for a cause which had won a success so dazzling, and some eight
thousand men were promised for an attack on Canada, proud and
valiant Massachusetts contributing nearly one-half of the total
number. The old plan was to be followed. New York was to lead in
an attack by way of Lake Champlain. New England was to collect
its forces at Louisbourg. Here a British fleet should come,
carrying eight battalions of British regulars, and, with Warren
in command, the whole armada should proceed to Quebec. Nothing
came of this elaborate scheme. Neither the promised troops nor
the fleet arrived from England. British ministers broke faith
with the colonists in the adventure with quite too light a heart.

Stories went abroad of disorder and dissension in Louisbourg
under the English and of the weakness of the place. Disease broke
out. Hundreds of New England soldiers died and their bones now
lie in graves, unmarked and forgotten, on the seashore by the
deserted fortress; at almost any time still their bones, washed
down by the waves, may be picked up on the beach. There were
sullen mutterings of discontent at Louisbourg. Soldiers grumbled
over grievances which were sometimes fantastic. Rumor had been
persistent in creating a legend that vast wealth, the accumulated
plunder brought in by French privateers, was stored in the town.
>From this source a rich reward in booty was expected by the
soldiers. In fact, when Louisbourg was taken, all looting was
forbidden and the soldiers were put on guard over houses which
they had hoped to rob. For the soldiers there were no prizes.
Louisbourg was poor. The sailors, on the other hand, were
fortunate. As a decoy Warren kept the French flag flying over the
harbor, and French ships sailed in, one of them with a vast
treasure of gold and silver coin and ingots from Peru valued at