closed in their line of fire till besieged and besiegers
came within such easy musket-shot of one another that
taunting challenges and invitations could be flung across
the intervening space.

Each side claimed advantages and explained shortcomings
to its own satisfaction. A New England diarist says: 'We
began our fire with as much fury as possible, and the
French returned it as warmly with Cannon, Mortars, and
continual showers of musket balls; but by 11 o'clock we
had beat them all from their guns.' A French diarist of
the same day says that the fire from the walls was stopped
on purpose, chiefly to save powder; while the same reason
is assigned for the British order to cease fire exactly
one hour later.

The practice continued to be exceedingly bad on both
sides; so bad, indeed, that the New Englanders suffered
more from the bursting of their own guns than from the
enemy's fire. The nine instructors could not be everywhere;
and all their good advice could not prevent the eager
amateurs from grossly overloading the double-shotted
pieces. 'Another 42-pound gun burst at the Grand Battery.'
'Captain Hale is dangerously hurt by the bursting of
another gun. He was the mainstay of our gunnery since
Captain Rhodes's misfortune'--a misfortune due to the
same cause. But, in spite of all such drawbacks on the
British side, Louisbourg got much the worst of it. The
French had to fire from the centre outwards, at a semicircle
of batteries that fired back convergingly at them. Besides,