with Wolfe, were then sent out as a 'cargo of courage'
to retrieve the British position at sea. By this time
preparations were being hurried forward on every hand.
Fleets were fitting out. Armies were mustering. And, best
of all, Pitt was just beginning to make his influence felt.

In 1757, the third year of war, things still went badly
for the British at the front. In America Montcalm took
Fort William Henry, and a British fleet and army failed
to accomplish anything against Louisbourg. In Europe
another British fleet and army were fitted out to go on
another joint expedition, this time against Rochefort,
a great seaport in the west of France. The senior staff
officer, next to the three generals in command, was Wolfe,
now thirty years of age. The admiral in charge of the
fleet was Hawke, as famous a fighter as Wolfe himself.
A little later, when both these great men were known
throughout the whole United Service, as well as among
the millions in Britain and in Greater Britain, their
names were coupled in countless punning toasts, and
patriots from Canada to Calcutta would stand up to drink
a health to 'the eye of a Hawke and the heart of a Wolfe.'
But Wolfe was not a general yet; and the three pottering
old men who were generals at Rochefort could not make up
their minds to do anything but talk. These generals had
been ordered to take Rochefort by complete surprise. But
after spending five days in front of it, so that every
Frenchman could see what they had come for, they decided
to countermand the attack and sail home.