From this day until the 19th, when the Royal Artillery opened upon the town from a line of batteries which had been thrown up along the shore, the operations of the army were weary and monotonous in the extreme. With the exception of Wolfe's party, which was detached to secure a battery called the Lighthouse Battery,—an undertaking in which he succeeded, the duties of the troops consisted in making roads, and transporting from the landing-place guns, ammunition, and stores. In all the arrangements for the investment and bombardment, Colonel Williamson was warmly supported by General Amherst; and the Admiral lent his assistance by landing his marines to work with the Artillery, and by sending four 32-pounders with part of his own ship's company, for a battery whose construction had been strongly recommended. It was nearly ten o'clock on the night of the 19th, when the English batteries opened on the shipping and on the Island Battery. This last was a powerful battery commanding the entrance to the harbour, and with a double ditch to the land side to strengthen it. It was the chief obstacle to the English movements, and smart as our fire was, it returned it with equal warmth. A battery of six 24-pounders was thrown up at the lighthouse for the sole purpose of attempting to silence this particular battery; and on the 25th it succeeded. The fire on the rest of the fortifications of Louisbourg was marvellously true, and incessant; and as of late years they had been somewhat neglected, and in many places sea-sand had been used with the mortar in their construction, the effect of the English fire was more rapidly apparent. One precaution had been taken on this occasion by the French, which had been omitted by them in 1745, as they had too good reason to remember. When compelled to evacuate the Grand Battery, they set fire to it, and rendered it utterly useless; so that the course pursued by the English in the former siege, when they turned the guns of the battery against the town, could not be repeated. The effects of the English fire in the siege of 1758, when the Royal Artillery was represented, were thus described by a French officer who was in the town:—"Each cannon shot from the English batteries shook and brought down immense pieces of the ruinous walls, so that, in a short cannonade, the Bastion du Roi, the Bastion Dauphin, and the courtin of communication between them, were entirely demolished, all the defences ruined, all the cannon dismounted, all the parapets and banquettes razed, and became as one continued breach to make an assault everywhere."[23]