position; though they had but six hundred regular troops to
encounter, and eight hundred inhabitants hastily armed, the success of
the undertaking was still precarious. What great exploits, indeed, could
have been expected from militia suddenly assembled, who had never seen a
siege or faced an enemy, and were to act under the direction of
sea-officers only? These inexperienced troops stood in need of the
assistance of some fortunate accident, with which they were indeed
favored in a singular manner. The construction and repair of the
fortifications had always been left to the care of the garrison at
Louisburg. The soldiers were eager to be employed on these works, as the
means of procuring a comfortable subsistence. When they found that those
who were to have paid them appropriated to themselves the profits of
their labors, they demanded justice: it was denied them, and they
determined to assert their right. As the depredations had been shared
between the chief persons of the colony and the subaltern officers, the
soldiers could obtain no redress. They had, in consequence, lived in
open rebellion for above six months when the English appeared before the
place. This was the time to conciliate the minds of both parties; the
soldiers made the first advances, but their commanders distrusted a
generosity of which they themselves were incapable. It was firmly
believed that the soldiers were only desirous of sallying out that they
might have an opportunity of deserting, and their own officers kept them
in a manner prisoners, until a defense so ill managed had reduced them
to the necessity of capitulating. The whole island shared the fate of
Louisburg, its only bulwark. This valuable possession, restored to
France by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, was again attacked by the
English in 1748, and taken. The possession was confirmed to Great
Britain by the peace in 1763, since which the fortifications have been
blown up, and the town of Louisburg dismantled."--Winterbottom's
_History of America_, vol. iv., p. 14.]

[Footnote 426: "L'ile de Cap Breton n'etoit pas alors (at the time of
the treaty of Ryswick), un objet, et l'etablissement que nous y avions
n'avoit rien qui put exciter la jalousie des Anglais: elle nous
demeura."--Charlevoix, tom. iii., p. 349.]

[Footnote 427: "The island of Cape Breton, of which the French were
shamefully left in possession at the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, through
the negligence or corruption of the