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to direct all operations against the capture of Louisburg, an object of far less importance than the seizing of Quebec, Montreal or Du Quesne. New England was alarmed, New York amazed, Pennsylvania and Virginia in distress, because of the exposed condition of their frontier settlers to the sanguinary visits of the savages and their allies. Nevertheless, the colonists responded generously to his calls for supplies, and, by June 1, 1757, Loudon had an army of provincial troops alone sufficient, under proper management, to drive the French out of America.

The Earl of Loudon resolved to lead the expedition against Louisburg himself. Before his departure, he made precautionary provisions. He ordered Colonel Bouquet to watch the Carolinia frontier with a few troops. General Stanwix was ordered to guard the western frontier with two thousand men, and General Webb was sent with six thousand troops to defend Forts Edward and William Henry, while Washington, with a few Virginia troops, spent the summer in skirmishing with Indians, and building a fort at Winchester, his headquarters.

When, on the 9th of July, with a force of ten thousand soldiers and sixteen ships of the line and several transports, Loudon rendezvoused at Halifax, it was supposed by all that he would make an immediate assault on Louisburg; but the hope was

delusive. The troops were landed, the uneven ground was levelled for a parade; and for almost a month they were employed in the cultivation of a vegetable garden and the exercise of sham fights and sieges. The patience of the officers was exhausted, and Major General Lord Charles Hay could no longer repress expressions of his indignation. One day, while he was sitting under a tree near the sea-shore, discussing army matters with some fellow-officers, he sprang to his feet, and, blazing with indignation, as he pointed toward a noble ship lying near, and to the idle camp not far off, he said:

"See how the power of England is held in chains by imbecility! Her substance is wasted by indecision! With such ships and such men as we have here, led by an energetic and competent commander, Cape Breton and its fortress, and all the eastern region, might have been a part of the British empire a month ago!"

This little flurry caused the arrest of Lord Hay. He was sent to England, tried by a court-martial and acquitted.

After the arrest of Lord Hay, Loudon hustled about and made preparations for embarking his troops for Louisburg. Among the provincials, as a volunteer, was Noah Stevens, who, leaving his wife in New York, accepted the position of captain

of a New York company. His company was posted on the outskirts of the army on picket service.

One night he was with his lieutenants in his tent, when they were startled by the distant report of a musket.

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'Egad! if old Loudon hears that, it will frighten him into leaving for England," said a young officer. "Don't speak so disrespectfully of your commander, Edward. Remember General Hay's fate.

He'll eat you as he did him."

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Yes, he was hay for a donkey to chew," Edward answered contemptuously.

Two more shots were heard, and Noah sprang to his feet and, buckling on his sword, said:

"There must be trouble!"

"No; an enemy cannot be within a hundred miles of us.

As the captain went to the door of his tent, he was met by two of the guard coming in.

"We have captured a stranger, who was prowling about the camp," one said.

"Who fired those shots?"

"We did," one answered.

"The corporal and

three men are coming in with him."

"Is he wounded?"

"No."

A few moments later, as Noah stood with a blazing pine knot in his hand in front of his tent,

they brought a young man in, whose white face and haggard eyes he at once recognized.

"Jean Baptiste De Barre!" cried the captain, at sight of him. "Is it you?"

"Yes, monsieur. I thought perhaps she had returned. I came to find her."

Noah's whole sympathies were with the unfortunate young Acadian, and, without thinking of him as a prisoner, he invited him to share his tent with him. The rumor of the capture of a Frenchman within the English lines reached the ears of the earl, and Loudon sent for the prisoner. Noah answered that he had no prisoner.

Loudon, however, who longed for some opportunity to do something desperate told the captain that he was informed a spy had been captured in their lines the night before and that he should share a spy's fate. Noah was alarmed for the young Acadian, who, with proudly flashing eyes, exclaimed : "Thank God, I have come back to die on Acadian soil!"

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A body of troops was sent to bring back the who, in irons, was made to parade the camp, until he was almost ready to faint with exhaustion. Then a court-martial was ordered to try him. court fortunately was composed of reasonable men, and, on the evidence of Noah and others who had seen Jean in New York, the Acadian was acquitted,

much to the chagrin of the Earl of Loudon, and set off on his search for his lost Adrianne.

During the delay at Halifax, Louisburg had been reinforced, and, soon after the trial and acquittal of Jean for a spy, a reconnoitring vessel brought word to the earl that the enemy at Louisburg had one more ship than he; so his lordship abandoned the expedition and sailed for New York. The army was amazed and thoroughly disgusted. On the 10th of August, when the fleet had only been two and a half days under sail, it was met by an express sloop. A messenger from the sloop was dispatched to Lord Loudon with the alarming intelligence that the French and Indians, in large numbers, had closely invested Fort William Henry, on Lake George. The earl immediately sent orders back for the troops he had left behind, to follow him to New York. When he arrived there, on the last of August, the first intelligence that greeted his ears was that Fort William Henry had fallen into the hands of the enemy. The whole province was trembling with alarm. That alarm was intensified fourfold when the stupid and stubborn earl proposed to encamp his forces on Long Island for the defence of the continent.

The English and Americans under Loudon had acted so much "like women" that their Indian allies were disgusted.

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