iend in Boston. Fortunately the storm subsided as quickly as it
rose. Vaudreuil saw that the hoped-for deliverance had failed; and as
the tempest had not destroyed the British fleet, he resolved to try the
virtue of his fireships. "I am afraid," says Montcalm, "that they have
cost us a million, and will be good for nothing after all." This
remained to be seen. Vaudreuil gave the chief command of them to a naval
officer named Delouche; and on the evening of the twenty-eighth, after
long consultation and much debate among their respective captains, they
set sail together at ten o'clock. The night was moonless and dark. In
less than an hour they were at the entrance of the north channel.
Delouche had been all enthusiasm; but as he neared the danger his nerves
failed, and he set fire to his ship half an hour too soon, the rest
following his example.[713]

[Footnote 713: Foligny, _Journal memoratif. Vaudreuil au Ministre, 5
Oct. 1759. Journal du Siege_ (Bibliotheque de Hartwell).]

There was an English outpost at the Point of Orleans; and, about eleven
o'clock, the sentries descried through the gloom the ghostly outlines of
the approaching ships. As they gazed, these mysterious strangers began
to dart tongues of flame; fire ran like lightning up their masts and
sails, and then they burst out like volcanoes. Filled as they were with
pitch, tar, and every manner of combustible, mixed with fireworks,
bombs, grenades, and old cannon, swivels, and muskets loaded to the
throat, the effect was terrific. The troops at the Point, amazed at the
sudden eruption, the din of the explosions, and the showers of grapeshot
that rattled among the trees, lost their wits and fled. The blazing
dragons hissed and roared, spouted sheets of fire, vomited smoke in
black, pitchy volumes and vast illumined clouds, and shed their infernal
glare on the distant city, the tents of Montcalm, and the long red lines
of the British army, drawn up in array of battle, lest the French should
cross from their encampments to attack them in the confusion. Knox calls
the display "the grandest fireworks that can possibly be conceived." Yet
the fireships did no other harm than burning alive one of their own
captains and six or seven of his sailors who failed to escape in their
boats. Some of them ran ashore before reaching the fleet; the others
were seized by the intrepid English sailors, who, approaching in their
boats, threw grappling-irons upon them and towed them