' '2nd June, 1759. The Admiral
purposes sailing the first fair wind.' On the 4th a
hundred and forty-one sail weighed anchor together. All
that day and the next they were assembling outside and
making for the island of Scatari, just beyond the point
of Cape Breton, which is only ten miles north of Louisbourg.
By noon on the 6th the last speck of white had melted
away from the Louisbourg horizon and the men for the
front were definitely parted from those left behind at
the base.
Great things were dared and done at the front that year,
in Europe, Asia, and America. But nothing was done at
dull little Louisbourg, except the wearisome routine of
a disgustingly safe base. Rocks, bogs, fogs, sand, and
scrubby bush ashore. Tantalizing news from the stirring
outside world afloat. So the long, blank, summer days
wore through.
The second winter proved a little more comfortable than
the first had been. But there was less, far less, for
the garrison to expect in the spring. In February 1760
the death-warrant of Louisbourg was signed in London by
Pitt and King George II.
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