.
One of them was disabled by the French cannon, but Captain Hazen brought
up two more, of larger size, on ox-wagons; and, in spite of heavy rain,
the fire was brisk on both sides.

Captain Rous, on board his ship in the harbor, watched the bombardment
with great interest. Having occasion to write to Winslow, he closed his
letter in a facetious strain. "I often hear of your success in plunder,
particularly a coach.[257] I hope you have some fine horses for it, at
least four, to draw it, that it may be said a New England colonel [_rode
in_] his coach and four in Nova Scotia. If you have any good
saddle-horses in your stable, I should be obliged to you for one to ride
round the ship's deck on for exercise, for I am not likely to have any
other."

[Footnote 257: "11 June. Capt. Adams went with a Company of Raingers,
and Returned at 11 Clock with a Coach and Sum other Plunder." _Journal
of John Thomas_.]

Within the fort there was little promise of a strong defence. Le Loutre,
it is true, was to be seen in his shirt-sleeves, with a pipe in his
mouth, directing the Acadians in their work of strengthening the
fortifications.[258] They, on their part, thought more of escape than of
fighting. Some of them vainly begged to be allowed to go home; others
went off without leave,--which was not difficult, as only one side of
the place was attacked. Even among the officers there were some in whom
interest was stronger than honor, and who would rather rob the King than
die for him. The general discouragement was redoubled when, on the
fourteenth, a letter came from the commandant of Louisbourg to say that
he could send no help, as British ships blocked the way. On the morning
of the sixteenth, a mischance befell, recorded in these words in the
diary of Surgeon John Thomas: "One of our large shells fell through what
they called their bomb-proof, where a number of their officers were
sitting, killed six of them dead, and one Ensign Hay, which the Indians
had took prisoner a few days agone and carried to the fort." The party
was at breakfast when the unwelcome visitor burst in. Just opposite was
a second bomb-proof, where was Vergor himself, with Le Loutre, another
priest, and several officers, who felt that they might at any time share
the same fate. The effect was immediate. The English, who had not yet
got a single cannon into position, saw to their surprise a white flag
raised on the rampart. Some officers of the garrison proteste