and
Shirley?"
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