nd was highly respected throughout Massachusetts.[139]

[Footnote 139: Hutchison.]

All ranks of men combined to facilitate the enterprise, and those
circumstances which are beyond human control, also concurred to favour
the general wish.

The governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, whose orders forbade
their assent to a farther emission of bills of credit, departed from
their instructions to promote this favourite project; the people
submitted to impressments of their property; and a mild winter gave no
interruption to their warlike preparations.

The troops of Massachusetts,[140] New Hampshire, and Connecticut,
amounting to rather more than four thousand men, assembled at Canseau
about the middle of April; soon after which, to the great joy of the
colonial troops, admiral Warren arrived, with a considerable part of
his fleet. The army then embarked for Chapeau-rouge bay, and the fleet
cruised off Louisbourg.

[Footnote 140: The day before the armament sailed from
Massachusetts, an express boat, which had been dispatched to
admiral Warren to solicit assistance, returned with the
unwelcome intelligence that he declined furnishing the aid
required. This information could not arrest the expedition.
Fortunately for its success, the orders from England soon
afterwards reached the admiral, who immediately detached a
part of his fleet; which he soon followed himself in the
Superb, of sixty guns.]

After repulsing a small detachment of French troops, the landing was
effected; and, in the course of the night, a body of about four
hundred men led by Vaughan, marched round to the north east part of
the harbour, and set fire to a number of warehouses containing
spirituous liquors and naval stores. The smoke being driven by the
wind into the grand battery, caused such darkness that the men placed
in it were unable to distinguish objects; and, being apprehensive of
an attack from the whole English army, abandoned the fort and fled
into the town.

The next morning, as Vaughan was returning to camp with only thirteen
men, he ascended the hill which overlooked the battery, and observing
that the chimneys in the barracks were without smoke, and the staff
without its flag, he hired an Indian, with a bottle of rum, to crawl
through an embrasure, and open the gate. Vaughan entered with his men
and defended the battery against a party then landing to regain
possession until t