ismal epoch, was the ruin of the Louisbourg
expedition. The greater part of La Motte's fleet reached its destination
a full month before that of Holbourne. Had the reverse taken place, the
fortress must have fallen. As it was, the ill-starred attempt, drawing
off the British forces from the frontier, where they were needed most,
did for France more than she could have done for herself, and gave
Montcalm and Vaudreuil the opportunity to execute a scheme which they
had nursed since the fall of Oswego.[492]

[Footnote 492: _Despatches of Loudon, Feb. to Aug_. 1757. Knox,
_Campaigns in North America, I_. 6-28. Knox was in the expedition.
_Review of Mr. Pitt's Administration_ (London, 1763). _The Conduct of a
Noble Commander in America impartially reviewed_ (London, 1758).
Beatson, _Naval and Military Memoirs_, II. 49-59. _Answer to the Letter
to two Great Men_ (London, 1760). Entick, II. 168, 169. _Holbourne to
Loudon_, 4 _Aug_. 1757. _Holbourne to Pitt, 29 Sept._ 1757. _Ibid_., 30
_Sept_. 1757. _Holbourne to Pownall, 2 Nov._ 1757. Mante, 86, 97.
_Relation du Desastre arrive a la Flotte Anglaise commandee par l'Amiral
Holbourne_. Chevalier Johnstone, _Campaign of Louisbourg. London
Magazine_, 1757, 514. _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1757, 463, 476. _Ibid_.,
1758, 168-173.

It has been said that Loudon was scared from his task by false reports
of the strength of the French at Louisbourg. This was not the case. The
_Gazette de France_, 621, says that La Motte had twenty-four ships of
war. Bougainville says that as early as the ninth of June there were
twenty-one ships of war, including five frigates, at Louisbourg. To this
the list given by Knox closely answers.]

Chapter 15

1757

Fort William Henry

"I am going on the ninth to sing the war-song at the Lake of Two
Mountains, and on the next day at Saut St. Louis,--a long, tiresome,
ceremony. On the twelfth I am off; and I count on having news to tell
you by the end of this month or the beginning of next." Thus Montcalm
wrote to his wife from Montreal early in July. All doubts had been
solved. Prisoners taken on the Hudson and despatches from Versailles had
made it certain that Loudon was bound to Louisbourg, carrying with him
the best of the troops that had guarded the New York frontier. The time
was come, not only to strike the English on Lake George, but perhaps to
seize Fort Edward and carry terror to Albany itself. Only one difficulty
remained, the want of prov