Amen!'
News of the victory was sent at once to Boston. The vessel
bearing it arrived in the middle of the night. But long
before the summer sun was up the streets were filled with
shouts of triumph, while the church bells rang in peals
of exultation, and all the guns and muskets in the place
were fired as fast as men could load them.
The mother country's joy was less exuberant. There were
so many other things to think of nearer home; among them
the British defeat at Fontenoy and the landing of the
Young Pretender. Nor was the actual victory without alloy;
for prescient people feared that a practically independent
colonial army had been encouraged to become more independent
still. And who can say the fear was groundless? Louisbourg
really did serve to blood New Englanders for Bunker's
Hill. But, in spite of this one drawback, the news was
welcomed, partly because any victory was welcome at such
a time, and partly because the fall of Louisbourg was a
signal assertion of British sea-power on both sides of
the Atlantic.
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