Reduced to the last extremity, the French council of war
decided to ask for terms. Boscawen and Amherst replied
that the whole garrison must surrender in an hour. Drucour
sent back to beg for better terms. But the second British
answer was even sterner--complete surrender, yes or no,
in half an hour. Resentment still ran high against the
French for the massacre at Fort William Henry the year
before. The actual massacre had been the work of drunken
Indians. The Canadians present had looked on. The French,
headed by Montcalm, had risked their lives to save the
prisoners. But such distinctions had been blotted out in
the general rage among the British on both sides of the
Atlantic; and so Louisbourg was now made the scapegoat.
Drucour at once wrote back to say that he stood by his
first proposal, which meant, of course, that he was ready
to face the storming of his works and no quarter for his
garrison. His flag of truce started off with this defiance.
But Prevost the intendant, with other civilians, now came
forward, on behalf of the inhabitants, to beg for immediate
surrender on any terms, rather than that they should all
be exposed to the perils of assault.
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