down; their walls are broken down; their
hearts quake within them, for all their gallant front. My brave
soldiers, remember your comrades who lie here in their graves, and carry
home to their sorrowing families the news that they have not died in
vain; and carry home to your rejoicing families the assurance that you
have not lived in vain. For more than that homes shall be peaceful, more
than that hearts shall be happy, is it that religion shall be free. But
one thing let us remember: strong hearts are not boastful; not in our
own might do we go forth to this battle. '_Christo duec_,'--'with Christ
for our leader,'--this is our courage. Our flag, whose motto ends with
this, may well begin, '_Nil desperandum_--'Never despair.' We never have
despaired; we have known only hope, and now hope is to become a
certainty. On you rests the glory of making it so. On you. The enemy is
ours _to-day_! Louisburg is ours TO-DAY! When you look toward the fleet
and see the red flag at the mast-head of the 'Superbe;' when you look
toward the hill and see the three columns of smoke rise up--then in your
might, in the might of Christ, your Leader, march on! Fight! Conquer!
And draw breath only within the walls of Louisburg!"

In the tumult of applause that followed this appeal the commanders
turned toward one another. Warren was about to go back to his ship and
give the final orders for bringing the fleet into action at once; for
the lengthening shadows gave warning that the day was waning, and that
it was time for plan and speech to ripen into action. With a word of
parting, they clasped hands briefly, and the Commodore had already
turned to enter his boat, when, with his face toward the city, he
suddenly stopped.

"Look!" he said to Pepperell. "Who is that?"

"A white flag, as I live!" cried the General, watching the captain in
command of the advance battery, who was going forward to receive the
French officer. "Yes," he continued, as Duchambou's letter was handed to
him. "See! he asks time to consider terms of capitulation."

After a few hasty orders, by which truce succeeded war, the commanders
were seated in Pepperell's tent, their voices seeming to themselves to
ring out strangely in the silence about them. The soldiers, flushed with
desire for victory, rested upon their arms in an impatient acquiescence,
and Pepperell himself, who, as a commander, rejoiced in the thought that
bloodshed might be prevented, yet turned martial eyes