No reinforcements arrived after the first appearance of
the British fleet. Marin, a well-known guerilla leader,
had been sent down from Quebec, through the bush, with
six or seven hundred whites and Indians, to join the two
thousand men whom the French government had promised du
Vivier for a second, and this time a general, attack on
Acadia. But these other two thousand were never sent;
and Marin, having failed to take Annapolis by the first
week in June, was too late and too weak to help Louisbourg
afterwards. The same ill luck pursued the French by sea.
On April 30 the Renommee, a very smart frigate bringing
out dispatches, was chased off by the Provincial cruisers;
while all subsequent arrivals from the outside world were
intercepted by Warren.
The landing effected on May 12 was not managed according
to Shirley's written instructions; nor was the siege.
Shirley had been playing a little war game in his study,
with all the inconvenient obstacles left out--the wind,
the weather, the crashing surf in Gabarus Bay, the rocks
and bogs of the surrounding country, the difficulties of
entering a narrow-necked harbour under a combination of
end-on and broadside fire, the terrible lee shore off
the islands, reefs, and Lighthouse Point, the commonest
vigilance of the most slovenly garrison, and even the
offensive power of the guns on the walls of Louisbourg
itself.
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