ousand men, a few of whom were
to sail from England, but the bulk were to be drawn from the American
and West Indian garrisons. The latter, however, were counter-ordered;
the former proved to be below the estimated strength, and the actual
number that gathered in Louisburg, the point of rendezvous, was only
about eight thousand five hundred. The command of the fleet was given to
Admiral Saunders, and this appointment demanded great discretion, as the
sailor in this instance had not only to be efficient on his own element,
but to be a man of tact, and one who at the same time would put
patriotism above professional jealousy, and could be trusted to work
heartily with the land forces.

It was late in February when Saunders' fleet, convoying Wolfe, his
stores, and a few troops, sailed from Spithead. The winds being adverse
and the seas running high, May had opened before the wild coast of Nova
Scotia was dimly seen through the whirling wreaths of fog. It was a late
season, and Louisburg harbor was still choked with ice, so that the
fleet had to make southward for Halifax at the cost of much of that time
which three years' experience had at length taught the British was so
precious in all North American enterprises. At Halifax Wolfe found the
troops from the American garrisons awaiting him. Among them was the
Forty-third regiment, with the gallant Major Knox, our invaluable
diarist, filled with joy at the prospect of active service after twenty
months' confinement in a backwoods fort, and ready with his sword as
happily for us he was with his pen. In a fortnight Louisburg was open,
and both fleet and transports were grinding amid the still drifting ice
in its harbor. Here again the army was landed, and its numbers completed
from the Louisburg garrison.

There was naturally much to be done with an army brought together from
so many various quarters. The force, too, proved, as I have said, far
short of the estimate, being considerably under nine thousand men; but,
on the other hand, these were all good troops and mostly veterans.
Though the benefits of Bath waters had been more than neutralized by
nearly three months of buffeting on the element he so loathed, Wolfe
spared himself no effort. He was not only a fighting, but to the highest
degree an organizing, general. Every sickly and unlikely man, small as
was his force, was weeded out. Every commissariat detail down to the
last gaiter-button was carefully scrutinized. Seldo