was routed by Marshal Saxe at the
great battle of Fontenoy; and this battle restored peace, for a while,
to Germany. The Grand Duke of Tuscany, husband of Maria Theresa, was
elected Emperor of Germany, and assumed the title of Francis I.

But it was easier to restore tranquillity to Germany, than peace
between England and France; both powers panting for military glory,
and burning with mutual jealousy. The peace of Aix la Chapelle, in
1748, was a truce rather than a treaty; and France and England soon
found occasion to plunge into new hostilities.

[Sidenote: Capture of Louisburg.]

During the war of the Austrian Succession, hostilities had not been
confined to the continent of Europe. As colonial jealousy was one of
the animating principles of two of the leading powers in the contest,
the warfare extended to the colonies themselves. A body of French,
from Cape Breton, surprised the little English garrison of Canseau,
destroyed the fort and fishery, and removed eighty men, as prisoners
of war, to Louisburg--the strongest fortress, next to Quebec, in
French America. These men were afterwards sent to Boston, on parole,
and, while there, communicated to Governor Shirley the state of the
fortress in which they had been confined. Shirley resolved to capture
it, and the legislature of Massachusetts voted supplies for the
expedition. All the New England colonies sent volunteers; and the
united forces, of about four thousand men were put under the command
of William Pepperell, a merchant at Kittery Point, near Portsmouth.
The principal part of the forces was composed of fishermen; but they
were Yankees. Amid the fogs of April, this little army, rich in
expedients, set sail to take a fortress which five hundred men could
defend against five thousand. But they were successful, aided by an
English fleet; and, after a siege of three months, Louisburg
surrendered, (1745)--justly deemed the greatest achievement of the
whole war.

[Sidenote: Great Colonial Contest.]

But the French did not relinquish their hopes of gaining an ascendency
on the American continent, and prosecuted their labors of erecting on
the Ohio their chain of fortifications, to connect Canada with
Louisiana. The erection of these forts was no small cause of the
breaking out of fresh hostilities. When the contest was renewed
between Maria Theresa and Frederic the Great, and the famous Seven
Years' War began, the English resolved to conquer all the French
poss