at the same time
that the English could never take the fort.[255] Three hundred of them
thereupon joined the garrison, and the rest, hiding their families in
the woods, prepared to wage guerilla war against the invaders.

[Footnote 254: _Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760._ An English document,
_State of the English and French Forts in Nova Scotia_, says 1,200 to
1,400.]

[Footnote 255: _Memoires sur le Canada, 1749-1760._]

Monckton, with all his force, landed unopposed, and encamped at night on
the fields around Fort Lawrence, whence he could contemplate Fort
Beausejour at his ease. The regulars of the English garrison joined the
New England men; and then, on the morning of the fourth, they marched to
the attack. Their course lay along the south bank of the Missaguash to
where it was crossed by a bridge called Pont-a-Buot. This bridge had
been destroyed; and on the farther bank there was a large blockhouse and
a breastwork of timber defended by four hundred regulars, Acadians, and
Indians. They lay silent and unseen till the head of the column reached
the opposite bank; then raised a yell and opened fire, causing some
loss. Three field-pieces were brought up, the defenders were driven out,
and a bridge was laid under a spattering fusillade from behind bushes,
which continued till the English had crossed the stream. Without further
opposition, they marched along the road to Beausejour, and, turning to
the right, encamped among the woody hills half a league from the fort.
That night there was a grand illumination, for Vergor set fire to the
church and all the houses outside the ramparts.[256]

[Footnote 256: Winslow, _Journal and Letter Book. Memoires sur le
Canada, 1749-1760_. Letters from officers on the spot in _Boston Evening
Post_ and _Boston News Letter. Journal of Surgeon John Thomas_.]

The English spent some days in preparing their camp and reconnoitring
the ground. Then Scott, with five hundred provincials, seized upon a
ridge within easy range of the works. An officer named Vannes came out
to oppose him with a hundred and eighty men, boasting that he would do
great things; but on seeing the enemy, quietly returned, to become the
laughing-stock of the garrison. The fort fired furiously, but with
little effect. In the night of the thirteenth, Winslow, with a part of
his own battalion, relieved Scott, and planted in the trenches two small
mortars, brought to the camp on carts. On the next day they opened fire