s are spread; see the bold warrior comes
To chase the French and interloping Dons!"_

It was in the following year that he signally distinguished himself in
the historic Siege of Louisbourg, winning himself a promotion to the
rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue, and a knighthood as well! It may
seem a far cry from Greenwich, New York, to Louisbourg, but we cannot
pass over the incident without sparing it a little space. Let me beg
your patience,--quoting, in my own justification, no less a historian
than James Grant Wilson:

"This Commodore Warren was one of those indefatigable and
nervous spirits who did such wonders at Louisbourg, and it
is with particular pride that his achievement should be
remembered in a history of New-York, as he was the only
prominent New-Yorker that contributed to Massachusetts'
greatest Colonial achievement."

The capture of Louisbourg may be remembered by some history readers as
a part of that English-French quarrel of 1745, commonly known as "King
George's War," and also as the undertaking described by so many
contemporaries as "Shirley's Mad Scheme." The scheme _was_ rather mad;
hence its appeal to Peter Warren, who was exceedingly keen about it
from the beginning.

Louisbourg was a strong French fortress on Cape Breton Island,
commanding the gulf of the St. Lawrence. Its value as a military
stronghold was great, and besides it had long been a fine base for
privateers, and was a very present source of peril to the New England
fishermen off the Banks. As far back as 1741 Governor Clarke of New
York had urged the taking of this redoubtable French station, but it
fell to the masterful Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, finally to
organise the expedition. He had Colonial militia to the tune of four
thousand men, and he had Colonial boats,--nearly a hundred of
them,--and he had the approval of the Crown (conveyed through the Duke
of Newcastle); but he wanted leaders. For his land force he chose
General Pepperrill, an eminently safe and sane type of soldier; for
the sea he, with a real brain throb, thought of Captain Peter Warren.
Francis Parkman says: "Warren, who had married an American woman and
who owned large tracts of land on the Mohawk, was known to be a warm
friend to the provinces." He was at Antigua when he received the
Governor's request that he take command of the "Mad Scheme." Needless
to say, the Captain was charmed with the idea, but he had no o